World Card Making Day!

Isn't it so cool that we card makers have our very own special day?! I love it! It's a celebration and it's also a wonderful excuse to use, for not cleaning my house today! Yay! (hee, hee!) :)

So far, I've made two cards for the occasion. Both use the same stamp and both are also for the Hero Arts October challenge, which is Holiday cards.

I bought this little woodblock Christmas tree, thinking I'd enjoy using it. Well, now I can't seem to put it down! It's from Hero Arts and it's called Branch and Flourish Tree. I love pink, green and blue so I wanted to use all three on this first card. The papers are from a Webster's Pages pack and the snowflakes are from Hero Arts. They started out white and I inked them up with a mix of distress inks and perfect pearls.



For my second card today, I used another favorite color combo that I love to use for Christmas. I think the burgundy and darker green colors are so classy looking for the season.



I've never made an inchie/grid design and thought it would be fun to try. Both papers are again from a Webster's Pages pack. Love the ones they came out with for Christmas! I used Stickles for the red dots and the sentiment is from Hero Arts.

I hope you all have time to make some cards today! Hero Arts has a wonderful challenge going on all weekend to celebrate! Make sure and stop by their blog for all the details! You can win some Hero Arts stamps. . . .nothin' better than that! :)

Dear Friend

Happy Friday everyone!

I have a special post today. One that honors a good friend of mine. Her name is also Barb. I met her years ago at work. We became fast friends and loved working with each other! She was my confidant, my partner in crime, my best bud and my second mom. She is almost 20 years older than me and I've never met anyone with such a dry sense of humor! Oh my goodness, she could make me laugh!

A year ago May, 2009, she was at work and didn't feel well. She sat down and said, "Something's not right, I think I need an ambulance." That was the last time I saw her. Not because she died, but because her family has too much pride to let her be seen by anyone now that she is not "normal." That night at work, she had a heart attack and since then has had several small strokes and many other problems, too long to explain here. I see her daughter in the store once in awhile and when I ask about Barb, she is always very vague and will not give out too much information.

Since I knew her children would probably never let anyone visit, I decided I was going to send her a card, once a week. Another reason for doing this, is that when someone goes away, or dies, we feel sad for awhile but life goes on and that person is mostly forgotten. We stop talking about them and even think about them less and less. I know that life is suppose to go on and that's okay. It's just that I didn't want her to feel like everyone had forgotten about her. This way, she knows that I'm still thinking about her, still missing her everyday and still love her.

Many of the cards you've seen in my Flickr Photostream this past year have been sent to my dear friend, Barb. This one that I made yesterday, will be mailed to her today.




I've been told by her daughter that she does love my cards, so at least I can hope they've made a difference.

Thanks for stopping by and for reading this long post. I so appreciate it!