Sympathy Card

 Good morning, I hope?  I understand that Sandy has stalled, so will be continuing to wreak havoc on many today.  I hope you are all holding out warm and dry and that any damage to your homes is minimal.  I’m worrying about my niece in New Jersey.  At least living in a high rise should mean that she stays dry! (and please don't tall me if I'm wrong about that...)

I know that we all think that sympathy cards are the hardest to make, but when I realized that I needed a card for the family of a long-time friend, this came immediately to mind.  This man loved and raised horses, and I knew this was perfect for him.  He would have loved this picture.

I have lost the name of the digi artist who drew this wonderful horse.  I’m sorry, I would really love to give her credit.  I thought I knew who it was, but couldn’t locate the picture on her blog or anywhere else.  If you can help, please do.  I’d like to thank her again.  (I should add that that's not a crease in the bottom corner, but a reflection, sorry.)

I used a lovely Kraft paper to print the image on, and the base is a lighter shade of Kraft.  I decided on no embellishments, I think the image is enough.  I did make another version on white.  I think I'll add a touch of color to the horse on that one and perhaps some jute twine.  We'll see.

It is a warm morning here in Montana, very welcome after two weeks of freezing weather.  The weather person is predicting a temp in the mid-50's today, which should do wonders for melting off the 3 or 4 inches of snow that are still on the ground.  My cat spent the night outdoors and after eating went right back out this morning.  He hasn't stirred outside in the last two weeks!  I think he's probably a better predictor of weather than the weatherperson, lol!  Anyway, this cold spell almost made me think I was living in North Dakota again, where the cold and snow begin in October and don't leave until April.  Can't say that I miss that!

My prayers are with everyone in the east or mid-west today.

SiskiyouSue

Challenges I'm entering this card into:

None 

Iguana Wish You...

My son asked me to make a card for a 12-year old, son of his best friend.  I finally settled on something that I hope will tickle his funny bone.  Who knows with a 12-year old.  I'm pretty satisfied with the card, though.  I have two photos, the version that he got and the version without the googly eyes.  I prefer the version without them for the extra color.  I'm going to make another of these cards and think I'll use the googly eyes but maybe I can get a colored version???  

The sentiment is from Create With TLC, but I used a different lizard because I thought it was a little funnier for a boy that age.  Here's the version without the googly eyes:

I'd be interested in your thoughts on the eyes.

Thanks for looking!  Have a nice day.

SiskiyouSue
Challenges I'm entering with this card:
Lady Anne's Challenges
Nutcrafters
Make It Monday

GREEN GRASS!

Wow. There isn't much, but we are seeing a little hint of green in our lawns. Of course, I have to tell you that we have been very lucky here on the Canadian border. About 15 miles south of us it began to snow yesterday. My son who works night shift got home about 8am with at least 2 inches of snow on his car. 90 miles south, Great Falls got about one foot and east of there got TWO FEET. I couldn't believe that we avoided it.

Anyway, I spent a lot of time on this card today. I know, I'm slow. But I wanted to try a couple of challenges (I'm slowly easing into this), and it took a while to figure out how to work with more than one at a time. I'm going to enter it in the Peachy Keen layout challenge, and in Drunken Stampers challenge to use a farm animal. That would have been easy if I hadn't wanted to try the other also. However, you should know that the inside says "Thank EWE" so it really is a farm animal card. Also, this is the first flower I have made. I put it together with a yellow eyelet thinking that it would make a cute center, but I didn't much like it, so I added a button instead. I keep hoping that some of all you crafters will let a little of your design talents rub off on me. I know what I want to do, but I'm never satisfied with the results. Guess I'll just have to keep trying (like I might have quit otherwise... NOT!).

I have to laugh a bit. I looked at the paper with the blue dots and realized that down in the front corner it said "Current" which means that this is part of the stash I found in a box left from the early 90's. When you talk about cleaning up the stuff you aren't using, I'm sure you don't mean putting it in a box and moving it across 3 states then storing it for 10 years! At least, I hope you don't. I'm really enjoying finding things that I hadn't seen for so long, and I hope to never find boxes of "stuff" again.

Hope you all enjoy a wonderful Easter with family and friends. Blessings to each of you!