Hello Mosaic

Another of the challenges for the "Hope You Can Cling To" card drive at Splitcoast Stampers is "Mosaic Memories." Kerry Urbatch, the challenge hostess, describes the memories that make up our lives as a mosaic. This mosaic helps make us who we are. She challenged participants to google "mosaic tiles," and find an image for inspiration to create a card.

Inspiration image

The image I found is actually a still-shot of a mosaic tile floor, from a YouTube video. The thing that caught my eye was the more chaotic-looking tiles in the center, surrounded by neatly laid-out, geometric tiles. This chaos surrounded by calm really spoke to me. I have major depression and schizophrenia. They are pretty much controlled by medications, but they are still there. The center tiles represent suffering to me, but surrounded by the "calm" outer shell that I put on for most of the world, who don't understand what I go through on a daily basis. I think this idea speaks to anyone who suffers from illness/disability, be it mental/emotional or physical. So I recreated this on my card.

I first inked a panel of white cardstock with Old Paper Distress ink, to get a "grout" look. Then I die cut an oval out of the center, using the largest of Spellbinders' "Classic Ovals LG" dies. I cut several little "tiles" of blue, green, & lavender cardstock with my paper trimmer. I used liquid glue to adhere the tiles in place on my frame. Finally, I trimmed an additional 1/8" off each side, to even out the edges. I also used the oval die to cut from the center again, to trim off the tile pieces that hung over the inner edge.

For the center piece, I die cut another oval using the largest "Classic Ovals SM" die by Spellbinders, and inked it with Old Paper. I cut strips of darker cardstock with my trimmer, but this time cut irregular shapes from those strips with my scissors. I glued them to the oval, then cut off the overhanging portions. I adhered that oval to the positive oval piece I'd cut out from my frame, so the tile pieces in the center had a bit of "grout" between them and the outer (frame) pieces. Finally, I matted the frame with a piece of navy cardstock, and glued my oval into the center.

I die cut Lawn Fawn's "Scripty Hello" from cream cardstock 3 times, and glued them one on top of the other, to create a thick greeting. The background was a bit too busy, and "fought" with the greeting. So I cut a strip of vellum, and glued my die cut to that with small dots of Ranger Multi Medium Matte. I applied more Multi Medium to the back of the vellum, behind the greeting, and finally wrapped the ends around the background panel and adhered them. I matted the panel with a pink parchment paper, and mounted it to a white A2 card base. I will be sending this card on to MD Anderson Cancer Center. Hopefully, it will "speak" to a patient there, and let him/her know s/he is not alone!