Be Ready in Season or out of Season

2 Timothy 4:2 states, "preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season;" Well, I am literally living that scripture.  The past few weeks have seen its share of sickness, hospitalization, and sudden deaths in my circle. There have been joyous occasions like birthdays and graduations.

I say all that to say this: It pays to be ready.  Last night I stayed up and put together 5 cards. One was this sympathy card. I used the Anna Griffin embossing folder to emboss the card with my Cuttlebug, then adhered gray ribbon (Stampin' Up Basic Gray) and embellished with dot pearls.  This was a quick and easy card.  

The next card was a Get Well card for a friend. She actually is getting two cards as she just celebrated a birthday. For the Get Well card, I attempted to do the spotlight technique using the background paper. I didn't have all of the circle punches I needed to cut several sizes, so I contented myself with just the two I cut out. I used Copic Markers to make the flowers pop and finished off by adding crystals to embellish the card. This other card was made by using a Robert Jackson's digital stamp and Copic Markers to color in the hair and skin. I used Gimp to add pattern to the dress and finished embellishing with a Doily I had in my stash.

The next card is for a young lady who lost her mother last November.  It is really a card of encouragement for her as she faces life without her mother.  I made the background using watercolor paper and following the Die Cut Stencils technique HERE.



 

And the last card is a thank you card for a gentleman. I don't know about you card makers out there, but I find myself lost when it comes to designing cards for men. Oftentimes, I have to get inspired by other works. This card, however, I had to visualize and do on my own. I used a scallop punch to cut one end of the light blue cardstock, then embossed a scrap of the blue cardstock and used a 1" hole punch to punch out the circles to attach to the light blue paper. I then cut some arrows from MTC using my Silhouette machine, and finished by attaching a Thank You sentiment.

 Making these cards relate to the scripture above. I need to be ready because I never know when I'm going to have to send cards to those who are in need, hurting or celebrating. It's best if I'm ready and just reach for a card, address it and mail it off.  What do you think?