Have a Great Day...
I made this card last week for today's Cards in Envy challenge that I co-host. This post was supposed to be about it being a great spring day, and it is still a lovely spring day but a very sad one. On Saturday I got a call that my 50 year old niece Becky, mother to twins Gary & Allison age 23 and Brian age 17, married to the love of her life after many years of looking for the right person, collapsed in her home and was rushed to the ER. Tests confirmed that she had suffered a major brain aneursym and was not expected to live but she made it through the first 24 hours and we had hope with the prayers of so many that she could undergo surgery or some procedure, but yesterday morning we we were given the sad, sad news that she suffered severe brain damage and would never be the bright, vibrant Becky of our family. After many tears, her husband, Rob and her parents as well as all of her family agreed that she would not want to live hooked up to a machine or unable to respond so it has been decided that today, Monday the 15th of April that her life support will be disconnected. We don't know if she will last just an hour or two or perhaps days. But we pray that it will be peaceful for her. This is a very hard time for all our family as we are very close and I am so worried about my brother, her dad and her mother as well as Rob, her husband and her children. I'm so sorry to share this sad news with you on a challenge post, but I felt that I could not just ignore what is on my mind and pretend that all is well.
So, this card was made last week and at first I had a hard time pulling it together. Does that ever happen to you? But I kept working with it and ended up with this card design and really liking it! I had this Tim Holtz bird stamp that I really wanted to use. As most of his stamps are, there's not a lot of area that needs coloring. But I did use a few Copic markers to color the bird and I used Y18+Y19. Around the branches where I cut it out and where you could still see a bit of white, I colored with my E000+C0 Copic markers. The butterfly is a Hero Arts stamp that comes with the die to cut it out. I colored the butterfly with BG72 and only used the one marker as the areas to color were so small. I used some light blue cardstock from Stampin' Up and punched out the shape with a die and then used an EK Success punch to make the notebook paper edge on the striped paper. All the printed papers are from a 6x6 Designer Paper Pad by Pebbles called "Family Ties." I also lightly inked the edges of the blue paper with Tim Holtz Distress ink in Soot Black. For the finishing touch, I applied Glossy Accents to the bird, branch and the butterfly and let them dry. This gave them some dimension without making them real thick. Then I added three paper flowers by Bazzill. The sentiment stamp is by Papertrey Ink. Lastly I decided to add the yellow and white Baker's Twine bow.
The Cards in Envy challenge will run a bit longer this time as we have two challenges a month that start on the First and Third Mondays each month. So, for this challenge you have until May 4th to make and share a card that features our theme of "Things with Wings." Remember that the Cards in Envy challenge is only for cards that fit FLAT into an envelope for regular first class postage. No Lumpy Bumpy embellishments or super thick layers. I hope you'll go over and check out the challenge and our Design Team's awesome card creations.
I'm closing this post with the wish that each of you will hug your loved ones a bit tighter today and tell them what they mean to you in honor of my dear niece, Becky. She started her Saturday morning by making a shopping list and sending her husband to the store before they were to start their day together. As the Garth Brooks song says, "if tomorrow never comes..."
I will have pre-scheduled blog posts for the next few days for other challenges that go live today, I expect that I won't be around much today or even the next few days but will check in when I can. The post for the Seems a Little Sketchy challenge will go live tomorrow and the post for The Stamping Shack will go live on Wednesday but you can check on both of those challenges on the respective blogs by clicking on the links today.
Blessings to you all,
