
Sad post today. My husband’s Uncle Jim has passed away. It’s been a long time coming…when we visited them last September, he had an aneurism on his aorta. We were all very scared he would pass during the Christmas holiday. He has had tremendous heart troubles throughout his life (read 11 bypasses), but was kept here for one reason or another. This pic is from a few years ago, but it’s such a great one of the hubby and his favorite uncle that I just had to post it.
Jim was a very accomplished man. He came from nothing – no indoor plumbing etc. to a multi-millionaire. He left home at the tender age of 16 (although his generation of 16 was a bit more wise to the world than ours now, I think!) and moved from Missouri to California. Eventually, he was a car salesman, owned many dealerships throughout his life, married his sweetheart at 19 and stayed with her till the end. They’ve been married since 1945 – 66 years!! And were still so in love. Anyhow, he was a profound influence on my husband. Doug looked up to him and learned so many things from him. We are very sad to see him go but very thankful for the time we had with him.
Being a card maker, I did what I know how to do…make the family cards. I have the hardest time finding something to say once they’re made though. I sent one to my in-laws and one to his widow.

This uses Simple Sunflower and Think Big Favorites #3 from Papertrey Ink. The vines were some that I had left over from another sunflower card I made.

I added a few flicks of a Copic to add some depth to the flowers and leaves. Oh, and I used the dark chocolate ink. Love it! Pretty simple and straight forward…although it still needed a big padded envelope because of the buttons.
Hubby and I had a little tiff the morning I was to send these. I don’t think he wants to deal with his grief, so he wouldn’t write in the cards. I argued that I didn’t think the message came across the same unless it was in his handwriting. Finally, he agreed…I just had to let him get to that decision on his own. Funny how similar we are. If you tell me to do something I was already planning on doing, I won’t do it out of spite. So stubborn! :o)
This is the second card I made. I wanted something to just pop in the mail. Plus, I was running out of time, coughing my head off and had come down with pink eye in both eyes. Damn germy kid!

This is a CASE of a card I found on Pinterest when I searched for sympathy cards, down to the colors even. I added a butterfly because of a little ink mishap and embossed the sentiment.
A few flicks of the ocean tides matched Copics and a little pop up and out on one flower. The base of the flower is glued straight down while the petals are up on a thin dimensional. Very simple and easy to pop in the mail with a stamp. I need to learn to make more of these. All images on this are from PTI’s Botanical Silhouettes.
Thanks for looking! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! I’m off to work today and then get to buy end tables for my living room that match my coffee table tomorrow. I’m super excited about that! :o) lyss