MIA and a few Sympathy Cards

 Sorry I've been a bit preoccupied the last few weeks and haven't been posting.  I have been creating, I just haven't had time to post.   One of my favourite charities (an orphanage in Tanzania where I foster a child) is doing it tough.  Not only has just about all the fund-raising either been cancelled or curtailed since COVID reared its ugly head, but the virus has now reached the isolated community.  I've been creating cards to sell to raise funds.  So far I've raised over €500 and the last 3 weeks I've been flat out meeting demand.   Not that I'm complaining, it's good to keep busy and helps keep my thoughts away from dark places.  You may have heard the EU has not done well with the vaccinations thus far and we have no idea when we will be vaccinated and life can return to normal.  In fact my son's teachers are preparing for more  home-schooling for the week before and the week after the Easter holidays (four weeks at home will drive us both bananas)!   At the moment my mantra is "Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming" like Dory from Finding Nemo!  Here are some cards I made for a friend who needed some sympathy cards using a few NBUS items.  

The first is a wild daisy made using on of the the Tim Holtz Wildflowers 3 dies.  I cut three and layered them up to give dimension and sponged some Wild Mustard and Black Soot Distress Inks onto the flower centre (masking off the petals) and Peeled Paint DI onto the stem.   I was lucky enough to find this panel of DP with other wildflowers as a backdrop.

I'm entering this card in the following challenge

Daring Cardmakers - Plant a Flower

This second card was made with a dandelion die I bought at Dortmund (Creativa 2019 - remember those days when we could attend public events).   I just blended a few inks onto a panel, added a few drifting dandelions and a sentiment.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges 

NBUS Challenge #24 - There is unused schtuff in all these cards, but this dandelion die is the oldest

The Paper Players - see picture below, the dandelion in the top centre captured my imagination!

This third one is something I've been wanting to try for a while.  I used a butterfly swarm die (Aliexpress) to create a large number of various sized butterflies and added them to a Twiggy Tree (Memorybox)  instead of blossoms.  I love my Twiggy Tree die and have probably used it every spring for the past nine years I've owned it.  It reminds me of the Japanese plum tree outside my kitchen door - which is preparing to burst into life any day now!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges 

Day of the Month Club Challenge #25 - Learn About Butterflies Day and 2nd Blog Anniversary

Modsquad Challenge - Beautiful Butterflies

CAS on Sunday - Spring

Happy Little Stampers - Anything Goes with Dies

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit.  If you leave a comment, I’ll be over the moon!  I’ll also know you were here, so I can check out what you’ve been up to and we can get to know each other better!

Kate