We have a wonderful dear friend in Atlanta Georgia who’s having a birthday on the 15th. She’s a care giver for her husband who has ALS, also know as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Her husband, Richard, 6 years ago was an amazing advocate and friend for our son Jeff who had been recently diagnosed with ALS. It’s an ugly vicious mean disease that takes everything away from you bit by bit. Jeff passed away three years ago and now Richard is on the fast downhill decline. And that’s why his wonderful wife Lasca needed a Beautiful You birthday card.
I love the image of the dancing girl floating above the trees with gay abandon. I wanted to offer my friend a moment or two of this feeling since she’s really ‘on duty’ 24 hours a day.
Again, on the inside of the card I wrote my message before I photographed it. My ‘flow’ just goes faster than my brain sometimes. I had words in my heart though that I wanted to get onto paper right away.
I used greetings from three stamp sets to get my message across.
Sending Love and hugs to you is from the Beautiful You stamp set.
Courage is from the Ribbon of Courage stamp set.
And the birthday is from the Happy Birthday Gorgeous stamp set.
The balloons are from the Balloon Pop-Up Thinlits Dies (retired) from the 2017 Occasions Catalog.
The layer that I stamped on on the card front is from the Naturally Eclectic Designer Series Paper pack that’ll be retiring on May 31st or as supplies run out, whichever comes first.
One of my favorite techniques is masking and that’s what I used for the floating dancer. I stamped her first using Basic Black classic ink. Then I stamped ‘her’ again on a sticky note and cut her out with my Paper Snips. I layered the sticky post cut out image atop the image stamped onto the page and then stamped the trees from the Lovely as a Tree stamp set using Garden Green classic ink. Remove that sticky note and she is now floating in front of the trees!
I colored her dress and legs and hat using my Blender Pen and the Island Indigo and Blushing Bride classic stamp pads.
The die cut balloons are attached with Dimensionals and the strings are just hand drawn using a Basic Black Stampin’ Marker.
You can find all products used on this card, except the retired ones (sorry), in my Stampin’ Up! store by just clicking on the red links throughout this post. Some items are followed by an * (asterisk) with the message below that they will be retiring on May 31st or when supplies run out, whichever comes first. Question for you: Do you prefer the red links to products throughout a post or a listing with product images and links in a group somewhere in the post?
* These items are ‘last chance’ items, retiring on May 31st and available while supplies last.
Lasca, I hope you receive this Beautiful You birthday card with the love that was enclosed in the envelope.
