Winter Wonderland Anniversary

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!

As we celebrate the blessings of the season, I wanted to share a card I made for my #1 blessing...my husband!  I follow the blog of Kittie Caracciolo, and she posted a winter scene card that I found so beautiful I had to figure it out for myself. The challenge... she had all these different die cuts for the shapes and I did not.  However, one of the reasons I love stamping as an art form is the versatility. It dawned on me that I could stamp the images I wanted onto white card stock with a very light ink, cut them out, and then turn them over to get the start white impact. The card above is my version.  My beautiful and talented daughter is home from college for the Christmas break. She is an aspiring professional photographer....below is her version...yes I should have her around all the time to take my pictures...:). Maybe she will set me up with a class some day. 

Check out Kittie's version and let me know what you think?  It took about 4 hours to put it all together but for someone as special as my best friend, it was all love.

The Stamp to Cope, Inc. family wish you and yours a wonderful holiday and blessed 2013! 

Jeannette

Original Art for the Holidays!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Many things have been happening at STC since my last post so I apologize for the gap. Before I get started, I wanted to send out love and prayers to the Sandy Hook community....there are truly no right words.

We started out the month with a very unique event.  The coordinator of the Berea Chapter of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness)  contacted me with a request to prepare a workshop for their monthly meeting.  I was thrill to be able to serve this population, some of whom are breast cancer survivors. They wanted to make something with a winter theme to head into the holidays and Joshua, my son, came along to help.  I am sure glad he wanted to come because the organization advertised the event and we had 19 in attendance! Above are a few of the cards made.  The snowflake background paper was embossed with an embossing folder (Cuttlebug and Tim Holtz Sissix) and the participants could choose from a variety of snowmen stamps.  The focal technique was White Crayon Resist (one of my favorites) where the image is stamped on white cardstock, colored with a white crayon, and then the entire piece is covered in ink.  The ink will "resist" anywhere the wax from the white crayon has been laid down. A great way to have color coordination without having to have colored paper. It was wonderful to see a whole new world open up for some of the participants.

In an effort to do some fundraising for STC and the Berea Arts Council, I created two new products using stamping techniques for participation in the Original Art Gifts II . The first was an effort in making jewelry..

The picture is not so great because I am taking it through the display case but you can see there are 3 earring/necklace sets.  I used stamping embossing techniques on brass and then used inking techniques from my stamping projects and sanded off the ink on the raised portions. I then covered it in a protective glaze, added a ring for the leather chord, and taaa daaa. They are getting good reviews and I have already had to make 3 more sets. We even got some STC PR on the additional information card they posted above the display case.

The second product in the gallery is an idea I have wanted to try since I saw something similar created by Jennifer McGuire on her blog.  These unique sets of cards are created so that the owner can actually choose the sentiment based on the need.... you won't see that in Walmart.  In addition, for each Iris within the package I used a different type of coloring medium - Copic, watercolor, pencil, Inktense, ink, stain, etc. to give it a classical artist flare.

The event will continue through December 29, so stop on by or click on the like above for an Internet view.

Funny how one thing leads to another but a direct result of participation in the Original Art event was a large custom order I received from someone who saw my cards.  Just from this one individual's order, STC was able to raise $50.  The individual was so pleased, she mentioned our organization to others and STC received a check for $100 as a thank you donation for what we are doing.  Thank you!

Finally, a shout out to an original STC supporter, Shanna.  Shanna's company, A Sense of Order in Lexington, has donated 3 large boxes of crafting supplies given to her by one of her clients. Some of the items include 100 ink pads of various colors, 100 ink refills, cardstock, embellishments, and a large brown paper grocery bag (of course I can even use that as paper) FULL of stamps. We continue to be blessed!

Hug each other and send up a prayer for those in need.  Merry Christmas, Jeannette

CyberMonday?

Happy CyberMonday...kidding right?

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! One day just isn't enough to reflect on all the blessings that have been bestowed.  However, it seems to be that even Thanksgiving gets shorter and shorter...

I don't know about you, but today my email was flooded with "CyberMonday" notifications.  Now don't get me wrong, I love a sale just as much as others but..really?  It was bad enough when Black Friday became so popular that planning the shopping strategy was happening around the Thanksgiving table. But then, even Thanksgiving Day itself  was infected under the excuse of pre-Black Friday (I couldn't believe it). Now CyberMonday has been added to extend the craziness even further and I am just overwhelmed. What will be next... Tinsel Tuesday or Way-to-spend Wednesday?  Is shopping intensity getting worse or is it just me? Is this really what it is all suppose to be about? Just saying...

On a lighter topic, I was asked to join an ATC club.  OK, I didn't know what that was so the group was happy to get me up to speed. ATC stands for Artist Trading Cards and they are created in the size of baseball trading cards.  The group selects a theme for the month and each member creates a set of trading cards to reflect the theme.  The set has to have the same number as the group and then we all trade.  The idea is to share tips and techniques in a sample that can be kept in trading card protector sheets for future creative inspiration. Take a look at mine....

The first set of themes were Halloween, Favorite Holiday, and Winter.  Since Halloween IS my favorite holiday I had to pick my second favorite..Easter.

Then we were tasked to do a Vintage Christmas so here is mine.

A few of the techniques used included, Copic Markers on Tin foil, heat embossing, ink resist using clear embossing, and patterned paper distressed with glitter.  I look forward to seeing what the other members of the group have created. This is going to be a very cool way to share ideas and stay inspired.

Thanks for your support and let's be Thankful always!
Jeannette

Stamp to Cat????

Greetings all,

It seems like time has just flown since I posted, live, from the Women's Wellness event at EKU sponsored by the Madison County Breast Cancer Support Group and we have been going non-stop ever since. In fact, the whole family has had to chip in to be sure I was able to meet all of the requests for the month..wonderful to have such love and support!  As you can see, even the furry family members helped. In this picture, my trusty assistant and supervisor, Midnight, was on inventory duty making sure I had enough supplies for a workshop on November 1.  A HUGE thank you to The Thursday Group of Lexington, KY for inviting STC to come to their meeting and share stamping and tote bag goodness.  A special appreciation for the generous donation they made so that others could be served as well.  Mary Ann, if you are checking in, my prayers are with you...go get'em!  

On November 6 (after voting of course), I participated in a local card-making challenge.  These types of things are WAY out of my comfort zone but thought it would help to expand my creative thinking.  We had 1 hour and 30 minutes to create a card using the A MUSE Studio Snow Globe die.  Well, they didn't say HOW we had to use it :)... check out mine...

It was a wonderful experience and certainly unique for me.  Check out what the others created.  I am blessed to be surrounded by such crafting talent. 

Some great ideas and the event certainly gave me some ideas for a big workshop we have at St. Joseph Hospital in Berea, KY December 4.

My next event is Thursday, November 15 at the Madison County Extension Center where I will be a demonstrator for the PaperKutz group and sharing techniques for using alcohol based markers.  Hope you will stop by and join in the fun..."six and seated" for a prize drawing.

Have a super week!  Jeannette

Women's Wellness Day 2012

Blogging live from the STC booth.  Gave out 18 tote stamp sets to survivors already at the first break. Great crowd with lots of interest in what we do.  More soon...

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Copic and Scrapbook Design Certified

Hi everyone! Seems like it has been a while since my last post.  October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and a very busy time for Stamp to Cope! Our congratulations to all survivors and supporters...this month is a celebration of Life!!! So far, STC has conducted three workshops, participated in a community service (handed out 400 flyers) and will have a table at Women's Wellness Day on October 27th at EKU.  Clearly a special time for outreach.

Speaking of outreach, STC continues to brainstorm fundraising and community awareness options. One approach we are trying is to provide a wider range of workshops for the overall crafting audience that would be fee based (survivors could attend for free). Based on research, we found that two interest areas were growing in this area...Scrapbooking and Copic Marker use.  So, this month I participated in a Spotted Canary Instructor Certification through Scrapbook Design University and Copic Designer training at the standard and intermediate level. Word is spreading fast and I have already been approached to put together a workshop for a local crafting group on basic Copic coloring.  We are so excited about the additional fundraising and community awareness potential these new certifications may bring.

Wanted to take this blog opportunity to share a few of the Copic projects completed during training...
These pictures focused on faces and radiant light techniques

These images focused on creating texture for fur and materials.

This image bring in light placement, shading, and depth techniques.

Watch for future projects that incorporate scrapbook design and Copic coloring techniques. Thank you for your continued support of our mission. If you or your organization would be interesting in a workshop, please let us know. Enjoy the Fall weather.
Blessings,
Jeannette

Surprise Inside and In the News

Hi Bloggers!
This week I am on a Safari theme inspired  by something I saw on KET (local PBS channel). Using a line stamp (giraffe) the focal point reflects coloring and open techniques for an airy feel and by using solid stamps (elephants) the  focal point lends itself to creating scenes/backgrounds to add depth. By themselves these cards have tons of versatility by way of sentiment and by gender of the receiver.  But speaking of "tons", I wanted to add a wow factor and try a new product.. Action Wobbles.  See the surprise inside...

The Action Wobble is a plastic spiral that pops up when the card is opened and wobbles around adding some interactivity to the experience.

Interactivity is also a focus of this post as I send a huge SHOUT OUT to our own volunteer Kasondra Miller.  Please check out the web article on her Girl Scout Gold Award project and her connection to Stamp to Cope, Inc.  http://www.fcps.net/news/features/2012-13/cancer-cards  We are so proud of her!

A reminder to come out and see Kasondra and I at the Stamp to Cope table during Women's Wellness Fun Day on October 27 in the EKU Perkins building.

Have a super day! Jeannette

I Love to Color

Happy Fall Greetings Everyone!

I am really excited to share that I will be heading to Copic Certification training this weekend.  STC continues to embrace unique fundraising options and this certification will not only allow me to add new technique workshops for survivors, but will enable me to offer workshops to the public through craft stores for fundraising options. To prepare, I focused this week on coloring media in general and wanted to share the results.  Going top left to right here are the combinations...

Top left - Right -

1. Regular color pencils blended with baby oil 2. Copic Alcohol Markers 3. Memento Dye Ink used with paint brush 4. Ranger Distress Dye Inks used with paint brush

Bottom left  - Right -

1. Water color paint  2. Water color pencils 3. Water soluble graphite pencils 4 Inktense pencils

So, what do you think? Please leave a comment about your favorite look! 

After practicing, I put together this set of cards using 1. the Water Color Pencil option and 2. the Inktense Pencil option (2 and 4 on the bottom).  This time, I white embossed the image (instead of just black ink) so the color would pop. 

These cards are now proudly displayed at the Berea Arts Council Gallery for fundraising purchase. Stop by, they are only $3.00 each.

As we say during our workshops, coloring is so therapeutic! Next time I post, I will be officially Copic Certified..yeah! Then I can add two certifications to our website and blog area... Spotted Canary Scrapbook Design and Copics.  Great fundraising and workshop ideas planned for the rest of 2012 and 2013.  Thanks for your continued support! 

Jeannette

Fall Flowers

Fall Greetings Everyone!

I am already freezing and pulling out blankets..yikes! However, this is a beautiful crisp and clear time of year and I look forward to all the festivities as we head into Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Halloween! There are a few fun things to share today and a HUGE shout out to one of our donors!  I am starting out with a new perspective on my effort at creativity! In working diligently to create cards and stamped jewelry for upcoming STC events, the appearance of lots of scrap pieces caught my eye.  Throwing them out was not an option (all you crafters out there know exactly what I mean). So, since we were already planning to visit our daughter, Carly, at college for her honor award and bringing flowers, I decided to make them myself! Some are stamped and colored items I did not use on cards, others are scraps punched but to thick for mailing and the butterfly was a matter of cutting, layering, making wire antennae from stem scraps, and adding jewel stones.  Lots of fun and she seemed to love them but likely I will stick with cards :)!

 Speaking of cards, I made this for my Grandson who turned 4 this month and started pre-school. Go little man! I love this stamp from Impression Obsessions and one of my favorite stamp designers, Gary Robertson. The stamp is a piece of art in itself and the fine detail makes such a beautiful focal point. The challenge for most beginning stampers, however, is coloring so many small spots.  Actually, you really do not need to color them by just changing the base ink color and working in monotone layering. But, I wanted to make the wagon pop so I stamped the image once for the focal point and once to cut out the wagon and give it dimension by adding it overtop with pop dots. The items in the wagon were from another stamp set by and I colored and cut them out gluing them inside. A fun fall picture for a great boy!

The grand finale of this post is a HUGE shout out and THANK YOU to Rita Whetzel for donating this FABULOUS box of stamps to STC to support our mission! Rita has blessed us with love, prayers, and supplies since the very beginning!  We cannot thank you enough and sincerely appreciate all that you do for STC!

Tune in next week when I share a little coloring medium comparison! Love to all and happy Fall!
Blessings, Jeannette

Never Forget

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

Happy Labor Day weekend everyone! 

I think I have finally figured out this holiday...I labor more in honor :)  For my daughter-in-law it must have taken on a whole new meaning last year when she gave birth to my grand-daughter, Ella Elise!  Since I can't be there to help celebrate her first birthday, this card was created to share some sweet sentiments for a sweet girl.  The card uses a relatively new product called Gelato by Faber-Castell to create the color. The gelato colors come in tubes like chapstick and are water reactive. If the tube is rubbed on the stamp and then spritzed with water the colors blend together as shown here with the background stamp and 6 colors. If used to color in a stamp, a small amount is rubbed on and then smeared around with a sponge or finger as I did with the cupcake.  They reminded me of very smooth crayons or when I was little and used to draw with my mother's lipstick (no she was not happy and red left such pretty stains :0). They were pretty messy so I think I will have to play with them some more to see what other techniques I can discover.  Happy Birthday Ella.

Speaking of techniques, check out these sea creatures..sorry the photo is kind of blurry at the bottom.(my daughter is taking a photography class so maybe she can teach me how to take better pictures)  After researching some natural stamping techniques I tried to duplicate the process using rubber stamps. Starting with black paper, I used bleach to stamp the image making sure there was enough bleach to soak into the lines so it came out like a solid image. After the bleach dried and took out the pigment, I inked up the stamp again with Memento Dye markers to add color over top of the bleached area.  When that dried, I inked the stamp around the edges with a white pigment ink and stamped the final layer.  The colors and texture really added dimension and they looked very lifelike. Now all I have to do is figure out how to use them....good thing much of my family live near beaches :) Maybe I will start a new beach Christmas Card trend!

Before starting to think of Christmas Cards, however, I have a list of occasion cards that need to be made. We are thrilled that Stamp to Cope will have a booth at Women's Wellness again this year, the Girl Scouts asked that we put on a project for the local council, and we are planning to have some items in the local art gallery for a fundraising event. To get myself inspired for the mass production needed in such a short timeframe, I went to my favorite technique to make a New Home card for my nephew and his wife...Masking. This house card was made with 4 separate stamps and some post-it notes.  For each stamp a mask is created to cover so new layers can be applied without distortion. The trick is to stamp the items in the forefront first, cover them with the mask made of the same shape and stamp the next layer. Repeat this process until the scene is set and then remove all the masks.  It can get pretty slopping while working and sometimes fussy cutting the masks can be time consuming, but once the masks are gone the depth is great. We wish them all the best as they celebrate first-time home ownership. It did the trick, I have been making cards all weekend.  I am celebrating Labor Day by laboring creatively! 

Love to all,

Jeannette

TriFold Thanks

Hi all,  Hope this posts finds you enjoying the close of Summer and embracing  a new school year. Our daughter has returned to college and our son is beginning his second week in the 7th grade. Fun and exciting times for everyone!  At Stamp to Cope, we are wrapping up our Summer activities and preparing for Fall workshops and Breast Cancer Awareness events. 

As the school year begins, so do many clubs and organizations that took a break so families could go on vacation or focus on warm weather activities. Sending reminders and/or invitations to participants can be a great way to get the momentum going again. A favorite type of card is one that can be duplicated in bulk for just such an occasion.  However, designing something that is relatively easy to duplicate but still provide a WOW factor can be a challenge. So imagine my joy and surprise when a large box was delivered to my front door as I was pondering designs for a set of invitations I was asked to create. One of the participants from my stamping Learnshop in July sent a huge stack of trifold/precut card stock bases for our creative use. Thank you Maureen!!!!  This first project used distress stain rubbed directly onto the stamp for multiple colors of the flower and computer generated text for the invitation specifics. A ribbon was fastened to the back so it could be tied completely around the folded end product.  Of course, I couldn't stop there, I ended up creating about 10 different cards to put in our display at the Art Gallery.

Since masculine cards seem to be such a challenge for most of us, I wanted to share this next picture to show how I used the same card base but put a rustic spin.  

The card base was distress inked in brown and the use of sticky back canvas for the stamped clock faces added depth and texture. On the inside, I stamped the sentiment in brown ink and then put a mask over it before I stamped the click. I used Copic markers on the clock for a little pop of color. Coloring on canvas can be trick because of the texture and the bleeding of the inks. Do some testing on a scrap piece of canvas to determine what color medium you like best.

Thanks for reading and have a great week! 

Jeannette

Learnshop Success

Wow, it is August already and boy have my postings gotten away from me with all the activities and travel on my schedule. But, I am back now with plenty of exciting things to share....

During the first part of the month, my family and I took a little road trip to Charleston, SC. As many of you know, my husband is in the recovery stages of throat (head and neck) cancer so we did not want to go too far or take things too fast.  Charleston seemed to have something for all of us with Low Country Furniture for  my husband, Patriots Point for my son, and palmetto trees, salt water, and sand for me (Ft. Sumpter was an added bonus). We all came home relaxed and creatively inspired. 

 Upon our return we immediately jumped into the 2012 Berea Festival Learnshops where I conduct 3 Art of Stamping workshops (beginning, intermediate, and advanced).  These workshops currently serve as our annual fundraising event with 100% of the fees collected for my workshops being donated to Stamp to Cope.  What a great time everyone had with plenty of projects created.  The card picture above uses one of the background pieces we made with the shaving cream technique and working with stamps and inks that play well with water/water color paper.  For more photos of the workshops, check out the Berea Tourism facebook page or directly at these links for beginner and advanced. The picture coverage was great..Thanks Mike! If you were unable to join us this year, be sure to mark your calendars for the 2013 event scheduled for the second and third week of July.

I left the final workshop and headed directly to the airport for a flight to Chicago for my university's graduation ceremony. Watching our students walk across the stage is always the highlight of my teaching year. On this visit I received two surprises...1. I received an honor award and was inducted into the Delta Delta chapter of Epsilon Pi Tau for my work in instructional design and use of instructional technology. 2. I served as a faculty representative welcoming alumni, graduating honor students, and student families at Harry Carey's in Chicago, IL the night before graduation. This event gave me an opportunity to spend some time with very excited students and our gracious commencement speaker, Ben Stein.  

Now that I am back home, it is time to try and catch up...when do the children go back to school? :)

Blessings and have a super day!  Jeannette

"One Grecian Urn..."

Greetings and Happy 4th of July!
I apologize for the long gap between posts, but this post will give a little more insight into my distraction.  My son is quite the little actor and landed the part of the Conductor in our town version of The Music Man. The director needed a few "towns people" and my son asked me to participate. I landed the role of Mrs. Squires and we had a blast. My favorite part was when we ladies became the Grecian urns for the town sociable and it inspired my card. The urn is stamped, shaded, and cut out to pop up at the top.  I made some flowers by putting glue onto flower wire and sprinkling it with Flower Soft shavings.  Once they dried, I glued them "inside" the urn and glued the urn back onto the oval shaped piece of card stock. For the background, I took a bland piece of card stock, letter press embossed and then took my scorepal and made the score lines to form tiles.  A sentiment was stamped, circle punched, and pop up mounted onto the tiles.  A ribbon was added to "tie" (small joke here) all the colors together.  The entire thing was mounted onto a tan card base.

When it came time for the actual performances (there were three), I was surprised how calm I was and totally forgot about the audience. (Keep in mind that I had never done anything like this before.) I did my best the first two nights but I was not actually inspired...the excitement just was not there. However, the third and final performance was completely different.  As I pondered this, the difference finally came to me and the parallels to my survival performances jumped out at me as well.  You see, while the excitement of the cast and the audience were present the first two nights, my son and I did not have any personal supporters in the audience. Unlike many of the cast, we have no family in the area and did not anticipate any of our friends being able to come with all the summer conflicts.  However, the third night, my husband was in the audience and it provided that extra support needed to succeed and motivate. What a reminder of the power our support people bring when we take on new and difficult roles. Like the final performance, I know I fought harder when my family was by my side. I know my strength to perform increased when there was someone to clap for me as I made progress and hit my marks. But, most importantly, I know how much it meant to simply know I had support in the audience...I was not performing alone.

They say, life imitates art...now I have even more proof.

Thanks to all for the standing ovations!  "One Grecian Urn, Two Grecian Urns, and a Fountain.... ;)
Blessings, Jeannette

Good Timber

Now that the official day to celebrate Fathers has passed, I wanted to share the card I made for my husband.  As many of you know, he is a very talented wood crafter so this creation was intended to honor his deep respect for trees.  I created the grain background by embossing a green piece of card stock that had a white core and then sanding off some of the color to emphasize the grain. The wood style oval trim was made by stamping a wood pattern on white card stock and then coloring with Copic markers to bring out the browns.  For the tree, I used Memento markers to color the leaves and trunk directly on the stamp using the huffing technique to reactivate the ink before stamping onto white cardstock. The sky background was done with Distress Ink and a sponge applicator.  Added a sentiment and some pearls to finish it off.

Speaking of trees, I am on a quest to obtain a Mimosa tree for my yard.  When I was a child we had a Mimosa tree and I spent many hours either in it or under it reading and dreaming.  Sometimes during treatment to distract myself,  I would think about the sweet scent and beautiful puffy pink "powder puff" flowers and relax. As I was thinking of new ways to "destress", it finally dawned on me to get a Mimosa tree  for myself. Seemed like an easy thing to do right? Wrong.  I tried all my local nurseries...nope.  In fact, people were quite rude letting me know that the tree was considered an invasive species. One even called it a scrub tree. Then I ordered and paid for 2 saplings over the Internet from a nursery in GA.  What a disaster! They took my money and 6 months later I received two sticks with roots. One never made it and the other turned out to be an Ash tree.  After that, someone suggested I visit a local lake where they were all over the place and dig up a shoot..no luck there. I even stopped by a house where one was growing to see if they would give me a sapling but no one was home. Finally, I contacted the landscaper for Berea College and he said he would see if they could get me something but indicated that I needed to wait until fall.  So keep your fingers crossed and if you have any other ideas, please post a comment so I can follow up.  Truly must be some "good timber" to be so difficult to obtain. :).


Have a great week. Jeannette

Honoring Fathers

Greeting Bloggers!

As Father's Day fast approaches, I wanted to send out a HUGE wave of love to all those men who take on the role of "Dad".  I intended to share a card I made for my husband (a GREAT father indeed), but then realized he would see this blog and the card before the big day.  Since we gave him his presents already (I am really horrible about waiting...I just get too excited), showing him his card early meant nothing to open on Sunday.  Therefore, I decided to dedicate this post to the memory of my father and the blessing of my father-in-law. 

Without getting to emotional (which is hard)--I miss my dad everyday.  When I was diagnosed with cancer he was one of the strongest supporters on my team. He filled the role of the "inspirator" and never doubted I was strong enough to fight.  As he would say...."Your a Foultz, so quit complaining and fight back." He is my hero! I thank God for giving me to such a fine man.

Another fine man worthy of praise is my father-in-law.  He is so special with the largest heart I have ever seen. He still works his farms every day and never met a stranger. When I watch him work his magic, I know exactly why my husband is such a jewel! I made this card for Dad (he does not do technology so won't see his card early) to send a little love his way. The background paper was made by using distress stains and a chevron stamp blending in the colors for a masculine feel. The car was stamped with Versa Mark embossing ink and then heat embossed in black for texture. I added the bow at the last minute to add a little something shiny. 

Thank you Father's everywhere!  Enjoy your day!   

Jeannette

May Moments and Memorials

Greetings all,  

"Just a Note" to update everyone on Stamp to Cope (STC) activities as we wrap up the month of May for 2012. These last two weeks have been full of ups and downs but we remember our blessings through both. 

On May 19th, our dear friend, Michael Lee "Mike" Hix, lost his valiant 9 year battle with cancer. The following poem, shared at his services, says it all...

God Saw he was getting tired

and a cure was not to be. 

So He put His arms around Mike

and whispered "Come with Me."

With tear-filled eyes we watched him

suffer and fade away;

although we loved him deeply,

we could not make him stay.

A golden heart stopped beating,

hard-working hands put to rest.

God broke our hearts to prove to us,

He only takes the best!

STC sends love and prayers to the Hix family and friends.

During the end of May, we also took time to celebrate Memorial Day and honor those who gave all so we can be free. 

"When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say, 
For Their Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today" - (The Kohima Epitaph)

We ended the month with our annual board meeting on May 26 here in Berea, KY. A huge thank you to all the board members for their continued trust, support, and direction! We have a super talented board and I appreciate the time and talent they volunteer. Great things being planned for the rest of 2012 in the areas of outreach and funding so stay tuned to this blog for updates.

Looking forward to the adventures of June as we prep for the July Learnshops!!!  Jeannette

Mother's Day Spotlight

Hi all!  Happy Belated Mother's Day!

Mother's Day is such a fun time for cards and when they are handmade it seems to add that much more love to the message.  As a mother myself, I have cherished (and saved) every one of the cards my children make and I smile at the crayon, scribbles, and lopsided images.  After all, where are you going to find a store bought card that has pumpkins on it in May.  Yet, by creating it themselves, my children can decorate it with all of my favorite things any time of the year.  As a survivor, the fact that I am still here to receive these precious works of art makes them masterpieces.

When it comes to Mother's Day, I am doubly blessed... I have the absolute best and most generous Mom ever and I am so spoiled :) (it helps to be the baby of the family even if I am are pushing 51).  AND I have the most wonderful Mom-in-law that any wife could ever hope to share.  The really cool part is that they are both so different and unique that I continue to learn from them both.  It also gives me an opportunity to make very individualized Mother's Day greetings inspired by their favorite things.  I hope my coloring has improved over the years :).

The first card with the fish I made for my Mom.  She lives at the ocean and just loves anything beach related. This card has tons of dimension which makes it seem as if the fish are actually floating by. I stamped the fish and seaweed, colored them with Copic markers and then cut them out.  On a small piece of card stock, I inked the blue background and stamped on the sea grass and sea horses.  By using pop dots behind the fish and sea weed when placed on the background piece, the shadow that it creates adds the depth. These pieces were then set on top of an embossed piece of cardstock that I inked before embossing to give the feeling of waves.  Everything was then mounted on yellow base cardstock and the sentiment added at the end.  She said it was my best card yet and she plans to shadow box frame it for her house...True Mother's love.

The second card I made for my Mom-in-law. She lives in the country and loves to garden and enjoy beautiful flowers.  She is also very active in her sorority whose colors are purple and yellow. For this card, I stamped the flower twice and colored them both with Copic markers. I cut out the first one completely being careful cutting around all the fine detail. The second one I only cut out random petals and leaf segments. I glued the random pieces on top of the full flower curling up the petal ends to give it texture.  I added gemstones to the center of the petals for shine and realism.  The focal flower was attached with pop dots to a swiss dot embossed piece of yellow cardstock that I antiqued around the edges and tied with matching twine. I rounded the corners and put it over craft paper card stock. She said she LOVED it and was going to show it to her Sorority sisters...high praise for sure.

Thanks to both of my Mother's for all that they do for us.  Have a great week.  Jeannette

Tea Time

Greetings bloggers!
Today the Berea Women's Club had a membership tea.  The organization has several breast cancer survivors in the group so I always appreciate when Stamp to Cope can be a part of their events. Last month they asked if I would create their invitations and I wanted to share how they came together. According to one of the attendees, the recipients really enjoyed the tea shaped cards and were intrigued by the surprise inside.

What a fun way to share with friends and everyone seemed to have a great time.  Hope everyone has a super week!  Blessings, Jeannette

So Much To Share

Wow, May 1 already! Where did the time go? So much has happened since my last post so please just smile if I begin to ramble :)....

Let's start with a few heartfelt thank yous....

A HUGE shout out to Betty T for her generous supply donation in support of our mission. STC received  a very large box filled to the brim with stamps, inks, papers, embellishments, fixatives, and projects.  These items are already being put to great use in our survivor bags.  Thank you Betty... always an Angel!

Love and thanks to all the wonderful women of Star Charities who worked so hard to support STC with a super fundraising event.  These hard working volunteers ensured that everyone had a fabulous time while supporting our worthy mission.  Star Charities presented STC with a check for $1500.00 from the event and I cried!  Check out some of these pictures I took of the event...

Finally, Thank you to my sister, Alderman Shirley Isbell for her $150.00 donation toward survivor bags for recently diagnosed survivors in her district. What a nice way to show true service to her constituents.

Now for the crafty stuff....

Happy Birthday to my grand daughter, Lila Grace "Gracie" who turned 2 on the 30th.  To help share in her celebration, I made this kitten card that I hope made her smile. The focal point was actually several separate stamps that I arranged together to form a little story of birthday sharing. I colored the images with Copic markers blending several shades to give texture to the fur of the animals. Cool blue and green were added around the outside of the images to create grounding and depth. She is "so sweet" and we hop she had a wonderful birthday!

Finally, an update....

As many of you know, my husband Greg has been battling throat cancer.  I am over joyed to share that he seems finally on the mend.  I praise God and all of you for this miracle!  AND my stomach is every so happy because this week he even felt well enough to start cooking for us again!!! Yeah!  Soon he will also be able to join us in eating his excellent cuisine.  Welcome back my love!!!!!

Well, that is it for today..but...if my luck holds, next post will be just as busy. :)  Blessings, Jeannette...

OH, PS, I almost forgot... Start thinking about signing up for my Art of Stamping Classes at Berea Festival Learnshops.  All my proceeds are donated to Stamp to Cope.  Check out our website for the registration links...  www.stamptocope.org.