Birthday Card For My Son

I made this card for my son Isaac, who turned 23 last week. Isaac lives about an hour's drive away from us, with his wife Amber, and their baby son, Alan, who's now 2 months old. We haven't seen them since the baby was born. Isaac decided last month to sever his ties to me because of my faith in Yeshua the Messiah and the fact that I cannot help but mention God, Yeshua, the Bible or something connected to those topics, whether in words or actions. Even though Isaac wants no contact with me in any way, shape or form, he is still my son--in fact, my only son, as well as my youngest child and I will not be forgetting about him any time soon. So I decided that I would set aside a pretty tin and keep all the cards I would otherwise give to him & his family in that tin, for the day when Isaac either changes his mind and returns to fellowship with me or I die and he inherits the tin. I've made sure that at least a couple of his sisters are aware of the tin and know what it contains, so that Isaac will be sure to get it if I am not here to give it to him personally. And just a word of encouragement to anyone who may be facing difficult and heart-breaking circumstances in their life--life is hard, but God is good. I know that the LORD hears my prayers for my son & his family, that He is working in their hears & lives, and that I can trust Him with their welfare.

On to how I made this card...I started with a cardstock base of Light Creamy Cocoa ColorMates by World Win. To the base, I adhered a piece of blue checked wallpaper sample over the entire front. I used my corner-rounder punch to round the corners of the card. Then following a card sketch from the book CardMaker's SketchBook, I cut a larger rectangle from the same Light Creamy Cocoa, topped with a pattern of circles which is a computer-printed scrapbook paper design from ScrapbookScrapbook.com. The long rectangle uses Deep Creamy Cocoa and Dark Creamy Cocoa cardstocks. I rounded all corners. To this rectangle, I added three brown buttons, sewn on with brown embroidery floss. I got the floss at a local liquidator store for about 10 cents a skein; it works great on cards! The buttons came out of my sewing supplies. A hint: save all the buttons off your old clothes that are heading for the rag bin or garbage can. And save them in an empty candle jar (put it in the freezer for a few hours and getting out any leftover wax will be pretty easy). The other rectangle uses a computer-printed tile paper, topped with a giftwrap paper motif.

And there you have it...