Monday, July 12, 2010

Celebrating a CANCER-FREE Life!

My friend Holly was diagnosed with breast cancer almost a year ago. I serve with her husband at church and really did not know her all that well when Brad shared this life-altering news with us, but over the past year we have forged a friendship. Saturday night she and her husband invited everyone who had helped them in the past year to celebrate the END of her cancer treatments (she had both chemo and radiation, even though surgery "got it all") with a Texas-style BBQ.

I wanted to make something that would commemorate this occasion, and so I went WAY BACK to perhaps the oldest set I own, All Year Cheer II, to grab the "Celebrate!" stamp. For some reason, I'm leaning toward the Brights Collection right now, so I emptied my rack of all the ink pads in that group and created a simple background pattern using the stamp. Holly's not really a PINK gal, or I would've gone that route! I sprayed the whole piece with Vanilla Smooch Shimmer Mist to give it some bling.

Once I was done with that, I pulled out Live Like You Mean It, which has the perfect sentiment for this project. I stamped it in Basic Black so that it would contrast boldly from the background. Then I got a wild hare.

Have you ever seen a framed picture of a newlywed couple that's surrounded by signatures of those who were guests at their ceremony? I think it's a much more practical and lovely way of remembering who shared in that special day with the couple than a traditional guest book.

I thought it would be very appropriate to create a unique "guest book" for last night's party that she could frame to remember this special day. So instead of making a card, I placed the front in the middle of an 8"x10" sheet of Whisper White card stock. I took it to the party mounted on a clipboard and everyone who was there signed it.

I'm grateful for the opportunity life presented me to get to know Holly. She is a lovely person and a gifted writer. You can meet her here on her blog. Congrats, girlfriend! Spread your wings and FLY!

2 comments:

Paper Potter said...

Oh, I agree! A much better way to celebrate than a card, even as perfect as it was as a card! Well done!

Nicole said...

what a cheerful card! just lovely!