Today's installment though is actually focused on a friend who has been in my life for quite some time. I have known her for many years from my previous job working in government. We were professionals together at work - and then had fun, laughs, tears, ups, downs, and everything in between in our personal lives away from work. Our friendship lasted her move to a different state - her having a near death accident where a majority of her body is now metal inside - me having two strokes and never being able to work again - break ups and marriages - and just everything in between. That is a true friend; THAT is my Lisa.
Now, don't get me wrong, just because Lisa is not in the card making community currently does not mean that she is not the crafting queen!!! She has always been crafty and that was one of the things we bonded over early on - we would have a blast with our crafting activities and she would even help me at times with my two Girl Scout troops that I was the leader of for seven years!!! She can do any craft you put in front of her (she is an engineer after all!!!) and she can make any activity fun!
Lisa is the kind of friend that you can go weeks or even months without talking to and the minute you call her it is like you were just on the phone the day before. I have always loved that about her and I have always treasured that. Another wonderful thing that Lisa has done for me is that she helped me to fall in love with dogs (and we ALL know how much of a crazy dog lady I am). I had a dog growing up that I was close to, but when I went away to college and he died something inside me broke and I never wanted another dog again in my life. I didn't want to interact with them or anything. But, Lisa was always having me over to her big beautiful mansion and she had Tyson and Honey and it was like they KNEW that something inside of me needed to be pulled back out and reignited! And, they did it. I am forever grateful to those babies for that because, as you know, if I didn't have my doggies, I wouldn't be alive today, and I wouldn't have had the change of heart if it wasn't for them
So, all that said, what I decided to do for this video was to make Lisa a set of cards. I always send her cards (probably way too many cards!!!) so I thought I would make her some uplifting cards that she could send out herself and, while doing that, I could tell you a little about this wonderful friendship that I have. It is just another aspect of the Women for Women series - Women lifting other women up and being grateful for the people we have in our lives. There is just too much online bullying right now in the world and often times it is women against women and I wanted to do at least one small thing to stop that so this is my little contribution.
I used the beautiful Essentials by Ellen Mondo Magnolia stamp set. I stamped it eight times with embossing ink on varying card bases. Some were dark, some were kraft and some were watercolor. I then embossed with either clear, white, rose gold or gold embossing powders to give different looks. I colored some of the images that were on the dark card stock in with the Spectrum Noir metallic pencils (I love how those show up on dark card stock) and I also used the Prima pencils as well. I then used my Kuretake Gansei Watercolor palette for the first time (awesome!!!) and some Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers to watercolor and/or blend the other flowers. I then used a Spellbinders edge die to create a fun edge for some of the cards and the Sunshine dies from WPlus9 and the Wonky Stitched dies from Avery Elle to cut into some Stampin' Up foiled velum to add a little bit of a classy look to the cards. The card bases were all made from Stampin' Up card stock that I cut into A2 top folding cards. I also used the sentiments from The Ton's The New Pretty stamp set to make these positive and uplifting cards. I used Catherine Pooler ink (my favorite!!!) and they just popped! Finally, for the fun elements, I used wink of Stella and Tonic Nuvo drops in various colors to add a little bit of "funk" as I like to say!
I hope you enjoyed this video/post and I hope that you will be a "woman for women" - and that includes yourself - be a woman that lifts yourself up. I have such difficulty with this honestly because of all of my disabilities so I have to remind myself of this constantly. But, if we lift ourselves up and we lift other women up in our lives it will start a energy of positiveness out there that we all will feed off of and benefit from.
Let me know what you did for yourself this week and something small that you have done for another friend. Hope you enjoyed the cards and have an incredible day! Jude :-)
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