Caring Hearts Card Drive 2015 - Mid-November update

To see my original Caring Hearts Card Drive post, click here.

We're getting to the 'pointy end' of the Caring Hearts Card Drive for 2015.  The lovely Linda Langes has provided an update on the Australian-based component of this drive on her blog.

From my end in Melbourne, I have so far received 15 cards from a wonderful crafty friend of mine, with another 10-12 friends providing me with cards at a crafty event next weekend.  I am also hopeful that some other friends of mine on the other side of town will get into the spirit of the CHCD and send me some cards in the not-too-distant future as well.  Any other Victorian crafter who would like to send cards locally for Victorian-based aged care facilities are welcome to send cards to me as follows:

Details now deleted...

I have so far arranged for up to 300 cards to be delivered to five separate aged care facilities across Melbourne. I stopped at that point as I didn't want to promise cards that I wouldn't necessarily be able to deliver (!).  Once I get cards in from local crafters, I can then set about contacting additional facilities on my list across the broader Victorian area.

For my part personally, I am busy creating cards for students at my kids' school, Bundoora Primary School.  We use this drive as a mini-fundraiser for the school.  I donate the cards to the school, the school then sells the cards to the students and families at $2.00 per card ($0.70 for postage costs back to the CHCD and $1.30 profit for the school's fundraising endeavours).  We had orders for 105 cards as at last Monday - I'm hoping for many more by tomorrow.  Here are some samples of cards I have created this year:

I've had a real thing for 'Christmas Trees' this year, hence these three designs...  I always like to put some 'meaning of Christmas' designs together as well...

I've been having fun playing with my Flitterglu and MegaFlakes from Indigoblu, and using masks of ornament dies to create a reverse effect:

I've also had some fun with some cute little Santa Stamps and my Prismacolour Pencils:

The wonderful students at our school will be sitting down in their classes one morning within the next two weeks to write/draw their messages of festive cheer in these cards.  I'll be sure to post some pictures of their gorgeous work once they're done!

I'm off now to create some more designs - I think I'll do some poinsettias next!

Thanks for visiting!
Deb.xx
#caringheartscarddrive

Pixels and Paper - November Challenge!

"live gently upon this earth"

 Welcome back to a new month at Pixels and Paper!  We have a fantastic inspiration photo for you to work from for this month's challenge:

I was immediately drawn to the tree and the sense of the changing seasons.  I decided to create a canvas for my piece this month.

I began by drawing pencil lines to break my landscape canvas (9"x12") into quarters.  Next, I used Gelatos and water to create my background sky and ground.  I moved from the deep blue hot sky of Summer into the overcast coolness of Autumn, to the blustery grey skies of Winter, and into the renewing freshness of Spring.  The grass has been modified to match my impression of these changing seasons as well.  After I'd finished the 'watercolour' phase of this process, I then sealed it all using Tim Holtz' Distress 'Micro Glaze'.  This allowed me to keep building on the base images without damaging them.

Then, using the bare tree image from the 'Sheltering Tree' stamp set by Stampin' Up!, together with Dylusions Paint in 'Melted Chocolate', I stamped out my tree in all four settings.  I mixed Dylusions Paint 'Cut Grass' with some Memento 'Tuxedo Black' reinker to get differing shades of green for my leaves for Summer and Spring, and then mixed it further with some 'Melted Chocolate' for Autumn.  I also added some 'Crushed Curry' SU! Reinker for the Autumn leaves as well, and have then built each tree manually.  I added flowers to Spring by mixing 'White Linen' and 'Postbox Red' Dylusions Paint and dabbing the resulting pink randomly.

For a bit of texture, I've added smatterings of Whipped Spackle into the grey skies of Winter, as well as adding some puffy white clouds to Spring.  I also wanted to add some ribbon flowers along the lines of last month's October Training with Tone-Lill - using some 3mm pink ribbon with white cotton to gather them in.  Each of these ribbon flowers has been finished off with a small yellow rhinestone.  I also added a few other rhinestones to the paint flowers as well.

I used some dark green seaming ribbon (different to seam binding ribbon) to segment off the seasons where the pencil lines had been, and I added the phrase "live gently on this earth" from the Tim Holtz 'Small Talk' sticker book.

I can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with!

Thanks for visiting!
Deb.xx