June...Family Birthday Month

Hello Everyone!  Happy Monday.  When I was preparing for today's blog, I had everything planned out to focus my thoughts on the topic of Father's Day.  I spent time this weekend making Father's Day cards and pondering the wonderful role of Fathers.  As I began to type and upload the photos, it dawned on me that my husband reads my blog (thank you, my love, for your continued support) and he would see the card I made him before the actual day.  I deleted what I had written and decided that this week I would remind everyone to thank those men in their lives that serve in father roles and then pay tribute to them next week...So, don't forget to thank those wonderful men in your life on June 19th!

Of course, this change of plans then required me to revisit my creative week to see what else emerged. Imagine my surprise when I realized that I made more family birthday cards this weekend then I have in quite some time.  I pulled out my birthday calendar (you know we all have one of those) and sure enough there are more birthdays in June in my family than any other month.  I am very thankful for all of my family and enjoy making cards for them but I guess I never really paid attention to how they are clustered. Summer is so busy with graduations, end of school, weddings, vacations, and finding ways to keep the children busy that June birthdays seem to get over shadowed. But not anymore...I went back and added extra bling, extra color, and extra special sentiments in celebration!  Happy Birthday all you June babies!

Blessings, Jeannette

A Guiding Light

Happy Monday!  June has arrived and with it the promise of summer and all the wonderful life celebrations that come along.  Our daughter, Carly, graduated from high school yesterday, school is out for our son, Joshua, and all around people are getting ready for vacations and travel plans. Life is full of so many blessings that can be forgotten easily when challenges come our way.  Keeping a larger perspective, while a wonderful skill, is not always our first impulse.  Sometimes we just need a small reminder when extreme events come our way.

With that in mind, I created this Guiding Light card for my Aunt LuLu (still undergoing breast cancer treatments) as she faces the challenges of survivorship and the loss, last week, of my Uncle Jack.  They had a blessed life together and he was such a strong anchor of support.  The verse reflects her strong faith and the light house represents that safe port during rough seas.  Our prayers are with her and the rest of the McNulty Family.

May we take time to remember our blessings even when surrounded by life's rough seas.  Have a wonderful week.  Jeannette

Service Learning

Me again :)!!! As mentioned in the previous post, Stamp to Cope, Inc. used the message of service found in Memorial Day to support our service learning mission. Part of our goal is to share the message of breast cancer survivorship with the youth in the community. Stamp to Cope, Inc.'s mission very nicely aligns with the service requirements of Madison Southern High School in Berea, KY where every Senior must participate in at least 10 hours of community contribution.

With help from the youth, we spent the day creating cards, planning for the July 2011 Berea Festival Learnshops, inventorying supplies, and setting up workshop materials. What a great way to share fellowship, fun, and service with a great group of young people. Thanks for the help! J

Memorial Day

Happy Tuesday everyone! I apologize for not posting yesterday so I will post double today :). Our team spent yesterday conducting a Stamp to Cope, Inc. production day to get ready for our upcoming Berea Festival Learnshops event....more blog on the day to follow.

However, even though we were busy crafting and creating, we definitely took time to honor our service men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

In the spirit of that thanksgiving, I created this card using an article from our local paper, "The Berea Citizen", and a wonderful stamp by The Angel Company. Adding a distressed look with some patriotic blue paper shared my vision of struggle and sacrifice. Memorial day is also a personal time of reflection for me as I honor my father, Carl G. Foultz, Sr who served during WWII.....Miss you Dad! My sincere appreciation for those who serve and protect. Love Jeannette

Weekend Workshop

Happy Monday everyone!  I am so excited to share these pictures from the Stamp to Cope, Inc. workshop presented as part of our annual meeting outreach.  A HUGE thank you to Dr. Dixie Heuton and the wonderful ladies at Our Savior Lutheran Church in Cabot, Arkansas! 

The workshop began with the participants learning the Cloud technique (my favorite) followed by the Masking technique, and then the Layering technique for working with accessories. Tying the crafting and the coping together was addressed further by the sharing of several stress relieving exercises that used clouds and masking as the theme.  Pretty creative I think :).  After the first project was completed, refreshments were served while enjoying a very informative presentation by the local mammogram screening center.  We finished the workshop with the creation of bookmarks using Stamp to Cope, Inc. stamped images and direct to paper ink techniques. As my mother would say...A fun time was had by all :).

Thanks again everyone for all the hard work, fellowship, and support.

Have a great week.  Blessings, Jeannette

Soaring with Support

Hello everyone!  This post is a BIG thank you to the wonderful ladies at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church for inviting me to share the Stamp to Cope, Inc. message last Wednesday.  The workshop had 15 attendees with 5 of those being Survivors.  The card we made included the cloud, layering, and window techniques all in one.  What an inspiring group and our sincere appreciation for the donations, ideas, encouragement, and words of support!

Have a great week.  We are so blessed.  Jeannette

LWML Lilies of the Field

Greetings all and Happy Monday,

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day!  Our family truly had a treat this weekend with the arrival of Angela, an exchange student from Hong Kong.  We are so excited to have her with us and I thank her family for sharing her. Welcome Angela!

As I mentioned in a previous post, Stamp to Cope, Inc. will be having its annual Board of Directors meeting at the end of May.  Part of the event is to present a community service workshop for breast cancer survivors and their partners.  To support this workshop, the LWML Lilies of the Field, Cabot, AK chapter provided a most gracious and generous donation.  What a fabulous organization and group of women.  As a small token of our thanks, I created this Iris card (in hind sight I probably should have made a Lilies card :)) with the hopes of expressing at least some portion of our gratitude.  The Iris was stamped using Memento Tuxedo Black ink and then I colored the flower with Copic markers blending various shades to get depth. Using die cuts, embossing folders, and layering added the textures. Thank you ladies for your support.

Wednesday of this week, I will be on-site at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Lexington, KY sharing the mission of STC and conducting a survivors workshop.  I look forward to sharing the highlights of that event next week.  Have a wonderful week.

Blessings, Jeannette

Mother's Day

Greetings all!  Welcome to another message from Stamp to Cope, Inc.  So many fun and exciting things are happening for us and I thank everyone for their support.  Before I go into a brief summary of some upcoming events, I wanted to take a moment to wish all you mother's out there a HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!  Please take a moment to thank those who serve in this very important role. The Cat in a Cup card I created is just a little something for the best mother-in-law in the whole wide world!!! Thanks Mom!!

New and Exciting Events

May 11, 2011, I will be presenting a workshop about STC to the LWML (Lutheran Womens Missionary League) of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Lexington.  This is a wonderful chance to outreach to survivors and share the STC message in the Lexington area.

May 21, 2011, STC will be holding its annual Board of Directors meeting with a scheduled community service stamping project in Cabot, Arkansas. I will post more on this great opportunity live from the event.

Today I met with administrators from The Markey Cancer Center of the University of Kentucky to begin a Survivor's organization out of Markey's Comprehensive Breast Center.  STC has been asked to present a workshop to some of the Center's survivors as a pilot for this new group.  I will keep you posted.

Great News!!! STC was notified this week that we have been selected to participate in the Festival of Learnshops the week from July 9 thru 16, an event here in Berea, KY sponsored in part by the Berea Tourism Department and the Berea Arts Council. I will be conducting several Art of Stamping workshops with all proceeds from my workshops going to STC. This is a super opportunity for the organization to reach out and fundraise at the same time...so exciting

It has been a very busy week for STC as you can see from the events above and I thank EVERYONE for the support.  Have a great week.  Jeannette

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Graduation Invite

Happy Easter Monday! I hope everyone had a wonderful Holy Week and Blessed Easter. My family and I certainly take great comfort in knowing that our Redeemer lives (also a really great hymn :)). During this time in the Church year, I reflect on the death of my Savior and what He sacrificed for me...I am truly humbled. I also ponder the concept of death and my own relationship with the event. In 2003 I was told I had 3 months to live.  I remember during the worst of my treatments praying that His strength would guide me down which ever path was necessary....WOW, look how far He has led me so far...Thank You.

I bring this up in the blog as a way of introducing the importance to me of the cards I created this week. You see, my daughter, Carly, graduates from high school in June and that is a celebration in her life that I thought I would not be on this earth to witness. While she prepares for her transition to college, organizes prom festivities, and practices for the ceremony itself, to her it is the most natural and expected thing in life. However, for me it is not that simple or an entitlement as her parent. For me, every step I get to observe in the process is a celebration of thanksgiving, joy, and excitement. For me, it is one more sacrifice God made.  For me, it is about being able to watch it all unfold. For me, it is the gift of continued life on earth..a gift I will not take for granted.

May all of your days be filled with awe and wonder at the creations around you and Easter blessings throughout the year.

Jeannette

Easter Blessings

 

Happy Holy Week!!!

What a wonderful time of the year.  I find Easter quite an inspiring holiday and am truly amazed that such suffering can end with such joy.  Truly every additional day  is a blessing and while I am here I must give thanks for the sacrifices made so I can live.  This Easter I wanted to create something that reflected the real gift and meaning of the season.  The cross was stamped with Versamark and embossed with gold.  Thanks to my fellow stamping friends on StampTV for the oval deboss idea.

I hope everyone has a blessed week!. As we Lutheran's say... He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

Blessings,

Jeannette