Card Drive for Seniors

Ellen Hutson, based in Issaquah, WA, is having a card drive to collect cards for senior citizens in one of their local nursing & rehab facilities. Because of the current COVID-19 pandemic, nursing home residents are not permitted to have visitors. While they may not be able to see people face-to-face, hopefully cards will prove to be the next best thing. Ellen Hutson needs encouraging cards, with messages written on the inside for the residents. I created 2 cards for this drive.

For my first card, I used Sketch #SC579 from Splitcoaststampers.com as the basis for my design. I chose the "Daisy Kitty" & "So Much to Say #1" by Inky Antics for my image & greeting. I stamped the image in Altenew Vanilla Cream ink onto a panel of Strathmore Smooth Bristol paper. I colored it with my Tombow water-based markers. I added a bit of a very pale yellow to the daisy petals, just to help them stand out a little bit.

I used a 2" circle punch to punch out the opening in the patterned paper (from Pink Paislee's "Summer Lights" 6x6" pad). I adhered that and the top strip to my bristol paper panel, matted everything with a light green cardstock panel, & adhered it to my card base.

For the greeting, I chose the "sending you" & "warm hugs" stamps from "So Much to Say #1." To keep the greeting shorter so it would fit in the space I had, I masked the "you," inked up "sending" with Lawn Fawn's Forget-Me-Not ink, and stamped (after removing the masking tape from the stamp, of course!). Then I lined up the "warm hugs" stamp, inked again with the same color, & stamped it. I cut that into a small strip, and adhered it to my card.

I chose Newton's Nook's "Newton's Birdhouse" image for my second card. I stamped it onto a panel of Strathmore Vellum Bristol paper with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. Since this was a new stamp, I had to stamp it about 3 times to get a good black outline. I colored it with my Prismacolor colored pencils, using Gamsol on a blending stump to blend just the kitty's fur, so it would look nice & soft. I also added grass with 2 green pencils, to ground the image.

I stamped my greeting, also from the "So Much to Say #1" set, in Lawn Fawn's Blue Jay ink, onto a strip of Bazzill Icy Mint cardstock. I die cut 3 hearts from a scrap of patterned paper I had in my stash, using the 3 smallest of Hero Arts' "Nested Hearts Infinity" dies. I assembled my card, following Sketch #SC639, also at Splitcoaststampers.com, and using papers from the "Summer Lights" pad. I matted everything with a mint-green cardstock, and adhered it to my card base.

I'm also entering these in the following challenges:

Die Cut Divas: "Anything Goes" (second card only)
613 Avenue Create #231: "Anything Goes" (playing the colored pencils twist on my second card)
The House that Stamps Built Challenge #DCC M420: "It's Raining Cats & Dogs"

Hey! - You've Got This

I just finished making my latest batch of cards for Send a Smile 4 Kids. One of the needs was cards for teens & older patients. I found this older card by Nichol Spohr, and thought it would be perfect for this.

I cut a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper to 4-1/8x5-3/8". I used Distress inks in a rainbow of colors to do my stamping. I inked up the "HEY!" stamp from Simon Says Stamp's "All Boy" set (discontinued), spritzed the stamp 1 or 2 times with water, then stamped on my watercolor panel. I let the stamp sit for a few seconds, just to let the ink soak in before lifting the stamp from the paper. I repeated this with the different colors until I had covered the panel. Then I set that aside.

I stamped the greeting, from Avery Elle's "Brushed" (discontinued), on a scrap of Essentials by Ellen 40 lb. vellum with Ranger Jet Black Archival ink. I heat set it with my heat gun so the ink wouldn't smear. I die cut the vellum with one of the tag dies from Mama Elephant's "Tags a Lot" set. That particular die was way too long for my greeting. So after I ran it through once, I scooted the die up, lined up the faux stitching lines, and ran it through my die cutting machine again, basically creating a shorter tag. I die cut the tag reinforcer (from the same set) from black cardstock, glued it in place, then punched through the hole with my 1/8" hole punch.

I decided to attach the tag to my background with an eyelet. I first taped the tag to my background panel with low-tack painters tape, just to hold it in place. I punched a hole through the background to line up with the hole in the tag. I then used my Crop-a-Dile II to set a pewter eyelet. Finally, I matted the panel with navy cardstock, & adhered it to a white card base.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Dies R Us Challenge #140: "Tag, You're It"
Die Cut Divas: "Anything Goes"
613 Avenue Create: "Anything Goes" (not playing the twist)
Simon Says Stamp's Monday Challenge: "A Bit o' Green" (used Lucky Clover Distress ink in my background stamping)