A Last Gift, part two

Time and again,

our hearts get broken,

and still we going on living...

and loving.

When Dad passed away we received flowers and cards from family and friends, new and old.  Mark's wife, Loretta, sent over two homemade suppers.  Bless her heart!  Then after Dad's graveside service down in Fredonia in late September, there were more people Mother and I both wanted to write.

So I needed another easy-to-duplicate design.

I turned to my new stamps delivered from Altenew.  I recently discovered these stamps and dies.  Mother and I looked through their site together and placed an order.  Not only that, but I came across the October 2018 Inspiration Challenge.  Perfect timing.

 Immediately I knew the Cosmos stamp set done up with deep oranges would look autumn-ish and abundantly thankful, which was how I often felt as I was writing.

I used the Tim Hotz stamping platform Mother gave me last Christmas, lined up these flowers--sometimes on plain ivory cardstock, sometimes on patterned scraps--and stamped the various layers in deepening shades of orange, green and brown.  I then trimmed the paper to leave a clean border.  (For 5 x 7 cards, I left a good half-inch border all around; for 4 x 5 1/2-inch cards, I made a much smaller border.)  I inked around the stamped piece before gluing to the front of a card.

I made a few different versions of these, some using thank-you stamps from Altenew, others using my own calligraphy.  I think this one with the watercolor background was one of my favorites.  

Making these, I could almost feel a morning breeze whispering through dewy flowers.

Cardstock:  ivory, Watercolor Splash stack (Momenta)

Stamps:  Stunning Cosmos set (Altenew) Thanks Around the World set (Altenew)

Dye inks:  orange, green, brown (Imagine Crafts)

Chalk ink: orange (Clearsnap)

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A Last Gift

I never knew it would be so hard to say "goodbye" to a life that's always been a part of my life.

These were the hardest cards to begin.

Dad passed away in the early hour of September 5th, and amid all the other things that needed to be done--decisions to be made, places to be notified-- I needed a lot of thank-you cards.  Fast.

At first it seemed like a good idea to create one design and copy it on the computer.  It sounded easy.  It wasn't.  I tried three or four times and hated the results.  I felt like a failure.

I cleared all those attempts away, sat down and started fresh...on one single card.

Dad grew up on a farm near Severy, Kansas, driving the horses to plough the fields when he was six years old.  So I wanted to image of a sunrise or sunset.  Digging through my box of stamps, I picked out these wildflowers from Inkadinkado to use as a silhouette.

However, they wouldn't cover a whole width of card, even a small one, so I tried masking, creating a border with masking tape.  Then I sponged sunset colors, using pastels for a soft look.  I stamped thee flowers with black dye ink.

I loved the look, but it was too much trouble.  Too much time and masking tape for 20-30 cards.

Aha!  (Why didn't I think of it before?)  I decided to cut rectangles of cardstock, sponge, stamp, let dry, and then TRIM the edges before adding calligraphy and gluing to a small card front.

I don't remember where I came across this quote from Thoreau, but it seemed fitting.  Not too gushy.
Dad was never a happy man--not with his family.  Since he passed away I found myself mourning the good times we all could have shared...if only...

I wish he could have seen heaven all around him.

These cards were my last gift to him.

You can find them for sale on my Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/listing/639800056/sympathy-cards-set-of-three-condolence?click_key=08953e161bec8a4d0ad7d72da3d8b998634a3df3%3A639800056&click_sum=7bd6e2e3&ref=shop_home_active_24

Cardstock:  Hobby Lobby, Inc.

Ink:  Momenta Tuxedo Black Imagine Crafts/Tsukineko

Stamp:  Meadow Set (Inkadinkado)

Soft pastels (Faber-Castell)

Sumi ink and Brause nib