Bless Your Heart with scraps

I haven't done much cardmaking this week as my entire family has been volunteering at Vacation Bible School.  (I do have two posts ready to go for tomorrow about which I am VERY excited!)

Today, I decided that I was crafting NO MATTER WHAT!  I saw the Friday Free For All at Splitcoaststampers - "what a load of scraps"!  And I remembered a sketch that I had wanted to use from cardabilities - the challenge closed, but it's still a great sketch...

I used scraps of Stampin' Up So Saffron, Pool Party, Tangerine Tango and Basic Gray.  The stamp is from Sweet 'n Sassy's Blessings and Thanks set and the heart is from their Heart Die set.

On an entirely different note...a Colorado fire update...(see my posts from the last few days for details)

The positive news is that the weather is cooperating and the town of Colorado Springs is not in any imminent danger.  However, there are small towns on the other side of this fire.  And you should also know that large forest fires like this can rage on for weeks/months.  So, if the weather changes...who knows what can happen?  (The biggest current fire in our state, at 90,000 acres, is not going to be officially out until it snows - and we've just started summer.)

On the negative side, 346 homes destroyed (on top of 200 destroyed in the other big fire), 1 death and 1 missing.  Here's one neighborhood. You probably have to click to make it big to see the true horror.  Those are piles of ashes that you are seeing...

Other bad news - two new fires.  One is on the western side of the state, near the town of Grand Junction.  There's a major oil field in its path.

Forest fires aren't uncommon in Colorado.  After all, fire is what nature does to renew a forest.  But typically we see fires in August, when we have had a whole summer to heat up and dry out.  Seeing all of this in June is deeply alarming.  

People's stories are heart-breaking.  They just interviewed one lady who, when evacuated, only took the ashes of her deceased daughter and son-in-law.  Her house has burned - and she is raising her five grandchildren.  How does a person continue to survive such tragedy?  Another elderly gentlemen was already sifting the ashes of his home (strange concept - there are actually sifting tools for this) and was happy to simply find the melted metal of his wedding ring.

In the midst of all of this - there are so many stories full of grace and giving...and I will be sharing some of these stories in the next week.