Under His Wings

We had the most horrible shock this week when we lost a dear friend and member of our community under terrible circumstances.  She went out late in the afternoon on Monday (the first sunny day we'd had in months) and never returned.  With the sub-zero temperatures we have been experiencing this last week, we had hoped she had ended up in a shelter or was visiting a friend and had forgotten to mention it.  It was a tough few days for her family and loved ones as hundreds of volunteers pored through the neighbouring forests as well as neighbouring villages and bus depots looking for signs of her.  She wasn't discovered until Friday afternoon.  

She was such a sweet lady, with a razor sharp wit and a ready smile.   I toyed with the idea of this card during the days she was missing but I couldn't bring myself to start on it until yesterday.  I thought perhaps it might bring me some comfort to make something for her.  I also thought the rest of our choir would appreciate a way to express our grief - her late husband was our former choir director.  And I also wanted to express our sympathy to her family and remind them how loved their mother was.

The angel wings are from the Gummiapan Advent Calendar (Day 8) -  I cut them four times and separated the layers of feathers (it only takes a snip or two) and layered them up for dimension - adding gilding wax to each layer before adhering it to the layer underneath.

The bow is from a Greetery set (Mini Posy Pocket) and I layered this up 3 times for stability as I knew it would be sitting astride the wings.  I added gilding wax to this too.  The bow reminded me of a cardigan Anne would wear.

The sentiment is from one of my old Waltzing Mouse Stamps sets - Fine Feathers.  I heat embossed it with WOW! Metallic Gold Rich Pale Regular onto some off-white cardstock, then cut it with this lovely torn page die (Day 13 from the Gummiapan Advent Calendar).   

I then added more gilding wax around the edges and adhered it to a trifold card I made up specially so there would be plenty of room for everyone in the choir to sign.

Inside I paraphrased something one of our choir members shared earlier in the week when we were desperate for news of her and feared the worst - it offered us all a little comfort!  The wing stamp is from the same set as the sentiment.

I'd like to enter the following challenges

Alphabet Challenge Challenge - U is for Under Something;

Word Power Challenge #1 - I hope this lovely scripture text is appropriate for this new challenge which focusses on sentiments and text;

NBUS Challenge #58 - NBUS Torn Page Frame, Angel Wings and Mini Posy sets;

Thanks for stopping by, your visits and comments are always a joy and always appreciated!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and how to find you!

Kate

Comfort

 

I needed one of those cards we all dread making - a sympathy card.  Luckily I had a container filled with flowers and leaves I'd cut previously so this card came together quickly.  

The leaves and flowers were cut using the Tim Holtz Funky Foliage die set, the Sentiment was cut from off-white card stock using the Winnie and Walter Big, Bold and Comfort set and coloured with Orange and Purple Alcohol Markers and I used the Tim Holtz 3D Woodgrain Texture Fades Folder to emboss a piece of Kraft card stock which I then lightly distressed with Gathered Twigs DI.  The more I use this embossing folder, the more I love it!

I'd like to enter the following challenges

Four Season Challenge

Let's Squash it Challenge #25

The Card Concept #181

SSSWednesday Challenge - Fall Colours

CYHTP  - no twist

Fab'n'Funky Challenge #557 - Autumn Colours

I'm thrilled you stopped by and hope you enjoyed your visit.  If you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and how to find you and perhaps we can get better acquainted!  

Kate

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

Falling Leaves

Inspired by the beautiful colours of Autumn, I thought I'd make some Autumn leaves today.  I die cut the oak and maple leaf from an old Spellbinders die and set about distressing them with various Distress Inks and Glimmer Mists.  IRL there is a gorgeous sheen but naturally I wasn't able to catch it  in the photograph.

I thought that since I was making this much mess, I should make a few extras for future projects.  The bead of glossy accents (meant to imitate a dew drop) wasn't yet dry in these photos I took this morning. 

Since these leaves have been distressed to within an inch of their lives, I'm entering this card in the current Timeout Challenge that has the theme

Sympathy With the Optional Twist of Distressing

I'm also entering it in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge for their Anything Goes theme

and the October Anything Goes with Dies Challenge at Happy Little Stampers

I'm entering it in the current Fusion Card Challenge

Just noticed the Double D Challenge has the theme "Leave it to Me!" so I'll be entering over there too

Thanks for stopping by, especially if you take the time to leave a comment.  Your visits and feedback mean a lot to me,

Kate

Thoughtful Tree

A friend asked me to make her a sympathy card and I asked her if she had any preferences.  "Love that tree" was her reply and I knew exactly which tree she meant.  This tree from the WMS Asian Gardens is one of my favourites.  It's really not that much trouble to fussy cut some extra foliage and the results are definitely worth it.

The leaves were inked up with green and ochre chalk inks.  I used the largest Spellbinders Label 2 Nestie to mount the tree, and added a little blue shading (Salty Ocean DI) on the top half and a little green (Peeled Paint DI) on the bottom half while still in the nestie die to finish off the panel and ground the image.

Naturally while the stamp was out and all inked up, I couldn't resist stamping the envelope as well.

Did I mention there's a Waltzing Mouse Pyjama Party going on tonight/today.  You have only 24 hours to link up so hurry over to the WMS Blog.  

When I was making the card, I didn't have access to the sketch and was working from memory, hence the liberties taken with the sketch.

Thanks for stopping by,
Kate

Another dandelion card

I made another dandelion card - this time an easel card and I have included the quote from D.H. Lawrence.
I'm not sure what I'll use it for yet, perhaps my mum's birthday as she loves green.
The inside was stamped with a dandelion stamp from Hein Design - picked it up at Dortmund as well.  Obviously I had this die on my mind while I was at Dortmund.