Personal Post followed by cards! 

Hello, Hope this post finds you well! We just got back from a quick trip to Charlotte, NC to attend my Godfather/Uncle’s funeral. It was a complete an utter shock, as he passed away suddenly in his sleep.  Have you ever wanted to do something so bad and you just knew you were supposed to be there to offer your love, support and not to mention to say your final goodbyes?  That is how I felt this past week. My Aunt and Uncle came to my son’s wedding about a year and a half ago and I was so grateful that they made the trip down and now even more so.  Amongst all the tears and sorrow the last few days, it was great to reconnect with all my cousins and their extended families, to talk with my Aunt Jean one on one, and give her all the hugs that I possibly could.   I follow my cousins on social media which is great but actually having the chance to see all of my cousin’s spouses and children in person was really awesome. My Uncle Chuck and Aunt Jean did an amazing job raising their kids, and you can see that task being passed down to their kids as well. 3 out of the 4 children live in different parts of the US and not Charlotte, so it’s not often we all get to see one another.  When Dave and I arrived on Sunday, the house was overflowing with people and love, it was a Home! They both played such an important role in their community and that was evident by the food being brought in, not to mention all the visitors. The Visitation and Mass were so very touching, and as I sit here reflecting on the past few days, I feel honored to have had such an amazing man as my godfather.  Dave an I always had an extra special connection with him, as he was a principal and superintendent of many school districts during his long career.  I could go on and on as his resume is impressive.  My Uncle was quite the artist as well.  Below there is a self-portrait that he drew that was on display at the visitation, along with a picture of the two of them at the wedding.  You will be sorely missed Uncle Chuck!  Rest in peace and say hello to mom for me.

Now onto my cards, The cards above were inspired by the Twofer Challenge this month along with the CAS Stencil Challenge where they have asked us to try the ghosting technique. I had a great time making these cards before my trip, it was a great distraction.  On the ELE card….I got a bit heavy handed with my ghosting technique, but it sure is fun and easy to do. Not sure you can tell but I even did the ghosting technique on the balloons as well using a different stencil. All supplies are MFT, except the stencil.

For my second card, I decided that I colored the Chameleon too dark with copics, so I tried to highlight him a bit with colored pencil.  Live and learn, leave things well enough alone as my mom use to say.  Believe it or not, I stamped the Chameleon (from Your Next Stamp) first and masked him to do the background with Oxide Inks. The clouds and balloons are popped up for some dimension. The sentiment and the Ele are both colored with Prismas. The clouds are Lawn Fawn, the rest is all MFT.  Here are two other pics of the cards. Nanc’