Sorrow in Fall

Earlier this week I found out that a friend's brother decided that he could no longer face this life. I'm telling you this because I had a long discussion with *K and her feelings about this. She is a high school teacher and was wondering what she should tell her students (since they know that she lost her brother). We discussed talking about his mental outlook and how he could not see an alternative outcome when there were sooo many other options that he could have chosen (obviously, she would omit any "details"). I told her that I felt she should discuss this, his feelings, her feelings (including the anger) and the repercussions of his decision. That deep of a depression is something that most of us cannot fathom. But it exists. And so often young people (especially teens) face this, but are "brushed off" as being "moody" or are labeled as "just going through a rough time". I feel that if ONE person facing this type of mental battle, even 10~ 15 years down the road, can remember that a teacher shared her feelings and wishes that her brother had reached out for help just ONE (more) time, then maybe it will save THEIR life.

Sorry to have such heavy thoughts starting out the week! But, obviously, sorrow exists in this life and sometimes requires a special thought from us. So, here is the card that I made yesterday (on rather short notice as I decided to hand deliver vs. send it in the mail).

(Once again, I will apologize for the EXCELLENT photography of this card. Since the "creator" procrastinated until the last minute in making the card, the "photographer" was not able to re-take shots once the "proofs" were viewed on a larger scale on the computer screen)

I FINALLY broke down and bought a "sympathy" set. I have been wanting to make one of these tri shutter fold cards since it was a challenge on SCS. I went to the resources page and found the directions here. I have had this retired vellum from SU for about 3-4 years!! I wanted to use it as I LOVE the paper and I felt the leaves repeated the main image theme. I pulled out some wonderful dark metallic brown/copper paper, also retired from SU and managed to ruin one 12x 12 sheet by first making my slit wrong (I probably could have made it work, but that time crunch thing!!) and then scoring incorrectly (the Scor-Pal is wonderful...but if someone is rushing and scores incorrectly, it won't fix it! hehe) I then proceeded to stamp and emboss the main image using Encore copper metallic ink and copper embossing powder. I used my Spellbinders nestie ovals to cut out and emboss the main image (mind you, the above process was NOT a one shot deal. This took me at least 5 times to get right... I managed to rock the stamp a couple of times, ruined my embossing and cut/embossed the image crooked. Why is it what when you have a timer ticking, EVERYTHING goes wrong?!!). The vellum DP was layered over a small whisper white mat using vellum tape. The little scalloped edges on the two long panels have some piercing. The sentiment was also stamped and embossed using the copper ink and embossing powder and cut/embossed using one of my square nesties. I'm really bummed that the little details like the sparkle of the main background paper and the embossing details didn't show up in the photos. Oh well. Maybe someday I'll learn to get these things done in a timely manner so that I can take the proper time to photograph! (bwhhaaaa!! I crack myself up! That is SOOO likely to never happen!)

All in all I'd give this a personal rating of **** out of ***** stars. I like the clean and simple look, and IRL, the sparkle, and little details. And I gave myself an extra star for just getting it done! (wink!!)

This is one project of the three that are being worked on. Off to finish project number 2!!

Thanks for dropping by. And remember~~listen to your loved ones and friends. Take seriously the troubles they share as they may be reaching for help. And give them a hug. Each day is precious!!

Sympathy

I find sympathy cards TERRIBLY hard to make. I don't want to over do them (doesn't seem to be appropriate) yet, I want them to be meaningful. I don't own any sympathy sets. I think in my own mind I've convinced myself that if I don't own any sympathy sets, I won't have to use them (wacked, I know....it's a denial thing!!).

But reality is, that in this world, sympathy cards are needed. Last weekend a friend lost 9 immediate members of her family along with 5 close friends in a private plane crash. They were all meeting in Montana for a ski trip for the kiddos. Seven of those lost were children under the age of 10. My heart just hurts thinking of this. I struggled with this card all day Friday and finally came up with this

This card is a 5x5 square card. I did the faux "bleach" technique (because I'm the only person on this planet who cannot get paper to bleach (but will ruin another shirt in trying!!). I stamped the grass then the flowers in versamark on Gina K's 120# luxury paper. Then I used clear embossing powder to emboss the images. *helpful hint: make sure your powder pal tray is REALLY clean before dumping in a new ep/glitter, etc. My clear ep now has little flecks of whoknowswhat in it and it kinda ruins the CLEAN look that this technique is suppose to have! I then used LARGE stipple brush to put on my colors, starting with the lightest at the bottom and working my way to the darker colors (that way, I use just one brush!! Lazy stamper!!). I then covered my image with a scrap piece of paper, put it on my craft sheet and then ironed it on high until the ep melted onto the paper.

Now of course I had other problems with this image. This is actually the SECOND one. The first is layered underneath. The first one had no black layer. Felt it was missing something and I tried messing with some ribbon (of course, the image was already taped down, so I was going to have to come up with a different ribbon treatment). Welllll, the sentiment SMEARED over the embossed area when I was messing around. I don't know if it just hadn't dried over the now slightly glossy area or what! So when I stamped this sentiment, I HEAT set it (and of course, got it too far to the right, but I was NOT going to do this a third time!). Matted with the black, added the ribbon and matted that to Gina's 120# luxury paper.

Please keep my friend and her family in your thoughts (and if you pray, in your prayers). This was a very close knit family and they will need all the comfort from here and above that they can get to deal with this.

Supplies: Stamps: SU's Inspired by Nature, Warmest Regards. Paper: Gina K's 120# Pure luxury, Basic Black. Inks: SU's Apricot Appeal, Tangerine Tango, Really Rust, Ruby Red. Accessories: Clear EP, heat gun, iron, ribbon, stampamajig.