You Are So Sweet

2013 is not being very nice to me. First January was a month of attacks from the brain disorders and although I'm happy to report they have settled down to their more normal level of attack, February started off giving me a sore throat, stuffed up sinuses and laryngitis. Not nice February! Oh well, it could be worse - that's one of my favorite sayings so I don't ever, and I mean ever, dwell on the dark side of things! No point.

Well, I got my Valentines for Vets made and I'm going to make a courageous dash to the car and to the post office to get them mailed out. The post office is right by the library and I need to exchange some books. I love to read and I start to panic if my book supply starts to run down. Although, I do have a stash of my own that someone gave me and I only read them when I have nothing from the library or when we travel. And in case you are wondering, no, I don't have a Kindle or any such E-reader - yet!

So, after I made a few Valentine cards for the veterans, I stamped and coloured up an image for this week's challenge at Stamping Bella - to make a You are so Sweet card. I could have used one of the cards for the vets as I used a Stamping Bella stamp for one of those but I decided to make a different card. I don't make Valentines cards except for the ones for the veterans, so I went with an anniversary card.

This one was coloured with water colour pencils. I really need to get a few more of those. Once again I coloured it first, and then had to fine paper to match. Luckily I have a very large supply of paper! No idea what manufacturer made the paper because I don't keep it separate. The white scalloped edge was made with a Martha S. punch. The fancy paper on the rectangle behind the image was made using pre-embossed paper from Paper Wishes that I had coloured with Fired Brick Distress Ink months ago - and hated it and threw it in the stash pile. I pulled it out last night, and still hated it. The red was too dark and it covered the white and made it look muddy. I wondered if I could fix it so I grabbed a baby wipe and ran it all over it. Much nicer! The baby wipe cleaned off the embossed areas and lightened the red. That's why I don't always throw out "I don't like this" pieces. Sometimes they are usable but it takes awhile to figure out how to make them that way.

Another Friday is upon us. Happy to report two things - my Great-niece, Brenna, was discharged from the hospital yesterday. She will recuperate much quicker at home now that she is out of danger. Second thing is that my son-in-law arrived home from four months in Kuwait last night -safe and unharmed, just as I prayed for.