January - A Time to Celebrate and Remember...

Usually, when January rolls around each year, it marks the beginning of a new year and provides a sort of reset, if needed, to begin anew.  But this January was like no other and I am already in need of a reset.

Early in the month,  I celebrated the birthday of a special friend, and had fun making this card.

It is difficult to capture the foil, but what appears black is actually purple and silver foil! 

(The stripes are silver foil and the design in the background and front are purple foil).

All designs are Gina K Foil Mates

This captures the color of the foil a bit better.

Birthdays are wonderful reminders that not only is every year worth celebrating, but each and every day.  That awareness was stronger than ever last month.  Unfortunately, it was necessary to create two sympathy cards as well.  The first one went to a dear friend who lost her wonderful mother after months of illness .  It has been 16 years since I lost my Mother, and I still miss her.  Losing a parent is life changing.  It is part of the cycle, but knowing that does not make the loss easier or more profound.  I hope this card brought her some comfort.

This design was traced from a stencil and cut with the Silver Bullet Pro. 

I love the simplicity of it.

The second sympathy card (below) was the most difficult card I have ever made.  I was full of so many emotions - sadness, anger, disbelief .. and so much more.  I have talked before about my daughter in law's sister, Darcy, who was battling cancer.  In September, Darcy returned to work while still fighting this awful disease.  We were all so hopeful that progress was being made. Unfortunately, the progress was fleeting and the cancer was victorious in the end.  I ached for Scott and Megan and all of the family suffering this incredible loss.  Ours is not to question, but acceptance is certainly not easy.

Before Darcy passed, she asked Megan to tell her daughter, Riley, and her nephew, Carter (my grandson), to know that she was watching over them whenever they saw a ladybug.  So it was clear to me that my card for Megan and her family had to have a ladybug.  I am not an artist, but I can say that this little ladybug was made with love.

The little lady bug was made with Nuvo Drops and the

beautiful rose is a design from Dominic (Crafty  Vectors). 

The end of January marked a celebration of Darcy' life and a lasting reminder that each and every day of our lives is a precious gift, not to be wasted or taken for granted. Pin It Now!

Still Foiling...

There clearly seems to be a method to my work -whether baking or crafting.  When I try something and am happy with the results, I get in a sort of rut and bake 10 things with lemon in a row, for example.  Or in this case , with my card making, I can't seem to stop foiling everything I can!!  I am so enjoying getting great results and am addicted~~

So I have needed to make a wedding card for some time. It's a good thing there is a grace period for such things as I am long overdue! I have a beautiful ornamental alphabet from Thyme Graphics.- Thyme's Alphabet - that I used as my inspiration.  As I said earlier, I knew I wanted to foil but was looking for the right image and the alphabet was perfect.  And the wedding colors were green and navy blue. Since I have not seen a navy blue foil, I used the royal blue in the background to let the green "shine".

I did a print and cut using SCAL and the Silver Bullet Professional.

SCAL print and cut showing the registration marks

I foiled the letters AFTER I did the print and cut as I have not used the print and cut feature a lot and was a little out of practice.  They came out great but it was good to know that foiling after a cut works fine too!  I love options!

The card base was is the Vintage Luster from Paper Temptress. The stamped sentiment is from JustRite Wedding Nested Sentiments , stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black.  The little roses were from my stash, I sprayed them with Dylusions spray mist in london blue and cut grass.  The sentiment tag has pop dots under it for added height.

I am still learning how to take good photos when using foiling. I love the PicMonkey program, but I still need to improve my skills!

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