Rollercoaster week

Sorry I've been MIA. Last week was one heck of a week! First of all there was an earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand! Did I ever tell you that my brother and his family live in Christchurch? No? Well, he does.
Luckily for him (and us) he wasn't at work on Tuesday because he was off sick with gastroenteritis. My brother's work place is in downtown Christchurch and the earthquake destroyed his building trapping some  co-workers until they could be rescued. Two of his team are still missing! On the morning of the quake he was at the doctors with my sister-in-law and I am soooo glad that he got sick (so are they!) Atfer the doctors they had decided to go into town to the library to return a book, but my brother forgot to take the book with him so they decided to go to a their local library and check out the books there. This is where they were when the quake hit at 12.50 instead of the downtown library which got seriously damaged. Someone up there was looking out for them (twice) and I am really grateful! Our hearts go out to all those who lost loved ones!

Sadly, we had bad news this week anyway. On Thursday evening we got a phone call informing us that my husband's brother-in-law had just died of heart failure while playing sports, at only 53 years of age leaving four children ages 23-10 years old. This was so unexpected and we are still in shock!
The funeral will take place on Wednesday. I cannot grasp the feelings that they all must be having. It makes me even more grateful for what I have!
I've used all my condolence cards so have to make some more. I wanted something simple yet elegant and I thought about the lovely HA flower stamp that I bought last year (and haven't yet used) and started inking it up and this is what I came up with. I have two more to make.

Card recipe:
Papers: DCWV / HOTP
Stamps. Hero Arts Stencil Flower CG194 / Everyday Sayings CL342
Inks: Memento Tuxedxo Black / Copics: YG03 G82
Punches: Fiskars Lace Border
Ribbon: Knorr prandell
Flat back pearl and doily from my stash

Thanks for listening to my ramblings and wish you all a lovely Monday. Hug your loved one because you never know what is around the corner!

Hugs to you all,
Becca

Lilac sympathies

Yes, another post from me! Two in one day - don't go into shock now! LOL!

On a sad note - a friend of ours died on Friday after a painful battle of cancer and although we are sad at her going, we are glad that she could finally go as she was in so much pain. Our thoughts and prayers are with her husband and her seven children.
I made this card for her husband and I still have to make one for the daughter who I am close to. I decided to copy one of my previous designs (see it here) and just modified it a little. Why re-invent the wheel when it works!

I clear embossed the HA Designblock Silhouette stamp onto a white card and wet distressed with perfect pearls using shabby shutters, peeled paint, milled lavendar and dusty concord. I then used the applicator with the same colours to fill in the gaps and the edges. The sentiment  from the HA CL342 Everyday Sayings was stamped with chestnut roan Colorbox chalk ink and distressed with milled lavendar ink. I used lilac and brown ribbon from Knorr Prandell and 5 lilac rhinestones. The butterfly is digital and is coloured with shabby shutters.

I love the effect the clear embossing and distress inks have on this stamp; I now have to try it out with different colours.

Thanks for stopping by. I would love to hear from you so please leave a comment.

Hugs all,
Becca

Sympathy

I've never made a sympathy card before, I've always gone out and bought them. But this card had to be a bit more special, as it was for my sister-in-law's father who had just lost his wife to cancer this week. I've known my sister-in-law's parents since I was 5 years old, so they feel like extended family to me.

So I put my thinking cap on and went to work and came up with this simple, but hopefully elegant card:

I cut out the frames from the Cricut Storybook cartridge, used HOTP Vintage paper pad and added dimension with foam dots.The stamp I used was the Hero Arts "Silhouette" stamped lightly with Chestnut Roan chalk ink to make it look soft. All the edges were distressed with Walnut Stain and the sentiment is from Melissa Frances "Simply Said" stamp set.


Update: I felt it wasn't finished so I added three small pearls to the stamped flower image. Here's a view of the finished card from the side:

My thoughts and  prayers are with the Hall family.

Hugs,
Becca