Same Layout, Different Looks...and a PS of Dog Pictures

Today's post, like Sunday's, shows three different cards, but no circles. Well, unless you count bling.

First up, an elegant card with multiple mats. The branch stamp from Hero Arts is a wood-mounted beauty that came out years ago. It's got lovely flow, doesn't it?

I mentioned a few posts back that my two label sentiment sets were either too big or too small...I need a Goldilocks set that's just right. Well, after looking around, I didn't find anything to meet the need. Which convinced me that this is most definitely a first-world problem and I need to stop complaining about it. The three cards today use the set from Mama Elephant called Occasional Labels.

It's just right for these three cards.

After elegant came cute.

The butterflies are from Hero Arts and the grass is from Papertrey's Peaceful Garden set. I colored the butterflies with colored pencils and then sponged green ink in the grass to give more definition to the bottom of the raised panel.

Finally, well, I'm not even sure what to call this third card. Minimalist?

The ink is a dark gray, and the Stickles is magenta. The plant stamp is from Peaceful Garden, and the butterfly is from Martha Stewart punch. The die (from a set) was given to me by Eva...such a sweet and generous soul!

These variations on the same layout show that details matter and can change the whole look of a card.

I hope this post finds you all healthy and coping, perhaps even thriving in our weird new world. My main mental health self-care has involved ruthlessly limiting news exposure, actively seeking out comedy (cute dog videos, Parks and Recreation, Bloom County on Facebook, etc.), stamping, and reaching out to my friends and family. Around the house, I find myself wearing noise-canceling headphones with a jazz playlist to block my younger son's movies, older son's video games, and husband's conference calls. I also listen to Brene Brown's podcasts and am reading quite a lot.

This Friday, however, I'll be trying something totally new. My church has decided to offer morning devotionals led by different people--pastors and lay people--each weekday morning. I volunteered to do a Facebook Live devotional this Friday. If you would like to add a little peace and encouragement to your mornings, check the First United Methodist of Springboro Facebook page  at 9:30 a.m. EDST Monday-Friday.

Yesterday's video is available and features Pastor Amy Haines. Today's featuree our Pastor of Adult Discipleship Doug Dean. The two others for this week are Certified Lay Ministers Jennifer Fry and David Finney. All of us but Pastor Amy are noobs to the whole video devotional thing, but we all have hearts for Jesus and will do our best. If you bear with us, I assure you we will all get better as time goes on!

I find my reactions to and self-care for this crisis keep changing as time stretches out. What are you doing for self-care as we move into our third month of COVID-19 mitigation? Has your response changed? For better or worse?

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

PS Several people have mentioned they miss seeing our dogs. Daisy's tenth birthday was yesterday. She's the good dog, 95% of the time. Cooper will be three in July. He's the good dog about 60% of the time.

The morning mooch:
"You has toast. We has no toast."

Cooper should be named Olaf...

...because he likes warm hugs...

...and always does the happ.

Nick took this gorgeous picture of Daisy. 

Slut puppy always ready for a belly rub. Both dogs
seriously need a trip to the groomer!