Sending Sympathy and Prayers

The company I used to work for (and recently returned to do some contract work for) experienced a layoff in January and the sweet receptionist, Melissa, was unfortunately one of those let go.  Melissa is a single mom, so the loss of income was very concerning.  In and amongst all this change, her mom turned sick (she'd been ill off and on for the past year) and passed away three weeks after the layoff.  Melissa had found another position by that point, but the loss of her mom has been deeply felt and certainly has affected Melissa's ability to work.  Fortunately, the new company has a very big and understanding management, so they've allow Melissa some time to deal with things.  My heart feels wretched for her losses- they seem too many even from the distance of a co-worker.  I wanted to send my heartfelt sympathy for her loss so I made this card.

 

I had this little embossed scrap of white paper hanging around and it seemed the perfect frame for my glitter butterfly.  The embossing folder is Brandy's and I had ran the piece of white cardstock through her Grand Calibur at a crafting evening months ago.  Instructions for making the butterfly can be found in this post.   I used Scattered Straw, Worn Lipstick and Peeled Paint Distress Ink with my blending tool to created the multi-colored background.  Everything is edged with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  The fiber and pearls were from the scrap heap, I mean, Scrapbox.  

I'm sending my prayers to Melissa, her daughter Jullian and the entire family.  Loss is hard.  This is what I can do.

Andie

More Art Glitter Fun- Glitter Lace

This splendid little card was inspired by our recent trip to the Art Institute Glitter company in Cottonwood, Arizona.  The card came together while doing some glitter art experimenting. 

The background was accomplished using a piece of fabric lace following Barbara Trombley's instructional video.  This is a super easy technique basically following this formula:

1.  Run a piece of cardstock through the Xyron sticker maker (or any other adhesive that lays a consistent, all covering layer of adhesive).
2. Remove the protective covering exposing the sticky side of the cardstock.  Adhere a piece of fabric lace to the cardstock smoothing all edges and making sure the lace is flat to the cardstock.
3. In this case, I applied the lighter pink microfine glitter to the lace and lightly tamped down to make sure the glitter was stuck in the exposed nooks and crannies of the lace.
4. After shaking off the excess light pink glitter, I removed the lace from the cardstock exposing the positive images of the lace which still had a considerable layer of adhesive remaining.  I then sprinkled the darker pink microfine glitter over the entire piece of cardstock and removed the excess.  What you get as a result is this fabulously glimmery background for your card.

The same could be done with a transparent crystal glitter for the negative images (i.e., step 2) and a brighter color for the positive images (i.e., step 4). 


The butterfly was made by stamping the image using black Archival Ink on a piece of white cardstock.  I used a glue pen to adhere each color onto the butterfly in turn, starting with the darker pink first and then applying the lighter pink.  The butterfly was fussy cut out to create this fabulous 3D effect.  The flower was done in much the same fashion and also fussy cut to adhere to the card.  The background behind these two embellishments  is a good example of bad experiments that are put to good use.  I attempted to stamp using an old glue pad.  After the glitter was in place (this case a combination of light and dark pink), I used a paint brush "dust" away the excess glitter.  This completely disrupted the image, utterly ruining my finished result (which looked great by the way!). 

The good part is that some glitter randomly adhered to the cardstock.  Don't ask me to explain, I'm still not sure what I did wrong.  Either which way, I decided to edge the piece behind in the darker pink glitter using a wet glue to create some texture and make a frame for my embellishments.  I am pleased with how this finally turned out and couldn't be happier with the ultimate result.  I have had a great time exploring glitter again and would encourage you to check their products out.

Art Glitter Institute

Andie