This card is very special and I’m very proud of it. I made this card for a workmate and his son who is very ill and has had the sickness since he was very young. The son is only 13 years old and the dad is very hardworking. I was diagnosed with cancer in 2008 so I know how hard it can be constantly going to the hospital for treatments, the stress it can put on family, and the financial strain.
The dad is the sole earner as the mother is caring for the son. As such, I would expect that they wouldn’t have a lot of spare money to waste on entertainment as a lot of the funds would go to medication and treatment. My idea was to take $1 and $2 donations from the other employees at work (as that’s only like a chocolate bar) and it would all add up and then we could get a gift card so the son could buy a video game.
Everyone’s really jumped on board this idea a lot more than what I originally thought and the bosses have said that whatever the employees raise they’ll match it, which is really incredible!
For the design, I started with a base white card, standard size, and I cut a strip and two squares of Basic Grey Grand Bazaar pattern papers from the Grand Bazaar Card Kit. This is inspired by a Becky Williams design which is included in the kit. I did have to alter it to suit quite a bit though. In the card kit supplies are envelope pockets and there were only 2 spares after taking into account all the designs, which I really want to try them all so didn’t want to use up. The 2 spare pockets weren’t in a pattern that I wanted or looked good with the front design of the card.
So I took a 12 x 12″ sheet from the papers I have stored and I unstuck the glue of the pocket size I wanted and laid it flat on top of the 12 x 12 inch sheet and I cut around the edges. After cutting it out, I used the Chomp-a-Dile Corner Cutter to make the corners rounded and then I used the Martha Stewart Score Board and the bone scorer to score lines to fold the sheet into the pocket. I adhered the pocket together and voila!
I decided I wanted to use the two foil arrows spare from the card kit and I had the idea of embossing ‘from all of us’ onto the pocket. As the pattern paper was dark, I decided to use a strip of vellum which I wrapped around it and adhered at the back.
Next I stamped the two adorable little hedgehogs from the Lawn Fawn Hedgehugs Stamp Set using Memento Tuxedo Black Ink. I stamped the ‘thinking of you’ speech bubble using what I thought was Spiced Marmalade but what turned out to be Pickled Raspberry. The lids had somehow become mixed up. I had to stamp the Spiced Marmalade twice in order to get the really full colour. The stamp is from Lawn Fawn Chit Chat set.
I also have the dies for the hedgehogs and the speech bubble so I placed them over the stamps and held them in place with washi tape. After that I ran it through my Big Shot to die cut them out.
After colouring the hedgehogs using my Faber Castell Connecter Pens, I went to adhere the hedgehogs to the card, however the hedgehogs and sentiment did not look good simply on top of the rectangles so I decided to add a space for them to sit. I used the Sizzix Stackable Circles Dies and I cut out a larger circle from the yellow Grand Bazaar paper and a smaller circle from the blue pattern paper also from the Grand Bazaar 6 x 6 pad. I adhered the blue circle onto the yellow circle off center and then I adhered the circles to the center of the card. Then I adhered the hedgehogs and the sentiment and the golden foil arrow all onto the circles. I think it looks great!
Finally, I used the new orange embossing powder for the ‘from all of us!’ sentiment on the vellum. This sentiment is from the Lawn Fawn On The Mend stamp set. And I used the second gold foil arrow to start the sentiment. Then I cut a whole bunch of strips of paper so that all the people that donate can write their names on the strip. And the pocket will hold all the names and the gift card. This is very exciting and I can’t wait for everyone to finalize their donations so it can be handed to him.
Kelly's Art Table 