Ornament Swap for Luke and Lucy

This Christmas season, I participated in the Remembering Together Ornament Swap, where I made an ornament for someone who has lost a baby and received one in honor of Lily. Sometimes I feel like I neglect Luke and don't do enough for him, because I'm always doing things for Lily.

So, I asked my friend Brittany if she wanted to do a swap of our own in honor of Luke and Lucy. We shared with each other the things that remind us of our babies, to give ideas on what to make. We both also decided to make one similar to the one we made for each other for ourselves - just with things that remind us of our own baby. We took photos of the two matching ornaments together before sending them to each other. :)

Here are the ornaments I made.

Obviously the one on the left is Luke's and the one on the right is Lucy's. I was thinking for a while about how I'd make Lucy's ornament and was suddenly struck with inspiration. :) I got all my supplies at Michael's.

The color purple reminds Brittany of Lucy, so I filled a clear ornament with purple pompoms. Dandelions also remind Brittany of Lucy, so I looked up white and black photos of dandelions and found one with three, to symbolize her third Christmas in Heaven. I knew I wanted to include her name somehow, so I edited her name and the dandelion picture together in Photoshop and then printed it out and glued it on a fancy tag. Her name is written in my favorite font, called "Jellyka Western Princess." I glued some purple glitter to the dandelions to add a special touch. I then used a white mini-pompom string as the hanger. I thought it complimented the other pompoms nicely.

For Luke's ornament, I used blue pompoms. I tried to find green because that is the color that reminds me the most of him, but only found blue. That is okay though, because blue reminds me of him too. Then, I did the same thing with his - I wrote his name with the same font and edited it in Photoshop with a black and white image of a butterfly (what reminds me of him). Then, I printed it and put it on a fancy tag.

Brittany asked how I fit the tags into the small hole. I didn't realize that this would be a problem lol until I came to it. I ended up gently bending the tags and putting them in the hole and then straightening them out once they were in there. Thankfully, you can't notice they were bent.

Here are the ornaments that Brittany made.

The one on the left is for Lucy and the one on the right is for Luke. Each year, Brittany makes an angel ornament out of different materials in honor of Lucy. And as I mentioned above, the color purple reminds her of Lucy. For Luke's ornament, Brittany made it in the shape of a butterfly (as I said, butterflies remind me of Luke). And she made it green, the color that reminds me of him. When I told her that, she didn't know the exact shade of green I meant, but ended up choosing the perfect one! She also asked me what Scripture verse reminds me of Luke and I told her:

"He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds." ~Psalm 147:3

She included his name and that Scripture reference on the front of his ornament.

Brittany also sent a little tag to hang on the tree that says:

In Memory of Luke Shiloh

Who Lives Forever in the Heart of his Mom,

But Rests in the arms of the Lord.

Matthew 5:4

(Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.)

She made one of these tags for herself for Lucy as well.

Luke's ornament is so beautiful and creative and I am proud to hang it on his and Lily's mini-Christmas tree! I am going to display it each and every year. Thank you so much for making it for me Brittany...and thanks to your kind husband for using his power tool to help you make it. :) I love it! This was a great idea to do the ornament swap. And it made me happy to do something in honor of Luke for Christmas. It was the first Christmas that he had a name. I loved having the honor of remembering Lucy with Brittany and it was very nice to have someone remember Luke with me.

Merry Christmas! :)