Shane's Dad

Many of you know from my posts on facebook or other social networking sites that my husband's father was in a pretty serious ATV accident on Sunday afternoon. I thought I would give an update as well as tell the story since so many people have been asking.
A big group of Shane's friends and some relatives went out to the Eureka area on Sunday afternoon riding 4-wheelers. They were just heading back to the truck to come home. Shane was in the lead (because he's a freaking speed demon), and his dad was trying to catch up to him.
Well, as Terry was rounding one of the corners, one of his tires caught the ditch on the embankment. It was pretty deep, about 2 feet they say, and it threw Terry from the wheeler.
From what I understand, he hit the ground with his shoulder and skidded about 20-30 feet on the ground. Then, the wheeler landed on top of him.
Shane's best friend, James jumped off of his own wheeler and ran and threw Terry's wheeler off of him.
They could see right away that it was going to be bad. They were going to try to put him in the trucks and take him out, but he began to go into shock.
Someone, I think it was an old friend of Shane's from high school (Allen), called 911. They used the truck and cell phone GPS to track them since there wasn't an address they could give. Once the ambulance got there, it was clear that he would have to be flown out by helicopter.
Life Flight came and got him, and they took him to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo. I got there right when they landed.
To try to keep this post manageable, I won't bother with the rest of too many details. But, he has 16 broken bones in his shoulder, color bone, spine, and rib cage. And he also has a crushed lung. He seemed to be in and out of consciousness for the last few days, but we believe that was medication issues. He seems to be doing much better today and is up and walking, if a little stilted. His breathing is also doing better, and they will most likely move him out of Adult ICU within the next couple of days.
He will eventually be transferred to a rehabilitation wing before he can go home. The expectation right now is that he will be in the hospital for at least another week. And, hopefully, I will be available to help him out once he is discharged to go home. If I do end up getting a job or something miraculous like that, we've had a couple of people offer to help out.
Everyone has been so kind in offering help as well as prayers and in coming to see him at the hospital. Thanks to all of you for your thoughts and prayers. I'm sure he (and we) will get through this.

Birthday Blog Hop for Stephanie!

Hey all! Today we are having a surprise birthday party blog hop for my friend and fellow Heart Song Designs DT member, Stephanie Serrano. We're joining with another DT that Stephanie is on, Digi Design House, to wish her the happiest birthday ever!
I am the second stop on this hop, so if you didn't start from the beginning, please go to Michelle's blog here.
Stephanie is such a sweet, friendly, and crafty lady . I just love all of her fun creations and I'm very inspired by her lovely cards.
Please join me in wishing her a happy birthday by clicking here to get to Stephanie's blog. Be sure to tell her that Shelly Scott sent you. If enough people leave her messages she'll figure out that there's a little mischeif going on (*wink*).
Here is a birthday card I made in honor of Stephanie's birthday today. I hope she likes it. I used Heart Song Designs Rose Cupcake digital stamp on this card.

The next stop on this birthday bash blog hop will be Chris Dickinson's blog. Have fun!

Heart Song Inspirations Sketch Challenge

Time for a fun new \Sketches with Heart challenge! I thought I would struggle with this one because of the small round window in the corner of the sketch. I couldn't figure out what stamp I could use for that. But, then I came across the Butterfly Duet set in my digi files and knew this was it.
Here is the sketch:

The stamp I used:

 

Just FYI--if you buy any Heart Song Designs image, it will come to you via email without the watermark. 

Here is my take on the sketch:

If you like what you see, check out the HSD Inspiration blog for more great cards using this sketch and you can find all of the images used at the HSD shop.

If you participate in the sketch challenge, there is no requirement to use an HSD image. But, if you do use one of the HSD images, you will be entered to win a free digital stamp.

Digi stamps are awesome because you can print them and resize them to whatever size you need. Plus, no storage! You just save them to your hard drive. And, they are extremely affordable.

Fishing Fun 2009

Well today is the reveal of a new sketch over at Let's Scrap, so I wanted to go ahead and share my layout.
Here is the sketch:

And here is my take:

This layout is about our annual fishing trip to Red Creek Reservoir. We enjoy going fishing there for one or more days before the muzzleloader deer hunt starts. The hunt usually starts on a Wednesday, and we try to  make camp on Saturday mornings.  These particular pictures were taken in 2009.

New Heart Song Release, and a New Spring Fling Challenge Layout

I have a few fun things to share with you today, so please bare with me. It's going to be a LONG post lol. First, today is another new release Sunday from Heart Song Designs. These images are really cute, and I'm sad to say I didn't have a chance to work with any of them this week. I've been feeling a little under the weather and had too many other required DT projects to work on. But, I still wanted to share them with you. These adorable images are now available at Heart Song Designs Shop. Please do visit the shop and check these and other images out. The watermark images just don't do them any justice. You can also check out the other DT blogs in my sidebar to see the cards that they were able to make using the new images this week.

Second, Heart Song is now going to start doing weekly sketch challenges on the inspiration blog, and this week is the second one. Use of an HSD image is not required, but if you do use one, you could be selected as a guest designer. Please come play along and look at what our DT came up with.

So, here is the sketch and the project I did using Heart Song Designs Rocking Horse digi stamp.

I ended up doing a full scallop circle instead of half because it just didn't look right as half lol.

And last, I am hosting another Spring Fling challenge at Scrapbook Challenges this week. This time my challenge was to take the colors and prints in the following Spring 2011 fashion photos and use them to inspire a layout. Participants did not have to use the same colors or prints. Just use them to inspire a layout.
I am offering a prize for a randomly drawn winner of this challenge, so check it our here.

And, here is what I came up with:

(I used Let's Scrap sketch 2-2-11 for this layout)

Thanks for stopping by today, and comments are always welcome (*wink*).

Challenges, Challenges...........

I am hosting two different challenges today for two of the Design Team's I am on. But, actually they are the same challenge lol. I just tweaked it for each site I was on. I try not to overburden my brain with too many things to remember *wink*.
Basically, the name of the challenge is Scrap Forward. And, the object is to go to the last layout you loaded into the site's gallery (for whatever site the member is on--Let's Scrap or Scrapbook Challenges) and then move 'forward' to the layout loaded right after yours. Then you scraplift that layout. Hope that makes sense.
Anyhow, these are the two projects I am here to show you today. I scraplifted a card by Kathy Perry here for the Let's Scrap challenge, and a layout by Jackie W here on Scrapbook Challenges. I'm not sure if you'll be able to view them. You may have to be a member. But I don't feel comfortable posting their creations here on my blog without permission. There is a RAK involved for mine and a few of the other challenges on Scrapbook Challenges for Spring Fling Week and there is always a RAK for Friday challenges at Let's Scrap. So, you might want to check it out.
Here are my projects based on the two projects listed above. I scraplifted both of these pretty closely in color and layout. I only changed elements I needed to in order to utilize supplies that I had on hand.

Thanks for stopping by my blog and please do come and participate in these two wonderful sites. If you love scrapbooking, you will not be sorry.

King for a Day

I made this card for this week's Let's Scrap sketch challenge. I love the way it turned out! I was going to put this into a friend's salon with some others I'm trying to sell, but I think I'll keep it to give to my dad.

The sketch: 

And my take:

Thanks for visiting my blog. I'd love a comment to hear what you think.

Heart Song New Release and Sketchy Fun!

It's Sunday again, which means Heart Song Designs has two new releases today, Vintage Blooms and Chick Parade. I'm really excited to see the addition of sentiments to the Chick Parade image.

Leah, HSD's owner and operator, is also starting a new sketch challenge this week on the inspiration blog as well. It will be called Sketches with Heart, and I believe it goes every Sunday along with new release announcements. I think this will be really fun and can't wait to see what y'all create.
Here is my card for this week's sketch and for the new releases. I wish I had had time to play with the Vintage Blooms, but I chose to use Chicks Parade and combine it with the sketch this week.

Please stop by the inspiration blog and play along!

Shooting Fun

This is my layout for this week's sketch over at Let's Scrap.  

I was really struggling with this one at first. I couldn't seem to get past all those circles. They just seemed to be much for me, and I think they would be good for like a small child's birthday layout. But I don't have any little kids and I'm a sort of tired of scrapping Lacy's kids instead of mine lol.  

Anyway, once I decided to look past the circles, I knew what pictures I wanted to use. And, I found a page kit that I was hoarding :) from Basic Grey that had the perfect papers in it for what I wanted. Once I found that, the layout went together pretty fast. 

By the way, the "fun" word looks a little crooked. It was supposed to be whimsical crooked, but not that much. I can't move the letters not though because they are really sticky. So it's staying that way. 

If the shoe fits...........

This is my entry for challenge #87 over at Let's Scrap.  The challenge was to use paint chips on a layout or card, use the word color (or a color name), and use a Let's Scrap sketch.  I used sketch ls128 for my card, and I really had a lot of fun with this one. I think my coloring on the image could have been better. But, I'm happy with it anyway.

Heart Song Sunday Releases!

Wow! Has it been a week already? Time seems to be flying lately. You wouldn't think so, since I still haven't been able to find a job. But, it just feels like time is racing by me.

Well, today is another fabulous Sunday New Release Day for Heart Song Designs. I'm really loving the new  digital stamp images this week--especially the tulips. I adore tulips!!

Here are the cards I made for this weeks release:

Using Bloom Trimmers

I just love this card. It is clean and simple, yet cute and springish.

Using Lovely Tulips

(I had to do them in red--HAD to)

I totally cased this card from a fellow SCS member. You can see that card here.

I used a tutorial I found on stampercamper.com to make that cute bow. You can find the tutorial here.

And, here are the images you will see in the Heart Song Designs shop. When you order, they will come to you via email without the watermark on them. 

Happy Shopping!!

My first Tutorial! Converting Wood-Mount stamps to Cling-Mount for Acrylic Blocks

I did this tutorial for another site, so I thought it might be helpful to some of my followers here too. I have un-mounted about 90% of my stamps (and I have hundreds) and made them into cling-mount stamps to be used with a clear acrylic block. I store them in CD cases in an old CD tower that I bought at the thrift store. Here is a picture of that real quick.

Here are some pictures of me unmounting a Valentine stamp from Studio G this morning.

Peel off the red rubber from the original wood block and foam:

You want to make sure to get as much of the old foam off as possible, but it doesn't have to be completely clean. Just so that no bulky pieces are left on it.

This is a picture of the EZ Mount foam packaging and instructions. I brought this into Roberts Crafts, a local Utah chain, when I worked as the buyer there. But I don't know if they still have it.  I've never seen it at any major chain like Hobby Lobby, JoAnn or Michaels. I bought mine on Ebay, and I've seen it on a few online shops. The manufacturer sells it direct, but you can probably get a better deal on another site.

Stick your stamp to the extremely sticky side of the EZ Mount foam (the other side is not sticky--it is the cling side). I'm using a small piece left from my last sheet rather than using a new sheet here.

Trim the excess foam off of your stamp. Make sure that you don't really care about the scissors you use. They will be very sticky afterward. I used to have a pair of craft snips that worked really well, but I lost them. So I just use some dollar store scissors now.

Your trimming doesn't need to be perfect, as you can see. As long as it covers the majority of the stamp.

Voila, now you can use it to cling to your acrylic blocks!  Easy Peasy.

I have also heard of people just using tacky glue for the back instead of purchasing EZ Mount. The problem I would have with that is that sometimes my block gets ink on it and then I stamp and there is an ink blot on the side of my stamp. The EZ Mount keeps it raised off of the block and prevents some of that. And, you have to keep applying the tacky glue. It doesn't stay on there forever.

Here is another tutorial on Sunday International (the manufacturer). Not sure if they ship overseas, but the name of their company would indicate that they should ;)

http://sundayint.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=11

Please also be aware that if you use EZ Mount, you should NEVER store them on acetate sheets. EZ Mount has a chemical makeup that makes a permanent bond with acetate, making it nearly impossible to separate them!

Here are some pics of one of my Stampin Up sets that I converted.

Inside of case:

 Stampin Up labels that come with product:

 Looking through back of case:

 Label I made (could stand to be trimmed down :0)

 The paper that I stamped showing through the front of the case:

Hope this was helpful for someone.

Statue of Liberty

So, here is my DT layout for this week at Let's Scrap (sketch first of course):

I was having a hard time deciding what pictures to use because I generally don't scrapbook pics this big. But, then I remembered that I still haven't finished my New York trip album and that my Statue of Liberty photos would be wonderful at this size.
I think it turned out pretty good. If you look close, my title is on the bottom right of the left page. It looks way better in person, but you can't see it in my photo here very well. It is an epoxy bubble sticker that says "Statue of Liberty" in a cool type-written sort of font.
We had so much fun on this trip, but, this day was my favorite day. Seeing our Lady Liberty has been a dream of mine for a long time. I felt like I was daydreaming really. It was amazing. My feet hurt, and I was tired and grouchy. But, the sheer and utter awe of it did not miss me. And I'd love to go back again sometime.