Father's Day

It's been another eventful week one of good news and of bad.

My friend is continuing to make progress after her stroke although she is still unable to stand up on her own as she has been left with severe vertigo. She has had a visit from a Doctor from the Rehab Centre and they have said that as soon as a bed is available she will be transferred. She is desperate to get more intensive physio as she is wanting home soonest - unfortunately soonest is likely going to be longer than she wants.

Her Brother-in-Law, who had been in a coma for 3 weeks, unfortunately lost his battle last Monday evening. His 15 year old daughter had already started fundraising for the ICU where he was being cared for and it was planned that she, along with her Highland Dance school friends, would dance over the Forth Road Bridge on Father's Day. Everyone thought it would be cancelled but no, she bravely went on with her fundraising event.  That's one gutsy young lady & her Dad would be rightly proud of her!

I decided to use this week's Freshly Made Sketches Challenge as the basis for the Father's Day card my son commissioned from me and also for a Birthday Card.

After making the dandelion card last week the main dandelion die disappeared, been searching high and low for it for a week.  Couldn't understand how it could vanish into thin air.  Fast forward to Saturday when I was making the Father's Day card and got out my Tonic Studio nesting dies to create the background. Once I finished using them I was putting them back into their packaging and felt something on the back of the magnetic sheet - yep, it was the dandelion die!

I Used

Cardstock

White 300 gsm - Fabiano

Colours - Trim Craft

Stamps, Inks & Dies

Dog from "Bubbly" Stamp Set - Penny Black

Gathered Twigs Distress Ink Pad - Tim Holtz

Scalloped Rectangle Nesting Die Set - Tonic Studios 

Tim Holtz Stitched Ovals - Sizzix

For this Birthday card I used another Penny Black Stamp also from the "Bubbly" set. I went for the "Birthday Wishes" sentiment rather than a "Happy Birthday" as the impatient patient isn't a very happy bunny at the moment!

I Used

Cardstock

White 300 gsm - Fabiano

Stamps, Inks & Dies

Party Cat from "Bubbly" set - Penny Black

Birthday Wishes - Personal Impressions

Assorted Tim Holtz Distress Inks

Assorted Promarkers

Tim Holtz Mixed Media #2 - Sizzix

Tim Holtz Stitched Ovals - Sizzix

*****

One final card this week is a variation on one I made for a previous sketch. While I was doing the earlier version I realised it would be nice as a sympathy card - didn't dream I would need to make it quite so soon!

I slightly darkened the colours and instead of the round gems I used smaller tear drop shaped ones. The sentiment is by Cheery Lynn and was cut from card which had been shaded to match the feather background.

  

Friends

I do wish that the weather would make up it's mind what it wants to be! Just when you start to dream that a sunny summer could be just around the corner, a few days of heavy rain bring you back to reality!

I've been telling hubby for a while now not to put bread on the patio for the birds as it's not the best thing for them to eat. Finally I found an article on the subject and that, plus the heavy rain causing the bread to make a soggy mess on the patio which I made him clear up, he decided to stop it.  In return I bought some special wild bird food balls that he could put out for them. Neither of us could believe how hungry our fine feathered friends are, they may be wee but they've gone through one ball every other day & I'm now down to the last one - something else for the weekly shopping list!

I thought I had my card for this week's Freshly Made Sketches Challenge sorted out - oh how wrong could I be when I realised, after I'd made it, that I had used the exact same stamps I'd used a few weeks ago! Ah well, it was back to the drawing board to come up with a new card to fit in with this week's sketch:

The original card I came up with used stamps from the Penny Black "You're Retro" set. I used some Spray Distress Inks to create the multi-coloured back layer:

I Used

Cardstock

White 300gsm - Fabiano

Blue - Crelando

Stamps

You're Retro Stamp set - Penny Black

Inks
Distress Inks - Tim Holtz

Promarkers - Letraset / Winsor & Newton

Once I'd realised what I'd done I started looking through my crafty stash to see what I had and found a Darice embossing folder "Feathers on Side" and decided to try something with that.

I thought instead of using different layers I would try using different colours on the same piece of card and used a highlighted part of the design to form the area where the dark strip is in the sketch. Once the Distress Inks (Salty Ocean, Peacock Feathers & Seedless Preserves) were on I used some Starlight Gelly Roll pen over metallic Promarker to create the highlighted area. The sentiment was stamped using clear Versamark and set using silver embossing powder.

I had problems trying to get photos which showed the embossed stamp in the correct colour- some made them look black instead of silver, whilst not the best, these hopefully these show the detail.

I Used

Cardstock

White 300gsm - Fabiano

Stamps

True Friendship Stamp set - Kaisercraft

Inks
Distress Inks - Tim Holtz

Promarkers - Letraset/Winsor & Newton

Gelly Roll - Sakura