A very special card

Tonight is the last meeting of my stress reduction course. It's been a challenge for me to fit the meditation practice into my already busy life, but when I've been able to do it, I do think I've felt better, so my goal is to incorporate it into my routine in some way.

Doing the course has brought me a few good things: I think I've made a new friend, in another mom who has kids the same ages as Ben and Sarah; I've been introduced to yoga, which I have really enjoyed and want to seek out; and I've had time to reflect on myself and where I am right now. Learning about mindfulness has been really interesting. I feel like I'm more aware of how I handle situations and how I'm feeling about my life.

For the last class tonight, we were encouraged to bring something to share with the class to reflect on our experiences. It didn't occur to me right away, but I decided that I would make a card to bring in. I thought long and hard about what kind of card would represent how I was feeling and what I've learned. This is what I came up with: the theme of the card was my yearning to be at peace with myself, hence the sentiment, and my desire to treat myself with softness and kindness instead of harshness.

The layout is Julee's Mojo Monday sketch for the week. In wanting a soft card, I rounded all the corners and made the panels ovals instead of rectangles. I used my Marvy oval punches, the corner rounder punch, and my EK Success scalloped corner punch.

I chose one of my favorite color combos, soft sky and chocolate chip; some of my favorite papers, the Afternoon Tea pack; and the matching stamps, Live Your Dream, which may be my favorite set of all time so far. I colored the images with a blender pen and soft sky reinker, and chocolate chip and mellow moss markers. I spritzed watercolor paper with water and then stamped, filling in the soft sky places with blender pen as needed. After I punched the ovals, I decided to cut off one edge on each to line them up with the layers on each side, then for definition I sponged the edges in chocolate chip ink. The sentiment is from a Hero Arts Christmas sentiment set.

When I put it all together, I added the chocolate chip taffeta ribbon and mounted the sentiment on dimensionals. That upper left corner didn't look balanced so I added three vintage brads up there.

I do feel peaceful when I look at this card. I was also trying to be mindful of the experience as I was making it, and I realized how much cardmaking restores my soul. Of course there are times when it frustrates me, or when I get frustrated by my lack of organization, but really, stamping has turned my life in a completely new direction, and I'm excited about the possibilities. Thanks to everyone out there who reads my blog and shares in this passion of mine - you've all been a real blessing to me!