Card for James Update & Winner...

Back in April, Shane and I started Cards for James . THANK YOU SO MUCH TO ALL OF YOU WHO SENT IN CARDS. The Overbeck family was so grateful. Here is an update on how James is doing...

"Great news! James had a CT scan and MRI today, all of which were clean and cancer free! He also had blood work collected and the doctor was pleased with all of his numbers. James even gets to stop taking the antibiotic that we've been on for several months. Which (drum roll, please)......means that james takes NO medications now!! James was such a trooper today, he really showed his bravery! The plan was to put him to sleep for the MRI- as we've done for all of the MRI's that he's had in the past. James requested to try the MRI without sedation and felt that he could be really brave and hold as still as a statue for 1 and a half hours to complete the scan. I must admit, we were a somewhat nervous that he'd be able to hold still for that long or to tolerate the loud noises produced by the MRI machine. James never fails to amaze us, and he did it! The nurse wrapped him in a belt and placed shield across his chest. She taped night vision goggles to his face and put big ear phones and a microphone on him. She slid him into the scanner and he watched a movie through the goggles. Mom sat in the MRI room while all of this was happening. The sounds were quite loud- even with earplugs. It was absolutely amazing that he was able to tolerate this for over an hour. I don't know that most adults can tolerate this test without some type of sedative. He did great, even with the poke for his IV. His next scans will be in 3 months. Today Dr. Geller gave us a copy of James' MRI from 12-28-10 (full of nasty tumor) and compared it to his scan from today. The difference is night and day. We realized that today's scan was exactly 10 months from the day that James was diagnosed. It's unreal to think back at all that has been endured in that 10 month time period- and it's amazing to see how well James has recovered thus far from the treatment and surgery. Tonight, James is putting on his halloween costume for a function at school and it is just wonderful to see him being a kid again! James says "Happy Halloween" to you all!"

God is so good. :) Now, the winner of all five Hero Arts prizes go to....

JUDY MARINO!


Congrats Judy. Email me with your address so I can send out your goodies. Again, thanks to ALL of you for participating and making this a success. Hugs! Oh, and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Bun in the Oven...

Since I shared on the last post how I told my family about the news of our baby's gender, I'd thought I would show you the cards I sent out to extended family and friends to share the news. Here is the card...

 It's a gatefold card so it opens like this...

ETA: REMOVED FOR PUBLICATION!!! :)

 to reveal the big news! ...

I used THIS stamp set to create it. I love the images. Darling. Thanks for stopping by! :)

It's a...

Hi friends! Thanks so much for all the great comments on the last post. It was fun reading through your guesses. When Ted and I found out if it was a boy or girl, my mom wanted to throw a dinner for us to gather the family and share the news. I thought it would be fun to make the dessert. I decided on cupcakes that had a special center... 

So when the family bit into the cupcake (all at the same time), they found out the baby is a .....

BOY! :) We are so excited! So, the winner from the last post is ANGIE! Email me with your address so I can send some goodies to you!

Thanks for stopping by and celebrating the big news with us!!!

Pink or Blue?...and a prize too!

Ted and I decided to find out the gender of our baby two weeks ago. So I thought it would be fun to have a guessing game here on the blog. So leave a comment if you think its a boy or a girl and I will enter all the correct guesses into a drawing and one person will win some goodies! I will close comments Tuesday morning. Can't wait to read your guesses! ...

Week of Hero Arts- Day 7

Welcome back. Today is the last day of Hero Arts Week. I hope that you have become inspired by these projects using some of my favorite Hero Arts goodies. For my last card, I used THIS favorite greeting set... 

...to create this card...

What I love so much about this greeting set is the "main greeting" has a "sub greeting" that goes with it. I chose the sub greeting to go along the bottom of the card but they are PERFECT for the inside of a card too.

 Some other favorite Hero products I used on this card...

The background which can be found HERE.

I also used THIS ink to stamp the background onto THIS card to create a monochromatic look.

I love finishing cards with Hero gems. THESE are the gems I used on my card.

That's all I got for now. Thanks for stopping by! :)

Week of Hero Arts- Day 6

Have you seen the new Hero Arts/Sizzix stamp and die-cut sets? They are so much fun. I used THIS set on today's card...

To create this card, I stamped the smallest butterfly in the set several times onto Neenah cardstock using black dye ink. Then I swiped an ink pad on top of each butterfly for some fast coloring. Then I used the matching die-cut to cut each one out. WHAT A TIME SAVER!! :) After that, I used glossy accents on top of each butterfly to give it some shine. Then I stamped THIS background stamp in black onto a white card. I also cut out black circles and used the same background stamp but this time in white. Finally, I added a greeting. Here's a closeup shot..

There is a great video on the Hero Arts website HERE that explains how to use the stamp and die-cut sets. I'll be back tomorrow with the last day of Hero Arts Week.

Week of Hero Arts- Day 5

Hello friends. I decided to take a day off yesterday to recover from an awesome crafting weekend with friends. I'm feeling so blessed to have so many great friends who share my hobby. God is so good.

Okay, onto the next card. This card is a window card that features a technique I learned from Jennifer. It's  called faux letterpress. You cover one side of an embossing folder with ink, lay your paper inside, and run it through your die-cut machine. It works best with Hero Arts Shadow Inks. (I used Soft Sand Shadow Ink for this card's faux letterpress background.)

When you open the card, it holds a gift card...

That's all I got for now. Off to watch some mindless t.v. Thanks for stopping by! :)

Week of Hero Arts- Day 4

Welcome to Day Four of Hero Arts Week here on my blog. Here is today's card...

I decided to do a gatefold card using some Hero Arts Layering Paper. To create the butterfly, I stamped the HA background using versamark ink on glossy paper. I heat set that and rubbed pink distress ink on top to resist the image.

Here is the inside of the card...

Thanks for stopping by. Back to creating at the stamping retreat. I'm having so much fun. :)