Paper Smooches birthday card

Good Morning friends.  Today I'm here after a long break to actually share a card!! 

A lot has happened since I was here last - sadly my dad passed away on 23rd March and as it was just as lockdown came into effect it has proved to be a very stressful and unusual time.  We did the best we could but it wasn't the funeral he deserved; only 10 family could attend and the crematorium was eerily quiet. I have to say that my parent's neighbours were fantastic and stood on their doorsteps and paid their respects as the hearse went down the street, which was extremely emotional.  It's been almost 3 months now but it really only seems like yesterday.  It will be his 85th birthday tomorrow so that will be the first difficult milestone we have to get through but my mother, sister and myself are all supporting each other and we will have a cry and talk about our memories of him and the day will go by.  Life goes on but we never forget 💔

To keep myself busy I've been trying to craft and as I had some birthdays coming up it was the perfect way to take my mind off my dad and everything else that has been going on at the moment. 

I made this card for a lovely crafting friend using Paper Smooches 'blossoming buds' stamp set.  I stamped the flower arrangement twice, coloured them with my Promarkers and fussy cut them out. I made my own circle card base by die cutting 2 circle dies from an old Quickcutz/Lifestyle nesting circles set and glued them together.  The smaller circle and scalloped circle were cut with spellbinders dies.  The sentiment is also from the stamp set and to finish off I added a few 'over the rainbow - crystal collection' gems from Little Things from Lucy's Cards.  I even decorated the inside and made my own envelope from some very old 12x12 paper from my stash.

Sorry for the poor photographs - it's still not my strongest point - but I keep trying different ways and maybe one day I will find something that works for me!

Anyway I am going to enter this card into the current Paper Smooches challenge 'flowers'.  

It's been so long since I've entered a challenge I'm not even 100% sure I remember how to do it lol!

If you have made it this far, thank you for sticking with me and have a great day.  I will hopefully be back again soon with another card I've made during lockdown. 

Take care and lots of love,