HELPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!

I saw the coolest card and want to try and do something similar. It is here.

I have looked under hat pins, corsage pins and find similar items....but what do most people use to for their pins that they add to their cards?

I really want to make this card for a few friends. I have the punch, but don't have the pins and the little pearl beads.

If you have some ideas....please leave me a comment!

Thanks so much!!!

Hugs,
Char

Happy Thanksgiving

Just wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Here is something I read this morning and wanted to share with you!

Hugs,
Char

Giving Thanks During Hard Times
by Patrice Fagnant-MacArthur

I read the paper this morning as I always do. The pages were filled with discouraging news – news of the war, of the real estate market slump, of rising gas prices, and increasingly bare shelves at local food banks, not to mention the ever-present issue of global warming. It is so easy to have a pessimistic outlook at times like these. It is so easy to focus on all the bad.

Yet, here we are at Thanksgiving, a time set aside to give thanks for all the good in our lives. It is during hard times such as these that we are perhaps most in need of thanksgiving. It is easy to be thankful when everything is going well, yet ironically those are the times when we are most likely to forget to thank God. How often do we thank God for our health when we are not sick? We really don’t appreciate our health until we can’t breathe because of a cold or we are in pain from some injury or illness. It is only right after we recover that we appreciate our well-being. All too quickly, our health once again becomes something we don’t think about. By the same token, when our jobs are going well and there is enough money to pay the bills without worry, we tend not to consider God’s hand in this. Instead we take the credit ourselves.

We are often quick to blame God, however, when things are not going well in our lives. Why is God allowing these bad things to happen to us? We petition God to lift this hardship. It is right and good to petition God for our needs, but even in our time of need, we also need to remember to thank God.

Some days it may seem that there is little to thank God for, but amazingly there is always something. There is always some glimmer of light in the darkness: a kind word that someone may have uttered, a moment of beauty in nature, an unexpected blessing. God has ways of letting us know that He is there, even when we are traveling on a difficult path. In this week’s gospel (Luke 21:5–19), Jesus tells us that bad things will happen. “Nation will fight against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes and plagues and famines in various places; there will be terrifying events and great signs from heaven . . . you will be seized and persecuted.” Yet, even amidst all that pain and suffering, God is with us.

And so, yes, especially in these hard times, we need to take the time to thank God for the many blessings in our lives. We thank God for family and friends, and the food we do have to eat. We thank God for the gift of life and each new dawn. We thank God for the gift of nature, for the sunrise and the sunset, for the animals, and the plants. We thank God for love and the ability to share with our fellow human beings. We thank God for the gift of His son and the hope of eternal life. We thank God for everything.

Oh how I love the Cuttlebug Embossing Folders. I made a quick Thanksgiving card using the Pumpkin folder on all the layers. Stamped a Turkey with Autumn Leaves Kaleidacolor pad, added a little sparkle with Stickles, edged the white cardstock with Burnt Umber and then added a scalloped edge and affixed a strip of Autumn designer paper to the exposed edge.

I was treated to TWO wonderful SU punches from by two good friends of mine. Jo gave me a Vertical Scalloped punch as a hostess gift for a retreat I had at my home and Jan surprised me with a ticket punch as a prize for an online retreat I hosted. I was so excited as I love punches almost as much as the embossing folders.

As you can tell on this card, I used both punches! You can't see the scalloped edge too well in this photo but it's there on the right.

I have been making other cards and will post as soon as I take some photos.

Naturally, right now, I am focusing on Christmas cards, now.

I did make my Granddaughter a birthday card and a birthday card for friend a card and a few swap cards, but don't want to add them till after they have been received ;-)

Have a happy stamping day!!!

Hugs,
Char