Wee Fairy

My oldest sister Ardell was not only an amazing sister but also my best friend. Although she was 11 years older them me she let me tag along with her and her best friend Lynda where ever they went.  With 6 kids in the family we often had to share beds and Ardell was my bed mate. I can remember her reading to me every night before I went to sleep and even when she started dating she would make sure to read me a chapter from my favorite book before heading out on her date. We remained very close even after both of us were married and had our own families. We lost her suddenly 13 years ago and I still miss her terribly.

When I started scrapping I decided that I wanted to do a special page about her as a baby. I knew that the page had to have fairies on it because Fairy was the nickname that her Aunt Phyllis and Aunt Joyce gave her as a toddler.  They told me that Ardell would dance, flit and twirl around the room on her tiptoes and because she was so tiny it reminded them of a little fairy. She was obviously very special to both of them. I can remember many a time when Ardell would come into a room that one or both of them was in and you would hear them say “oh my look, it’s our wee fairy”

            Over the years I have picked up different papers and embellishments with fairies on them but they never seemed to be right for the page I wanted to do.  A while back I came across the Graphic 45 Once Upon a Springtime paper line.  I had finally found the paper I wanted to use. Even the title of the paper line seemed to fit as she was born in the late spring of 1944. But I really wanted to make the pages special and couldn’t decide exactly what I wanted to do with the papers.  So they sat in the drawer waiting for me to work with them.  I finally decided that I would try fussy cutting all the little fairies and flowers and popping them up so they looked 3D.  I have never done any fussy cutting before so I didn’t realize just how much work it would take, but like any labor of love it didn’t matter how long it took because I enjoyed every moment of it.  

            Ardell loved butterflies and since her passing everyone in her family thinks of her any time we see a butterfly.  So I had to add a couple of those for her too. 

Here is the layout that I made for her 

Some close-ups so you can see some of the detail

I hope you enjoyed seeing Ardell’s special page as much as I loved doing it.

Any of you that have been following my blog know that I have been doing a LOAD challenge over at Let’s Scrap.  LOAD stands for LayOut A Day.  So the idea was to make a layout each day in January.  Cathy van der Bruinhorst, the organizer of the challenge made it a bit easier on us by letting us count both layouts and cards.  I am thrilled to say that with a card I made today for the upcoming blog hop and the finishing of Ardells layout I have made 30 layouts and 11 cards in January, an all time high for me.  I’m so happy that I finished off this great month of scrapping with this special tribute to my sweet sister Ardell.