Celebrating All Moms with Pinkfresh Studio

Hi there, crafty friends! While it is Monday, and technically the day after Mother's Day...I'm going to ask you to bare with me. Welcome to my life over the past 3 months - late, last minute and general chaos most days due to being a foster mama to two beautiful girls, ages 16 months & 4 months. Our first foster placement came to an end on Friday afternoon when the girls went to live with their grandmother.

It was a bittersweet moment - I cried when we placed the girls in the car taking them away from us. The truth is - this is what fostering is. The state believes wholeheartedly that as long as the home is safe, babies & children should be with family first if they can't be with their parents. They came to us for 3 months because they had to vet & ready a family member to take them. Ultimately, I don't know if this familial choice is the right home for them, but it isn't my call. The other side of the coin is that the birth parents weren't a right fit for us either. We had wanted to foster a respectful and open line of communication with them, but they forced us to close that. I won't go into any more detail as I don't feel comfortable putting any more info out there, but just realize that it was a very difficult & stressful situation for us, especially me.

We are going to take the next month or so to decide if we want to continue long term fostering, or change over to a more temporary pursuit like respite care or sheltering. Or, maybe choose a completely different path altogether. As another Mother's Day passed with no children in my earthly life again, I've come to terms with my reality. Yes - I miss my little ones SO much, and wish with all of my being that they were still here with me. But, that is never going to be the case, and I've dealt with the hardest emotions that center around that truth. Now I try to focus on the fact that I believe with my whole heart that one day I will be with them again forever in Heaven. That the amount of time I have left on this earth is so little in comparison to forever. And I humbly thank Jesus for the confidence I have in that.

To all of the amazing mamas in this world that I get to call friend, colleague or acquaintance...I want you to know that I see you. It doesn't matter if I can see your children or not - if being a mom is something that has been bestowed upon your heart, then you are a mom to me. To those that are struggling with loss & infertility, my heart bursts with love for you most of all. Although we are in a club that no one wants to be part of - you are my kindred spirits - the ones who understand all the mixed feelings about days like this. And if you have chosen that being child free is best for your life, I want you to know that I applaud you for making the best decision for yourself - knowing that days like Mother's Day are still difficult because people can be nosy and judgemental about this type of decision.

I made this trio of cards for the Pinkfresh Studio April release, but I had this exact post in mind when creating them. Mother's Day is complicated. And really hard for so many. I think these three sentiments really go together perfectly when I think about all the intricacies of motherhood, and am happy to share them with you today.

The first two cards feature the brand new Blooming Bouquet stamp set and coordinating dies, that was illustrated by my friend & Pinkfresh card team member, Yoonsun Hur. Both sentiments are included in this stamp set, among many other heartfelt options. I think you will really just love this stamp set, and enjoy adding it to your stamp collection!

To start I stamped the bouquets to smooth Bristol cardstock with onyx black Versafine ink. Then I colored them with our liquid watercolor - but I mixed them to get the shades that I wanted. Here is the formula for each color:

• Coral Pink: 1 part Bubblegum to .5 part Clementine

• Deep Red: Mix Candy Apple & Bubblegum to preference

• Turquoise: 2 parts Sky Blue to 1 part Aquamarine (add more Sky Blue to preference)

After the watercolor dried, I cut them out with their coordinating dies and then splattered them with watered down Titanium White acrylic paint. For this first card, I heat embossed the sentiment in Brutus Monroe Gilded embossing powder to the bottom of a smooth Bristol cardstock block then mounted the bouquet to the front with foam adhesive. I lightly watercolored around the florals with some Sky Blue, and then mounted to a red A2 card base once dry.

For the background on this card, I watercolor smooshed with my custom colors to a block of Ranger Distress Watercolor paper. I was very light handed in this process, as I wanted the background to be very subtle. Once it looked how I wanted & dried, I then splattered it a bit with matching colors. Then I stamped & heat embossed the sentiment with WOW! Opaque Bright White - superfine embossing powder to black cardstock, and trimmed it into a thin strip. I finished this card by mounting each item to the front of a pink A2 card base with foam adhesive.

This final card uses the new Hanging Florals stamp set & coordinating dies. I used all the same custom colors above, with the exception of the Turquoise. I added the tiniest dot of Emerald City into that custom color combination for the leaves that are the brighter green. I watercolor smooshed the background for this card as well, but this time was a bit heavy handed, as I wanted a bit more vibrancy. I stamped the sentiment directly to the watercolor background in onyx black Versafine, then layered each item to the front of a coral A2 card base with foam adhesive.

All three cards also feature some new Essentials products that will be releasing in a week! We are super excited about them, and can't wait to share them in full with you!

That is everything that I have for you today, friends. Hopefully you don't mind that my Mother's Day post came a day late. And I hope that whether you celebrated yesterday or not, that your day was just a fabulous one all around. I wanted to invite you to follow me on social media. I would love to be crafty friends!

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Have a great Monday!

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