Sympathy Card

Several weeks ago,  a very special lady and friend lost her battle to cancer.  She had been running the ShareaCard organization that I have been involved with the past 20 years.  She took over 14 years ago when the founder passed away - also from cancer.  Kath felt that it was her responsibility, but more importantly, her privilege to take over and make ShareaCard all that it could be.  And she did just that.  Because of her dedication, we have touched the lives of many seriously ill adults and brought them happiness through thoughtful greeting cards.  Both Suzanne, the founder, and Kath lived in PA - and the rest of us are scattered all over the US, as well as all over the world.  And now, her daughters are going to continue the work of ShareaCard in memory of their mother.  They grew up watching the dedication, love and unselfishness of their mother. They are going to follow in her footsteps and continue to help bring cheer to those in need.  I am so proud to be part of such a wonderful organization.  You can learn more about it at www.ShareaCard.org.

I let almost a week go by before starting to make a card for Kath's family.  I was in such denial that this disease had taken her from her family and all of us.  I wanted to make a card that somehow depicted who she was to me - someone with grace and beauty and gentleness.

Here is a closeup of the gerbera daisies stamp by Sheena (Crafter's Companion).

It is embossed with a silver white embossing powder that sparkles 

beautifully in person.  And the pearls and sequins add a nice touch.

The photo below gives a slightly different view of the front of the card - and all of the detail in the stamp.  I love how it turned out.

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A Special Friend - times two! (part 1)

I am lucky enough to live in the town where I was born.  I doubt everyone would feel that way, but I love this part of Southern California.  I had to leave and live in Arizona for 12 years to fully appreciate how wonderful it was.

And in living in the same city, I have been fortunate to have retained some amazing friendships - both with those who were friends of my parents, and my own friends.  One such friend was in and out of my life through most of my growing up years. We went to different schools, but her grandparents lived across the street from my parents, so we had a great time whenever she would visit. My parents cared for her grandparents as they aged, and many years later her parents lived in that same home and cared for my parents.  It was beautiful.  So when I returned to the area in the early 2000s, I rekindled a friendship with both the daughter, who is my age, and the mother.

And both need cards this week. The daughter has a birthday on Thursday, and the mother is failing in health and I was long overdue to make a special card for her.

So the "thinking of you" card is first on my list.  She loves the ocean and lives not far from it, so I turned to the wonderful shell files of Dominic. If you have not seen his files yet, you have to check them out.  They cut beautifully on my Silver Bullet and the detail is incredible.

And as usual, I turned to my papers from The Paper Temptress.  I absolutely adore her papers, especially the mica papers.  I have every color in the text and card weight.  Yes I collect them!

I wanted a little texture on the shell so used a marble stamp cube that I turn to often from Stampendous. And here are the results using the cube, Versamark and Ranger's Perfect Pearls.

I really like the textured feel that this stamp gives to the paper.  And here it is fresh off the Silver Bullet Professional -

A different view

I love the pairing of Dominic's detailed files and the intricacy of the Silver Bullet.  It makes me feel like I can create anything!


And here is the finished product with three layers of Paper Temptress papers - Incandescent Blanco (White) for the card base, Mica Cappuccinio text for the shell and Mica Bronze behind it.   The stamp is from Verve; yes I collect those too!

I hope this brings some cheer to her day.

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