Comfort for Kay

It's finally snowing!  We really need the moisture and it just hasn't felt much like winter this year, so the snow is pretty exciting!  School has already been canceled for tomorrow and I'm hoping my husband will work from home so we can all hunker down for a good, old-fashioned Snow Day!

Last night I received a card drive request for a sweet lady named Kay.  Kay turned 60 years old earlier this week and had been looking forward to retirement with her husband.  Sadly, Kay was diagnosed with a very rare and very aggressive cancer a couple of months ago.  Treatment has been unsuccessful and the cancer has now invaded almost every part of her body.  It appears Kay's battle will be coming to an end soon, as the doctors believe she has a month or less to live.  We've been asked to send cards to make her birthday week very special and to show her some love, comfort and encouragement in her final days.

This was a very, very hard card for me to make.  What comfort can I offer someone who is nearing the end of life, especially someone I've never met?  I turned to the greatest source of comfort I could offer: the promises of Scripture.  I hope this verse will bring comfort to her in her final days.

Here's my card:

I wanted to keep this card Clean and Simple (CAS) and make the verse the focal point.  I worked from the inside out this time, starting with the verse.  I stamped it in black ink on white card stock, then die cut it with a scalloped rectangle die.  I had a scrap of shimmery black card stock in my stash, so I die cut a larger scalloped rectangle and attached the verse to it.  I used another scrap of shimmery black to die cut my flourishes.  I found a lovely scrap of magenta-colored patterned paper in my stash, so I wrapped a piece of ribbon around it and layered it on the card front.  I adhered my sentiment panel over the ribbon, then gently slid my flourishes into place and attached them to the card.  Finally, I added a few tiny rhinestones to the flourishes for just a little bit of sparkle (this photo doesn't do the sparkly rhinestones justice).

This verse brings me comfort and hope every time I read it, and I pray that its message will help Kay, as well.  If you are so inclined, please say a prayer or send comforting thoughts out to this sweet lady and her family.

Thanks for stopping by today, and extra-special thanks to those who take the time to leave a comment!

Products Used:

Stamp: Scripture Series 3 (Our Daily Bread Designs)

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko)

Paper: Jubilee Magenta Accent (K&Company); black shimmery card stock (from a scrap bag at cutcardstock.com); black card stock (unknown)

Tools and Accessories: Nestabilities Classic Scalloped Rectangles - Small and Large (Spellbinders); Scribbles Swirls Sizzlets (Sizzix); ribbon (Offray); tiny rhinestones (unknown)

Seamless Tiers with Patterned Paper Experiment

Happy Wednesday! I'm in the midst of reorganizing my craft room and several other rooms in my house, so I haven't had much stamping time over the past several days.  I have a few cards I need to send out this week, so I took a break from reorganizing and managed a little bit of crafting time after my kids went to sleep last night.

Over in the general stamping forum at Splitcoast Stampers, we've been having a discussion about the best way to use the Seamless Tiers/Triple Time technique using patterned paper instead of stamped images.  I think the easiest way is to use nested rectangle dies, but since I don't have those, I thought I'd try just cutting the layers myself.  This did not work out as well as I'd hoped, but it was a fun experiment!  The top two layers are lined up correctly, but I didn't manage to get the bottom layer to match up with the middle layer.  I don't mind, though, because I know the recipient of the card will not be critiquing it.  It's easy to forget sometimes, in our quest for perfection, that the recipient is usually just thrilled to get a card that was lovingly (if not perfectly) created.  I am going to try this technique again to see if I can manage it without the dies, but I think the dies would sure make this easier!

Here's my card:

I have to apologize for the poor picture quality.  I use natural lighting through a window, and the winter is really making it difficult to find the right time of day to photograph cards.  The colors on this card are Night of Navy and white, although the navy color looks black here.  Also, the shadows and angle make the sentiment panel look off-center, but I measured it and it's centered pretty well.  Darn photo!

This card uses almost exactly the same measurements as the ones in this post, but this time I used patterned paper in place of stamped images.  Before adhering the final layers, I wrapped a band of white card stock behind the sentiment panels, then popped up the sentiment panels using Stampin' Dimensionals.  This is a very simple card, and if I had just gotten that pattern lined up better I would have been happy to have made an easy AND pretty card!  But it's given me a jumping-off point and I'm sure I'll make another card like this soon so I can figure out how to fix those layers.

This card will be mailed to a sweet lady with leukemia who just had a bone marrow transplant.  She has to spend 100 days in a hotel away from her family and friends to avoid germs and be near the hospital.  Can you imagine spending 100 days away from those you love?  The thought breaks my heart, so I hope this card will encourage her. 

I hope you have a wonderful day!  Thanks for stopping by!

Products Used:

Stamp: Scripture Series 3 (Our Daily Bread Designs)

Paper: Night of Navy card stock (Stampin' Up!); Classic Crest Solar White 110 lb. card stock (Neenah)

Ink: Night of Navy Classic Ink (Stampin' Up!)

Scripture Inspiration

Today I want to share a couple of cards I made with stamps from the new Scripture Series 3 set from Our Daily Bread Designs.  This set is very special to me as I contributed one of the verses for it!  The verse stamped on this first card was my contribution, and as a special treat, I was able to make this card for the September release on their blog:

 

This verse has been one of my favorites since I was a teenager and always brings me comfort in the midst of difficulty.  I highlighted it with mulberry paper, which is one of my favorite papers to use. 

 

I love the combination of purple, silver and white in my cards. In fact, I liked it so much that I made another card using the same color combo and a different verse from the same collection:

I hope these verses inspire your day the way they have inspired mine!  Thanks for visiting!