Thinking of you

It's always so hard to know what to do about Christmas cards for recently bereaved friends. On the one hand, 'jolly and bright' doesn't seem right, yet it also doesn't seem right to not at least show that you're thinking of your friend.

This year, I have two such friends - grieving for their loss of a spouse - so I made a couple of cards exactly the same:

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" white card blank, tent style

- a snippet of Tonic pearlescent 'Navy Dazzle' card which I die cut using a 'Lil' Inkers Stitched Rectangles' die

- the Penny Black Stickeroo is from the 'Woodland Splendor' sheet popped onto a snippet of Tonic Studio pearlescent 'Majestic Gold' card

- then glued the rectangles on top of one another and then to the card front

- no sentiment, just added a plain insert to write a message

Some of you will already know that one of the friends is our lovely 'Snippets Playmate' Carol Longacre, whose much loved husband Butch died recently - we all send you our love and thoughts Carol.

If you care to skip over to the Snippets Playground HERE - Sarn has opened up a fresh challenge, her snippets card is so lovely! 

On the subject of cards, I ordered our Christmas postage stamps weeks ago from Royal Mail. I was updated to say they're finally on the way, and today is 12 days since that notification - but no sign as yet. Thankfully all the overseas cards have gone, along with a few UK cards - I did have some UK stamps left from last year. However, it's looking a bit grim with the ongoing strikes and I apologise right now that my UK cards will very possibly not reach people in time for Christmas. 

Dudley Pupdate: Our back garden landscaping work is finally done. As with any big project, there have been been a few hiccups along the way but thankfully all sorted out now. Dudley's so funny - he's fussy about his feet and began to literally wipe them on the door mat during the messy part - as he came indoors! In fact, he's still doing it! At one point it was so muddy that he had to be carried out during the night if Nature called! Glad all that's over. 

PS, He is scheduled for a bath/shower on Monday - wish us luck!

 

Sympathy card for a friend

One of my friends from our old school reunions recently suffered the sad loss of her husband. We weren't at boarding school together, her prison term was a few years before mine,  but we became friends whilst working on the School Association Committee a few years ago. As her husband had been a farmer, I wanted something 'depicting nature' for the card I made to send to her. And this is what I came up with:

I used:

- 4" x 6" (ie. A6) white card blank

- then created a butterfly stencil using the Memory Box 'Darla Butterfly' die and a snippet of card stock

- fixed the die cut stencil to the card blank with low-tack tape and, using a sponge, added some Adirondack inking with 'Cloudy Blue' and 'Peach Bellini'. The colours are deeper in real life (thanks camera!), although still quite subtle

- left the stencil in place and, using the Misti, stamped the little birds/branches using a stamp from the Stampin' Up 'Serene Silhouettes' set and Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink

- finally removed the stencil and added the sentiment using a Penny Black 'Special Thoughts' stamp and Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink

Quite an easy one layer card to make, once I came across the idea for the design on Pinterest. This is the blog post I eventually traced it back to - loads of good ideas to be had there and on the rest of Shel's blog, especially for those of you who are Stampin' Up enthusiasts!

Butterflies sympathy card

I made another sympathy card, for the same bereaved friends (Nanny's family) I mentioned the other day:

I used:

- A6 white card blank

- pink and grey papers from the 'Sweet Afternoon' paper pad by Teresa Collins

- the butterflies were punched using using butterfly dies by Memory Box, the solid one is 'Isabella' and the matching 'lacy' one is 'Pippi'

- little white pearls down the butterfly bodies

- sentiment was stamped in VersaMagic 'Pink Petunia' using a stamp from SU's 'Four Frames' set and punched using SU's 'Decorative Label' punch - then I added the Elzybells sentiment

Di
x

Sad news for our friend Maggie

I know that lots of you who hop in here know Maggie - aka SilverCrafter. Maggie is a regular on both WOYWW and in the Snippets Playground.

I just found this, posted by Maggie on Facebook in the early hours of this morning:

Take time throughout your life to laugh and make good memories. In the end, they are what hold you together in the bad times. My wonderful husband died suddenly on Sunday, and my happy memories and all the wonderful tributes and memories are a great comfort. I am lucky to have incredible children and friends and we will get through. Do all you can to fill your lives with joy from the simple things of life. If anyone tries to put you down or upset you, remember that they are not as lucky as you. xx

 

Sending sympathy and thoughts to Maggie and her family. Geoff was a much loved husband, father and Grandad - he'll be sorely missed.

Maggie is always so generous with her time and advice - I know that crafting and blogging will be far from her mind right now but if you do happen to read this Maggie, we'll still all be here waiting to welcome you back with open arms our dear blogging friend and snippets playmate.

Love

Di

x