With Sympathy (more)

While adding more sympathy cards to my stash, I decided to make a Thank You card too, using the same design and image-- but this time it begged to be colored.  I haven't been doing much coloring lately as you can imagine with school and moving projects.  I think I need to.

Quick question? If my need to color exceeds my time to make cards, what should I do with all the extra images?

Card One: With Sympathy, Trees(Stampin' Up)

Paper(Basic Grey)

Card Two: Thank You
Trees(Stampin' Up), Background lines (TAC), Thank you (Hero Arts)

With Sympathy

I have a hard time making sympathy cards, especially when they are needed.  It's always better to have a couple on hand, don't you think? This scenic image is one of my favorites and I've had it for years. I mentioned before that it's not available for sale and the company went out of business -- still it's one of my favorites to color with Prismacolor pencils.
The background stamp is Stampabilities and the message is Hambo.

I'll bet your wondering how the moving is coming along. Yeah me too? Ha! Seriously, we have no definite dates as of yet, but I'll keep you informed.

Beautiful Garden

Yesterday, I received some news that knocked me off balance for a little while. I found out that according to the doctors, my friend Sara Perry would be ushered into heaven within the next 24 hours. I've been praying and antsy since then. Antsy, because every time I get an email, I think it's going to be the one.... So far, she's still resting with her family and friends surrounding her. Her heart and lungs are strong, but she is fading.

It's really hard to believe. Although she's been sick for months, she's been fighting and I expected her to beat this cancer. We celebrated the miracle of finding a perfect match for the bone marrow transplant in her sister. We rejoiced when she was able to attend the graduations of her daughters, one from high school and one from college. Every time she hit a obstacle, she championed it. I was surprise by the news that she may not be able to overcome this latest infection. I was even more surprised that it's happened so soon. We are sad, because she's leaving us here. But we don't grieve like those without hope. We know that she'll be there greeting us at the gates of heaven when our days here on earth are up.

I was always impressed with Sara. I still smile when I think about the first time I remember talking to her. After Sunday School one afternoon, I was talking to Marcia about BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) because I was interested in attending. Just as Marcia tried to tell me when and where, Sara walked thru the Sunday School room. She stopped at Marcia's request and was able to give me the information about the introduction class. She was very warm and friendly and short. (At almost 5 feet 5 inches, I'm not that tall, but she's short to me. ) When I arrived at the designated time, she was there greeting people. It was good to see a friendly and familiar face. A little later I was surprised (almost shocked) to see her standing on the podium on her step stool. She was the teaching leader and she never once mentioned it!

She always seemed to be so organized and prepared and disciplined. She was a great leader and a great teacher and a great friend. She was also wonderful at sending cards to encourage people. She sent me a card to encourage me or thank me numerous times. One time I noticed that she was using return address labels that you get free in the mail with her husbands name on it. Her labels were functional and free. I realized that I'd found something I could do for her! I quickly printed her a sheet of pretty ones with flowers and other icons. I didn't think twice about it. When I arrived at the leaders meeting the following week, there was an empty chair next to her chair with all her stuff. I put my stuff down in that empty chair and took out the sheet of labels and sat it on top of her pile. She was no where to be found when I did that, so I figured I would mention it whenever she got back. I'll never forget the face she made when she noticed the labels. She looked very puzzled as she looked around and looked up as she tried to figure out if the labels had supernaturally appeared.(It was priceless!) It seems that the thought that she needed labels had crossed her mind too... God heard...

Just recently, during my time of healing, I received a card from her. With all that she was going thru, she took the time to send me a card. They are a beautiful family. I'll always be grateful that the paths of our lives crossed in Kalamazoo, MI.

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

Debbie cave me this image when she came to see me and I don't know who the manufacturer is. I sent her an email so I'll let you know when I know.

My sister is coming tonight so I may not be around much this weekend. and I still have to make her card...

ETA: The stamp is Northwoods.

Losing Weight

Not me, silly! But I thought I'd show you why I still love my Fiskars 12 inch trimmer.

With the postal rate increase still a part of our at least weekly conversations, here is what I do to my cards to keep the weight down.

Finished Card size: 6.5"x 5"
Flower (Hero Arts),Words(Hambo Stamps)Ink: Basic Brown (SU)
Coloring Medium: Prismacolor Pencils and pencil eraser
Other: Circle Punch, Ticket Corner Punch, Ribbon, Mini Pop Dots

Let me begin with one of my favorite tools. You will see my new purple Fiskars 12 inch portable paper trimmer in these photos. I don't remember if I blogged about it, but I bought this at Michaels after New Year for $3.49! They were marked $4.99 and for some reason when I got to the cash register they rung up for $3.49. ...and I only bought two! It came with 2 cutting blades and one scoring attachment. What a bargain!!!

Back to my tip...

Step One: Make card base.

Step Two: Measure the first layer. I don't usually add a lot of layers, but sometimes the design dictates a number of layers. My first layer covers most of the card base. I leave 1 /16 of an inch on all sides by cutting it 1/8 inch smaller than the card front on two sides. This trimmer is divided into 1/8 increments.

Step Three: This is my favorite part. I cut out a great deal of the card stock that would be hidden anyway.

I line up the paper against the left edge of the trimmer. The cutting line will be one inch in. This is the only trimmer I have that it's possible to know exactly where the cutting stops and starts. Put the point on the side of the blade on a line that is one inch from the top edge. This piece is 5 inches wide so I start it on the 4 inch line. Bring the blade cartridge towards you and stop it at the 1 inch line. Turn the piece one quarter turn to the right and repeat that step until you've cut all four sides leaving you with a 1 inch frame.

Repeat steps Two and Three for each layer.

Step Two: Measure

Step Three: Cut

You end up with frames. You can use the centers on this card or they can go into your scrap box for next time.


I apply adhesive to the inside edge of each layer before mounting. This is the top or front side.

In this photo you can see all the layers before I glue it down to the card base.

Before I colored this, I tried to decide what kind of card this was going to be. Any occasion?? ( wired ribbon from Dollar Bin at Michaels)

or sympathy?

Here's how I round the corners. I did this same technique for the strips on the puppy card the other day. Using a circle punch, I put one end of the strip into it from the back and use the punch to cut the rounded edge.

As you guessed from the beginning of this post, I chose to make this a sympathy card. This image was colored with Prismacolor pencils and blended with an eraser-- a regular-pink-top-of-the pencil eraser. You can take off a lot of the color and blend in what's left. The background was done the same way. I used one of those rarely used French Gray pencils on it's side to create the movement in the background and shading and the pink pencil to blend the colors together.

On a personal note: What a loooong weekend! We joined that church we had been visiting (off and on since July) so yesterday was the discovering membership class. This is a class where they walk you thru the requirements for membership and tell you about all the ministries in the church. It was three hours long including a meal and time to mingle with other new members.

I also signed up for the Ladies Bible Study. ( Lord I want to Know You- Kay Arthur)

I've been wanting a formal study. I'm not as disciplined on my own.

The car situation has been rectified. We are a 2 Honda family now.

My youngest son is at home sick today. Too sick for school ( low grade fever) but not too sick for video games. Before I knew he was going to be home, I had planned to head to Michaels today to make my February samples, but I think I'll take a nap instead....

Have a blessed day!

Perspective and Healing

4.25 x 5.5

The Perspective:
Today, I re-joined my Romans Bible Study(BSF). It is a very intense and effective study. I was in leadership when this year started, but I dropped out because I was hired full time at a physical therapist's new practice. Then, before I could start it, I had to give up my new full time job, when my husband was transfered. And then, there was the surgery and all the other stuff. So, now that things are trying to settle down in my life ( if you don't count the house being for sale and graduation preparation), I decided to go back and finish the tail end of the year. One of the ladies in the new small group I helped to start last fall was going thru Chemo at the time. I found out today, that her cancer has returned with a vengence.
And then, I just received an email "Immediate Request for Prayer" about a young lady ( I don't know her personally) whose due date was a week ago. The Dr. couldn't detect the heart beat and she was being rushed to the hospital. My heart goes out to both of them and my attention is focused on praying for them right now.
I have a card that I am going to send to the lady from my Bible study. I don't have words of comfort for her, I wish I could make it all better. But the scripture I used on this card comes with a promise. I know and am experiencing God's sustaining power in my life . The Bible verse stamp is Biblical Impressions and says "Cast thy burden upon the Lord and He shall sustain thee. Psalm 55:22"


5 x 7

As you can see I have two versions of it. The handmade paper was sent to me by The Rubber Stamper as part of a Design Team Challenge. I doubt if you can tell w/o clicking on the pictures that I stamped the trees image(SU) twice creating a subtle shadow effect.

The Healing
I promised to tell you about my healing over the weekend. First of all, I don't know what it is, but just being around my family made me feel better. But the 5 hour drive down was probably the first solid block of silent and still time I'd had in a week. You are probably wondering how in the world I can use words like silent and still with 4 kids in the car?? I have one word for that-- headphones! They were plugged into DVDs and Mp3s and DSs and I had my music. I love technology! So anyway, Friday was a tough day for me at first, because I was still and I had time to think about my baby. The stages of grief involves denial and bargaining. I thought I was done with that and accepting the loss, but I was overwhelmed with sadness during the drive down. At first, I was encouraged by the music I was listening to (Larnelle Harris, Yolanda Adams, and CeCe Winans) . But when I finally got to the hotel and tried to go to sleep, there was silence. In that silence, I felt a reminder from the Holy Spirit. Principles that I've learned a long time ago during another grieving process.
1. God doesn't make mistakes.
2. We each are given a God designed life span with a purpose. For some of us our life span is 7 weeks and for some it's 70 years. I don't fully know all of the purpose of this child's short life, just yet, but I can't feel like I was cheated out of something. I have a feeling I am learning and will learn a lot from this experience. I will be looking for those lessons.
I'm still sad sometimes, but God is sustaining me.