Friendship

It's been a few weeks since I've posted anything but things took an unexpected turn and there has been a lot happening.

A couple of weeks ago, and within the space of twenty-four hours, both my friend and her Brother-in-Law were rushed to hospital. My friend suffered a stroke less than 20 hours after her Brother-in-Law had a massive brain haemorrhage - needless to say it's been a rough time for her family.  Her B-i-L was being transferred to a hospital 30 miles away as she was in the ambulance going to the one he was leaving.

Both are currently still in hospital, however, things are beginning to settle down now and everyone is now getting in a routine. Instead now of taking my friend shopping or for a coffee it's visiting time with the impatient patient at the hospital - she has told me that as soon as she's able I've to take her on a good day out, but not to Hobbycraft (as if!).

I decided to try this week's Freshly Made Sketches Challenge 

not sure if this first card fits the sketch - perhaps it is a loose interpretation, but then again . . . maybe not!

I've used three dandelion stems instead of the first three oblongs:

I used Spellbinders D'Lites Dandelion die set cut from black cardstock which was highlighted using Cosmic Shimmer Gilding Wax (Pearl Moon and Golden Green). The  sentiment stamp was from a Kaisercraft set. 

I thought I'd try something a little closer to the sketch the dandelion one and used my Cheery Lynn Pierced Banner die set for this one:

Tim Holtz Distress Inks were used to create two separate backgrounds one shades of blue and the other combining various blues, yellows and orange. The plain blue was used as the background and the other used to cut the banners and Happy Birthday from. The Creative Expressions Happy Birthday was cut twice, the first was coated with clear embossing powder but didn't seem to stand out enough so I cut a second and used a gold embossing powder which I layered it over the first to create a drop shadow. The ribbon was also coloured using the Distress Inks.