Snowman Card for Kards for Kids Christmas 2012

The next card drive for the children at Toronto's Sick Kids Hospital is the 2012 Holiday Card Drive!  For every 5 Snowman Themed cards you send to Kards for Kids for the 2012 Holiday Card Drive, you will be entered to win one of five $20 stamp prizes!

Since I have discovered the youtuber, AuroraInBag, I have been obsessed with using some scraps.  She makes amazing scrapbook layouts from scraps!  When I saw the sketch from Clean and Simple Cards, I knew this was one for me.  I have SO many strips of patterned paper (and ribbon, come to think of it) that would fit this design.  So, here it is: my entry to the Clean and Simple Cards "Fall-To Layout" #213!  Here is the sketch:

And here is my version:

I used my Lifestyle Crafts snowflake embossing folder on the card front and then pulled some strips from my stash.  I used a square punch to nick the ends of the strips into a ribbon cut.  The scalloped circle is also a Lifestyle Crafts die.  I left the die cut in the die and inked the inner circle.  The sentiment is from Stampin' Up!  The epoxy sticker is from the Sandylion outlet store.  I got a whole sheet of them, so I made 5 snowman cards just like this for the Kards for Kids drive.

This is a great way to use scraps!  I have finally started experimenting with shaker cards and I used a variation of this layout to make one, but that's for sharing another day!  I'm going to make some birthday cards with this layout too. SO versatile and so easy.  Thanks to the Clean and Simple blog contributors for sharing their ideas and giving us all some inspiration!

Dog Album for Speaking of Dogs Auction October 2012

The Speaking of Dogs online Charity auction starts today!  Just log on to www.speakingofdogs.com and you will be directed to the auction site. Check the website daily, place your bids, and know that you are helping
a needy dog find that second chance at love and life. All funds raised go directly to veterinary costs and care.

My item in the auction this year is a stitch-bound dog-themed mini album for scrapbooking.  I have previously posted pictures of my dog-themed mini album and also a video of the donated dog scrapbook.

Happy bidding!

Halloween Cards for Toronto's Sick Kids Hospital

At my last workshop, I accepted donations of cards for the children at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children as my class fee.  I'm on the Smiley Team for Kards for Kids and that's where all the cards went.  I'd like to showcase what my Creative Crew was able to come up with.  Claire created the most, with 5 cards total.

This witch hat Halloween card is make with stickers.  How fun is that?  There's a hat on the envelope and some on the inside too with a big orange "Happy Halloween!"  The sentiment on this card is a fancy, iridescent glitter.

Click for larger view.

On the next pair, Claire used a cool witch stamp and some black cats!

And, one of my favourites, is this embossed jack'o'lantern handmade Halloween card.

Awesome, huh?  A tweensy bit spooky, maybe.  Claire decorated all the insides of her cards too, with a piece of white for writing and a stamped sentiment and stickers.

The last card by Claire is a birthday card.

It is bright and bold and beautiful!  I am very grateful for the time and effort Claire has donated to create smiles for the kids!

A Charmed Life with Jewellery by Kat

From my last post, we learned that there are many styles of handmade designer jewellery for many moods, occasions, and outfits.  We, as people, are diverse and our accessories tend to reflect that.  Do you ever wonder, however, what our accessories reflect about us?

Jewellery by Kat on iCraft makes a lot of beaded charm bracelets.  (See them at http://icraft.ca/jewelry-by-kat)  What is the attraction to charms, I wonder?  Dictionary.com defines charm, the trait, as “the power of pleasing” and charm, the object, as “something worn or carried on one’s person for its supposed magical effect”.

Silver Clover Leaf Necklace by DistinQue

Apparently, the earliest known charms were carried to ward off evil back in the Neolithic era when hunters would carry interesting stones and trinkets for good luck. The Egyptian Age popularized the wearing of charms around the wrist or neck.  Some charms were protective and woven in to their religious beliefs for the power of pleasing the gods.  Others were status symbols and symbols of social belonging.  Others yet were meant to be used in the afterlife to help identify who you were and guide you safely onward.

One of the most recognized “charms” of the modern age is the cross, as seen in Kat's Beaded Cross Necklace in Garnet.  Me calling it a charm might sound offensive to some, but the cross of Christian religions is a symbol of belonging to a certain group, is it not?  It is worn to show your faith: your belief in something extra-sensory that may bring you good fortune like the strength to carry on through hard times or the nobility to do the right thing, for example.

Charms, in fact, have played very prominent roles throughout the ages.  Over a great period of time, however, the primary use of charms has changed.  Queen Victoria is credited with re-popularizing charms as status symbols and aesthetic trinkets.

Eventually, charms became widely commercialized from the elaborate to the plastic gumball machine kind.  In the 1940’s, plastic charms for children were greatly popular.  Children collected ones that came with candy, coveting the rare ones that were pop culture symbols like Disney characters.  Kat, from Jewellery by Kat, believes that children’s attraction to charms stems from the fact that the charms are small and represent things in our world.

An example of a Little Girl's Red Beaded Charm Bracelet with lots of little charms of familiar objects.

I argue, however, that wearing those symbols shows where you place your favour.  Even in adulthood, this beaded charm bracelet with dragonfly charm by Kat shows outwardly that you like dragonflies or that dragonflies signify something of meaning to you.

So then, back to the original question: what do our accessories reflect about us?  Kat finds that each charm is unique.  “They all have something to say. Put them all together on charm bracelet and they have a story to tell.”

(Indeed. The popularity of commercialized charms with children soon evolved into bracelets that served as a record of a girl’s rite of passage from birth, to marriage, to motherhood.)

Kat thinks that the charms we choose do reflect our likes, just like colours and food.  If our mood plays a role in our choice of daily accessory, then that accessory also serves as a sign board of how we are feeling that day.  I’d bet this “cha cha bracelet” (found at http://icraft.ca/handmade/29523/cha-cha-bracelet-with-green-and-aqua-beads.php) in Kat’s jewellery shop reflects your flare.  This beaded bracelet is popping with colour and shimmies and jingles like a dancer on your wrist.  Surely, it is a symbol of extroversion?  What do you think?

Beaded Cha Cha Bracelet with Green and Aqua Beads

I know that, when I was younger, I was drawn to charm bracelets because it felt like I had a lot even though I had only one bracelet.  I grew out of the over-stuffed charm bracelet phase.  I do still like charms, though, only in smaller doses.  I like them hanging from a bookmark or on the front of a photo album for example.  Kat thinks that we never out-grow our love of charms, we only grow up.

Looking back now, perhaps some of the ancient belief in the charm as an object of good luck or protection is subconsciously ingrained in us from our Neolithic days and that extra sensory value of the charm rings truest with us as children.  As we grow and mature, we are still attracted to charms but our deep seeded intuition becomes only a distant whisper.