Lasting Hearts Card Drive

Hello, friends!

You all know the uber amazing Jennifer McGuire, right? (I mean, you are living under a rock if you don't...) Anywho, she posted on her blog about the Lasting Hearts Card Drive maybe a week-ish ago. The cause is one that is very near and dear to my heart, having dealt with 2.5 years of infertility myself, while also having to watch my very dear friend deal with not one, but four miscarriages.... well, let's just say, this cause really struck a chord with me. It's in my friend's honor that I've been cranking out cards like crazy to send to the Lasting Hearts Card Drive.

Let's be honest. We all know that I'm not one who is often at a loss for words. But, when one of my closest friends told me that she was in the middle of a miscarriage, I can't say that I did a very good job of helping her through it... It was one of those situations that I just... didn't know what to do. I didn't know if I should say something, because I didn't want to remind and upset her if she had managed to forget about it for even just a second. I didn't know if I should just try to move on and get her mind off of it with mindless inanities. I didn't know if I should try to talk to her about it, if talking about it would make her feel better. I just... didn't know. What do you say to someone who has just lost a piece of her heart? So I didn't. It wasn't that I didn't want to, or that my heart was not aching for her. I told myself that I was giving her space to let her heal, that she would come to me when she was ready, but in truth, I was terrified of saying or doing the wrong things and making it worse. I wish I would have just told her that I was thinking of her, that I loved her, that I would do anything to help her. So that's what I'm trying to do with these cards. I've made several, some of which I'll blog about, some of which I will just post on Instagram. But I hope that they all remind these poor families that someone, somewhere is thinking of them and wishes they could do something to help with this burden that they are having to endure.

Today's project is fairly simple. (In fact, I made three of them.) The Sunflower Cover Plate from Papertrey Ink does not require much in the way of embellishment. To start, I die cut the sunflower image using Canson Watercolor paper (the kind in the big pad from Wal Mart). I haven't been pleased with this particular brand of card stock for use with my Zig markers, so I was extremely pleased with how well it blended using my Distress Inks and blending tool.

I blended the petals first with Scattered Straw, then added some Spiced Marmalade towards the center of the flower to indicate shading. The leaves were done with Crushed Olive and Forest Moss, again covering the entirety of the greenery with the lighter (Crushed Olive) and then adding some darker Forest Moss toward the center, where the leaves meet the stem. The center of the sunflower was Gathered Twigs, with some extra dark concentration of color towards the center. I did mask off the outer edge of the die cut with some washi tape when blending the center of the flower, and I wish I had done so for the entire thing. I managed to get some ink on the edge of the die cut, despite the care I was taking to prevent such a thing from happening. C'est la vie. 

The rest of the card is pretty simple, and in fact these cards came together quite quickly after I got all of the little holes pushed through the die cut. I used The Ton's Hot Tourmaline ink to blend the edges of the Jelly Bean (by Bazzill) card base. (The inks from The Ton seriously blend so beautifully, both on colored card stock and white, and I'm not just saying that because I'm on the design team.) The final step was to add the greeting: Big Hugs from Papertrey Ink. It has fantastic dies and sentiments to go along with it, and I simply don't use it enough. The Lasting Hearts Card Drive was the perfect reason to pull them out. I added some Glossy Accents to the Hugs to give it a bit more dimension and decided to stop. I felt odd not adding some sequins to it... maybe I will before I send them. Haven't decided.

I sincerely hope that you will participate in the Lasting Hearts Card Drive. You can also donate money to help purchase with which the handmade cards will be included. The link at the beginning of the post will give you all of the pertinent information.

I hope you enjoyed this project! I am so pleased to have finally used some of my PTI product that has been neglected for too long. Have a fantastic week, friends!