Handmade Cards

First, I'd like to say thank you again for sending positive thoughts to my dad. He's doing well. They had him on his feet for a few minutes yesterday and then, while I was there, the Physical Therapist came and got him in the chair. And I'll admit, I felt better seeing my dad sitting in a chair!

I went to Borders the other day and bought him the John Adams book which was the basis of the HBO mini series that I'm following. My dad doesn't get excited about too much but that seemed to perk him up a bit. He's had his nose in a book for as far back as I can remember!

My mom is visually impaired and can't drive so my sister and I will be taking mom where she needs to go. I'm getting ready to pick mom up and take her to WalMart so she can get what she needs there.

The rest of the today then, will be a bit of down time for me. My dad will have plenty of visitors today so I'll go see him again tomorrow.

I thought I would share photos of a few cards that I made on Saturday. First are these pansy cards:



I dried some pansies in my microwave between 2 sheets of paper towels. Then I took a single layer of cheesecloth and ironed on a piece of Heat & Bond. I sprinked a bit of dried lavender on 1/2 of the cheesecloth, then arranged a few pansies and some leaves on it. I folded the other 1/2 of the cheesecloth over the top and bonded them together.

I tore one of my handpainted dryer sheets into strips, clued a piece of that onto the card. I took my pinking sheers and trimmed the edges of the cheesecloth and then glued that over the dryer sheet.

Of course you know, I like my glitter so I added a touch of that. I scanned these so now I have glitter all over my scanner! Ha, ha, ha!

I also made a set of cards using some of my button block images:



These aren't all that exciting but they are pretty. I'm not huge into papercrafts, it's just fun to experiment a little bit and do something a little different.

Well, I'm off to pick mom up and go to WalMart. When I get back, I'm going to relax and stitch.

Thank you again everyone, for keeping my dad in your thoughts.

Update On My Dad

Thank you everyone, for sending positive thoughts to my dad. He's doing fine. The surgery went well.

I'll be heading out to go see him in a little while.

Thank you again everyone!

Quick Update

I finished up on the blue Comfort Cat Doll on Saturday:



Sometime this week, I hope to get him and his little friend sewn up so I can mail them to Pat for The Comfort Doll Project.

I also started on another button block:



On another note, I was wondering if you could ask you to send some positive thoughts to my father. He fell yesterday and broke his hip. I'm sure he'll be fine, but it's still a little scary. He's having surgery today to have some pins put in it. Any positive energy you could send his way would be much appreciated.

Comfort Cat Dolls

I stitched up this little one yesterday:



The fabrics on this one seemed so Summery to me! I decided to stitch it in Citrus colors.

Today, I'll stitch this one up:



This reminds me of ocean colors even though the closest I've come to seeing any significant body of water is only Lake Michigan! I may do this one as a seascape with some little fishy's.

After this cat, I'll go back to the button quilt for a bit. I'm also wanting a new purse! Which reminds me, I still have to show you my Spring purse! That one is done. I'll share that next week along with a quick tutorial on how to put it together with the handles.

Button Block #18 Completed

This one was a bit chaotic for me. I was quite disappointed when I finished up the stitching and beading. The stitching just didn't show up very well:



It was also a challenge to decide on what buttons to use. I didn't want to hide or distract from the floral pattern in the Brocade (the center fabric) but I wanted to be sure that the buttons were a focal point due to the stitching not showing up well.

I decided to go with a few really bold buttons and that seamed to do the trick for this block. None of them are vintage or antique. They're all new plastic buttons but they do work nicely.

I'm going to take a little break from the Button Quilt and do a cat doll for the Comfort Doll Project. Actually, I usually like to send Pat 2 at a time so that's most likely what I'll do. I still have a pile of these cats sewn up and ready to stitch on. I did a ton of them before Christmas. I chose this one for now because it looks kind of Summery. We've had a ton of cloudy, dreary, rainy days lately so this one seemed cheerful:



These stitch up in a few hours so I do expect to complete him today.