Hidden Things

27th Anniversary Celebration Cruise

Countdown Day 7 - Reflecting back - As a parent there are the dreaded calls you pray you never get. When our youngest was a junior in high school we received the call. Our son's best friend called to say they had been involved in an accident. Our son had left home to attend a high school football game. Hours later my hubby and middle son, the firefighter, were on their way to the accident scene. Supposedly, our son was ok. When they arrived on the scene he had been pulled out of the car disoriented. It was a head-on at a slow speed. That is probably what saved his life as the front seat passenger. Our middle son stepped into firefighter mode and helped load four teenagers into ambulances for transport to local hospitals, including his brother. Our son was transported to a hospital that handles head trauma. They were concerned he might have brain damage due to hitting his head on the windshield.

I will never forget that night, watching my firefighter son come home and weep like a baby after he had handled the scene. He was only 19 at the time. It was that day I knew he would handle whatever came his way in his career as a firefighter. It took months for our youngest son to completely recover. I learned many things about brain injury. Appearances can be deceiving. A person can look ok on the outside but internally not be ok. One doctor explained to me that when a sudden jolt occurs with the head, your head will stop moving abruptly but the brain can keep going causing injury. Just as they had predicted it would take 9 months for our son to get back to normal. School became hard and his energy level dropped. He couldn't think for long periods of time in school and he would get tired to the point of falling off to sleep. I am grateful he was in a small school that worked with us to keep his classes and assignments on target. Today he is a healthy, active young man full of energy and living life to its fullest.

FAT ATC Angels

One of the trades on FAT is ATC angels. I have never made artist trading cards before this trade. But here is my first attempt at making three different cards. The first is named Pearl. She is very simple and made with interfacing, a Victorian angel transfer, glitter paint and wire pearl beads with printed "Imagine" ribbon.

The middle one is called "Hidden." Several posts back I shared about the fabric paper I made. I cut it to the size of an ATC 2 1/2 by 3 1/2". Then I inserted an angel transfer inside. The border is a simple ribbon attached using Steam-a-Seam 2.

It doesn't look like much. And the last I call Ginger Bad Boy. He has not earned his full wings yet. It seems he keeps "burning" his bridges and getting into mischief. The background is the fabric paper with tissue, muslin and plastic wrap bonded together with watered-down glue. Ginger Boy is a store bought popup.

When "Hidden" is held up to the light you see the angel tucked inside between the layers. I love how this little ATC turned out. I will use this technique on more ATCs and fabric postcards. My friend, Fannie, is looking for Crystal. Maybe she is tucked away inside an ATC.