Ribbon of Courage

Hope you had a great 4th of July.  Ours was pretty quiet this year.  My mom stayed with us Friday and Saturday nights and I took her to Camp Dogwood on Sunday afternoon.  This is a great summer camp right on the lake (and about a 10 minute drive for me) for the blind and visually impaired.  This is mom's second year to attend and I hope she enjoys it this year as much as she did last year.   Although she got off to a rocky start.  She found out last week that her friend and roommate was not going to be able to come per doctor's orders.  She was not so sure about rooming with someone she didn't know!  When I got her registered, one of the counselors, Jeff, came up to her and welcomed "Miss Becky" back.  He told her he was not her counselor but he was going to take her to her room and get her settled.  Along the way, they met up with her new roommate who seemed very nice to me. Jeff told mom he was saving a place for her at dinner that night.  He told us that mom was the best camper he had ever had!  And mom told me Jeff was the very best counselor.  He took her tubing last year and she was quite impressed with him.  She was supposed to do archery today - that should be interesting!  A blind person trying for the bulls eye!

Saturday night we drove into Mooresville to have dinner at a restaurant on the lake where we hoped to watch the fireworks after eating.  Well, we waited for 2 hours - until 10 pm! for the fireworks show with nothing happening!  It had been raining earlier in the evening so we figured it was too wet for them.  So, we returned home.  I called on Sunday and was told they have rescheduled them for next Saturday, July 8!  Strange!!  Last night we planned on going to Mooresville again for the YMCA's fireworks.  Well, it started pouring down rain about 6 and when we went outside to get in the car around 8:30, it was still raining so we went back in the house.  I think they did have the fireworks around 9:30 but we weren't there.  So tonight, we just watched the fireworks on TV from New York!!  Better luck next year - or next Saturday!!

I had time today to play with a new stamp set - Ribbon of Courage - that I knew I had to buy as soon as I saw the new catalog.  This stamp set was inspired by Million Dollar Achiever Patty Bennett in memory of her mother.  

This card uses a technique with Glossy Cardstock again similar to the Oh So Eclectic card I did last week.  I sprayed the glossy cardstock with the spritzer filled with alcohol.  Next I dropped 2-3 drops of reinker (Peekaboo Peach and Bermuda Bay) and let it run.  To help it spread around, I sprayed more of the alcohol.  I used a tissue to pick up some of the ink that pooled along the edges.  I love these colors together!  Who would have thought?!  I stamped the hearts with Archival Black ink and used markers to color the flowers and Wink of Stella to make them sparkle! 

This next card made me think of my sister, Debra.  I miss her every day!  She was actually my step-sister (we shared a dad) and we didn't get to know each other until the mid 70s when I moved to Texas where she and my dad lived.  There was about a 10 year gap in our ages (I'm the oldest!) but that didn't matter. We both had a daughter and a son that were the same age (within a few months) and we used to take family camping trips together.  She was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer shortly after I moved to Washington state (2003).  The last trip we took together was when she and Jack (husband) came to visit us at our new home in Washington.  The 4 of us went to Victoria, Canada for a few days and had such a good time.  They were supposed to come visit us in NC for Thanksgiving but sadly, that was not to be.  She died at the age of 50 (too young!) November 16, 2007. Can't believe it has been 10 years.

We had this picture made shortly after her hair grew back in from the treatments.

OK - back to the details of the stamp set.  I used the new in-color, Powder Pink with Basic Black card stock and love how it pops!  I stamped the ribbon with Memento ink and used my blender pen and the ink pooled in the lid to color the image.  The ribbon is cut out and a pink ribbon is cut out with the thinlet in the set and raised with dimensionals.  I love the sentiment.  It is so true - Live every moment - you never know when it will be your last so Live, Laugh and Love!


I have an organization tip for you.  I have always kept all my framelits and thinlits on a magnetic sheet and in their plastic envelope.  I filed them all in a basket in alpha order.  I often would not remember if a set had a matching die or not.  So now I am putting the dies in the box with the stamp set.  I have adhered a green sticker on the sets that have matching dies and written how many dies are in the set on the sticker.  That way, I can quickly count them to make sure I haven't misplaced one of the dies before putting the stamp set away.  I still have framelits in my basket - the ones that don't match a stamp set like the Stitched Shapes, Ovals, Circles, etc.  Maybe this will work for you.