Hang in There

We are off to march in our town's Memorial Day parade this morning. Both our daughter and son will be marching with their scout groups; my husband and I will be marching along with the Cub Scouts to help with crowd boy control and to lug along the mini American flags that the boys will be passing out to spectators along the parade route. Luckily our burdens will lighten the further along the route we get! This parade is always such a fun time, and the weather appears to be cooperating. Yay!

I wanted to pop in quickly to share the card I made for Paper Crafts' Gallery Idol competition, season six. The theme for the open auditions round is encouragement, and I thought and thought about it and finally came up with this card:

I figured that a frilly pink polka-dotted brassiere shaped card with an accompanying "hang in there" sentiment would be the perfect encouragement card for a girlfriend who's going through rough times! My daughter (13) thought this was the cutest ever. My 9YO son's first reaction was "I think that's kind of . . . um, inappropriate." When my daughter explained that "she wouldn't send it to a man, silly," his attitude softened a bit. But his response pointed out that what I thought hilarious and fun might not be received similarly by everyone else. So I do apologize to any and all who share my son's views!!

A few program notes: I designed this bra-shaped card myself. It's hinged at the top of the straps so there's a bra-shaped inside as well for a handwritten note. The card base is solid pink cardstock (The Paper Company), and the polka-dotted bra cups were cut from patterned paper in the Handmade collection by Lily Bee Design.  I glued some lace trim from my sewing stash to the back of the patterned paper, and then stitched the whole thing down to the card base. Remember when lingerie always had a little pink rose stitched to the center? That was my inspiration for the placement of this sweet little satin ribbon rose (a gift from my friend Carol--thanks, sweetie!). I stamped the "hang in there" sentiment (a retired stamp from The Angel Company, which is sadly no longer in business) on a strung marking tag from Avery to tie around one of the straps. A little bling on the tag was all I needed to finish this up. I love how it turned out, and really, it was pretty easy to make. A win, win!

I hope you had a fabulous weekend, and if you are in the U.S., that you enjoy the rest of your Memorial Day holiday! Thanks for dropping in for a visit.

Emily