Dies R Us Basket of Flowers Calendar

 My life has had some sudden changes.  My husband of 51 years had been failing for some time from severe edema which caused open wounds in his legs. He had been treated at the wound center for some time but it never got much better. Eventually his legs gave out and he was not able to stand or walk on his own.  This meant some drastic changes in our life style, and my time was spent caring for him.  The wounds would get better and then worse so it was a constant battle.  Last month, he developed an  infection that necessitated an amputation. Unfortunately, he never recovered from the surgery and passed away in  mid-April. He is missed by many friends and family, but because he was a man of faith and believed death was graduation from this life to a better one, we all know that he is in the presence of his LORD.        

I am thankful to my team mates and  team leaders at Dies R Us and Double D for giving me some time to process my grief and move on to a new phase of my life.  Our card and craft community is populated with so many caring and understanding friends. Steve, my husband, was a great fan of all of you who sent me cards over the years.  He was impressed with the talent but more with the friendships I developed over the years.  We are truly blessed to be surrounded with so many loving and caring crafters.

Now on to my card for the Dies R Us Challenge . So many people have told me how they hate to throw my cards away so I have tried different ways to make them something that they can use and display for awhile.  I decided to use this basket shaped easel die from POPPYSTAMPS and make it a calendar that can sit on a desk or by the phone.  I chose to fill my basket with spring flowers, but I can see it filled with pumpkins, leaves, holly, poinsettias, hearts, eggs, fruit etc. 

This die set is versatile because it embosses the basket pattern and the die can also be used as a stencil to add some inked detail. The grass, leaves and bow all come with the die so you can complete a card without using anything else.  I love making homemade paper flowers so I added them to my basket.  The calendars are from Taylored Expressions. 

You will want to see what the team at Dies R Us Challenge  has done to inspire you this month. As always, it is amazing.   We look forward to seeing what you create.