No Winter Card and Francesca Update

Sorry I have been a little MIA lately...I got a new computer, new cell phone, and my son started 4 yr preschool all in the same week! The new computer and cell phone took the most amount of time, but we are pretty much up to speed now. Still need to get Microsoft Office on the new computer though, so i haven't transferred all of my files yet. The most disappointing thing I found out though is that my camera will not stream pics to the computer via USB anymore...apparently it is not compatible with Windows Vista (or the upcoming Windows 7). Ugh! So now I have extra steps to download them onto my old computer and then transfer them to the new computer...talk about inconvenient! Anyway, I have a card to share and I also thought i would give you all an update on that sweet baby girl Francesca. A lot of you found my blog during my Blog Candy for a Cause II that I did in honor of Francesca, so since we were finally able to meet her this weekend, I thought it was high time for me to update all of you.

But first, since this is suppose to be a crafty blog, let's go over the card. This is one of the cards that I submitted to Paper Crafts, obviously not the one selected cuz I can't show you that one yet! But I really liked this card as well. This uses the Stampin' Up! set Branch Out (seriously love this set!). The tree was inked up in Certainly Celery ink and then "kissed" to the Sanded Background stamp that was inked up with Forest Foliage. Then I glued Flower Soft Sweet Pea to the tree to make it look like it was blooming (the Paper Crafts issue that I submitted for is a Spring issue). Then I took a sentiment from the Verve Stamps set Beautiful You and inked up portions of it at a time so it fell over the tree as you see. Lastly this was mounted to Forest Foliage layer that was distressed with some scissors. There is a lot of white space on this card...sort of unusual for me...but I like it.

So my family got to visit with Francesca and her Mommy (my very good friend, Maureen). Unfortunately Daddy had to work late, so we were not able to visit with him. As you can see Francesca is an adorable baby, full of smiles (unfortunately I could never capture them on camera) and wonderfully chubby. She is 9 months old now and is able to sit up for a little bit on her own, loves grabbing things and putting them in her mouth, is able to roll over both ways, and has the sweetest toothless grin around! Her smile just killed me because both of my kids got teeth very early, so it was so funny to see an older baby with no teeth. She is developing well and goes to therapy sessions to help her muscle tone which is one of the problems with Down Syndrome. So take a good look at that face and see the power of prayer!

Maureen told me that Children's Hospital of Detroit is planning on featuring Francesca's story along with two others on a special TV episode around Thanksgiving. So when she gets more details about the when and where, I will be sure to let you all know. Hopefully something gets posted on a website or something too so that those of you not in the Detroit area can see it as well. Stay tuned for that!

Thank you once again for all of your prayers for Francesca and thank you to those that have emailed me recently asking about her! And as always, thank you for checking out my kind of engineering!

The Engineering Details

Stamps - Branch Out, Sanded (Stampin' Up!), Beautiful You (Verve Stamps); Paper - Basic White (Papertrey Ink), Forest Foliage (Stampin' Up!); Ink - Certainly Celery, Forest Foliage, Forest Foliage Marker (Stampin' Up!); Accessories - Sweet Pea Flower Soft (Flower Soft), Mono Multi Liquid Glue, dimensionals, scissors