Ryan's Well - Charitable Contribution

In discussion last week a friend of mine was wondering if I could donate my time and some handmade goods. She is championing the cause of Ryan's Well, and was I interested in donating my time and some cards for her to sell towards raising funds for this? Of course.

For those of you who are not familiar with Ryan's Well, it all started with a 7 year old boy who was moved to help those who did not have access to clean water to drink. He got to work and soon had the first well built in 1999 at a school in a Ugandan village. To this day, his foundation continues to bring clean water and sanitation to those impacted by the global water and sanitation crisis. Can you imagine  not having clean water? It's one of the most basic necessities of life. To learn more, click on http://www.ryanswell.ca/

So, I will be having her over tomorrow for a day of gossiping, laughter, homemade pizza and wine along with creating 10 sets of four handmade Christmas cards for sale. They are below:

The left photo is how they will look before going into a Ziploc bag and the right is all the cards that make up a set. Thanks to the following blogs and sketches for inspiration: SplitcoastStampers.com : VLVNov2011; Random Acts of Creativity : Challenge #36; Heart 2 Heart Close To My Heart Challenge Blog : H2H76; and finally, Mojo Monday : MOJO 214

I elected to keep this one simple using the layout from  Heart 2 Heart Close To My Heart Challenge Blog. The technique featured here is paper ribbons; I fold them to get a neat accordion effect and I put a dollop of CTMH's silver sparkle gel to make it look like brads. The circles are raised up and I added a rhinestone to the middle of each. CTMH's Art Philosophy cartridge has a corresponding shape to the circles from the set December 25, but I'm hoping for a Cricut for Xmas and thus they were hand-cut.

The biggest challenge for me was to keep it to cardstock and stamps. It was a self imposed challenge to see if I could break away from the dependency on pattern cardstock. I wanted to showcase the different layers here, and the blue border was punched with a EK snowflake edger punch from Michael's. This one was from Random Acts of Creativity 's template, but instead of a big bow I opted for a tiny green tie.

I dressed up the red piece with a Merry Christmas sentiment. Using the layout from Mojo Monday - MOJO214 instead of a flower I stacked three different ornaments from the set Holiday Cheer.with mounting foam tape. It's a bit slimmer than the usual foam squares. And finally, to highlight the snow I used Liquid Applique to outline the roofs and snow in the trees, then embossed it for a poofy look.

This last one from SplitcoastStampers.com highlights one of the major perks about working with acrylic stamps: you can bend them (but be gentle!) to follow curves and other funky shapes depending on what you're stamping on. I again lifted up the three ornaments from the set December 25 and curved the love-hope-peace sentiment from Snow Flurries. The blue snowflake that was cut out again by hand is better done with the corresponding shape in the Art Philosophy Cartridge.

I hope these four cards are charming enough to bring in some $$ for Ryan's Well - wish my friend luck!

Michaels:
* Mounting foam tape
* Cardstock from 'Spice Market'
* Cardstock from 'Gems'
* Cardstock from 'Primary"
* Rhinestones

CTMH:
* Snowflakes
* You and Me
* A Sip
* Pair A Phrase
* Festive Thoughts
* Holiday Cheer
* Snow Days
* December 25th
* Snow Flurries
* Silver Glitter Gel
* Liquid Applique
* Chocolate Ink
* Cranberry Ink
* Moonstruck Ink
* Ponderosa Pine Ink
* Olive Ink