Lest We Forget

As a proud Canadian, who comes from a long line of military serving family members and who's also married into the military, I pondered long and hard over this remembrance montage. I used the leaves photostamp from The Mountains plate found in under Landscapes created by The Stampsmith. My card depicts Canadian soldiers, the famous poppy and the sentiment, Lest We Forget under it. The most important element in my card which isn't meant to fade into the background, though, is a snapshot of a few of the names of the 11,285 Canadian soldiers who died in France and whose remains were never found. The towering, 10-storey, white limestone Vimy Memorial Monument is located at Vimy Ridge, near Arras, France. The striking memorial features a 30-tonne limestone figure carved from a single block, a hooded figure representing Canada herself, gazing down on a single tomb overlooking the Douai plain.

I've created this 5" x 7" montage to be added to the bulletin board at my daughter's elementary school. One of the teachers has took it upon herself to add pictures of all the Canadian soldiers of the current war in Iraq with the province they came from. It's very moving to look at all the pictures and think how their families lives have been affected. It's my hope that these families have found some comfort in the fact that their loved ones didn't die in vane, but by fighting for our freedom. For that, we will all be eternally grateful.

In order to create the Canadian flag for the bottom corner of the soldier image, I used the Julius Gray font and re-sized it to the size I wanted. This is a free download and you can use either the flag or just the maple leaf image from the flag. Once you download the font (tff), move it to your fonts folder. Choose the Julius Gray font, then type 1 for the flag or type 5 for just the maple leaf. The link above gives more info on this, if my explanation isn't clear.

With Remembrance Day coming this November 11th, I hope you will take the time that day, and every day, to remember our fallen soldiers and those who currently serve to protect our country, and the freedoms that we are so fortunate to have.

With Remembrance,