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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