JJ’s Service Dog Flyer

I’ve had a couple of people ask for something larger to hang in break rooms and such at work. So I made something. Love playing with digital art 🙂

Hope it helps get the word out 🙂

Thanks for stopping by!

Xoxoxo

As always, JJ’s donation page. Always feel free to help spread the word ❤️

paws4autism.org/jj.html

Service Dog Thank You Cards

Nice people should get thank you cards.

It’s a thing I believe. And I just so happen to like making thank you cards, so this works out for everyone 😀

I’ve had these designed for a while, but finally had time to sit down and put them together. It took a medical intervention to create the time lol. I’m at the sleep clinic with one of my daughters, so I was able to put the cards together while I wait with her. It’s been a LONG sleep study. We’re doing overnight and nap monitoring…I’m pretty sure we’ll head out by evening though 🙂

In the mean time, a dozen cards were finished and my blog updated. They didn’t turn out how I designed them – my printer ran out of blue ink, but I made it work, because I have some people to get these out to 🙂 If you’re one of our donors – THANK YOU SO MUCH! JJ’s so tickled by your willingness to help him. He even cried a little. You guys are making a little boy so very very happy. These cards are for you ❤️

Thanks for stopping by!

xoxo

And as always, if you feel it in your heart to donate, or if you want to  see more of JJ’s story, here’s the link to our donation page. paws4autism.org/jj.html

 

I Colored…It’s Been a While

I needed to color and I always need thank you cards so I did this today. Combining the two means I was efficient 😉

I found the frog sketch online, but no name with it, so I’m unable to give the credit I’d like to an amazing artist.

I printed it off and colored it using copics and pencils. I put together a digital background and cut the background and the colored frog panel out on my Silhouette then layered them onto a card.

Thanks for stopping by!

Xoxo

That Time I Made a Topiary Out of Paper

As mentioned in a few posts before, the autism center my boys use is amazing. Most of the work on this project was done there. I cut out everything at home, then colored, shaped, and assembled most of it at the center. The topiary is from the kit Thank You For the Music at SVG cuts.

This is kind of picture intensive, so please be patient with me. There were a lot of components.

I took pictures of some of the process. I’m always amazed I can start with flat pieces of paper and make something substantial and dimensional. So I included pics for other people who might feel the same way 🙂

First, the focal points – the flowers. There’s two types. The main flowers and the fillers. Each main flower has 5 parts. I cut them out of blue paper, then added white to the centers, dark blue to the edges, then blended with a shade of blue somewhere between the color of the paper and the dark blue. I believe there were 32 big flowers.

I wanted a fuller topiary, so I used more filler flowers than called for. I used the same process of coloring them as I did for the blue flowers, just different colors.

 

I also wanted to add clovers and leaves to the base. The clovers are from the Springtime Box Cards kit at SVG Cuts. The leaves are from the pumpkin in the Harvest Sunset Kit, also from SVG Cuts.

I started with white paper  and colored the clovers and leaves the colors I needed them. I used a mix of ink and colored pencils.

 

 

And I just HAD to have a hummingbird. And wouldn’t you know it, SVG Cuts has one or those, too! This one is from their Hummingbird Box Card. Instead of cutting out different colors of paper, I cut all the pieces out in white, then colored the individual pieces before assembling. I made a mirror copy that I used to sandwich a wire between so I could make it hover by the topiary.

 

 

So those are the elements 🙂 Here’s some pics of the finished product. Thanks to my daughter who helped me get the pics 🙂

The clover.

 

The topiary and the hummingbird.

The whole topiary

And the card. I used a kit in my Craft Artist collection and designed this card. The flowers weren’t colored, which I LOVE because it allows me to color them 🙂 I used a combination of copics and colored pencils for the flowers on the card.

I Had Time to Make Some Cards – and a Mistake!

I feel like I used all the things to make these 🙂

Most of the designing happened digitally in Craft Artist. Then I added those images to my Silhouette work space and cut them out. THEN I used some stamps and colored those images on the card front. Finally, I assembled them all.

Oh wait, I also used a metal die and my Evolution Advanced for one of the cards. See, I told you. I used all the things 😉

I was in a purple mood, so purple was the theme for these three cards.

First, the one I almost didn’t keep, until I played around with it a little more.

Before:

I tried to be tricky and mask the original stamped image so I could add another behind it. But I didn’t like how it turned out. I felt like it was kind of mashed together and it was hard to tell what you were looking at and where each thing was.

Instead of scrapping it, I got out my colored pencils and played a little. If I messed it up, it wasn’t a big deal, I wasn’t planning on using this anyway. All I could see was a winning situation.

Funny thing. I liked the image after I used my pencils. Although I stamped the flowers, I printed off two layers of pretty for my Silhouette to cut out for me.

After:

This next one I thought was kind of plain, but it turned out to be the favorite of someone else. So, yay! This card I printed and cut out two layers for the card as well as the bow. I also used my pencils to enhance the bow, because I like crazy details like that. The hello is stamped and I used a metal die to cut it out.

This one was kind of fun. I liked the butterfly 🙂 This card just had one printed layer. I also printed and cut out a butterfly so I could pop it on and add dimension. I stamped the orchid and used my pencils to add some shading and a little extra color.

Thanks for stopping by!

xoxo

Coping Through Crafting

My blog is fluid.

It changes with my life.

But one thing stays pretty consistent; crafting. It feels like it can make any tough situation just a little better. I needed a little bit of that therapy this week 🙂

We’re 10 days into our ASD diagnosis for my 22 month old. And let me tell you, there is a lot of information out there! It flies at you nonstop and it’s so easy to get overwhelmed.

So I organized and crafted.

Here’s what I’ve been working on.

Mamma Bear’s Big Blue Book of Autism Help

I used a digital scrapbook program I have to create the cover. It was nice to sit down and just rest and create something cute AND helpful.

Now, for the organizational part 🙂 I love tabs and colors 🙂 Now I have all my info in one place with an easy way to find what I’m looking for.

 

Here are some of the things in my notebook:

Click to access BigRedSafetyToolkit.pdf

SAFETY INFO! Ways to keep our spectrum kiddos safe AND what seem to be very popular safety issues. For instance – 49% of our spectrum kids wander off for a variety of reasons. But did you know, that 91% of accidental deaths in those who wander off are water related? Our babies seem to be drawn to water. Now I know and I can keep them safe.
And THIS

https://www.autismspeaks.org/family-services/tool-kits/100-day-kit
It’s an information ORGANIZER for families with newly diagnosed children to help us hit the ground running. This thing is seriously amazing.
I also included his diagnosis and evaluation information so I have that at my fingertips, as well as the therapy information packets I received at his evaluation.

Life is hard enough. Being organized can make a hard situation easier.

And now, I’m ready to take notes and learn 🙂

Psst – even though the sharpies say they don’t smear…they did.