Thinking of You

The challenge theme for October 6, in this year's "Hope You Can Cling To" card drive at Splitcoast Stampers, is "Hearts for Hope." Stacy, the challenge hostess, wants participants to use 3 hearts and a touch of red on their cards. I decided to use my 3 hearts to create a flower.

I die cut & embossed my hearts from red cardstock, using the smallest of Little B's "Hearts" dies. I also die cut a piece of cream cardstock with the largest of Lawn Fawn's "Small Stitched Rectangle" dies. I stamped the greeting, from Simon Says Stamp's "Sending Happy Thoughts" set, on the background panel, and heat embossed it with Zing Rouge embossing powder. I then glued my hearts in the upper right corner of that panel.

I decided to add the stem & leaves to my flower with some hand-stitching. I sketched that out with a pencil, then pierced holes along the line. The massive amount of "white space" on the background really bothered me, so I decided to stitch some flourishes as well. I used the "Swirly Doodles" template by Hot off the Press to sketch my flourishes, then pierced the stitching holes for those. Finally, I erased my pencil lines and stitched with green embroidery floss.

For the center of the flower, I pulled out a clear yellow button, and threaded it with the same green floss. I tied the floss into a bow, & glued the button down with some Ranger Multi Medium Matte. I finished my card by matting the panel with some red cardstock, and mounted it to a white A2 card base. This card will be going to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX, to bring a little lift to one of their patients.