My brothers murder story

I have been way too busy to do anything and I hate when life gets in the way of my crafts! As some of you know I do vounteer work with a program called Bridges to Life. Well I was doing two projects this time and it doesnt sound like much but emotionally it can be draining. However, I am so thankful I did it. This program gives me a chance to share my brothers life with others and hopefully keep others from doing what his killer did. A little background.. My brother was 19 years old in 1995 and I was 22. I had already been married for almost 6 years and had my two children. One night my brother called me and wanted to get together but it was kinda late and I was dealing with getting kids to bed (sunday night school night). We planned on meeting up the next weekend and spending time together then. My brother worked as a security guard for a small security company. We later found out this company was not legal and please know that most of these companies are not legit. We ended up forcing this one to close in the end. I am glad we had that call. Later that night the phone rings again and its my mom saying I am needed at the hospital and I need to hurry. In my mind it had to be something with my grandfather nothing bad happens in my family that stuff is only on tv right? Well when I arrived at the hospital I found out my brother had been shot. To keep this short and to the point I will say that he lived for 21 days. Those days were joyus at some points and painful at others. My brother was called in to work and had arrived in a parking lot of a store and a large crowd had gathered and they were trying to get the crowd to move along when someone fired shots into the crowd. My brother was the only one that was hit and I am thankful for that. I am leaving so much out :) Just trying to be brief. If you read this and have questions please feel free to ask. I spent most of my time with him on those days. It was very difficult sometimes to see the things they were doing. Finally his body just couldnt take it anymore and it gave out. I dont remember much about the next week or so. It was all a blur and I wish I could tell you more about the service and such but my mind just couldnt do it. Well once that happened I decided that I had to meet the killer one day! I wanted him to KNOW what kind of man my brother was and what he meant to me and to others! I had to live with those memories that at one time brought joy to me and now only brought sadness. The man that shot him was picked up pretty quickly and did a deal with the DA. He was sentenced to 15 years. Not very long huh? Let me tell you it goes by very fast for the victim. In 2004 he came up for parole and I knew if I was ever going to meet him I had to do it now. So I found a program called Victim offender mediation dialouge. Long story short they give you counselor times and even for the offender. The offender must agree to this meeting which I was worried mine would not but Thank God he did. So in Jan I spent 8 hours with the man that killed my brother. We laughed we cried and I made peace with happened. I have forgiven him. I can forgive him but I cant forgive his action. Hope that makes sense? Anyway, when it was over I hugged him and wished him well. On the way out of the prison I was speaking with my mediator about how beautiful that was. She then suggested I try Bridges to Life. Bridges to life takes victims into prison to show offenders what crimes do to people. We make them face a victim that could have been their victim (meeting your own is only allowed with the mediation program). We show them how the family of victim's feel and the things that happen to them because of this. Its an amazing program and it has helped me heal in ways I cant explain! We spend 14 weeks with these offenders one night a week for 3 hours. The first 30 minutes we are all together and we hear a victim story. Once that is done we break into smaller groups. Usually 10 inmates to 2-3 volunteers. We have a lesson for the night such as forgivness, reconciliation, accountability etc. So we go over our lesson and then talk about the victim of the week. Then someone in the small group tells his/her story. Its amazing what they tell us once they start trusting us. Not to mention the things that they start to see. Once the ice is broken and I cant explain when or how that happens it just does. Maybe its because each volunteer shares so openly their stories. I know its hard to imagine getting attached to inmates but you do. Once they open up and you hear their life and what its like. The healing that takes place is truely a work of God! I have a story I will do later about what happened when I spoke and a man stood up and confessed he was also in the parking lot with my brother. I will save that for next time:) I have been involved with Bridges to Life now for 7 years and its the most amazing experience ever!!! I wish everyone could do it and its sure not easy to do but its so worth it!! I am NO LONGER A VICTIM!!!!!! I use my story to change lives and YES I KNOW IT DOES :) Here is the link to the program! If you have any questions all you need to do is ask! I am open and LOVE to share. Here is the link to the program Bridges to life Much love to you all :)

Demask Decor

I do not know if any of you have this new cartridge but it is AWESOME!!!!!!!! I Love all the cuts and they are so easy! Great cart to have to make quick beautiful cards!!! I made several yesterday and I will post them. I didnt dress them up other than just putting them on the card. I just wanted to see the cuts :)

Let me know what you guys think about these cuts ? Do you like this Cart? If not which one do you like??

Blog Candy Giveaway!!!

Cooking with Cricut is giving away some amazing BLOG candy!! All you have to do is go over and comment! So Go on check it out you wont regret it!

Thank you all :)

Cooking with Cricut

Fantabulous Cricut #48

Fantabulous Cricut Challange #48

Hi Everyone!!! It's been way too long since I have done anything and I need to get myself in gear! So first and foremost I want to say thank you to everyone that has followed me! I <3>




One of my favorite places to play challanges is over at Fantabulous Cricut! They always have such fun challanges and this week was no exception!! This weeks challange #48 is to emboss it! WOOHOO!!! I went to my local Archivers a few weeks ago and learned this embossing technique that I have been begging to do! So here is my take on this weeks challange and thanks to the ladies at Archivers!!

White cardstock for the card back sprayed with glimmer mist. I used lilly pad, jack frost and pink bubblegum.

To do the squares I used a Hero Arts Stamp I just got from Archivers and stamped it with Versamark and then used Rose, Frost, and Leaf zing embossing powders.

Stamp the butterfly image three times with the versamark and then sprinkle the three different stamps with the three colors listed about. Heat until the embossing powder is dry and shiny :)







I love my craft mat!! Its so versatile. You can use it for so many things. For this particular card I used it basically as a painting mat. I took three distressed inks and just placed it on the craft mat and basically made a swatch of each color to use.

I got these brushes from Hobby Lobby. They are so fun with the distress inks. You fill them with water and you add a few drops of water to the swatch of distress inks and go for it! Paint in the butterflies on the stamp! Nice thing about this is you dont have to know how to paint or be an expert painter!!! If you go outside the lines it is easly cleaned off the embossed image with the part not embossed it stays perfectly! Looks hard its actually really simple!

I came home and started getting out more stamps to try this on! I just love the way it looks!

Sentiment was a stamp from Hobby Lobby as well. The butterflys were cut using my new pink big kick I used a spellbinder shapeabilities die that cuts and embosses! To make the embossed parts stand out even more I left them in the cutting dye and stamped the emobossed side with versamark and carefully let them fall out and heated them with my heating gun and there you have it!!! Hope you all enjoy my card and give this a try! If you have any questions just let me know!

McGill Punches!

I hope you are all doing well :) The weather here has been cold and rainy which I used to love but now it just makes me sore. However, it is a nice day to stay home and try to get some card making done!

I was asked by a friend how to make some flowers I have been making. I learned how to do these from a class I took at my local Archiver's! I just LOVE that store!

In class we used these punches made by McGill. The punches are from the Paper Blossom line and are so very pretty and easy to use!

The first thing to do when making the lilly(my favorite) is punch out 6 using the star lilly punch. I have used all kinds of paper but card stock I think is the best.

I use the same punch to cut the 3 more sets for the leaves from (since they were out of the one that they used). It works just great and it saves money.

Then you decorate each petal to add detail. I also outline each petal with a copic marker for extra detail. I LOVE copic makers this is my first time using them!

Each tool kit comes with 3 handy styluses. Each one has two sizes so depending on the size of flower you wish to make you have plenty of options. You lay each petal on the foam mat and then start working the stylus around each petal until it is curled up. Dont worry about it being too much because it will lay down once you spray it with glimmer mist.

Once you have all the petals ready it is time to start putting it all together. I start by glueing the leaves together to form a base for the petals. Once I have them together I just apply glue to the center and start placing each petal into position.


Once you have all the petals in place allow to dry and then you can spray glimmer mist to add a finishing touch!

I hope I didnt confuse anyone! :) They really are very easy and loads of fun to make. They are perfect for cards, pages and gift boxes and tags!

Enjoy!

Making Flowers

Tonight I didnt make any cards I just practiced making flowers :) I learned how to do these at my local Archivers and I love the way they look. They will work on so many things! Cards, SB pages, tags, gift boxes and a million other ways!

So here are a couple of the flowers I made tonight...

Easter :)

I finally got a set or actually both sets of the Spica Atyou markers. I love them :) They are so pretty to color with. They have a hint of glitter to anything you can color! I made this card. Im not crazy about it for some reason. First time I ever tried a digital maker. I hade no idea how to do it so I just printed it out and colored :) Without further rambling!

and now I say goodnight.. I didnt sleep last night so I need a nap! Let m

e know what ya think of this one? Any advice using the markers!

Huggies!!!!!