Lots of Hearts with Cool New Punch

When I was blurfing yesterday (blog surfing), I spent some time on Stasia Sloma's blog. The girl's got game! As I scrolled through her archive, I came across this cool tag she made to coordinate with a birthday gift bag. That got me thinking about a new punch I have, and I skipped off to my craft room, inspired once again.

This new punch is one of 7 featured currently in the Spring Occasions Mini Catalog. The cool thing about this punch is not so much that it's a 1/2" heart, but that the punch has a hinge that makes it collapse flat for storage. I took some pictures to help illustrate what I mean.

When laid side by side with a standard SU! punch, a 1/2" circle for comparison sake, you can see that they are similar in size, but not in height. The black one's punch mechanism is handle on the exterior of the design. As you can see in the pictures of the new design (new color too), the locking mechanism on the back allows the punch to store flat when not in use. This also promotes stacking, which you CERTAINLY cannot do with the black ones!

Now on to the card I created with this nifty punch. I love this color combination, which I saw here and knew I had to make over with SU! colors. Crushed Curry and Bermuda Bay from this year's InColor collection were paired with Real Red...something about these colors together is just so cool!

I used smaller circles than Stasia did, since my hearts are smaller than her stars. I also had to make things a little more challenging for myself because I wanted the hearts to be red. I layered them on .75" circles of Whisper White, but they seemed too small on the card base. I wanted more white in the design too, so I got my 1" circle punch out and found the missing piece of the puzzle.

I didn't have the sentiment Stasia used, so I opted to go simple with a tiny "i love you" from Love Matters. This would've been a good card for last month's SAS, but love is not something only to be expressed one day a year!

I'm happy it's Friday, are you? What are your plans? Thanks for stopping by!

Simple Card. Great Cause.

This Thursday, I'm heading down to one of our Atlanta Ronald McDonald Houses to host a night of card making for those in residence. I've been told there will be about 20 parents and kids who could choose to participate in this activity. I saw this card on Tessa Wise's blog and adapted it for kids who have fine motor skill issues. Since many won't find using scissors something fun to do, all they'll have to do is stamp the hearts on the squares, glue them down, and someone will help with the ribbon and the "i love you" sentiment (all stamps from retired Love Matters set). The card stock used for the 1 3/8" squares is Ballet Blue, Certainly Celery, So Saffron, and Pumpkin Pie. The base is Riding Hood Red. I love that I can put my just-retired InColors and some older ribbon to good use!

This is the card I'm bringing for the adults to make. It too uses retired InColor card stock, but these folks won't know and won't care! It also has just one color of ink used--Basic Black. This simplifies and expedites things, since the stamps won't have to be cleaned between uses. I've stamped the flower and the leaves so that all that will have to be done once the panels are stamped and the edge is punched is some cutting. I hope they'll like them!

Being able to encourage people through cards is the main reason I craft. Being able to invest some time in order to make a small difference in the day of someone who is in the midst of a trial I couldn't begin to imagine jazzes me so much!

There are many ways you can be involved at your local Ronald McDonald House. Find your area's house by clicking on the link. The house manager will be happy to inform you of volunteer opportunities available so that you can encourage these families during their time of need.