Our freedom was not free...

Morning friends. While not a lot better today is a better day with my sinuses than yesterday was (I've only been up for a 1/2 hour though) so I thought I'd get this posted while I felt okay.

Some of you have heard me say that my boys are little pieces of my heart walking around outside my body. I imagine that to be true for most moms. (I said most...I know some relationships are difficult) When I heard of the deaths of some of the soldiers in the brigade that Jon belongs to I decided that I would make sympathy cards for each soldier's family. It has been more difficult than I thought and easy to put to the side and say 'I don't have enough time today'. Frankly, thinking about what those families are going through hurts me and is not a place I like to go BUT I want to follow through. There are now four families that I must send cards too. I used Doodle Pantry's Patriotic Eagle image along with a sentiment from the set that Laurie (owner of Doodle Pantry) so graciously re-worked for me so I could make a banner.

Inside I typed up my favorite sympathy sentiment (that sounds strange doesn't it?). In this case I think the sentiment on the front enhances the sentiment inside. (Noticed the typo just before I was to seal and send out a couple of the cards...why did no one tell me?)

I really wanted this card to be simple and clean for both the fact that I want the sentiment to be the thing that really stands out and for duplication purposes. The layout is from CPS this week. I've also entered this into the Paper Sundaes challenge which is to use a sentiment.

Alright, I'm off to go to Kyler's school for a little while. Have a wonderful day, hug the ones you love, and thank a soldier!

Big Butterfly

Well, here we are at the start of a new week. Time is flying right by and I can't believe it is the middle of March already. I guess I'm going to have to get our taxes done pretty soon. I know the tax break works for most people but, unfortunately, not for us. Anyway, today Jon comes home for a week visit. We haven't seen him in four months and I'm so excited! Do you have something fun planned for this week?

Today's card is a very simple card that I made for a friend. Her FIL is in the final days of his earthly life so I knew I would need a sympathy card. While I was in Wisconsin Todd's mom took me to a neat scrapbook store in Madison and when we saw the butterfly die (from Quickutz) and embossing folder (from Sixxiz) we knew we had to have them. Actually Todd's mom bought mine for me. So sweet! Anyway, I just embossed the butterfly background on some shimmery white cardstock then printed the sentiment on it. I ran the butterfly through my Big Shot (in several combinations and then decided this was the one) and attached it with some quick dry glue. I added some pearls to the big butterfly and some black dots with smooch to the smaller butterflies. That is about it.

As I do with this sentiment I printed the inside on some more shimmery white cardstock, cut it with a nestie and adhered it inside the card. Simple but the sentiment and butterfly really make this card.

I want to send a out to my M5D design team sister, Michelle. I hope you have an amazing day today!