Friendship is the Sweetest Flower

Good Sunday Morning to you! (Or whatever time of the day it is in your part of the world)

**Woohoo This card was chosen as Stampendous April's Monthly Challenge Winner **

I started this card by adding some white paint to my kraft card base for a bit of a shabby touch. If you have visited me lately, then you know this has been a touch I like to add to my cards. I then pieced together my patterned papers and added them to my card base adding some aqua ric rac trim.

A trimming of burlap was cut and added to the left side of my card front. A tag was die cut and stamped using Waltzingmouse Chicken Wire.  The sentiment was stamped in Versafine Vintage Sepia and comes from PTI's Green Thumb stamp set. A die cut fence was created using the same Cheerios' box from one of my previous projects seen here.

This makes the perfect chipboard

This is the recycled chipboard after it's been painted.

All that is left is to apply the fence to the tag and tie a fussy bow to the top and dress it up with some paper roses!

I found my inspiration for my card at The Shabby Tea Room : Beautiful Roses.  I was inspired by the photo and we had to use  AQUA, PINK, NEUTRALS and FLOWERS!

The Kraft Journal - Use Your Stash 

Pixie's Crafty Snippet Challenge - Waiting in line for the slide with this one *wink*

Stampendous - Recycle

Berry 71 Bleu - April Inspirational Challenge 

It's with a heavy heart that I am closing my post. As many of you know, I don't usually get too personal on my blog, but if I can steal a little bit more of your time to share something that has hit close to home after I had originally scheduled this to post. 

As some of you know, my husband is a Black Hawk pilot in the Army.  We recently moved from Hawaii after living there for 9 years. He deployed 3 times to a war zone for a year and sometimes longer.  In most cases you are a single parent, (and I have the upmost respect for single parents) head of household trying to figure out those honey do things on your own, but you are daily living with the stress and concern for that dear one deployed. I can tell you an unexpected knock on the door can send chills up and down your body. As this post goes live, my husband is on his way to Dover, Delaware to meet the fallen soldiers who were killed in the Black Hawk crash in Afghanistan on Thursday. They were from our battalion in Hawaii. One of the crew members on board was a crew chief that worked with my husband. He was just 23 years old and as my husband put it " He would do anything for anybody and give the shirt off his back." He played around with my son and kept him entertained if we stopped by the hangar. He had his whole life ahead of him.

I guess my reason for sharing is many have got complacent and forget that we still have many deployed. In fact, I didn't see much coverage of this at all. Let us not forget our Men and Women in harms way and please do not let us forget and let's honor our fallen who sacrificed. This crew all had families and my heart goes out to them. 

Below is a video that someone has brilliantly put together by Tim McGraw titled: "If You're Reading This" I never have a dry eye when watching it and I always get a chill when I hear the song on the radio. 

Thanks for letting me share and remember hold those you love tight! Each day is precious!

I hope you have a wonderful rest of your weekend and beautiful week! 

~Tammy~

{Recipe}

Stamps: Waltzingmouse: Chicken Wire, PTI: Green Thumb

Paper: CS: Stampin' UP!, PP: Scraps (MME)

Ink: Versafine: Vintage Sepia, Distress Inks: Antique Linen 
Other: Dies: PTI, Ric Rac: Fabric Store, Seam Binding: Etsy, Roses: Michael's, White craft paint