Tequila! Challenge # 95 "Stamping" from the Challenge YOUrself Blog

Hello my friends - it has been a while since I have posted on my blog - and also a while since I scrapbooked - but I am back at it again!!

So sorry this update is going to be a long one - The Challenge YOUrself Blog's Scrapbook Challenge and Layout info is below it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On August 3rd, my husband  Phil had his right knee replaced at Hospital for Special Surgeries in NYC, and came home on August 4th.  He was doing really well with home PT visits, but on August 13th, at 1:30AM he woke up freezing cold, and I called the ambulance as he was complaining of left chest pain.  He ended up having a "Widowmaker" heart attack. They put 3 stents into the left side of his heart and had to insert an Impella device into his heart that helped it to pump.  While he was in CICU at Valley Hospital, he suffered a ventricular tachycardia "storm" where his heart rate was too high and they had to "Zap" him a total of 13 times - while he was awake!!! between Friday night and Saturday morning.  He called me at 6am on Saturday and he and the Dr. told me that they had to sedate him and put him on a ventilator. There wouldn't be enough time for me to get there before they did. It was terrible, but necessary.  They ended up putting him on life support, and ECMO machine, which is a heart lung machine.  Valley said they need to transfer him to NY Columbia Presbyterian to a Heart Failure Dr. there, as they couldn't do any more for him. The team from NYP came on Sunday Aug 15th around 11AM to pick him, the 2 life support machines and about 4 or 5 stands with a bunch of IVs on each and they told me to go home - sleep, eat and go to NYP after 3pm.  Phil's brother drove me in, and the nurses and doctors there were beyond amazing.  Phil had some hard days with lots of struggles and ups and downs, but thankful there were more ups. I drove into NYC everyday to be with him from @10am to 8:30pm.  He was in the CICU unit from 8/15 to 8/25 and the step down unit from 8/25 to 9/9.  They took him off the ECMO on 8/18, the vent on 8/19 and Impella on 8/21.  He then went to Kessler Rehab on 9/9,  and came home on 9/18!!!  He has Congestive Heart Failure with an Ejection Fraction of 25% - and it should be 50%.  He is wearing a Life Vest - that is a defibrillator 24/7 and is really getting better and feeling better everyday. Doing more and more, and getting stronger.  He starts a Cardiac Rehab program on Nov 4th and on Nov 22nd we go back to NYP for an echocardiogram to see if all of the medications he is on have improved his EF.  We will then learn if they are going to implant a pacemaker/defibrillator in the future. ALL in ALL - he is TRULY a MIRACLE - brought about by LOTS of SUPPORT, PRAYERS and LOVE!! - We are taking it one day at a time - and are THANKFUL and GRATEFUL for EVERY SINGLE DAY!! We celebrated our 39th Wedding Anniversary on Oct 16th with a dinner out with our family and it was delicious and a real BLESSING!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now onto SCRAPBOOKING!  - This month's Challenge from the CHALLENGE YOUrself Blog is  FUN one - and I really enjoyed STAMPING lots of flowers for my layout!!

Here is my Design Team Layout for your Inspiration!!

I decided to use a photo from our West Bound Panama Canal Cruise on the Disney Wonder from 2018.  I booked a private tour with a great local guide in Puerto Vallarta for our group and we visited a Tequila Factory - and enjoyed a very FUN tasting!!

All of the Yellow and Green Flowers were STAMPED using a stamp from Vicki Boutin's Color Study.  The other flowers were fussy cut from other papers in the same collection.

I also used the Clip Stamp from the same collection - and made the 2 yellow clips that I used a brown Wink of Stella pen to give them dimension and tied some string to the holes I punched out. I also used it on the the centers of the yellow flowers and the butterfly too!

The base is a piece of her Color Study Mixed Media paper pad, that I used one of the stencils from the same collection and made the small black dots with Black Soot Distress Stain. I also did some "doodling" with a fine point black marker all around the edges of the paper too.

There are also 3 pieces of beautiful FLAIR from Dotty About Flair - you can find them on Facebook - LOVE Adam and his great FLAIR!!

I uses some Ephemera and stickers for embellishments, along with some sequins and enamel hearts.

The yellow Thickers kind of blended in, so I want around them with a bright green marker and outlined them with a thin black marker to make them pop a bit!

I used Black, White and Yellow Nuvo Drops to add dots to some of the flower centers, some Pink Wink of Stella on the white flowers to add another color POP!, and some splatters of Distress Oxide Stains in Twisted Citron, Mustard Seed over all of the flowers and clips too!

Here are some close ups for you - 

As always, I added a pocket behind one of my photos, where I tucked a card with journaling about the photos and the fun time we had.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed my DT Layout and that I've inspired you to get out your stamps and play along with us at the Challenge YOUrself BLOG!!

Be Safe - Stay Well - and COUNT EVERY DAY AS A BLESSING!!

((HUGS)) and Thanks! ~ Sherri