Dutch Papercrafting Revisited - a Lacé card

The past few months have not only drained my energy, but I have been wanting to find the desire to make cards or bake and that was as far as I got - my thinking about it was not producing any tangible results! I poured over cards posted on Pinterest, looked at my favorite blogs, looked through my COLLECTION of card making books..... nothing sparked an idea.  So once again I went back to my first card making efforts - Dutch papercrafting.  And the ideas started.  I knew Penny Duncan  (Thank you , Penny! had created some cutline designs  also known as lacé so I used her arch design to make a card for a friend recovering from surgery.  She just returned home, in record time, so I am glad the inspiration surfaced.

The printed paper is from my stash and it is double sided so that made the folding easy.  The solid colors are all from Paper Temptress of course - Neenah green, and bubble gum and banana split from the Pop Tones collection.  Her papers always make my projects look pulled together.  The sentiment is from the Cats Meow (line discontinued) and the pearls are from Kaisercraft.  Both the lacé file and the tag were cut on the Silver Bullet Professional.  If you have not tried cutline or lacé designs, well you just have to!  They are such fun and there are a wide variety of shapes that lend themselves to every type of card.  So give it a try!

I apologize for the camera settings. They were clearly off when I took the pictures and didnt catch it til I went to edit the photos.  Unfortunately the next few posts will be "off", but will work at getting them better going forward........  Oops!

The process of cutting and beginning to fold.  Instant gratification! 

The design with the backing contrast color...

Voila!!  So simple... 

The end result

The finished card

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An Unexpected Part Two!

Well this is certainly a year of surprises for me.  I never dreamed when I shared my "Holiday to Remember" saga that there would be an epilogue!  As far as I was concerned, the "adventure" was over, but .......

Six days after returning home (and 24 hours after my last post!) I was back in the emergency room with a repeat performance.  I felt scared and defeated and was convinced that my own body was my worst enemy. I could not believe this was happening all over again... only this time it would be a three week hospital stay and a second surgery!  Happy New Year?... not so much :(

As I write this, I have been home for two weeks and am still recovering, having surrendered to my "new normal" and living by doctors' orders.  I realize it could have been so much worse and am confident I will soon resemble the person I was before all of this.  I am not used to having limits on what I can and cannot do.  I am truly grateful to have received excellent care and be on the path, albeit bumpy and twisted, to long term healing (fingers and toes crossed!).  I have accepted that there are more doctor visits and consultations in my future.  So I will take the baby steps to progress and continue to look for the little positives in every day...

Acceptance .....  Patience ..... Perseverance ..... Peace .....

I am working on all of the above.  It commands a daily commitment on my part to accept life as it is now, to be patient with myself and my body's ability to heal, to persevere on the bad days knowing they will not last forever, and to find a place of peace in each and every day.



And GRATITUDE...... my heart overflows with gratitude for the overwhelming kindness expressed in so many ways by family and friends.  Even though I am physically alone, I never really experience the isolation of loneliness.  My two faithful cuddling companions are quite content to have me back home where I belong.  (Are they not the cutest??!!??)


I am fortunate to have an abundance of  love and care in my life and deeply appreciate the time gifted to me by an amazing support system.  Carefully prepared meals have materialized at my door; the phone rings often with offers of help; and emails fill my inbox with warm and caring messages.  I am so very blessed.

I am looking forward to crafting and cooking again.  I miss both and am definitely eager to get back into doing all of the things I enjoy.....

See you soon .......... Pin It Now!