Hang in there!

I made another card for a friend who's going through some difficult times.  This has been a favorite phrase in the last few years.  I cut out the layers with dies from a set by Simon Says Stamp called Stitched Rectangles.  I colored the mice with Prismacolor pencils and the dragonfly with Twinkling H2Os.  I'm a little out of practice (and lines) with the H2Os.  In real life, the wings look like a dragonfly's wings, but do not photograph well.  The inside says "Today is tomorrow's yesterday."

Wooden punch tool

There was discussion on a group board that I follow about the difficulty some of us have with punches.  As we get older and we have weaker hands, we have problems pushing hard enough to punch through cardstock.  Many years ago I purchased a wooden helper for this problem.  I think a nice man made these to help us.  He probably got tired of helping his wife with the punches.  I don't know who he was, but this is a photo of this tool.

There is a wooden peg that can be moved to several holes to adjust for different sizes of punches.  I was asked who made it.  All I know is that there is a name on the end of the tool, but I can't read the whole name, so I took a photo of it.

These photos may help others to identify the maker of this tool or help someone else recreate it.

Round card

I have some really cute large stamps that don't fit easily on my usual A2 size card.  I decided to make a round card with this one.  The brown background isn't part of the card.  I used a 5 1/2" circle die to cut the base card from folded cardstock.  The flat area on the left is the fold.  I used the House Mouse image on watercolor paper, then colored it with  Distress inks.    I used Glossy Accents to cover the jar of jelly beans.

I made this card for a friend who lost her husband a month ago and has lots of problems right night.  She needs encouragement to get through this difficult period of her life.

Farewell to friends

Last month was a difficult one, losing 2 good friends.  I have many memories, but will miss them.

I made this card on watercolor paper, stamping with Memories ink, then watercoloring the background with Distress inks and water.