Princess Birthday

Here are a couple of PRINCESS birthday cards I made for my nieces! I know that PRINCESSes are all the rage these days!
I wasn't SUPER happy with the way the scissors cutting on the focal image worked, but my niece isn't going to care! I used a square see through sticker that I got from my SIL (here).
Here are the details: I got the sketch from Kirsten here.
Stamps: SU! A Little Love
Paper:SU! Slumber Party, Perfect Plum
Ink: SU! Perfect Plum, Pale Plum, Pretty in Pink (marker)
Other: Pretty in Pink ribbon from SU! (I think), purple buttons, pink elastic cording, square see-through sticker.

Daddy's Princess:
Stamps: SU! A Little Love, Mini Alphabet Curlz set from The Little Classic Rubber Stamp (purchase at Hobby Lobby)
Paper: SU! Close to Cocoa, Pretty in Pink, Taken with Teal, patterned paper is also from SU!, but I don't know what it's called.
Ink: Taken with Teal, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose
Other: VERY pink glitter from a scrapbooking set someone gave me! :-)

Treeline Thoughts

I made these two cards for different reasons, but I liked the look of the first one so much, I made the second one VERY similar. The first one is a sympathy card for one of Chris' managers at work. I don't have any sympathy type sayings, though, other than "You are in my thoughts and prayers." So - the thinking of you worked on the front.
The second card is almost the same, except for the background stamping and the sentiment.

Here are the details:
Paper: SU! cranberry crisp, always artichoke, Walmart white, patterned paper Earthtone Stripes by My Mind's Eye (purchased at Hobby Lobby.)
Ink: SU! Always Artichoke, Cranberry Crisp
Stamps: treeline (it's not labeled as far as the name) from Inkadinkado, pinecone (2nd card background) from PSX, sentiment (1st card) SU!'s A Greeting for All Reasons, (2nd Card) SU!'s Fancy Flexible Sayings
Other: Marvy Uchida liquid applique (for the snow), Marvy super square punch, eyelets and square brads from Spare Parts, hemp twine from Walmart.

I'll try to post cards a little more often! :-)

RAK's

These are a couple of RAK (random act of kindness) cards that people made for me last year. I have a few friends who stamp, but I never really got many cards before this!

from my friend, Rachel
from my friend, Dawn
Christmas card from my stamping party buddy, Beth
Christmas card from my SU! demonstrator and friend, Brenda
The inside of the card above. from my friend, Kim, who doesn't stamp much, but when she does, she sends her cards to me! :-)

I love getting homemade cards in the mail, and my goal is to start making cards just because I care, instead of always just making cards for birthdays, anniversaries, and Christmas. With e-mail, blogs, cell phones, and other electronics, I think that sending mail in general is becoming a lost art, so to speak. I don't have a problem with ANY of those things, but I like to make cards, so why not send them?!?!? :-)

Results of the Pregnancy Test

A dear friend sent me a CD with the following song on it soon after we had found out that we miscarried our babies in December. This song has become very dear to me, and again fits the situation that we find ourselves in at this time:

For My Good and For His Glory
words by Rebecca J. Peck

I must admit that I don't understand
why God would let me face this painful circumstance
All I have to cling to is His word and His name
But that's enough, so I will trust

It's for my good and for His glory,
This trial's not the end of the story
There's a bigger picture God alone can see
Faith will take me through this sorrow,
For I know He holds tomorrow,
And He assures me
It's for my good, and for His glory.

Because I love the Lord He's promised me
To work all things for good, through tears I still believe
That His ways are higher than any of my own -
Though my heart aches, He makes no mistakes.

It's for my good and for His glory,
This trial's not the end of the story
There's a bigger picture God alone can see
Faith will take me through this sorrow,
For I know He holds tomorrow,
And He assures me
It's for my good, and for His glory.


Again, I am sorry to send a mass, impersonal e-mail (or blog post!) like this, but it would take me forever to type e-mails to each one of you that have prayed for us through this in vitro fertilization cycle. We are SO disappointed to have to tell you that our pregnancy test and bloodwork both came back today - NEGATIVE. For whatever reason, God has chosen NOT to give us a baby to hold through this process. As the lyrics of the song indicate, this is very painful for us, and our hearts ache... but we also know that God can see the bigger picture and has a REASON that He has chosen not to give us the desire of our hearts at this time. We are thankful, though, that we now have 9 babies up in Heaven waiting to meet us when we get there. Though we would LOVE to have them HERE, they are so blessed to not have had to live through the trials of this life, but to go directly to an eternity in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I'm sure many of you will wonder what we do from here... and we have no answer for that at this time. We believe that had God wanted to give us a baby through the IVF process, He would have done it in these 3 tries. So, unless the Lord gives us a HUGE sign that He wants us to go through that again, we do not plan on that. (Not to mention, it is expensive and emotionally draining!) At least we can now look back and not have regrets at not having tried that option when it was available to us. A couple of people, even today, have asked us about adoption. At this point, we do not have any peace about pursuing adoption. Of course, God may just choose to give us a baby on His own... I mean, if He can make a virgin conceive, NOTHING is IMPOSSIBLE with Him, right?!?!? :-) (I don't mean to be sacriligous, just finding a little humor there!)

So - all that to say, I guess we would just ask you all to please continue to keep us in your prayers. Pray for wisdom for both of us as we seek God's will concerning our family. Although we know that God's grace is sufficient, please pray for God's hand of grace and comfort to rest on us. Pray that we are able to truly trust God for His will in our lives. It is far too easy to do "lip-service" and pretend that we are OK, but the words not getting through to our hearts. Also, please pray that we will continue to grow closer to God and each other. Again, we cannot thank you all enough for all of your prayers on our behalf. They mean so much to us, and we often are overwelmed at the love, care, and support you have shown to us through this difficult time.

We pray that someday we may be able to share with you that our family has grown... though how that will happen we are just waiting on the Lord to show us!

We appreciate you all so much. Thank you for your prayers.

Serving Christ,
Chris & Heather Beth
Ps. 91:1, Lam. 3:22-23

Happy Mail

LOOK AT ALL THIS STUFF!!!!! :-)

My sister-in-law sent me all this stuff today... what a happy mail day! :-) (Thanks, Julie!) I know you can't see all the stuff, but there are stamps, SU! stamping wheels with ink for the wheels (I have a handle and a wheel, but only one color ink!), tons of die cuts of all types, a bunch of stencils, some stickers, and a bunch of patterned papers (and possibly some other things I forgot!) What fun! I'm so excited to play with a bunch of these things. More toys to create with... can't go wrong there! :-)

On a totally different note, I have been working on getting the money together to make a family photo wall. After making 20 Christmas cards and selling them for $4 each, I made enough money to purchase the frames (50% off at Hobby Lobby) and 2 matboards today. Now I just have to get another matboard and pictures of everyone! This might take a little while! :-) When I get it done, though, I'll be sure to post it!

Mitchell Family Calendar Pages

I tried to post these pages yesterday, but Blogger was giving me fits! Here are the Mitchell Family calendar pages from 2008:

JANUARY

David & Kim Fox, Korissa
(Kim is Chris' sister - #5 out of the 8 kids)

FEBRUARY

Mom&Dad Mitchell
my in-laws

MARCH

Chris & Heather Mitchell (that's me!)
(Chris is #2 out of the 8 kids)

APRIL

all of the nieces and nephews on the Mitchell side
top left, clockwise: Korissa Fox with Kimberly & Kailey Mitchell, Nathan Mitchell with Korissa Fox, Jacquline Mitchell, Tynan & Tron Rhodes

MAY

Jonathan Mitchell
(Jon is the "baby" of the family... #8 out of 8)

JUNE

Tyson & Sandy Rhodes, Tron & Tynan
(Sandy is Chris' oldest sister, #4 out of 8)

JULY

Julianne Mitchell
(Julianne is #6 out of 8, and is twins with Tiffany)

AUGUST
Tim & Cristina Mitchell, Kimberly, Kailey, & Nathan
(Tim is Chris' oldest brother, and #1 out of 8)

SEPTEMBER
Burt & Julie Mitchell, Jacquline
(Burt is #3 out of 8)

OCTOBER
The nieces and nephews again: Top left, clockwise, Kimberly Mitchell, Kailey Mitchell, Nathan Mitchell, Jacquline Mitchell, Korissa Fox, Tynan Rhodes, Tron Rhodes

NOVEMBER
Tiffany Mitchell
(Tiffany is #7 out of 8, and is twins with Julianne)

DECEMBER
Nieces and Nephews by family

I tell you, it is a lot harder to do the Mitchell calendar than the Chromy calendar... just because there are so many family members! With only 3 extra pages not taken up with Chris' parents and siblings, it was hard to figure out how to do the pages with our nieces and nephews. Now that there are 4 families with kids, I had to be a little more creative with the 3 extra pages! :-) Hope you enjoyed seeing pics of our families!

Flower Challenge...

I'm taking up my friend, Tricia's, flower challenge.

The Morning Glory stamp is from Stampendous, and is the one my mom gave me for Christmas. I stamped it in VersaMark ink on vellum paper, then embossed it with SU!'s black embossing powder. I then flipped the vellum over and colored the back side with watercolor pencils (Crayola and Staedtler) and an SU! blender pen. I mounted the vellum on a piece of white cardstock, adhering it with Scotch double sided tape placed on the back of the image. (That way you can't see the tape. I then placed the silver eyelets. I matted the image with SU!'s Elegant Eggplant and Lavendar Lace cardstock, then mounted it on another piece of Elegant eggplant. I'm not sure who made the ribbon, but it was part of the blog candy I won from my friend, Tricia (the same mentioned above!) It seemed to work PERFECTLY with the image. I then mounted the silver button (after clipping off the loop for the thread) with glue dots. It was a little too bland, so I stamped the "Love You" (SU!'s Fancy Flexible Phrases) and punched it out with my SU! punch.

I have several more flower cards, but I love the simple elegance of this one. I also enjoyed the coloring... I haven't done that in a while; choosing rather to stamp images in color and leave them that way!

So, Tricia ~ how did I do? :-)