Devastating news

We heard from my brother yesterday that their baby has hypoplastic left heart syndrome, which is extremely serious. The baby will require 3 surgeries, the first at 3-4 days and the last at age 2-3. If all that is successful then apparently quality of life is close to normal, but lifetime heart medicine and regular checkups will be required. Everyone is praying for the best possible outcome but in the meantime we just feel shaken and sad.

I had been working on this card yesterday and I felt a real drive suddenly to finish it - I guess it was a source of comfort and normalcy. I made it for the Caardvarks 1-2-3 challenge to use one embellishment, two patterned papers, and three flowers. It seemed like a great time to break out my new Lilykate Basic Grey papers.

First I cut a 5.5" square white card, then the yellow panel and a 4.5" square of the floral, which I cut into 1.5" squares for the mosaic. This is a technique I've been wanting to try. I took white organdy ribbon and made a couple knots, then placed it under the top middle square and over the other two top squares, then fastened in the back. Next I added the primas with crystal brads in the center. Then I stamped the tag (from Stampin' Up's Too Terrific Tags) in Color Box french blue over a white scrap sponged with Color Box daffodil direct to paper. I colored in the flowers and leaves with pink and yellow colored pencils. I knotted the tag onto a shorter length of ribbon and affixed onto the back, then secured in the front once the rest of the mosaic squares were mounted.