Keep Your Head Up And Your Heart Strong | EDS & HDS Awareness Instagram Hop + Giveaway

Hi there, I hope you’re having a good weekend!

Today I’m happy to be taking part in an Instagram hop to raise awareness about Ehlers-Danlos syndromes (EDS), one of a group of hypermobility spectrum disorders (HSD) related to joint hypermobility.

There are many of us taking part in the hop today and there are dozens of generous sponsors offering a variety of giveaways, so I hope you’ll head over to Instagram to join us!  You can start at the beginning of the hop with Natasha Davies, or join me directly.

For my card today, I started with the Layered Bouquet stamp set from Pinkfresh Studio. This is a layering set that has just two layers for the blooms and two layers for the leaves.  Though simple, it produces a very sweet bouquet of flowers!  I used Candy Violet and Regal Kiss Pinkfresh inks from the Soul of Provence ink cube set to stamp the blooms, and Fresh Pair and Olive inks from the Over the Hills ink cube set to stamp the leaves. Using the coordinating die, I cut out the image and set it aside. 

To create a subtle and textured background, I used the Pinkfresh Studio Geo Leaf Background die to dry emboss a piece of Neenah Solar White 80# cardstock.  To do this, I lighly misted my panel with water (I’ll explain in a bit), and then placed the panel and the die into my die cutting sandwhich, which included an embossing pad, and ran it through my die cutting machine.  I used a Gemini, Jr. die cutting machine and my sandwich, from bottom to top, was: cutting plate, plastic shim, die (cutting blade facing up), cardstock, embossing mat, cutting plate.  I trimmed the edges a bit off the edges of the panel afterwards since the dry embossing bends the paper a bit and creates uneven borders. The reason I misted my panel with water before running in through was to prevent too much cracking of the paper.  Cracking is also a pretty effect, but I wanted a smoother embossing for this card.

Next I stamped a sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp You Got This stamp set in Versafine Clair Nocturne ink onto Neenah Solar White and them trimmed it into two strips.

To assemble the card, I added foam tape the back of the bouquet and sentiment strips and adhered them to the dry embossed panel.  Then I adhered the panel onto an A2-sized card base.

Thank you so much for visiting!