Surf's Up!

Happy Monday, my dear friends! I hope you had a wonderful weekend. :o)

Continuing with my contribution to this month's I Feel the Love Project recipients, my new card is for 11-year-old Ryan. He, his three younger siblings, and his amazing Mom are dealing with the recent loss of their father/husband to cancer.

As was the case with the sand pail card I made for Kyle, I created this card to honor the cherished memories the family made during frequent trips to the beach. Since Ryan is older, I tried to make a beachy card that wasn't quite so kid-like. I created a fun little summer scene for him. :o)

Surf's Up! (And hopefully spirits will be up, too.)

The middle surfboard is a foiled green:

I took my patterned paper cue from these beautiful family pictures:

I chose fun Hawaiian-type papers from Kaisercraft's Chapter One collection, which reminded me of Debbie and Ed's swimwear and the family's summery adventures.

The card base is a nested shapes set from the Silhouette Store... which I forgot to actually nest. (Sigh!) The sunshine is a cut file from Bird's Cards, which I set atop an embossed blue pattern. I like to think of it as sun rays shining through the pretty blue sky, with a touch of embossed whimsy. :o) The edges of the rays are heavily inked with Mustard Seed distress ink for extra sunshiny warmth. I used Hawaiian Shores ribbon from Papertrey Ink as a divider, with the dots serving as little whitecaps dancing atop the ocean.

I thought Ryan might enjoy surfboards, so I used the Surf's Up collection from Spellbinders. The solid one was used as a stencil, in which I inked the embossed areas with Tumbled Glass and Mustard Seed distress inks. I nestled them beneath some popped-up sand to make them 'stand up.' The sand is embossed with Swiss Dots for a sandy texture.

I used Spellbinders Nested Lacey Pennants to make a little flag for my computer-generated sentiment. I inked it with Tumbled Glass and made a yellow pole to coordinate with the sunny sky and inked surfboard. And about those few little sparkles on this boy's card... it's not my fault! A few sunbeams danced down from the heavens. :o)

I love this family with my whole heart. It's my last day to create for them and I still have one card left to do. I'm tempted to panic, but I know God will help me make a sweet little card for 3-year-old Mady so she knows how loved she is. I need to give her a piece of my heart, too.

Thank you for surfin' on by! Have a sparkly day. :o)

Challenges entered:
 *Card Crafter's Circle~ Boys to Men
 *Crafty Ribbons~ Anything Goes with Ribbon
 *Cupcake Craft~ All at Sea
 *Love to Create~ Punches and/or Dies (Surfboards and Flag/Banner are dies)
 *Make It Monday~ Anything Goes
 *Paper Playtime~ Emboss (Sand and surfboard are embossed)
 *Papertake Weekly~ Weather With You
 *Simon Says Stamp~ Anything Goes