Giving back, one card at a time
Yesterday, I was thrilled to run a free Cards for a Cause event for the brand new Spotlight Creative Centre at Westfield Carindale! It was the first Cards for a Cause event run by the store so it privellege to be invited to teach share my love of combining Stampin’ Up! products with some cute products available at the store.
What better way to spend a Sunday morning than donate my time to teach people to create cards to bring happiness to others?
The aim of the day was to teach a couple of people who dropped past the store to make a few simple cards that will be donated to Ronald McDonald House and the next Cards for Troops drive. I was completely blown away by the turn out! Here is who joined me for a few hours.
Thank you to everyone who came along! As you can see people of all ages from kids to adults were able to get involved. A special thanks to one of my besties, Alison who came along for moral support! (It was a little daunting as I didn’t know anyone else). Of course, I can’t forget to thank, Kim from Spotlight who invited me to teach and handled all the RSVP’s and admin stuff.
The projects & materials
In the lead up to the event, I was let loose in the new Spotlight Creative Store at Westfield Carindale and found these fabulous little Nutcracker gift tags with the Christmas Decorations. Talk about love at first sight – immediately, I knew these Nutcrackers would look awesome on a card. Sometimes it pays to look beyond the craft aisle and explore other possibilities.
These super cute tags were teamed with some gold washi tape, rhinestones, Poppy Parade (half an A4 sheet) and Whisper White Cardstock (3¾” x 5½”) as well as Foam Adhesive Strips, Poppy Parade ink and the “Christmas Cheer” sentiment from Memories of Home stamp set. This card might have been favourite of the group! Look at how faulous these cards look lined up on the shelf with the other cards.
I love how everyone took the basics I taught them and added their own twist to create a unique card.
The cards at a glance
For all the projects on the day, I chose to use Stampin’ Up! card stock, inks and stamps because I know they are good quality and coordinate perfectly together. You may prefer other brands if you want to recreate these projects at home.
The Christmas Tree Card featured Night of Navy & Whisper White Cardstock , Night of Navy Ink, Pine Tree Punch, dimensionals, a retired Stampin’ up! 2½” Circle Punch (you can use Layering circle dies and a Big Shot/die cutting machine or an electric machine cutting instead) and sentiments from the Itty Bitty Christmas stamp set.
The third card “Christmas Baubles” combined store supplied Washi Tape (including Heiidi Swapp Pineapple Crush Washi Tape) with a variety of Stampin’ Up! circle punches, Whisper White Cardstock (for circles), Thick White A4 Cardstock (base card), dimensionals,and black journalling pens.
Wonderful Washi
The hero of the cards was definitey Washi tape. This super durable, flexible masking-like tape is available in a wide assortment of widths, textures, patterns and colors. It tears easily and can be safely applied to many surfaces; it doesn’t leave a sticky residue behind, making it especially ideal for home décor and craft projects. Washi is wonderful way to get an effective finish inside and outside the card. For these cards, we used the Washi provided by the store but we could have used Stampin’ Up! washi tape. If you don’t own any washi tape (GASP) use strips of patterned scrapbook paper, wrapping paper, recycle greeting cards or even strips of colourful glossy magazine pages – they can work really well too.
So Grateful
Thanks again to everyone who came along and thanks much to Spotlight Creative Carindale for providing the venue. Kim will organise their delivery soon.
Hope you enjoyed the creative morning as much as I did – see you at the next one!
Until next time… Happy Creating!
Chrissy x
