A Card for a "Dear Friend"

Hey there crafters! WHEWWWWWWWW!!! I know it's been a very long while since I've been here with a CRAFTY update for y'all, but life has been very hectic and a lot of health issues going on for both Hubby Hazen and I and I honestly haven't had any time to craft.

But, this past week I've been a busy crafty chick! I've managed to get 7 cards done done this past weekend along with 13 Valentine's flat double sided cards for mine and hubby's nephew's, great niece and great nephew and our grand babies (ohhhhhhh------YES!!! That's a whole other post all for itself--watch for a "Life Event" post to come shortly! GREAT NEWS!!!!!). On top of that, I managed to get over 80 images stamped and 30 die cuts done for swaps in a few crafting groups! YEP, I told ya I've been a busy crafty chick!!!

Anyhow, on to THIS CARD! A dear friend of mine recently gave us the news that, after a few years of continuous respiratory issues and several battles with pneumonia, she's just been diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer. This was very difficult news for me to hear as last year I lost another very dear friend to Cystic Fibrosis. That wasn't so difficult because she was in Hospice and we knew it was coming, but to hear about this dear friend of mine being given this horrible news I was very upset. I think it's more upsetting because she has been dealing with respiratory issues for the last 2 years or so and with as many x-rays, ct's etc. that she's had, they really should have caught it before now. But, her doctor did tell her that with it being stage 4, she still has a lot of long years ahead of her with the proper treatment! I was SO glad to hear this. So, to brighten her spirit I wanted to make her a card that showed her how much her friendship means to me. The card came out really cute, it's a card that I've made a version of in the past, I just changed a few things and added a couple other details and used one of my favorite "friendship" quotes on the inside.

So, click below to see the card!


This is a 6" x 6" card. The main base of the card is brown cardstock and the top deco layer of the card is from an Authentique paper pad. I trimmed it down on the top and side so that it would fit nicely over the main card base.
I am not sure what the name of the Doily die cut is behind the owl because I had that in my stash from when I cut a TON of them in different colors when at a friends house for a crafting weekend a few years ago. (If you know the name of it, please let me know!)

This adorable little owl is a mini stamp from KAISERCRAFT (Item CS951 Owl). I colored her with prismacolor pencils and blended with gamsol. I think she is so cute! I just love the flowers on her wings and that earring she is wearing is ADORABLE. I know it's hard to see, and I tried to get the BEST picture possible, but I had such a hard time...I used "Golden Rod" stickles to outline her earring. It turned out SO cute, and it really does stand out on the card, as it completely covered the black from the stamping of the image. In addition, I used dots of "Star Dust" stickles on the middles of each of the flowers on her wings and also to outline the heart.
I used Glossy Accents to cover her eyeballs, beak, feet and the middle of the heart.

 It's a bit hard to tell the true color, but the gem I adhered to the middle of the layers Prima paper flowers is a Gold color, but a bit deeper like an Umber, but not as dark/deep as a Burnt Umber. It's the closest thing I had to gold without actually painting it with Gold paint (which I've done in the past, and the gems seem to lose their shine and they just look kinda flat--bleh!).

For the sentiment, I used SU! Pixie Pink and the sentiment stamp from the SU! "Birthday Blooms" set. It's a very versatile set that can be used not only for Birthday cards but really for any type of Thinking of You card, or Get Well card, etc. and the versatility of the 3 flowers in the set are awesome for any type of card or scrapbooking as well!
The sentiment is cut with a small Spellbinders Oval and placed on top of a Spellbinders Label die cut. I used the "Golden Rod" stickles and did a few dots of it on each of the 2 ends of the swirls (VERY hard to see in the pic, sorry! But, it's very visible and cute on the card itself!) and 2 dots on each of the little tabs on the left and right side.

For the inside of the card I layered white cardstock on top of the brown card base. I used the SU! "Birthday Blooms" set again, using the single mini flower to make a cluster in the top corner and the hearts border to line the bottom of the card. And of course, my FAVORITE part that completes this card is one of my favorite quotes from Henry David Thoreau, from the "Language of Friendship" SU! set.

Well, I really hope that my friend D likes this card. She used to be a SU! Demonstrator so I think she'll appreciate all of the different ways I've used a single SU! set throughout the card.

Thanks for stopping by, be sure to check back shortly as I have quite a few other posts to make with lots of crafty fun stuff!

Keep on Craftin'
~Melisa Marie