Flowers of sorrow...

Hello out there, if I have any blog readers left!  I'm so sorry to be away so long.  It's been a very busy summer for me.  I haven't had alot of time to stamp, but when I have, then I didn't have time to post to you the cards I made.  I just don't know where the last month has gone.  For one thing, I have been working on a new banner for my church.  I just have to share it here. The banner was created for our Discovering Spirit Gifts month, and the theme I put on it was, "Many Gifts, One Spirit."  The finished size is 4' x 6'.  I saw this technique for fusing the pieces onto the background fabric.  I saw in a quilt book the idea of creating "brick" for a quilt, so I combined these two to fuse "brick" shapes onto the backing to create a sky effect.  Then I drew and cut the tree from fabric and fused it on.  I created an "ironing board" on two tables with padding it with fabric, but let me tell you, leaning over to adhere all these blocks isn't easy on the old back.

There is a little Stampin' Up! on this banner, too, because I used the Autumn Accents Bigz Die to cut all the leaves.  I used 22 different fabrics for the leaves, every one different to represent the 22 different spirit gifts.  I really cranked out the leaves. I didn't count them but there are A LOT of them on this tree.

 Coming up with the fabric for the letters and size for the letters was tricky.  I kept printing out letters to decide which size would be best viewed from the back of the sanctuary.  Here is the size I finally decided on and they, too, were fused to the "bricks."

 I'd say I have well over 40 hours in this banner (but didn't count, so who knows), but here it is finally hung in the front of our sanctuary!  I have gotten many favorable comments on it and am pleased myself with how it turned out.  I'm sure our church will use it for many years to come. It was a gift of love!

So that sort of explains where some of my summer have gone.  I also went to see sister Becky at Isle of Palms, SC for a week.  What a fun time we had there.  So now I'm back, but won't promise to post daily.  My friend Regina said of her blog that it's simple to just post one message a day. Well, believe me, it takes me a bit of time to write up a post, so I have a hard time doing it daily.  I do have another trip planned with my Dad and all 3 sisters in September so I KNOW I'll be away that week.  But for today, I'm here and wanted to share a sample with you.

This sample uses the flower from Flower Shop.  They are stamped onto white CS and colored with a bit of Crumb Cake and my aqua painter.  I punched them out using the Pansy Punch. The centers are stamped and punched separately using the colored with the Pear Pizzazz reinker and the aqua painter.

I used the Thoughts and Prayers set for the sentiment.  This one will be a nice sympathy card for the bereaved.

So, that's my card for today.  I hope to be back soon.  I recently bought a new computer and have had some trouble with it, so today I'm working from the old one.  Believe me, one doesn't want to change to a new computer too often.  Trying to get all the pictures and files moved over is a headache.  Another reason I was absent so long!  Well, I hope to see you again soon!!  

If you are reading this, it means you have "hung in" with me and I sure appreciate you!!

See you soon.  Smiles, Laura