What a Blessing

I happened to order Papertrey Ink's Beautiful Berries stamp and die set and I'm having a ball getting familiar with it.  I had prepped some of the card fronts for these cards by using my Mission Gold watercolors and then saw this post by Sandy Allnock.  My immediate thought was that I would use these cards to join the effort at encouraging those in Texas.

The berries were stamped using my brown Archival ink and Hero Arts inks in yellow and orange.  This layering stamp is one of the easiest I've used to create an image.  The die was quick and easy to align to create the branch.

On this card, I changed it up by using my Starry Colors watercolors just to see what would happen with a bit of shimmer in the ink.  I like this version, too, but didn't think it was a bunch different.

I did try cutting the sentiment out with some foam sheets and glitter paper.  Not sure this was the easiest thing to do, but the finish was nice.  I also changed up the colors of ink - went for a Hero Arts plum color.

In the end, I couldn't find my favorite so I addressed all these cards to one of the first responder stations from Sandy's list and mailed them out with a handwritten note expressing my concerns and encouragement - I'm praying for them and their communities.  This was two weeks ago now (I've been a busy crafter, not a busy blogger!).

That's not where the story ends.  I am amazed at people's response in these times of stress and trouble.  I meant to encourage and didn't expect any acknowledgement in return.  Low and behold look what showed up in my mailbox earlier this week:


Once of the police stations wrote a handwritten note back to me, thanking me for my kind note and giving me this honorary patch.  Way more than anyone could expect!  I'm humbled and honored and ever so glad that I joined the effort.