Thinking of You

A few weeks ago, I posted about my mother-in-law’s health issues. Sadly, she passed away last Thursday, but she didn’t have a long illness filled with pain, so that’s a plus. And we’ve had a wonderful weekend remembering happy times with her.

She was a character, and she was always fun to be around.

Until she wasn’t. About the time my father-in-law passed (January 2015), she started having symptoms of dimentia. It was very sad; she became someone we really didn’t know. But deep, deep down, we knew she was the same loving and caring mom/grandma/friend we had always known. While she would leave voice mails that didn’t sound at all like her, she was the same sweet mom when we visited in person. So we had to remember when we got the voice mails that that wasn’t Shirley. She was always kind and loving, and she loved her kids and grands (and great and great great grands!). She was an amazing lady, and while I’ll miss her very much, I’m glad she’s been freed from the horrible symptoms of the dimentia.

One of my dear friends, Margo, sent this sympathy card to our family. Margo is one of my stampers, but she and her husband are also clients of Mike’s electrical company, so she knows Mike and Jon as well. Here’s her beautiful card.

I am a huge fan of “clean and simple” cards, and this one just made me want to recreate it.

The thing about clean and simple cards is they’re clean, but they’re not simple. Margo did some amazing “extras” with her card – like the border.

I know at least some of the elements on her card are retired (that gorgeous sentiment for one.) The sentiment set was one of my favorites, and I used it for years. I forget the name, but there’s history there.

When I was new with Stampin’ Up!®, they did some rearranging. I was new, so I didn’t pay a lot of attention, but apparently, the move of the distribution center from Kanab to Riverton caused some shipping problems. And the Aqua Painters had just been introduced, and there was a snafu there as well. To smooth some demonstrator feathers, they sent all of us that beautiful sentiment stamp set. It was awesome, and it stayed current for many years.

I wanted to use current products for Margo’s card (and I need thank you cards for all the people who have been so amazing the past few weeks), so I created this. (Please remember, I don’t do Clean and Simple well.)

I used the Flourishing Phrases Stamp Set with Gorgeous Grape Classic Ink and Cardstock. While I like my card, I like Margo’s better, because it has a little more white space. And I totally forgot to round the bottom right edge. UGH! I need more practice. Margo stopped and started her border at the perfect places. I forgot to stop.

Still, if I send this to a non-stamper and don’t point out my mistakes, I think it will pass. Maybe. Or maybe I’ll send it to my mom. If I use a post-it inside with the message, she’ll stamp her information on the back and resend it. (I love my mom! Her thought is, “Hey, if you’re not going to stamp the back, I will!” My mom rocks!)

Thanks for stopping by Stamping with Buffy. Have a lovely day!