Thanksgiving with a Grateful Heart

Happy Thanksgiving, crafty friends! I hope this morning finds you well, and if you happen to be in or from the USA and are celebrating the holiday...I hope you are having a good start so far. Holidays aren't the easiest thing for me anymore, so we keep it quiet. We will have a small Thanksgiving dinner with just the two of us and our pups. Maybe one day I will embrace the loud family dinners with an excessive amount of food again...but for now I need the laid back calm that we've created for ourselves.

Being grateful isn't easy when you have two empty seats at your Thanksgiving table. I'm well aware of the gaping holes in my heart on a daily basis, but on the day that is supposed to be all about gratitude...I feel it even more. A grateful heart looks different for me after Ellie & Layton. I'm grateful that they graced me with their presence, even though it was for merely a moment. I'm grateful that I believe with every fiber of my being that I will see them again on the other side of Heaven's veil. I'm grateful for a husband who walks this journey with me, and understands that we grieve together, but we grieve differently. And I'm grateful for a family that doesn't push me or guilt me into thinking I have to do holidays differently.

I created these cards for my little ones...if only I could send them to Heaven. I hope they can feel how much love I am sending them today and every day, and how grateful I am for the tiny amount of time that I had them here with me.

This card was inspired by Layton - my adorable baby boy who was the spitting image of his daddy. This card features darker color tones, angular lines and a clean design.

This card, of course, was inspired by my teeny, tiny Ellie. She was delicately and perfectly formed with the cutest rosebud lips and the sweetest little nose. She even had the start of strawberry blonde hair & curls...

Creating cards for my little ones has become part of my grieving process. It helps me continue to process through the vastness of this loss, and lets me continue to keep their memory alive.

That is everything I have to share with you today. I hope that you enjoyed my Thanksigiving cards, inspired by my sweet babies in Heaven.

I hope that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving day, and if you are going out to brave the Black Friday shopping...I am sending you vibes of patience. Lol!

This post is not about sales & affiliate commissions by any means, but I did want to let you know that the gold puffy stickers that I've used on both cards are DEEPLY discounted for the Pinkfresh Studio Doorbuster Sale. If you like to use scrapbooking products on your cards at all, or if you are a memorykeeper as well...be sure to check out the sale. There are so many quality products marked down for next to nothing. Okay - taking my marketing director hat back off. ;)

SUPPLY LIST

For your shopping convenience, all products are linked below, including affiliate linking when possible - this allows small compensation for me at no cost to you. I typically link to 2-3 sites, in hopes that your preferred retailer will be among them. I only support legitimate retail sites, that are true partners to stamp, die and scrapbooking wholesalers.