Every Day Is A Gift

Life truly is a gift from God. Each day we have to be with our loved ones should be embraced and cherished.
I found myself sitting at my craft table yesterday, wanting to make something to take my mind of the loss of my niece, Jessica, and I just couldn't focus. Her funeral was on Saturday and it was a wonderful celebration of her life. Tearful, joyful, memories shared...
Hug your loved ones tighter, hold them in your arms a little longer. Tell them more often just how wonderful they are and how much you love them. Be quicker to forgive and wipe the score board clear after each offense. Laugh together more often and hold them tight when they cry. Life is a gift. We should be quick to accept that gift and cherish it anew every day.


Made with scraps sitting on my table, because I couldn't do anything else.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. ~ Hugs ~ Birgit

Cupcake Love

This is a scheduled post

Hello friends~ I'm excited to be posting my first project for the Dies R Us inspiration blog!
I'll start right off with a couple of birthday cards I made using the really sweet Cupcake dies from Elizabeth Craft Designs.





I started by cutting all the pieces from the cupcake die set in white card stock, except for the liners, which I cut from colored card stock. I added distress inks to color up the cupcake pieces and then assembled them. I cut two Stitched Octagon Layers from Memory Box using white and a coordinating color card stock for each cupcake. I layered the cupcakes on the octagon layers and placed a French Pastry Doily from Cheery Lynn behind one and a Taylored Expressions fishtail banner behind the other.

My cards feature the following Dies R Us products:

ELIZABETH CRAFT DESIGNS - CUPCAKES

MEMORY BOX - DIES - OPEN STUDIO - STITCHED OCTAGON LAYERS

TAYLORED EXPRESSIONS - DIES - BANNER STACKLETS 1

CHEERY LYNN DESIGNS - FRENCH PASTRY DOILY

InLinkz.com

QUICK DESIGN TIP: ~ For die sets than have many small components, try cutting them all out of white card stock and adding the color to each piece using your favorite coloring medium. This saves time by not having to cut all the pieces out individually using different colored card stock and also gives your die cut shapes a softer look.

Be sure to stop by the Dies R Us blog every day for fresh new ideas from the design team.
You can also visit the Dies R Us facebook page and "Like" us along the way!
Visit the Dies R Us challenge blog for your chance to win a gift certificate to the Dies R Us Store.
Thanks so much for stopping by! Blessings~ Birgit

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Color Isolation with PTI

Good morning friends... I made this card on Monday night for the PTI Make-It Monday challenge. Ashley has a great video about Color Isolation.


I used Doodlie-Do, one of my favorite stamp sets to play with.

The sentiment is from their Christmas freebie, One Big Happy.

I stamped and extra dot from the center of the flower and popped it up to give it dimension.

As I mentioned I made this card on Monday and was planning on posting it yesterday until my whole day fell apart. My niece, at 27 years old, died yesterday morning they think from a heart attack. We just got back from vacation and 3 days later lost my niece. Last year at this very same time, we came back from vacation and 4 weeks later lost my mom and my aunt 2 months later. I'm still in shock and disbelief.
I didn't want to overlook your visits and comments from all my scheduled posts last week while we were away. Your encouragement and kindness means so much to me. I meant to get back to visiting each of your blogs and leaving some love in return. I just think it's going to take me longer than expected. The medical examiner is doing an autopsy on my niece and I don't know the timing of everything right now. Thanks for hanging in there with me. Thanks for your love and encouragement and mostly thanks for any prayers you can say for my family as we go through yet another great loss.

Thanks for stopping by. Blessings~ Birgit

Someone Pinch Me!

Hello friends~ I'm here to post some amazing, exciting and super terrific news...
I'll be joining the fabulous design team for Dies R Us!
I literally was so excited when I saw that e-mail in my box, I had to read it three times, just to be sure.

I'm honored and completely humbled by this journey I get to travel for the next six months with Darlene and all the girls. I only hope I can represent their company well.


In celebration of this exciting event, I made a yummy strawberry card to give to someone incredibly sweet!
After die cutting all the pieces to the strawberry, I sponged some color on them using distress inks.

I dipped the chocolate dipped pieces into my VersaMark pad and heat embossed them with clear embossing powder to make them shine like real chocolate. YUM!

I added a trio of little hand made flowers from a Martha Stewart punch with yellow Stickles in the center and a string of bakers twine to finish this off.

Here's my list of suggested supplies from Dies R Us:
Memory Box Postage Rectangle Layers
Memory Box Stitched Rectangle Layers
Elizabeth Craft Designs Strawberries

Thanks so much for stopping By! Blessings~ Birgit

How Many Times Have I Told YOU??

Did your parents ever say that to you? How many times have you said it to your own children? Do we I ever eventually learn from our my mistakes?

I'm linking today's card up to Darnell's April Fools Day Big Fat Boo Boo!

I know we've all done it before, but how many times I've done it, I can't even count!
I put the front panel of my card on upside down!

And truth be told, this probably won't be the last time I do it either.

This is much better!

Have fun on Darnell's Blog Hop!
And... Happy April Fools!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Blessings~ Birgit