Show and Tell

Victory!

Yesterday I told you that I would be posting a sympathy card today — so you may be wondering at the title of the post. When a believer in Christ dies, the final victory over sin is won and they're in the presence of our Lord — thus the title of the post. (So, there's your very basic theology lesson for the day! :) )

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Carol was such a godly woman — the kind that people just gravitated to because she was always so pleasant, so friendly, and so ready with a word of encouragement. You just knew that if she said she would be praying for you that she truly did take your concerns to the throne of the Lord. As our church grew to having four services each weekend, I didn't get to see her as often as I would've liked — yet, I still feel that her promotion to Heaven has left a bit of a hole here on Earth.

AND TELL:  stamps are from Verve (Leaves, 1 Corinthians 15:57); cardstock is Papertrey Ink (Rustic White) and Stampin' Up (vellum); ink is SU (Certainly Celery) and Stazon (Jet Black); also used 1/8" Scor-Tape and Prisma Ultra-Fine Gold glitter.

I'm hoping that as I go on telling you about our recent travels through the midwest that it won't seem disrespectful to Carol's memory. I'm not sure that there are many people who embrace life as much as Carol did — and I know that she would be cheering for me to carry on. 

So — here is a little more of our trip... yet more from our time in Winona Lake, Indiana. Early in the afternoon that we were there, my brother-in-law Mike, pulled me aside and said something like, "C'mon. I'm going to show you the ultimate craft project." He grabbed a flashlight and we went for a drive out in the country...

walked down a muddy road (most of which was lined with chopped firewood)... 

until we came to this little cabin.

It was hand-built by Mike's sister using all salvaged materials.

 

Yes. It's rustic.

No plumbing.

No electricity. 

 

Limited creature comforts. 

But, really, isn't the idea of your own personal hideaway kind of fun? And building one by yourself? Wow. I don't think my skills reach that far — and I'm thinking that a paper house wouldn't last too long. :)

Skills must run in Mike's family, though. Over the past couple of years I've shown you some of the things Michael has created for us... an end table... a cookbook stand... maybe I showed you the mirror, too. Well, their lake house is filled with his handiwork.

We all enjoyed time around the dining room table — made by Mike.

The sideboard and mirror? Also made by Michael.

And how about an Arts & Crafts style chair and ottoman — yep, Mike made 'em. Talent definitely runs in his family.

And — lucky me — I was the recipient of this cute little walnut and oak box.

Thankfully, I've taken to carrying a Sharpie in my purse. So, I asked and he (reluctantly) signed.

Another item to treasure. Handmade by Mike. Yep. I'm a lucky girl. :)

Well, I think that's enough for now. I sure do get long-winded after these vacations, don't I? And I'll be back with more tomorrow. Oh — something crafty, too. Gotta have something crafty. :)

Thank you so much for stopping by today — I hope to see you again soon!

OLW 57 summer & OLW 48 sympathy

Well, I'm going to try to get back into the challenge mode this summer. And, for me, a good re-entry into challenges is Susan Rahaila's One Layer Wednesday. I do love making one layer cards. This week's challenge was issued by Jennnifer Styles — to make a card inspired by summer sun, sea, sand, beach, etc. You may know me well enough by now to know that summer sun would make me hot and that when I'm hot that I may just think that I need something to cool me off.

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And, of course, that could be a fan or air conditioning or — because it's me — ice cream! :)

AND TELL:  stamps are from Stampin' Up (Sweet Scoops) and Papertrey Ink (Daily Designs); cardstock is PTI (Rustic White); ink is SU (Only Orange, Certainly Celery, Creamy Caramel, Tempting Turquoise) and PTI (Berry Sorbet).

Now, I really like the one layer challenges so much that I feel compelled to make up all the ones that I have missed. So, here is OLW48 — to make a sympathy card.

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After stamping, I ran the card front through my Cuttlebug with a Papertrey Ink impression plate. Then, it seemed to be too big and out of proportion so I chopped it down a bit. Much better. :)

AND TELL:  stamps are from Papertrey Ink (Think Big Favorites #3, Through the Trees); cardstock is PTI (Stampers Select White); ink is Memento (Tuxedo Black) and Stampin' Up (Marina Mist); also used PTI's Picnic Plaid impression plate.

 

That's it for now. I hope you've had a great day! See you again soon.

 

with sympathy

Today is Memorial Day in the United States — a day set aside to remember those who have fought and died for our freedom.

And today we went to a funeral. A lovely lady from our church lost her battle with cancer last week. She may not have fought or died in an actual battle for our country, but she fought spiritual battles with prayer every day and it was wonderful to sit and hear about how her life impacted the lives of others.

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Actually, this is not the card I made for Carol's husband. This card was given to our neighbors several weeks ago when his dad passed away. I'll show Carol's card another day.  

AND TELL:  stamps are from Unity (Bevy of Butterflies); cardstock is Papertrey Ink (Kraft, Rustic White); ink is Stampin' Up (Night of Navy) and Encore (Metallic Silver); silk ribbon is from PTI; also used PTI's woodgrain impression plate and a Scor-Pal.

Huge difference between these two services we've recently attended... today's filled with the knowledge that the one absent from the body is present with the Lord. It was a true celebration. The other... just empty hope that having been a mostly good person will come in handy. Scripture was not even quoted correctly... it was changed in alarming ways. This is still really bothering me. If the leader of a church is "reading" from scripture, but changing it as she's reading... how will the people know if they aren't looking at their own Bibles? I even pulled out the Bible in the pew to make sure that I was remembering John 14:6 correctly... and what was written in the Bible that was right there in the pew did not match the pastor's words. Yep. I was shocked. And horrified. Still am. And, I guess my message to you is that it is really important to read the Bible for yourself so that you know what it says. Yes. Some of what you read may make you feel uncomfortable. And some of it you may find offensive. Keeping reading. And praying. God loves you so much. And He wants you to the know the Truth that is found in His Word.

And that's the end of my preaching for the day. :) And it's also the end of the blog post for the day. Time for bed. I plan to be back tomorrow. I've a birthday card to share. Well... I hope to anyway... it isn't actually made yet. :)

Thanks so much for stopping by. I really appreciate your faithful visits and love reading your comments. Hugs to you... and we'll visit again tomorrow.

Sympathy Set

Hmmm. There may be a day when we are of an age where we almost need more sympathy cards than any other kind. Or, at least more than we would prefer to have (which, let's be honest, is zero...). So — quite a few weeks ago my mother-in-law sent me an e-mail asking if I had any pretty sympathy cards that she could buy. Well, most of what I had on hand was going to be a little bulky, I thought, so since I knew we would be seeing her soon, I created a set of six sympathy cards which will be easy for her to pop in the mail when necessary.

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All of the cards are of the same design, but each with a different ink color. Three are like the one above, with no glitter. Three are like the one below, glitter added to the flowers and leaves (although you may not be able to see the sparkle in this photo).

Before giving them to her, I packaged them all together in a glassine bag.

I left the tag blank, in case she wishes to re-use it on a gift for someone else. :)

It's hard to see, but I stamped the lily of the valley image with Versamark ink on the tag itself and then matched up a portion of the image, stamped in blue and punched into a circle, to add an extra bit of interest.

AND TELL:  stamps are from Papertrey Ink (Year of Flowers: Lily of the Valley, Through the Trees); cardstock is PTI (Vintage Cream) and Stampin' Up (Sahara Sand, Bashful Blue, Bliss Blue, Brocade Blue); scrap of patterned paper; ink is PTI (Aqua Mist, Spring Rain, Melon Berry, Plum Pudding, Spring Moss, Sweet Blush) and Versamark; ribbon is PTI (Dark Chocolate satin); buttons are PTI (Spring Rain, Dark Chocolate); also used SU punches (scallop circle, 1-3/4" circle), a PTI die (Mat Stack 1), a large glassine bag from PTI, a Cricut cartridge for the tag (Plantin Schoolbook), a Quickie Glue pen and Martha Stewart crystal glitter.

Can't think of anything else that I really want to talk about right now — I know, how crazy, rare is that? — so I guess that's it for the day.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I plan to be back tomorrow with a special birthday card. See you then!  

Butterflies

I've never really considered myself a butterfly girl, but recently I have acquired quite a few butterfly dies and stamps (and have my eye on a few more, too — maybe I'm becoming a butterfly girl after all). One thing that I do love butterflies for is sympathy cards.

For today's first card I followed the Clean & Simple Stamping sketch, Fall-to-layout 96. I was originally going to use patterned paper for the main panel — and set out some pieces last night that I was considering as possibilities. Then this morning I must've awakened in a stamping mood, because I completely switched gears from my first plan.

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When I stamped the sentiment with the metallic silver ink it just didn't show up too well, so I quickly used clear embossing powder (don't have silver...) to give it a little more shine and definition. It definitely helped make the words more visible, but looks a little blurry in the photo. Oh, well. In real life it looks better.

AND TELL:  stamps are from Unity (Bevy of Butterflies); cardstock is Papertrey Ink (Spring Rain, Stampers Select White) and Stampin' Up (So Saffron); ink is SU (Mellow Moss, So Saffron), PTI (Spring Rain, Tea Dye Duo), and Encore (Ultimate Metallic Silver); also used clear detail embossing powder on the sentiment to pop it out a bit.

The next card was inspired by FTL 47.

 

 

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Since I already had the butterfly set spread all over my work surface, I decided to use it for my catch-up card, too. The So Saffron paper that was still out also made it onto this card, but I thought I'd brighten things up a bit by pairing it with turquoise. And the ledger paper? Well, I did have to open a cabinet door to get to it — I'm not totally lazy. :)

AND TELL:  stamps are from Unity (Bevy of Butterflies); cardstock is Stampin Up (Tempting Turquoise, So Saffron, Sahara Sand); ink is SU (Tempting Turquoise); also used punches from SU (scallop border) and EK Success (mini scallop border), scallop circle Nestabilities die, Creative Memories corner rounder, old ledger paper, and a teensy strip of white cardstock for the antennae.

Now I get to tell you about our fun stop in Tennessee! About a month before our trip I had contacted my dear blog friend, Kelley, to tell her we would be driving through and see if she was interested in trying to meet in real life. You know, that's kind of putting yourself out there — I mean, what if she didn't really want to? But, thankfully (for my ego) she did. :) So, we were tentatively scheduled to meet for breakfast on Sunday morning. [Oops. You know how days get all mixed up when you're on vacation? Well, when you read here Sunday morning, think Monday morning. And when you read Saturday night, think Sunday night... details, details... {Thanks, Ken!}]

But, when we were getting into her area earlier than expected on Saturday night, I sent her a text message to see if meeting for a late dinner would be better — and after receiving a very confusing text back from her, Ken confessed that he and Kelley had been e-mailing for a couple of months about setting up a surprise meeting. He'd even been lying to me about not being able to find a hotel near the Grand Ole Opry (where we stayed last year) because of the flooding earlier this year! (A lie which I had unknowingly repeated several times in conversation to others... grrrr.) He had instead arranged for us to stay at a hotel near Kelley's house to make a meeting convenient for her. OK, so that was incredibly sweet of him — all the lies are forgiven. :)

We met at a Cracker Barrel (recognize the fireplace?) and had a wonderful time together. Of course, Kelley and I hit it off (we did already "know" each other, after all) — but the surprise to me was how much Ken & Michael had in common. Michael is the first person that Ken has ever met in a social setting that understood what he sells for a living. That was quite exciting! And, their son Carver? Adorable, active, verbal, friendly — just the way I like my 3 year old boys!

I thought about being vain and not showing this picture, but... well... it is me (squinty eyes and all). The me that spent the morning traipsing through a cemetery, the afternoon in the heat of a public park, and then 4 or so hours in a car heading south (meaning the setting sun was shining through my window...). But, isn't Kelley such a cutie? You may want to stop by her blog, My Front Porch, to say hi and get some good papercrafting inspiration.

And, that's it from our little trip to the midwest. You're good to bear with me while I replayed it all. Of course, you're always good to listen to my ramblings after I bait you with something papercraft-y. :) Tomorrow may be back to Flylady. Or — maybe it'll just be stamped paper. We'll see how the day is going.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and — if you're in the U.S. — Happy Fourth of July weekend! See you again soon!

with sympathy

We needed a sympathy card this week. Here's what I came up with using this week's sketch from 2 Sketches 4 You, Laura's 54.

 

 

 

 

 

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I had a terrible time getting a picture of this card — tried at different times over three days and this is the best of the bunch. Clear just wasn't meant to be, I guess. But — hopefully you can still tell how gorgeous that ribbon is. And, although it's not perfect, I really like the way the Perfect Pearls came out on those flower stamps. I've had the Perfect Pearls set for a long time and I think my problem was that the adhesive included had turned into a gummy, mushy mess — and I used it anyway. Haha. Sometimes I wonder at my intelligence. I'm thinking that the pearly powders would probably work with VersaMark, too, so I'll try that next time. Anyway, I hope it's not too bright and fancy for a sympathy card. I think it'll be OK. 

AND TELL:  stamps are from Unity (December 2009 Kit of the Month - delightful moments, February 2010 Kit of the Month - Nothing but Blue Skies, Bevy of Butterflies); cardstock is from Stampin' Up (Old Olive, Bermuda Bay) and Papertrey Ink (Kraft); ink is Encore Ultimate Metallic (Copper); ribbon is from Michael's; also used PTI's woodgrain impression plate, SU's 1-1/4" circle punch, and Ranger's Perfect Pearls (Metallics).

For the past 19 days I've said something here about my Flylady journey. Are you getting tired of it? I kind of am — there are other things I'd rather talk about — but here we go with Day 20. So, yesterday I was supposed to add laundry to my daily routine. I have a pretty good laundry routine already — really thanks to my previous Flylady phase. It is one thing that stuck. Even though there are only two of us now, I still do a load of laundry most days. It just seems more manageable that way. And, we always have clean clothes. And no big piles of dirty clothes, towels, etc. Besides — laundry became a lot more fun when we remodeled a couple years ago.

Our laundry area is in a short little pass-through hallway on the first floor. Originally the washer and dryer were behind louvered bifold doors with a wire shelf above the appliances. Handy for detergent, but not in the least bit attractive. And louvered doors are dust-catchers. Well, maybe not for people who keep up with the housework... but for me? Not good. When we got the new washer and dryer there was no way they were going to be stuck behind doors of any kind — way too pretty for that. So we had cabinets built around them. Now the pretty stuff is out in the open and the other stuff is behind doors. Works beautifully. And — there is a crowning touch...

Wanna make laundry fun? Hang a chandelier in your laundry area. :)

One more thing for today — well, yesterday actually. Last night I went to my one neighborhood swim meet of the year. When our kids were young we spent many hot, hot summer evenings on the steamy pool deck watching our kids compete in summer swim league. Or huddled in neighborhood clubhouses waiting to see if thunderstorms would pass. Well, for the past several years I've started attending one swim meet a year — when our neighborhood swims the neighborhood across the big road from us. Our preschool draws pretty heavily from these two neighborhoods, so I get to see lots of "our" kids swim. And former students, too.

These three all happened to be eager-beaver swimmers — just couldn't wait to get on the blocks. They also all happened to be on the other team. But, that's OK. I'm really cheering for individuals now — not a team. If you were to click on the middle picture you'd see that she's got a smile on her face. I think she smiled the whole way across the pool — employing her own style of swimming. A few strokes freestyle... get tired... flip to back and do backstroke for a bit to recover... turn back to the tummy... Just so cute. But the best part of going to a swim meet now? I can leave after the shrimps (6 & under) swim. :)

I think that's enough for today. I have more I want to tell you, but I'll save it for tomorrow. I had the absolute best morning today. It involved item number 10 from yesterday's list of random things about me — so you know it was a beautiful morning around here! I'll tell you about it tomorrow. Now I've gotta get ready to go out. We were invited to Katie & Michael's wedding rehearsal dinner at Maggiano's. Mmmm. :)

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you've had a fabulous day! See you tomorrow with Katie & Michael's wedding card and more of my usual prattle. Have a great evening!

  

With Deepest Sympathy

Today is stamp club. Not sure I'll make it, though. Today is also the funeral of a dear friend's mom and that has to take priority. I did kind of combine the sympathy card I made her with my stamp club project this month, though. Still gotta maximize my time, right?

This month is our annual stamped image exchange. A couple months ago we stamped an image of a stamp in our collection that maybe we don't like or don't know what to do with or need a new idea for or... you get the idea. We stamped one of these images for each person in the club and now at this club meeting we will each get all our images back as new designs created by our friends.

This is the image that I contributed. I know the picture is kind of dark. Sorry. I stamped it in brown on one side and black on the other to give the members a choice. I used the brown side. 

And here is my card.

 

 

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Now, it's not required that we do a card for our own image, but I decided to give it a go. I'm not much of a colorer so I thought I'd go a different direction. And I'm liking how it ended up. Well, the jury's still out on the flower, but I think I like it. When I first made the flower it looked a little, too, well... dead..., to go on a sympathy card. So — I thought some glitter might liven things up. At first I used a little liquid glue with bright and light pink glitter, but it looked a little globby. Then I remembered that I had some spray adhesive so I used it and sprinkled on some clear glitter. Somewhat better.

I was originally planning on ruffling the music at the bottom, but then I noticed the words and I thought they were so perfect for this sympathy card which will be going to my friend whose mama passed away this week. I loved the way there were two rests and then very softly the words "I am with Thee" with a hold over the "Thee." (All those years of taking piano lessons and singing in choirs came in handy, huh?) Kind of like a message from her mom that's she's resting with Jesus forever. So — instead of a ruffle I did one pleat at left and added the pearl gemstones.

The inside of the card got a little treatment also. It was only supposed to have the scroll and the sentiment, but when I stamped the scroll some stray ink landed right where the sentiment was going to go. Grrr. But, you know — those mistakes a lot of times make for a better card. I cut the label, stamped the sentiment on it, added the leaves behind and — voila! — a better card! 

AND TELL:  main image stamp is from Penny Black (Framed Bouquet), inside stamps are from Papertrey Ink (Everyday Classics); cardstock is PTI (Vintage Cream) and Stampin' Up (Barely Banana); patterned paper is Sassafras Lass (Bouquet of Bliss) and an old SU pattern for the leaves on the inside; ink is SU (Chocolate Chip); glitter is Martha Stewart (tourmaline, crystal) and some old ultra fine soft pink Prisma; pearls are from Prima; brad is from my stash; also used SU's Lots of Tags Label 2 and Little Leaves dies and Bird & Branch and Eyelet Border punches, PTI's Beautiful Blooms flower dies #2, and old choir music and sewing pattern tissue.

Edited to add the photo of the cards my stamp club friends made with my image:

Not the greatest photo in the world. One detail that you probably can't see is on the bottom left card — the rose has been popped up. The extra dimension is really nice. Since I was late to club, I missed the actual swap time — but I have the feeling my image was voted as the most dreaded of all. And, I get that. That's why I contributed it! :) Oh — and, just in case you were wondering about the shoe peeking out at the bottom of the picture — that's not mine. I did wear fancier shoes to the funeral. :)  

Well, this has gotten kind of long, but I'll do a quick report on Day 7 with Flylady. More work on Hot Spots. One downstairs.

That one was actually a hot spot that got relocated from the kitchen a month or so ago.

Then I moved upstairs. Please don't think less of me.

Still not done with that one, but 4 minutes definitely made a dent. I don't even remember the last time I saw the surface of my nightstand. Maybe in a couple days I'll see it all. That would be something to smile about.

The Day 7 addition was to choose your clothes for the next day before you go to bed. So — here's what I'm wearing today. A little dressy for stamp club, but I think it'll work for a funeral.

I have five more stamp club cards to share and I'll eventually catch up with my cards for the Clean and Simple Stamping blog sketches. No shortage of things to post right now! So — I'll be back tomorrow with, well... something. :)

Have a great Saturday!!

Getting it done

I like to do the Clean and Simple Stamping sketch each week. And usually I do a little stamping every day. This week, though, I decided to try to get as much as possible done over the weekend so I'd be ready with something to post every day. Not sure if it worked for me or not, though. I got stuff done, but I think the quality started going downhill by Sunday night. And that's when I was working on FTL87.

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Just don't inspect it too carefully, OK? 

AND TELL:  stamps are from Papertrey Ink (Round & Round); cardstock is PTI (Vintage Cream, Pure Poppy); patterned paper is Cosmo Cricket (from Garden Variety collection); ink is Stampin' Up (Kiwi Kiss, Blue Bayou); also used EK Success 2" scallop circle punch.

As I continue my quest to do all of Natasha's sketches, here is a card for FTL38.

 

 

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Apparently I have trouble with the idea of stamping this entire tree. I don't think I've ever used it that way. When I look at my stamp, the top part is all inky and the bottom is pristine. Pretty funny. Maybe I need to remedy that. Next time I use this set, I'll try to do a card using the whole tree. 

AND TELL:  stamps are from Papertrey Ink (Tree Trimming Trio); cardstock is PTI (Vintage Cream, Hibiscus Burst, Dark Chocolate); ink is PTI (Dark Chocolate, Hibiscus Burst) and Stampin' Up (Kiwi Kiss); also used Stampin' Up's 1/2" circle punch.

Now, I probably should have entitled this post "And why did I think this was a good idea?" or something like that. Not because of the cards, but because of what I did after school today.

I had an errand to run — and that errand took me in the vicinity of this:

You may find it hard to believe, but even though this cupcake shop is only about five miles from my house — I'd never been there.

They had probably seven or eight kinds of cupcakes today. Most were the basic vanilla or chocolate with different kinds of buttercream icing. But — I didn't go to a cupcake shop for basic. I wanted exotic. Unusual. So I bought one of these:

And one of these:

And, these were a limited edition. So I had to get one of them, too.

They packaged them up in a little box and, with cup of coffee and cupcakes in hand, I returned to my car.

I had broken off half of the peppermint patty cupcake to eat before I even backed out of my parking spot. Yum!  

Now, usually I'm all about green lights when I'm on the road. I don't want to waste time at the reds. But — hey — I had cupcakes in the car. And, I think I hit just the right amount of red lights this time. Because by the time I pulled into the parking lot at Curves, the box looked like this:

That's right. I had eaten half of each cupcake. A cupcake and a half in about 6 miles. And then I worked out. Kind of, sort of. As much as my stomach would allow. What started as "yum" with the peppermint patty cupcake turned to "yuck" somewhere between the key lime pie and carmel cinnamon cupcakes. Just writing that combination makes me wonder — whatever made me think that was a good idea?!

I have to be back at work for a meeting in a couple of hours. Hopefully I'll have recovered by then. Because right now I just want to curl up in a corner and groan. And since I'm home alone, I just may.

Variations on a Theme

When I saw this week's Clean and Simple Stamping card layout, I immediately thought of my little baggies of punched circles. And flowers. And butterflies. And stars. And hearts. And leaves. And about every small punched shape that I can salvage from scraps that are about to be thrown out. (See those leaves at the top of the photo? They may be making an appearance later this week.)

Here is FTL81. My first card follows the sketch exactly and is very much like Natasha's card shown on the Clean and Simple Stamping blog.

 

 

 

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Two of these circles were punched from patterned paper. The other two were from a goofed up stamp image. If I've messed up an image so much when stamping it that it can't be saved, I'll punch shapes from the OK portions and stick them in a baggie to be used later.

After the circles, I decided to try some other shapes. Butterflies first.

I trimmed the butterflies even with the card sides just like I had the circles, but decided to try something different on the next card.

 
On this one I trimmed 1/2" off the side of the card and let the flowers hang over a bit, so the actual width of the card is still the same (5-1/2").

AND TELL:  stamps are from Papertrey Ink (Mega Mixed Messages, Daily Designs Sentiments); cardstock is PTI (Spring Moss, Kraft, Stampers Select White); ink is PTI (True Black, Dark Chocolate); also used lots of scraps that had been punched with Stampin' Up's 1" and 1/2" circle punches and  Martha Stewart butterfly and flower punches.

Then, since I'm trying to catch up and do all the Clean and Simple Stamping sketches, I made a card for FTL32.

 

 

 

 

 

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Thought I'd add a little faux stitching around the edges to tie in with the chipboard piece. I was going for kind of a homespun sort of look so I wasn't too concerned about uniformity and straight lines in my "stitching." (Good thing, huh?)

AND TELL:  stamps are from Papertrey Ink (Background Basics: Petal Power, Scattered Showers); cardstock is Stampin' Up (Confetti White, Gable Green); ink is Papertrey Ink (Dark Chocolate) and Stampin' Up (Cool Caribbean, Gable Green); marker is Stampin' Up (Chocolate Chip); chipboard piece is from Making Memories.

I hope you've had a great Sunday. I'd like to post more consistently this week, but it's a pretty busy week for me so we'll see. I did finish one card that was quite a bit out of my comfort zone and if I can get a decent photo of it I'll show it to you tomorrow. See you then! And, thanks so much for dropping by!!   

The Bluebird of Sympathy

I know. You thought it was the bluebird of happiness. Bear with me here. Most don't think of sympathy and happiness in the same sentence. And, maybe they don't belong in the same sentence. But as a believer in Christ, I have a great hope. And with that hope comes happiness. Even in the midst of deep sadness. I find Christianity to be full of what seems to be contradictions, but through the lens of faith it all makes perfect sense. Crazy, huh?

I decided that I really needed to have a couple of sympathy cards on hand at all times. My hope is that these will sit in my stash for... well, forever! That isn't realistic, though, is it. So, now I'll have a couple ready to go when needed. Seriously, the last thing I want to do when I need a sympathy card is sit down to make one.

The first card is based on the Clean & Simple Stamping sketch, FTL 78. I just used the center part of the sketch, choosing not to mount layers on a base — and I'm quite happy with the way it looks. Love the rounded corners. I should really pull out the corner rounder more often.

 

 

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I inked the leaves with Spring Moss first and then lightly touched the New Leaf cube to some areas. More than I meant to, actually. You know how once you get started sometimes you just can't stop? Yep, guilty. I didn't realize that I had left such sharp lines with the darker green until I stamped it, but what're you gonna do if you don't do do-overs? Live with it. That's what.

AND TELL:  stamps are from Papertrey Ink (Through the Trees); cardstock is PTI (Vintage Cream); patterned paper is from my scraps; ink is PTI (Tea Dye Chai, Spring Moss, New Leaf, Enchanted Evening); also used Spellbinders Classic Circle Nestabilities.

This next card follows FTL29. Instead of stamping a background I used patterned paper — making this card really quick and easy.

 

 

 

 

 

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To lighten the bluebird a little on this one, I stamped it off once before stamping it on the cardstock.

AND TELL:  stamps are from Papertrey Ink (Borders & Corners Rectangles, Daily Designs, Daily Designs Sentiments); cardstock is PTI (Vintage Cream); patterned paper is from my scraps; ink is PTI (Tea Dye Chai & Chamomile, Enchanted Evening).  

Unfortunately, I have already had to use one of these sympathy cards. But, I was so glad that I made them so I had one that I could send. And now my weekend involves a viewing and a funeral — the funeral home tonight and the church tomorrow morning. Sigh.

On a brighter note, my latest Papertrey Ink order arrived today and I'm excited to try out my new things. So, hopefully I'll be showing you some of that in the next week. But, I have a lot of other things that I'm planning to share, too. I have definitely been having fun in the craft room lately.

Hope you have fabulous fun lined up for your weekend. It is finally going to be sunny here — carpool was an absolute joy this afternoon. And, they are now saying that we may hit 60 degrees on Sunday. Woohoo!

Sending you sunshine and joy today. See you tomorrow!