Missing Friends and Greeting Cards

Last night I made my first ever greeting card.  Last night was also Halloween.  (Yes, that has something to do with the post.)

One of my friends from PAO (who as it turns out is also a distant cousin) sent out a request for a card shower for her aunt.  I love handmade cards and cherish each and every one that I've ever received.  I admire the artistry and the talent that goes into their creation.  I've always said that I'm not a cardmaker, that my brain isn't wired that way, and used any one of a dozen other excuses to not try it, but recently I've been thinking - Why not?  What's the worst that could happen - some paper goes into the trash?  It's time to stop limiting myself by what I think I can and can't do and just....  do it.

So last night I did it and I'm sharing my first ever card with you.  Please be gentle.

I chose an Art Impressions stamp that I purchased several years ago that has four ...er, ...um, ...mature ladies sitting on a sofa laughing.  This stamp is appropriately part of the "Girlfriends" stamp series, which always depicts the four friends having fun and enjoying each other's company.

I purchased several of the "Girlfriends" stamps several years ago to make cards for a precious friend of ours who was undergoing treatment for stomach cancer.  The reason why I chose that particular set?  There were four of us - me, Bonnie, Linda and our beautiful Wendy, whose birthday was October 31.  The "girls" on the stamps represented us - always laughing, even through our tears, and always together.  We lost Wendy September 2, three years ago.  I never made those cards for her.

So - last night was Wendy's birthday, I wanted to make a card, and guess what I chose?  Laughter and good memories.

I used VersaFine ink, which is a pigment ink, quick drying, gives excellent detail and is my choice for stamping images that will be colored.  The paper was simply a piece cut from one of my watercolor pads, using the smoothest side for stamping.

I used an old set of Close to My Heart watercolor pencils to color the image, with a few accents added using EK Success colored pencils.

Glued the girls onto a green striped panel and added a sheer green ribbon, but it still needed something.  Stamped a cute saying on the front, and called it good.

Needed a little something on the inside, so stamped "Laugh" from a Dyan Reaveley collection, leaving lots of room to write my message.

And so I've finally made my first card!

I think Wendy would have loved it.