"Meet Me in the Stairwell" A 9/11 Tribute

A friend of mine just sent me this touching email and I wanted to take a minute to share it with all my friends.

September 11, 2001 - We will never forget!

You say you will never forget where you were when
you heard the news On September 11, 2001.
Neither will I.

I was on the 110th floor in a smoke filled room
with a man who called his wife to say 'Good-Bye.' I
held his fingers steady as he dialed. I gave him the
peace to say, 'Honey, I am not going to make it, but it
is OK..I am ready to go.'

I was with his wife when he called as she fed
breakfast to their children. I held her up as she
tried to understand his words and as she realized
he wasn't coming home that night.

I was in the stairwell of the 23rd floor when a
woman cried out to Me for help. 'I have been
knocking on the door of your heart for 50 years!' I said.
'Of course I will show you the way home - only
believe in Me now.'

I was at the base of the building with the Priest
ministering to the injured and devastated souls.
I took him home to tend to his Flock in Heaven. He
heard my voice and answered.

I was on all four of those planes, in every seat,
with every prayer. I was with the crew as they
were overtaken. I was in the very hearts of the
believers there, comforting and assuring them that their
faith has saved them.
I was in Texas , Virginia , California , Michigan , Afghanistan .
I was standing next to you when you heard the terrible news.
Did you sense Me?

I want you to know that I saw every face. I knew
every name - though not all knew Me. Some met Me
for the first time on the 86th floor.

Some sought Me with their last breath.
Some couldn't hear Me calling to them through the
smoke and flames; 'Come to Me... this way... take
my hand.' Some chose, for the final time, to ignore Me.
But, I was there.

I did not place you in the Tower that day. You
may not know why, but I do. However, if you were
there in that explosive moment in time, would you have
reached for Me?

Sept. 11, 2001, was not the end of the journey
for you. But someday your journey will end. And I
will be there for you as well. Seek Me now while I may
be found. Then, at any moment, you know you are
'ready to go.'

I will be in the stairwell of your final moments.

God

A Creativity Blast!

Wow...wow...wow! I have been super-busy in my craft room nourishing my creativity this month. I have made more layouts in the past 2 weeks than I did in the prior 2 months! 16 so far.... and today I want to share a few of them with you all.

Love, love, love this layout for so many reasons. First it features some of my favorite pictures from a rockin' outdoor concert with the Christian worship band Delirious. It was so fun to get these photos and the colors were fabulous to get nice bold images. Then I stumbled across a page on scrapbook.com from the super-talented Taniawillis called "Rock Band" and knew I had to use the rockin' "Generation Z" line from Little Yellow Bicycle. The colors were perfect...only problem was that we clearanced out the line at Archivers' about a month prior to this. So I ordered the set from scrapbook.com and LOVE how it turned out! I used a sketch from one of the Got Sketch classes that I took with Valerie Salmon. My favorite parts are the metallic pieces that I included in the layout like the Bazzill Bling cardstock, metallic embroidery thread that I stitched with all the way around the page, and the metallic paint I used to cover the chipboard letters.

This layout is so bright and fun and it was really easy to put together. I used the "Petal Pushers" line from Bo Bunny and with its bright colors that matched my photos perfectly, I was able to create this fun layout in about an hour. To add a bit of dimension to the letters, I covered them in Glossy Accents after cutting them out on my Cricut.

I absolutely love these photos of my family and I in the pool at my aunt's house on July 4th. The colors were super bright and when I found this fun rub-on quote from Doodlebug and papers from the Archiver's exclusive "Endless Summer" line from WeRMemory Keepers, I knew that this layout would be super fun to make. I used another fabulous sketch from Valerie Salmon's Got Sketch classes to pull together this layout in under 2 hours. :)

One snowy night in February 2008, I wrote a poem describing my feelings about hoping that we would cancel school the following day with almost a foot of snow predicted so I wouldn't have to go to work. (one of the many perks of being a teacher!) The photo is a self portrait right before I went to bed. It was a really easy layout to put together with the matching products from one of my favorite lines by KI Memories. I used my cricut to cut out several of the snowflakes and my large title word "wish". I was also able to use up lots of metal embellies on here and that always makes me smile. :)  The layout design is scraplifted from Janna Wilson's layout "Fashionable 4th".

Well, I have to head to bed but I will be back to share more of my creative goodness later.

Night all and until next time,

Janeen :)

September Card Design

I just wanted to pop on here and share the card that I created for the card ministry at my church. I made over 50 of this fun card design this month to spread some birthday cheer.

This card was super cute and easy to make lots of them. I also used some of my new favorite supplies:

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  The Corner Chomper from WeRMemoryKeepers. Love this guy and super easy to use. :)

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  The awesome new Oliver line from Basic Grey. Deep, rich colors and classic patterns with a grungy twist make this one of my new favorite collections.

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  Kraft cardstock....need I say more? This color is my go to favorite these days and it matches virtuallly everything!

Happy Stuff...

Just a short lil' list of the stuff that has brought a smile to my face this week.

An awesome group of friends at Threefold, the group for 20-30's that I attend every Thursday night at Pathway Community Church.

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I have loved this movie since I was a little girl. Unfortunately, until this weekend all I had was a battered, well-loved VHS copy that skipped big time. But today I found this beloved movie at the Family Christian Bookstore for about $5. :)

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B. Antonio's Pizza.... this place has fabulous pizza. Reminds me of the pizza we used to get at a local pizza parlor when I was a kid. And there was Christian music playing in the background which made me smile. They also have a gluten-free pizza which makes my sister happy. Will definately be heading back there to try more pizza. :)

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Finding this awesome Hero Arts stamp to add to my stamping stuff at J's. 40% off with an extra 10% means I got this guy for about $11. Score!

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This one wasn't exactly this week, but I did see the person who I made it for and she made me smile. :) This is a super sweet and super simple canvas I made for a teacher friend using my new Cricut 'Create A Critter' cartridge and some delicious October Afternoon papers.

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And finally, I was able to spend LOTS of time down in my scraproom creating 11 new layouts and 75 cards (all the same design)! :)

I will be sharing the scrappy goodness in the next few days.

Until then,

Janeen :)

Filmstrip Fun

Today I just wanted to drop by with one of my newest scrapbooking layouts. I created it for this month's challenge over at the If It's Groovy blog and wanted to share it with all of you over here.

My friend Emily and I took these pictures one evening way back in 2006 and this fun filmstrip has been sitting here in my scraproom ever since. When Deb challenged us over at If It's Groovy to use photos from a photobooth, I knew that these would be the pictures I used.

So I set out to find the perfect papers and embellies for these fabulously fun photos and I found them in my March 2010 Scarlet Lime Kit. The colors and embellies were super fun and the colors coordinated with my photos perfectly. 

I took the journaling from my very first blog. I love using the actual entries because they show how I was feeling and add a realness to my journaling. Plus, it is super easy to incorporate because all I have to do is re-copy it! :)

Well I hope you have enjoyed this page as much as I have.

Have a great night everyone and until next time,

Janeen :)

Crafty Sunday

Hello there! This week I was able to spend some time being crafty and for me that means stained fingers and glitter in my hair. I got some really fun pages completed and was able to play with some of my favorite companies and products.

On Friday, I created my favorite layout from the week. I had been playing around with the idea for this page for awhile but could never find the perfect photo. I was rummaging through some pictures from 2008 and ran across this photo of me with my camera. And then BoBunny came out with this super line called "Mama-razzi" and the colors were perfect, so I knew it was time to create this layout.

The one thing from the BoBunny collection that I didn't purchase were the flowers because I figured I had enough flowers. Well I had a ton of flowers, but none of them were the right color. So I decided to color my own. I absolutely love how they turned out and I want to share the technique. :)

 Materials:  White flowers (Mine are the wildflower mix from Prima), distress inks in multiple shades of the same color, ink blending tool with foam, Perfect Pearls (perfect pearl color), Ranger Mini Mister filled with water, heat gun, Ranger Craft Mat

2. Choose your lightest shade of distress ink. Here I chose Broken China.  Apply the ink to the flower using the ink blending tool. For mine I held the middle of the flower as I inked so that the flower wouldn't tear. Also make sure that you get ink into the crevaces of the flower.

This what the flowers look like with the lightest color on them.

2. Next take your darker shade of distress ink and ink blending tool and swipe the color over the top of the flower. This ink will only reach the raised parts of the petals. Here I am using Faded Jeans Distress Ink.

3. Make your own pearlized mist with a Ranger Mini Mister, Perfect Pearls, and water. I used the clear glitter color called Perfect Pearls on my project.  To make your mist, use a craft stick to scoop some perfect pearls into the mister. Fill the mister 2/3 of the way full with water, screw on the lid, and shake to mix. I glued a pearl on the top of the lid of the mister so I know what is inside it.  I got this tip from one of my favorite artists, Jennifer McGuire. To see more of her tips, visit http://www.jennifermcguireink.typepad.com/.

4. Spray your flowers with the Pearlized Mix. Because of their unique properties, Distress Inks react with water and the colors will bleed together creating a cool muttled look. You could also use Glimmer Mist in the Pearl color for this technique, but I found that the Pearlized Mix works better for me.

5. Dry the flowers with a heat tool. This sets the color and stops it from bleeding anymore. It also speeds up the drying time on te flowers.

This is a close-up of the blue flowers. I used Broken China and Faded Jeans Distress inks  and then spritzed them with the pearlized mix. I totally love the subtle glittery shine they have.

These flowers were created with Antique Linen and Walnut Stain Distress inks. I also sprayed the pearlized mix over these.

Layer your different sized flowers together on your layout and add a flower center of your choice. The top flower here uses a cardstock sticker with foam adhesive dots behind it and the bottom flower simply has a large gemstone adorning its center.

Bonus Tip

To create these cool multi-colored and layered chipboard letters, I first painted them with the greenish-blue color of acryllic paint. After it dried, I then used a tan color of paint and dabbed it on different areas of the letters using a wadded-up paper towel. Finally I used a paintbrush and some copper-colored glimmer mist to paint on some glimmer color over the areas painted tan. It really gave the letters a unique aged look that added to the overall look of the page.

Well I hope you all are enjoying your holiday weekend. Mine was very busy with a going away party for my brother-in-law who is heading to Iraq this summer. We had over 60 people here and it was a blast!!! :)

Until next time,

Janeen :)

Musings...

"Bless The Broken Road"
I set out on a narrow way many years ago
Hoping I would find true love along the broken road
But I got lost a time or two
Wiped my brow and kept pushing through
I couldn't see how every sign pointed straight to you


[Chorus:]

Every long lost dream led me to where you are
Others who broke my heart they were like Northern stars
Pointing me on my way into your loving arms
This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you

I think about the years I spent just passing through
I'd like to have the time I lost and give it back to you
But you just smile and take my hand
You've been there you understand
It's all part of a grander plan that is coming true

[Chorus]

Now I'm just rolling home
Into my lover's arms
This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you


This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you. 

Yes, God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you.



I have been thinking about this song a lot lately.  I guess for me this is a prayer and a dream that someday this will be me. It certainly has been a broken road but I know that one day, it will lead me to the man that God has chosen for me. This is what keeps me going on some days when this dream seems totally hopeless and reminds me that I have a God that loves me infinately!