Asian Artistry for Military Widows Org.

I guess this is an appropriate post for September 11. I got a request for cards to be donated to a Military Widows Association event that is happening at the end of September. The organization focuses on helping widows to live joyfully in spite of their loss. So I had two sets in mind when I started thinking about what kind of card to make, but I needed to make guidelines for myself to prevent it from getting out of hand (emboss resist x 13 cards? I think not). I had thought of using the Inspired by Nature set, especially since it has the great "Live with Passion" sentiment, and the images seemed to fit, but I couldn't think of a great card layout that didn't involve brayering, sponging, embossing or some combination of all three. I just couldn't do 13 of them that way! (Oh, to have unlimited time to craft...) So then I started thinking about Asian Artistry, which has the Confucius saying that I thought was quite appropriate as well. I started by looking at splitcoaststampers.com for inspiration and found this card from NiteStamper that really struck me. I ended up stalking her blog for other ideas because her layouts are so nice.

I didn't have the soft suede that she used, nor the markers, so I riffed a little on it and used Close to Cocoa and a blender pen instead. The Candy Lane dsp from last year worked well as a pattern and the rest just came together pretty nicely. I ended up stamping the Confucius saying on the inside, which worked out perfectly.

Supplies:
Red Riding Hood, Very Vanilla, Close to Cocoa cs, Candy Lane dsp
Red Riding Hood, Close to Cocoa ink
Asian Artistry, Inspired by Nature stamps
non-Su grosgrain ribbon
blender pen, silver brads