Hope..Miracle..Cure!

This time of year is when we reflect on the last year and make resolutions for the upcoming year.  I have been reflecting on how lucky I am to be the wife and mother to a wonderful family.  It is such a blessing to have my darling husband in my life.  We hoped, prayed and with the help of GOD and science, we were blessed with two beautiful miracles over the years.  I am grateful for the blessings in our lives but, most importantly that we have each other.

I am sharing a layout that reflects one of our miracles.  I created it in Pink, Brown with a touch of Green.  I am also going to create this in Blue, Brown with a touch of Green as well for my darling son.  Also, be sure to enter for your chance to win a cricut cartridge.  Click Here! for more information. 

At first, we have such hope.  As you can see below that I cut the word hope, in a pink patterned paper and the shadow in a yummy chocolate brown. 

I did that with all the elements cutting them out in the pink patterned paper and the shadow in the yummy chocolate brown. I love to use my 12x24 mat in my expression and put all the different elements in my Gypsy to cut it all at once. This could also be cut using the 12x12 mat. I find it a lot easier to use my Gypsy on the go and plug it in and cut later.

For the flowers, I hand inked them with some coordinating pink dye ink to match the butterfly below perfectly.  In fact, when I took this picture they were still wet.  I also, took the same flower and inked the petals in green cutting them to look like leaves.  In the center, there is a glittered brad in the coordinating green to give it some bling. 

I added some adhesive rhinestones around the frame and it goes well with the bling in her outfit.  I created a rose out of brown satin ribbon and the green leaves were hand cut and inked with the green dye ink.  As you can see, the rose completed the "i" in the word miracle. 

Here is the completed layout and this would even look beautiful as the cover page for a baby book.

All of these cuts were cut from the Cricut cartridge Home Decor and the butterfly was cut on the Imagine using the Nursery Tales.  You could cut this entire project out using the Cricut Imagine or you can use the Cricut (with or without the Gypsy) for all but the butterfly.  You can also replace the butterfly from the Imagine with a butterfly using the original cricut cartridge. 

The word "miracle" was cut at 3.5" and "Hope" was cut out at 4".  The center frame and shadow was cut out at 6".

While this captures the challenge of using pink, brown and green for MPS, I wanted to share the rest of the layout with you.  They could be as a set with one side for my daughter and the other side for my son.  Or you could split them up and frame them for a room.

For both layouts, I used my gypsy and as you can see I used the 12x24" mat.  On the left side, I placed all the shadow pieces.

These were cut out in a yummy chocolate brown.

As you can see above, the blue is placed on the mat and cut all in one step.

For this layout, I distressed the edges of the blue cuts with an emery board and inked the edges with matching chocolate dye ink.  I also cut off a bit of the framed cut as well as the shadow.  I took the swirls off the butterfly on the blue paper.  As you can see, I used a corduroy button in green instead of the dot for the "i" in Miracle. 

The only thing that is needed here is a picture of him as a baby.  The picture above is shown with it inside a wood frame. 

I really was counting my blessings and I guess we take more account when we lose someone in our lives.  Hopefully, it is not when it is too late that we realize our blessings. 

Unfortunately, childhood friends lost their little miracle.  They hoped and prayed for a miracle and even while their little boy was so ill, he spent a lot of his time and energies creating and raising money for a cure. 

Here is a picture of one of his projects which is a gold fish. 

He would create origami and sell it.  In fact, even in the short time that he had this holiday season, he was still making, creating and selling his creations to raise more money for the MACC Fund and Make-a-Wish Foundation.  You can see more about his story Click Here! 

Even in his short life, he was sad that he could not raise more money for the MACC Fund and a cure so, that other children did not have to go through what he did.  What a wonderful little boy.

In lieu of flowers or money, the family asked for contributions to the MACC Fund.  Please consider this wonderful organization whether you donate in his name (Ryan Luxem) or another.  Even if everyone donated $1, that would be a lot of money. 

Click Here to donate!

Or you can find information on mailing a donation at http://www.maccfund.org/Donate/

I hope and pray that no one else loses a loved one.  Please share his story. 

SweetSassyDiva