Because of you...

Imagine my surprise.

I found not only this Girls Strolling friendship card with my own message, but also myself, featured in the latest  Cardthartic newsletter.  It brought tears to my eyes.  

I know more than ever that what I do, what I write is because of you, the friends and family I have known all my life...and those I wish I had.

Thank you, Cardthartic.

An Official "Cardie"

It's official.  One of my card messages was published, and my profile is now up as one of the Contributing Cardies at Cardthartic.  I'm excited--and blessed--to be in such company.

I've always loved writing--writing poems and stories and letters.  Ideas come to me best when I'm cleaning.  I'll have to stop mid-vacuuming and quick scribble in a notebook again and again.  

But the words don't always come right when I want them.

This past Christmas I was afraid the words wouldn't come at all.  I had a few lines in mind, but nothing else would fit.  I struggled from every angle, trying to yank words out of this air and squeeze them into some sort of rhyme and meter.  Nothing.  Finally, after confiding my worries to Cousin Denny and finding his warm reply, I came up with a little something.  It wasn't good.  I wasn't thrilled.  But it would do.

Then a day or two later, when I thought I'd given up on even thinking about it, I was cleaning up in the evening, and lines kept falling into my lap.  Good lines.  Lines that actually said what I wanted to say for my dad.

Here's to cards and letters and "Cardies" everywhere.

Inspired by Altenew

I feel like this is Friday, since I've been finishing things today.

First of all, I squeezed in a little time to do a little "homework" for the short course I've been taking:  

Altenew Academy-All About Layering 3, while also making an entry for the 

Altenew Inspiration Challenge

For my card I immediately imagined using Altenew's Stunning Cosmos stamp set.  I don't have the matching dies, so after stamping the layers I carefully cut out the flowers.

I did the lettering with a white Gelly Roll pen.

I thought about pulling out my white calligraphy ink, but since I had a piece to letter for a customer in black, I didn't want to have to scrub that nib first.

The other thing I finished today was this calligraphy for my client.  Here's a photo before I added the personal message on the bottom for her.

Thanks for stopping by!

Watching over me in 2019

I got a Christmas card in yesterday's mail--all that much dearer because it came now and because of the precious words written there. 

Mother and I just took the tree down the day before.

It's always a much sadder job than putting it up, which we do right after Halloween.  The anticipation is no longer there.  The days are already lengthening, and I can feel the evenings slipping through my fingers far too quickly.

 It's time to say goodbye for now to dear things, like Grandpa's beads, the snowman ornament Aunt Norma gave me, the little plastic red Santa ornament Mother got at the town Christmas parade when she was a little girl (his pack was filled with candy), the tiny stocking Aunt Dorothy painted for Mother so long ago, the manger scene Father Cullen gave everyone in my class years ago (I always hang it in front of a light, so that can shine through the little cut-out star.).  

Everything is packed away now in layers of tissue paper.

This year we didn't break anything, and I didn't forget to put the tree stand in the box like last year.

Last year I was determined to learn something new, to take up more challenges.  I didn't happen quite the way I planned.  Oh, there were challenges, but not the kind I expected.

This is a new year. 

When I saw a free course offered from Altenew Academy, I grabbed it up.  Didn't really matter what it was.  I wanted to push myself to do something a little different. So here I am.

With a nod to Lydia Evans's "Sweet Rose Bouquet" card on All About Layering 3- Day 1, I created my own get well card.

While I often turn to vellum when creating cards, she inspired me to use it in a different way.  I don't have the same frame die set Lydia used, but I decided to create a frame of sorts with the flowers themselves--something fairly simple to set off a message.

Altenew's Wildflower Garden set stamped beautifully on vellum.  It needed a little extra drying time before using the matching die-cuts, but I simply shifted over to another project for a while. Once my pieces were cut, I kept rearranging them over a piece of plain pink cardstock, but I wasn't pleased.  

This piece from a watercolor stack by Momenta just begged to be used.  There's only one dilemma.  The splashes of gold are difficult to stamp or write over, but I didn't want to cover them up with another layer, either.  That would defeat the purpose and spoil the look.

Vellum to the rescue!

I die cut an oval of vellum and (since I already had sumi ink and a fine nib ready for a client's calligraphy rough draft) calligraphed a short message.  

I almost wept for joy.  The ink wrote so smoothly, keeping the fine details of each letter, and it dried almost immediately, even on the vellum.

.............

That Christmas card I hugged close to me said, at the closing, 

"May God watch over you in 2019."

I feel like he will.