Mel Sanz - In a Crafty Mood: JDS - Turner Syndrome Foundation Awareness

Hello my crafty friends!

Being a mom who's child died of a rare genetic disease called Meckel–Gruber Syndrome, I know too well how research and awareness is important. This being said, today's DT card for JDS is therefore a little special for me as it was created for the Turner Syndrome Foundation Awareness. TSF is a disease which affects only girls and women with often tragic results. If you want more information, you can read more about it here on the TSF Blog: Turner Syndrome Journey

Each February, TSF puts on a blog hop to help raise awareness and funds for research. As per previous years, Jan from JDS created a digital set for the Turner Foundation and will be donating the proceeds of sales of her two sets to TSF. You can find both Digital Stamp Sets here on the JDS website:

TSF Fairy

TSF Key

The theme for this year's TSF cards is Lime, Pink and Yellow and here is my creation:

To create my Pink Background, I first used a Blender Brush to lightly ink my Accent Opaque 80lb cardstock with Picked Raspberry Distress Oxide ink. Usually, the goal is to get a smooth blend and to achieve that, we generally tend to tap the excess ink on our mat or a piece of scrap paper before bringing the brush to the cardstock which I did, but this time I also wanted a blotchy look so here and there I went direct to cardstock which gave the background a little contrast.

It was then time to add a touch of Yellow and Lime to my panel. My original plan was to use the Butterfly found in the TSF Key Stamp Set and create a Butterfly Stencil with my Cricut. I did create it but unfortunately, I didn't get to cut the stencil on time to create the card. Although I was disappointed that my plan went sideways, I did not let it stop me. My plan was to add some Sparkle Glitter Paste and I was not going to be defeated by the set back so I looked in my stash and found this cute little Star Stencil and that is what I used.

Now, most of you must already know that I am very careful when it comes to my craft supplies. Before purchasing anything, I always make sure that it will be an item that will be used several times and in several different ways. This being said, it means that I have very limited supplies and need to be creative. Today's card was no exception. The only Glitter Paste I have is Clear but that did not stop me. It is very easy to make your Glitter Paste the color you want, all you need is a little ink.

To make my Yellow Stars, I first added some Mustard Seed Distress Oxide onto my craft mat and mixed it with a little bit of Glitter Paste. Once it was mixed exactly as I wanted it, I then added the paste to the top of my stencil using my palet knife. My plan was to create a gradient which would slowly change from Yellow to Lime Green. To add the Green, I followed the first step but this time with Twisted Citron Distress Oxide and kept adding the paste to my stencil until I reached the bottom of the card. If you look closely, the bottom of the card is actually darker than Lime Green. This was not on purpose. I ran out of my Lime Green Mix and decided to create more. In the process, I grabbed the Lucky Clover by mistake which made the paste much darker but since it happened at the bottom of the card, it all worked out. No one would know that it was not intended that way.

I want to point out that Distress Oxide tends to reactivate with water or in this case Glitter Paste so before I added my paste through my stencil, I had to protect the pink cardstock to minimize the transfer of color. To achieve this, I added a little bit of Micro Glaze and with a paper towel, I buffed it very well all over the cardstock. Using the Micro Glaze helped seal the color under. I still had to be careful but it seemed to work well.

Please be aware that Glitter Paste has a tendency to dry very fast so please close the lid of your jar right away and wash your stencil as soon as you are done. If you have enough room where you craft, you can keep a bucket with some soapy water and simply throw the stencil and palet knife in until you are ready to wash everything. As for the jar, I have heard that using Press n Seal against the paste and then closing the lid helps to prevent drying. I intend to try that tick to see for myself.

Here is a closer look of my background:

When I added my Glitter Paste, for some reason, my stencil shifted when I was almost done which resulted with messed up stars. At first I was a bit disappointed and thought of starting over but again, I did not want to let it stop me. In order to hide the mess I simply added a piece of cardstock which hid the mistake perfectly. I inked that piece of cardstock with my Blender Brush and some Twisted Citron Distress Oxide ink with a touch of Lucky Clover around the edges to add some depth.

I then stamped my sentiment to the Green Strip and of course, I again messed up. For some reason there was a few black dots under the sentiment.. what a deception! Well of course you know me, it did not stop me. Using a 005 Micron Pen, I simply continued the dots all around the sentiment creating a stitched box. No one would know that it was not intended to be like that.

Here is a closer look at the sentiment:

It was then time to add the pretty Butterflies from Jan's TSF Key set. I printed the Butterfly a few different sizes and inked them with Mustard Seed Distress Oxide Ink. I then fussy cut and glued them all to my card. The bigger Butterfly was stacked 3 times to make it pop. As usual I had to add some sparkles with my SN Glitter Pen and I then thought that there was not enough contrast so I added a touch of Copic E33 and Y18.

Here is a closer look at the pretty Butterfly:

The Green Panel was created with a mix of the same Distress Oxides as the Green Strip. All Panels were stacked twice and everything was glued to a White Cardbase of Accent Opaque 100lb.

Those are the dimensions of each panels:

Pink Background: 3 3/4 x 5

Green Strip: 3 3/4 x 1 5/8

Green Panel: 4 x 5 1/4

White Panel: 4 1/4 x 5 1/2

Top Folding Cardbase: 11 x 4 1/4 scored and folded at 5 1/2

As always, I encourage you to go check out the Challenge Blog to see the rest of the DT creations. We would love to see you join in on the fun so please show us your creation for a chance to win. Please remember that you can enter up to 5 Times per Challenge. All the details are on the Challenge Blog.

Be sure to follow Jan's Website so you get notified when Sales and Freebies are announced.

Stay Healthy, take care and thanks for stopping by!

Mel Sanz - In a Crafty Mood