Bittersweet Valentine

In Southern California, the weather remains reasonably mild even during the winter. Because of this, the cemeteries are enthusiastically decorated for each holiday. I make a seasonal decoration for my daughter's grave. Alexis was just 25 years old when she passed away unexpectedly in December, 2012. Being creative with my Silhouette has proved to be very therapeutic in coping with my extreme grief. When I do something for her grave, I enjoy remembering how she would sit close in my crafting space, perched on the window sill as my Silhouette was busily cutting. She loved to see what I was making. Today I enjoy providing her with something very special, unique and lovely - just as she was.

I often make something to add to the flowers we take to the cemetery every week. One of the files I like best is simply 'Dove' by Hero Arts, available in the Silhouette store. I cut them in multiples of two and sandwich bamboo skewers in between the layers. I stagger the height of the skewers and sometimes 'extend' their length by taping more than one together. A clutch of three doves looks very nice. The adhesive I prefer for this is: TomBow Mono, Multi Liquid Glue. It doesn't warp the cardstock and provides a very strong hold. I shape the wings to make the doves seem to be taking flight and, as they weather during the week, the wings curl on their own. Doves are a very lovely addition to graveside flowers and appropriately remind us of the Holy Spirit.

 

This week I made Alexis a Valentine-themed decoration. I selected 'Devil and Angel Heart' by Megan Hardy from the Silhouette store. I scaled it up as large as my 12" by 12" cardstock would allow the angel wings to be. Then ungrouped and deleted the devil bits. I cut 3 sets of wings for strength and stability and layered them together with the TomBow mentioned above. Then I cut 4 sets of the heart. I arranged two bamboo skewers between one pair of hearts and the wings, extending the pointy ends outward in order to poke them in the ground. I buttressed the skewers with pop dots and loaded on a generous bead of TomBow glue. Allowing half an hour to set, I then flipped the wings and repeated the process with two more skewers, taping each pair of skewers together with washi tape for stability. What I have then is a double-sided decoration with hearts on either side, wings in between, and four skewers to support my decoration to stand up the ground.



Before I cut the halos, I added two very small holes to the file and created a compound path. This is so I can suspend the halo between the two angel wings seemingly in mid-air. I cut 10 copies of the halo out of gold cardstock and stacked my sturdy little halo, clamped it and let it glue dry.

When it comes to having grave decorations endure the vagaries of wind and weather, monofilament (fishing line) is my best friend. I hung the halo between the wings with two threads of monofilament.

In the meantime, I began cutting a variety of hearts out of 4 different cardstock plain and patterned papers. I wanted to make two valentine totem poles for either side of her headstone, so I sent my husband out to Home Depot to pick up 3" wide garden pickets. He spray-painted them white for me and I layered on the hearts. A few of them I embossed with my Cuttlebug to give them texture and a very few I curled by using a bone folder. I overlapped them randomly and allowed them to sometimes extend sideways off of the wooden picket. (For this I used Scotch brand Quick-Dry Adhesive.) My husband hammered the picket posts into the ground on either side of Alexis's headstone.

Of course we always bring flowers and because Alexis was so young and innocent, I prefer bright daisies to roses for Valentines' Day.

Below are photos of my efforts. It was a gloriously sunny and warm day at the cemetery and I was very proud to have created a remembrance for Alexis which was youthful, joyful and representative of her big, fun and pure spirit. She is our angel.

The monofilament is invisible so that the halo seems to float mid-air.

 

Left side picket

Right side with another grave's balloons visible behind.
The cemetery is building crypts on the hill below and the construction supports are visible.



Next week, I will fetch the pickets home, remove the hearts and store the pickets for future use. I can imagine they will work beautifully for Memorial Day or 4th of July with a banner hanging in between.