In Loving Memory of my Dad

I took today off of work because it is the day of my Dad's passing 4 years ago. He had a long battle in the hospital and after all he had struggled against a stroke finally took him from us. That wasn't even why he was in the hospital to begin with, but I guess with the "many" other issues he had happen while there his body was too weak in the end. I was very close to my Dad, although he lived over 3 hours away. I would often go and see him with my family, many times for no reason at all. I have been through some pretty tough times in my life and he helped me through the major part of them, even bought me my first car!
I thought maybe this year I could go to work on today but with all the personal things I have going on in my life right now (the 2 most major issues being my husband & I are more than likely going to lose our long term jobs because both of our companies are selling out.), I needed to take the day off to be alone with him and talk with him. And I thought what better way than to create a scrap page for his book I have been making.

You see he loved the outdoors and LOVED birds. He raised many in his life. Him and I used to look at the tree's and tell one another which ones we liked the most too. So when I saw this paper at Michael's this morning I knew it was the one as he also loved green. The base paper is from Deja Views - Coral. I loved how the tree was embossed on the paper. And knew that I could cut a tree limb from French Manor that would go with this perfectly for the 3D effect. It is cut at 4 inches using Kraft cardstock & distressed using Java Walnut Ink sprayed on it. The bird is from Gypsy Wanderings, cut at 3.5 inches and on My Minds Eye , 29th Street Market Classic Everyday Jean Blue Paper. It is two sided paper so the blackout of the bird and wing are of the swirly side of the paper. The body of the bird is from the Blue Jean side. I distressed it with Tim Holtz Wild Honey. Under the picture is one of the stock pictures that come on the Imagine I cut it at 5.8 I think and distressed it with Tim Holtz Compass Mask using Wild Honey. The circle cut is from Happy Hauntings.  Up in the right corner that is a metal tag that says "Sweet Memories" by Making Memories The Eclectic metal signs. In the lower left hand corner is a tag from that same pack that says "Remember". I cut all the font from Gypsy Font and faux stitched it help it stand out a bit.
To add more dimension to the page I cut out some of the circle designs of the paper (I bought more than one of the papers because I always mess up!), and placed them on top of the circles already on the page here and there. Every thing that is popped up on the page is popped up using Helmar's ZapDots black. I LOVE these dots! In one of the pics you can see them and it doesn't look all gaudy because they are BLACK not white! Cool huh?
Ok I know this is long but this is a very special page for me. I stopped now and then to watch video's on my computer and reflect on some of the good times while making this. Sort of a Father Daughter moment in my mind.
Entering this into the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge too!
I hope you like the page. I figured since I had a bird on it I could actually participate in the Cricut Challenge on the blog too! Wish me Luck!

Don't forget about my blog Candy here!!!  Post on that post today if you haven't already to win some great stuff!