Wax Fruit Free Crocus

I finally got a chance to do some browsing on the Crafter's Digital Art Center (CDAC).  It's a website that is the home to around 100 digital companies.  I stumbled on it because I have fallen in love with digis by Wax Fruit Company and I knew that they were part of the CDAC.  As luck would have it, Wax Fruit is hosting a sketch challenge and has a free crocus image if you would like to use it on the sketch!!  This is the link to the sketch and the freebie - but I don't know if it will work for you because you do have to sign-up at this site - no obligations or fee - you just need to sign up!

You can see other images by Wax Fruit by clicking on the appropriate label on the left column of my blog.

I have been working with pastels all week doing Easter cards.  Pastels are NOT my favorite.  So I really wanted to do something different with this crocus image.  I just got a new pad of DCWV paper on sale at Michaels - it's called Playtime, but don't let the name fool you.  It's full of gorgeous kraft-based prints.  I had to dig deep into my cardstock stores to find matching paper, but I do like the final result.  Recipe at the bottom of the post.

On a totally different subject, I need to tell you a true miracle story from this week.  On Thursday, 8,000 people in my small town were evacuated due an uncontained wildfire.  (It is truly a bad sign that it is only March and the area around Denver has already experienced four wildfires.)  The fire was south of a particular road and was in an open grassy area, full of ranchland, etc.  But it was threatening to jump the road and move to the north due to VERY high winds. The great fear was that immediately north of the road was a middle school, a high school and a heavily populated area set in a beautiful wooded area (the subdivisions are called The Timbers and The Pinery and those names are very appropriate!). 

We are a few miles to the north of the evacuation area so we weren't particularly scared, but we were glued to the television all afternoon - in one particularly tough scene there was a horse and some goats in a panic with the fire going along the edge of their fenced in area.  The entire newsroom and my family cheered when a helicopter flew over and dropped water!!

The forecast was for high winds for the next 24 hours - the weather people were absolutely certain of this.  But, a total miracle occurred - the winds dropped off and then shifted direction.  Our weather people were dumbfounded.  The fire ended up only burning 1,600 acres and not a single building was damaged.

I knew this was amazing, but on Saturday I was at my son's lacrosse game which is next to the middle school that was threatened.  I couldn't believe my eyes.  I am standing at the middle school taking this picture - immediately behind me is the forested area.  Look how close the fire came to the populated area.  LOOK how close it came to the houses on the ridge!!

Thanks to all the firefighters and PRAISE GOD for His intervention against this potentially catastrophic fire!


Wax Fruit Crocus:

• Stamps:  Wax Fruit Company crocus digi
• Ink: copics
• Paper: Papertrey Ocean Tides, Stampin' Up Crushed Curry, Old Olive, DCWV Playtime stack
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Crumb Cake taffeta and buttons, Tattered Angels Pearl Glimmer Mist, Cuttlebug Embossing Folder