Valentine for our Daughter! YEP--That's BIG NEWS!

A Valentine's day card for...OUR DAUGHTER!!! Yep--so, I have some BIG news!!! Mine and Hubby's family has grown exponentially in the last month!
Click below to read more and see the card!



So our family has grown BIG in a matter of months! Not only by way of news that Hubby's Sister is finally having a GIRL (her 6th child) and that our first Nephew (her Son) is also expecting his 2nd child, finally a BOY, but Hubby Hazen and I have also gained a Daughter OF OUR OWN, along with 6, yes SIX Grand Babies!!!!!!

As many of my followers (along with family and friends) know, I was not medically able to give Hubby Hazen biological children due to suffering for years from a severe case of PCOS. This was very sad for us to go through, but we've never given up hope that in some way, some form, we'd still eventually have a child/children to call our own, whether by way of surrogate or adoption.

So, in December of 2018 our long, once thought lost, dream came true! I received a friends request from Tiff on Facebook, out of the blue with no private message to accompany it. I immediately accepted it and sent her a private message. We talked for a few hours about stuff and it was an immediate re-connection as if not a day had gone by since last speaking to her. She's been calling us Ma and Pa and it's been non-stop daily communication ever since! On January 19, 2019 we verbally adopted Tiff and made a big announcement on FB to all of our family and friends and now we are working towards legal proceedings to make this a full legal family unit. You see, things are a bit wonky. Tiff had a child with our ex-communicated adopted Son (long story--fall out leading to a situation that is sadly, at this time not repairable due to his own bad life choices. Not that Hubby and I haven't tried to repair things and help him, but he isn't willing to accept the help and he just wants to continue to make bad and self-destructive life choices that make him out of reach for assistance. This isn't to say that we don't still love him, and if he chooses to come back to us we'll gladly accept him home, but at this point in time, it's a decision he will have to make to improve his own life). Tiff grew up without ANY type of family of her own (sorry I can't go into details, but it's just a bit too personal) and has always wanted and desperately needed a family who truly loves and cares for her. Before we moved away from Kentucky we met her right after she gave birth to our Grandson. The situation she was in wasn't great and she was going through a very difficult time in her life and we were fully prepared to jump in and put forth full support. But sadly, shortly after, our living situation changed and we had to move out of State. During that period of our life we lost touch for a while.
Tiff is Mama to our 6 Grand Babies: Gavyn (through our ex-communicated Son), Jameson (7), Macey (5), Raiden (4), Cambria (1) and Kenyon (10 mo.). So, as you can tell, mine and Hubby's family unit grew large quickly, and we couldn't be happier!!! For now, we are living in a townhouse 2 1/2 hours away from her, but our lease is up this coming July so we'll be moving into a house closer to her and the kiddo's. We'll be living back out in the Country near the lake in the town we used to live in. We're very happy about this and can't wait for all the great things to come. Birthday's, Holiday's ohhhh boy!!!!!

Sooooooo anyhow, now that you know that EXCITING NEWS--besides the Valentine's cards that we made for all the Grand Babies and all of our Nephews (on both mine and Hubby's side of the family), I had to make a card for Tiff, too. I personally, (and this may be a little bias) think that this is the MOST IMPORTANT Valentine's day card Tiff has ever (or will ever) receive(d)! Not just because it's a card from 2 people who truly love her, but because it's literally the first card she's ever gotten from a Mother and a Father!

I really did want to make something more fancy, but after thinking about it, I decided to make something that was sweet, simple and BOLDLY stated our feelings. Here's what I made her:


The card base is cream cardstock (though it doesn't really look cream in the photo, lol). I used a 12" x 12" sheet of SU! deco paper (don't remember the name of it, I just had a few loose sheets in my stash) for the bottom decorative floral strip and I topped that with the zig-zag deco paper from a Recollections 6" x 6" paper pad.
The floral and zig-zag sheets are mounted on top of CTMH Desert Sand (brown) cardstock and then wrapped with a single line of SU! Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon. As I always do, I just cut it long enough to wrap right around the 2 edges of the card back and taped it down with Zots (this way I'm not wasting a ton of ribbon by letting it wrap around the WHOLE card). I took another long strand of ribbon and tied it in a bow around the original single strand of ribbon (this also saves a lot of ribbon).

I stamped the sentiment "Love You" in SU! Pink Passion ink. I'm not sure what stamp set the sentiment is from as it is just in my bowl of loose stamps that I don't have full sets for. I used SU! Chocolate Chip to stamp a border around the sentiment (again, not sure what set it's from, just on a sheet of a ton of different borders I have). I did this all white cardstock and mounted it on a small piece of SU! Certainly Celery cardstock. The inside of the card is not decorated because I wanted to leave the whole card base inside blank so I'd have enough room to write everything we were thinking and wanted to say to Tiff for her first Valentine's card from her Ma and Pa!

I really hope that she likes this card as much as I enjoyed making it for her.
It's a simple card, yet states exactly how we feel at first glance. Of course, she'll have many more of my "fancy" and fun cards to come over the years so I didn't feel bad for making this one a simple card that just gets right to the point!

I did like how this card turned out, and I usually do when I really like how something turns out, I duplicated it. I was kinda torn on whether or not to duplicate this card, because it has a very special meaning, but I figured Tiff wouldn't mind because it is such a cute card with a bold statement being made. I duplicated the card 4 times. I will probably put them up for sale because I don't want to give this special card to anyone that I personally know since I did originally only make 1 especially for Tiff and with only her in mind (so if you're interested, let me know and I'll give you a discounted price for BULK purchase and s/h).

Well, that's it for this card! I will be posting the kid's Valentine's cards next, which will be a picture heavy post, so be sure to come back and check out all the fun ones Hubby and I made! :)

Thanks, as always for stopping by to check out my crafts!

Keep on Craftin'
~Melisa Marie