En Francais

When Life Gives you Lemons…

/ Jodi / 40 Comments

Friday Mashup Love Life Lemons FM193 1

Make a card!

Hi Friends – Yesterday was a “sick day” for me.

It doesn’t happen often, but this head cold has got the best of me right now.  I have a whisper of a voice (and for those that know me well know what a challenge this is for me – you know – my quiet, reserved nature… NOT!).  My throat just aches, and I am so sick of honey lemon cough drops I could throw up, but they help soothe and quiet the hacking cough.  My stuffed up ears are cracking and popping, and I would like to poke holes in them to release the pressure.  What a whiner – eh?!  Good thing I don’t get sick very often!!

I spent most of the day snuggled with Mikey on the couch watching the snow fall and binge watching crazy stuff on television between cat naps.

I was glad I had this card made and photographed and ready to go for the Friday Mashup Challenge (#193) for today’s post.

The challenge is to:

  • Create a project with the “Triple Layer Technique” (For my card-making friends, you can check out a Tutorial HERE for this technique)
  • Create a project that’s “Floral”. (I decided lemons with leaves were kinda “floral” – ok – maybe a stretch!)
  • or Mash it Up! and create a “Floral Triple Layer Project”.

FM193

I decided not to add a sentiment to the front of the card since it already has a lot going on, and this is the simple inside:

FM193 Inside

For my card, I used Stampin Up Old Olive and Very Vanilla Card Stock, the SU Love Life Stamp Set (same one that had the cute little bird I featured here), the SU En Francais Background Stamp, and had fun with the technique and challenge.  I colored the lemons in with a Crushed Curry Marker and the leaves with Old Olive, and some thin black lines and some accents with a white gel marker.  I finished it off with a button and some twine.

love life lemon flat

I really enjoyed the technique of triple layering, and besides being much easier than it looks, there are so many possibilities and variations you can do with this.

…. like life…. right?…

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

the joys of a handwritten note or a homemade card…

/ Jodi / 1 Comment

en francais and thoughts and prayers

Oh the joys of receiving a handwritten note!  Don’t you love it when you go to the mailbox and there is an actual card or note or letter instead of the usual junk mail, advertisements, catalogues and bills?

In fact….. as I type this… I am trying to remember the last time I actually received a “letter.”     Hmmmm……  Does anyone write letters anymore?  I honestly can’t recall the last time I received one.

I know I am thrilled when I get an actual note or card.   Especially a handwritten note or card!

In our current day and age of emails, texts, and instant messages, a LONG Thank You Note is:   TYVM (instead of just TY  or THX).

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Remember when we used to pass “notes” in class?  (before cell phones and texts and snap chat)   Boy am I sounding O L D !   

I recently discovered a couple of great treasures I had boxed in the attic with some old photo albums.

This first one is a book of “notes” from my 9th grade  BFF Sara that we passed back and forth during class.  She made this as a gift for me when her Dad got transferred for work (to China!) and she had to move away.  How funny it is to remember the “important” things we had to write about – almost always boys!
sara notes

And then there is this little gem that brought tears to my eyes as I remembered receiving this “good-bye” friendship gift when I was moving away to a new town from a very sweet girl (the same one who I boiled worms with in Grandma’s kitchen from my Stella Star post).  She had to have spent HOURS typing (on a TYPEWRITER) and drawing and writing a book of poems on friendship for me!

janet book

And guess what?!  We are still friends.  In fact, she is one of my BFFs!

So, my dear sweet Janet (SURPRISE!) – do you remember making me this wonderful gift?  We are “Friends Forever!”

I can’t wait to share this with her tomorrow evening when she comes over for dinner – with a glass of wine for me and a “Zach Special” for her!   (Oh Zach – see how we remember you!)

FF Jan

And then – the piece de resistance – those wonderful handmade cards from our children or that we ourselves made as children?   I’ll bet many of us have a stack in a shoebox, folder or special drawer.  We get them out and go through them every once in a while and smile and reminisce.cards

Aren’t they the best!?!

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So I made this card and wrote a note inside and put it in the mail today for someone special.

en francais and thoughts and prayers

I hope they enjoy receiving it as much as I enjoyed making it.  They deserve it.  They did something very special, and I wanted to thank them, from the heart, and with lots of love.

Those are the kinds of things I think about and are important to me (and I hope you) at Life In Between.

Cheers and hugs,

Jodi

(P.S. for my stampin’ friends, this card features the SU En Francais and Thoughts and Prayers stamps)