With Sympathy

Today was the funeral for my work colleague, Anne and I had made a card to give to her husband, Paul.



There is a bit of a story behind the card.  I have an upcoming challenge that is for Creative Craft Cottage Digi group and it' going to be using glitter on your card.  I decided I would use this image, do some fussy cutting, put some vellum under the frame and lots of Wink of Stella and some Stickles for my glitter.  My outside sentiment is from a Winnie & Walter set and inside, I used a Hero Arts sentiment...  All good you think.... so did I until I went to link to the sponsors website.... what no such image on their site :-(   Boo Hoo I used the wrong sponsors image.  Talk about ning nong!  Anyway I needed the card and was happy with my colouring of the lillies, using some of the techniques I've learnt in the Online Card Class.

Here's a close up of the lillies

I'll be back in a few days to share the card I did with the correct sponsors image later in the week.

PS Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian friends.  Hope you have a blessed day.

A sympathy card.

To start, I want to say thank you to every one for all your lovely comments on my post yesterday.  I really do appreciate every single one. 

This afternoon, I went to a craft fair and amongst other things I got a couple of stamps to make a card for my friend's family.  The stamps are from Rubadubado

The image was stamped with Hero Arts Wet Cement ink and coloured with the same ink, some distress ink and a Jenni Bowlin ink.  

We are heading down to Te Puke in the morning for the funeral.  We'll have to leave here by 8.00am as the service is at 12.00.  We'll stay with hubby's sister in Papamoa so it won't be too long a day.  Had to cancel the cat's vaccine's for a couple of weeks as next weekend is Labour Weekend and we are heading up to the beach with our friends.  

Have a great weekend all

Dawn

His and Her Sympathy

I took the His and Hers on line class last week, but didn't actually make many cards... but learnt lots of things.  I did mange some cards over the weekend thankfully as this week not a single card made!  I've been suffering sore limbs.  My right shoulder has been feeling stiff for some time and I finally have been having some physiotherapy and then Tuesday I woke to a stiff right knee... by Thursday I couldn't hardly walk .... luckily I had a physio session so my therapist concentrated on the knee rather than the shoulder.  Still it means I don't feel like sitting and creating.

So on to the His and Her cards I made in the weekend.  First up the Hers card

I used the design and some of the techniques I learnt in the class.  I stamped the Etched Flower from Hero Arts in Olympia Green Versafine ink and used my Inktense pencils to colour and watercolour the flowers.  I went over the edge of the flower with an HB pencil.  Before mounting the panel to my card base, I added a strip of PP from Crate Paper down the edge.   The sentiment is from Hero Arts as well.

My His card 

For this one, I used the same PP down the side and a similar design.  I stamped the Silhouette Grass in Memento Grey Flannel ink and used Inktense pencils to colour the sheaves.  Again used a Hero Arts sentiment.

I did not know that I would want to use one of these cards this week, but a friend at work, lost her mother on Monday.  Several of my work mates wanted sympathy cards as well, so they came in handy. 

Hoping that I get some time to play, and the inclination to do so, this weekend.  My son is coming round to have dinner with us on Sunday which will be nice.  He is working not too far from where we live and will call in, shower and stay for dinner.  

To all the Mothers out there..... Happy Mother's Day for Sunday.  

Watercoloured butterflies.

I used one of the pieces of watercoloured backgrounds I made over the weekend, to make a sympathy card I need for a friend, whose Mum passed away last week.  

The watercoloured paper was made with aqua crayons.  I loved the graduated look of the paper, so decided to make a tall card.  I stamped the butterflies from a Hero Arts set and coloured the spots with Copics and added dots with a white gel pen.  I added some stripes of the pale blue card down each side.  The sentiment is from a set by MFT  and the inside sentiment is from a Hero Arts sympathy set.

I had my first reassessment at the gym today.... I've lost 3 kgs ( around 6lbs) but did have a bit of a scare.... my trainer was showing me some free weight exercises, which I did, then felt rather dizzy when I'd finished.   Had to sit with my head between my knees.... but it was basically because I'd not eaten since a light lunch... need to remember to have something to snack on before doing hard out exercise!   All in all though, I am already seeing a difference.

Time to catch up on a few more blogs.  Take care

Dawn

Mygrafico Monday Feature~ Any goes

This week the Design Team got to choose any Mygrafico set to inspire you.... I chose to use a Fancy Flower set by Lindsay's Stamp Stuff

 I really love the lines of these flowers.

I wanted to do a real watercolour look, so I took some watercolour paper and printed the image onto it.   I cut it will a Spellbinders label and embossed it as well. I then got the paper quite wet and took my distress inks and using my watercolour pen touch the ink to the paper allowing it wick.   The sentiment is from a Hero Arts set cut into a banner at one end.  Added some Liquid Pearls to finish.  Pop over to blog and have a look at what the others came up with...

Don't forget our "Baby/Pregnancy" challenge is still underway here... would love to see you have a go.

Had some fun with alcohol inks last night, so pop back tomorrow and I'll share the card I made.

Take care and hope you have an awesome week...
Dawn 

Life continues....

thanks once again, for all of the lovely comments left here over the past few days...  They have helped me to continue with my life....

I spent some time crafting yesterday on my extra day off.  First off, I saw this amazing sketch on the Penny Black Saturday Challenge blog.  I don't have a lot of Penny Black stamps but had a set which I hadn't stamped ~ Enjoy Life~

Lots of different stamps used. Two Hero Arts, one Inkadinkado and two Penny Blacks (both from the same set)
HA stamps ~ Design Fabric cling stamped in Pumice Stone on the watercoloured paper and Envelope Pattern stamped in Brilliance Twilight onto the pink card. ( Such a wonderful subtle background) The Inkadinkado flourish is also stamped in the Brilliance ink. The birds and sentiment are from Penny Black Enjoy Life. I coloured them with Faber Castell pencils and Gamsol and distressed the background with Faded Jeans distress ink. The flowers I made using two tones of purple paint chips and two Spellbinders dies. The leaves die is from Sizzix. So quite a mixture of bits and pieces used.  This was my "Happy Card"

Then I worked on a card to send to Sue R's family.  I wanted something simple but heartfelt.  I made a sheet of alcohol ink in soft colours... and then overstamped part with Musical background in black.

I punched hearts out of the plain and stamped portions and alternated them onto a cream textured background and added the sentiment by Stampit. 

I am looking forward to hubby getting home tomorrow.  It has been a hard few days.

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope your week is going well

The Honeymooner's are home..... bearing gifts!

Yesterday my daughter and son-in-law arrived home from their trip to Hawaii.... arrived in at 6.00am.... so last evening she arrived over to visit..... gifts in hand... for me, an amazing maple wood vase with beautiful leaves carved on it... and for her Dad ~

this wonderful wind chime.... It is just incredible.  Plus she had visit the Dole pineapple factory and brought us home two lovely boxes of chocolate covered pineapple...

Today, however her and her hubby were back on a plane to fly to Christchurch as while they were away his aunt ( his Mother's twin sister) passed away.  Heather had been suffering from cancer for some time, and although she was looking good at their wedding, she finally fell victim to this insidious disease.  Her funeral was today.... I made a card to send to Rai ( Emma's MIL)

I pulled out my trusted Poppies and came up with this.   I used distress inks and a blending tool to colour the petals, popping some of them up on mini dots.  I used a glitter gel pen for the stems.  In order to show case the Poppies, I made the card a DL size - tall and thin.

And  speaking of sad things..... the news from Peter's sister in London is not good.. She suffered a seizure and stroke this week and the tumour on her brain has doubled in 10 days.  She now only has a short time left.... it is so hard for her family here as they are so far away.  She has said she doesn't want them to go over, but to remember her as she was....although her next youngest sister is there with her for which we are thankful.  They are all so devastated as you can imagine.... having gone through this only 18 months ago. Only 2 1/2 months ago Helen ran the New York Marathon in 3 hours 40 mins.... Please keep her in your prayers.

Wishing you all a great week, and please tell your families how much you love them.

Farewell dear friend......

It was with great sadness that we learn yesterday morning that my hubby's best mate passed away....  I am so glad that hubby got to spend some time this past week with him.  He was in intensive care in Auckland but on Saturday was transferred back to his local hospital in Levin.  At least he was home ( sort of anyway)  We will travel down on Wednesday for his funeral on Thursday and then back home on Friday.  It is an 6-7 hour trip down to Levin by car.

I quickly managed to get a sympathy card made for his partner and his brother and sister and the families.

I saw a card by Terry on Flickr   and it was my inspiration for this.  I stamped the Silhouette Grass onto wheat coloured card and embossed it in clear EP.  I then used a number of distress inks and sponged them over, finishing with Aged Mahogany.  I edged the top and bottom of with a gold marker.  I stamped the sentiment onto a piece of the wheat card in the Aged Mahogany and added brads to secure it.  Finished with a little dragonfly stamped in Aged Mahogany onto gold vellum and secured with a glue dot.
( a big thanks to Hero Arts who tweeted the card on Flickr- much appreciated)

Today we had our friends Michael and Yvonne round for lunch to finalise some of the plans for England.  Michael heads over in about 2 weeks - and as he is the chief organiser of the canal boat trip we needed to get everything organised.    After they left I managed to put together the card I started yesterday.  I've done a pile of watercolour backgrounds using Joy's technique... this one used one of the shell stamps from Hero Arts 

Used two colours of the distress inks on my craft sheet and stamped the shells all over the background.  Then stamped the shells onto white card and cut out and matted with black.  Sentiment is embossed - it's from a set by Sullivan's - made in Australia. The base card is a lovely olive green.  I had to take the photo in my window ledge as we have had rain and more rain all weekend... I waited for a break to get the photo taken but it was too wet to go outside.  Tonight poor hubby had to go out into the torrential rain as a drain has block - water from the two downpipes out the back were overflowing as it is blocked somewhere under the house.... calling a plumber tomorrow!!!!

Well thanks all for stopping by... take care and hope you all have a great week.