"It's A Girl Thing" Turner Syndrome Awareness Inaugural Blog Hop

Hello Blogging Friends!!

Welcome to my project for the "It's A Girl Thing" Turner Syndrome Awareness Inaugural Blog Hop! 

Turner Syndrome is a genetic disorder where a female is born with only one X chromosome, instead of two, leaving her with life-long medical issues and learning disabilities. This condition occurs one in 2,500 female births worldwide, but is more common among pregnancies that do not survive to full term. That is why Turner Syndrome Females are considered MIRACLES! 

Nineteen caring Sponsors and eleven DT Members have partnered with us to bring Turner Syndrome Awareness to the Public. For details on how you might win any of these fabulous prizes, please see Lori's TS home page. Thanks for learning About Turner Syndrome. 

My TS related project uses a few colors from the TS official color board:

This blog hop is hosted by Lori Kobular and she shares the journey she and her family have been on after her oldest daughter Julie was diagnosed with Turner Syndrome in her own words here. I hope you take the time to read about her experiences and learn about Turner Syndrome. 

I work in the field of genetics research so raising awareness of genetic conditions is close to my heart. I often hear from the families who take part in our research about how difficult it can be to navigate the health care system when you end up knowing more about the condition than your doctor. I work with families affected by various rare medical conditions and I have learned from them how important it is to have a network of other families to share your experiences with. There is strength in numbers!

For my project, I created a card inspired by the colours in the Turner Syndrome Foundation logo and using the new STAMPlorations aptly named It's A Girl Thing stamps. I wanted to create a happy card with lots of flowers to celebrate all the ladies out there who in some way are connected with Turner Syndrome. 

Don't forget to visit the "It's A Girl Thing" Turner Syndrome Awareness Inaugural Blog Hop page to be eligible for the blog hop prizes. Here is some information on how you can win one of the prizes:

• Leave a comment on the TS Awareness Home Blog Post stating at least one thing you learned about Turner Syndrome. Our Tab titled About Turner Syndrome has a pictorial explanation of many of the symptoms or limitations faced by TS females.
• Leave a comment on one or more DT blog hop posts. 
• Prizes will be awarded randomly from the comments left on 19 of the DT blog hop posts + by 11 of the designers who are awarding prizes of their own. So the more posts you visit and comment on, the more likely you are to win a prize. Don't forget! You must also leave one comment on the Home Blog, too.
• We hope this will bring an awareness not only about Turner Syndrome in females, but that if any human being seems a bit out of the ordinary, there could be a health-related or genetic reason for it, and it would be nice to give everyone the benefit of the doubt in our daily lives.

Craft supplies used:

Stamps: STAMPlorations It's A Girl Thing: Kindness, It's A Girl Thing: Sunshine

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics

STAMPlorations discount code: If you want to save 20% when shopping at theSTAMPlorations store you can use the code STAMPGIRLKAROLA at checkout. The discount applies to all normal priced and discounted stamps, stencils and dies. The code cannot be combined with other discount codes.

Autumn Leaves

The colours of the leaves are stunning outside, so I can't stop creating inked leaves and using all leaf dies I can find in the craft room. I've been so much into die cutting lately, much more than stamping to be honest. Today I made a bit of a mess with Distress Inks and STAMPlorations dies with a very strong CAS flair. It's just so much fun getting that ink everywhere and then splattering with water and some more ink. 

Today's card was inspired by the blue background and beautiful fall leaves in the inspiration image over at Fusion Card Challenges. I was also inspired by the ink blending themes over at AAA Cards and Daring Cardmakers.

Card: Neenah Solar white card

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Broken China, Blueprint Sketch, Faded Jeans, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Festive Berries, Barn Door, Aged Mahogany, Vintage Photo

Stamps: STAMPlorations Trendy Feathers 1 (retired)

Dies: STAMPlorations Trendy Leaves 2 coordinating dies

STAMPlorations discount code: If you want to save 20% when shopping at the STAMPlorations store you can use the code STAMPGIRLKAROLA at checkout. The discount applies to all normal priced and discounted stamps, stencils and dies. The code cannot be combined with other discount codes.

Splish, splash, splosh

I am enjoying a lazy day off. It's grey outside, but I had wonderful visitors earlier in the day and now I'm just playing around in my craft room, seeing where the mood takes me. Yesterday we had fun night out with the Culinary Consultant, we really need to make an effort to go out a bit more often. The evening started with a very good BBQ meal (some of the best beef ribs I've ever had I'm happy to say) in a small place called Smokeworks in Cambridge (if you happen to be local, and like smoky BBQ, you have to try it out!!). We then had a good laugh at (with?) the puppets from the visiting production of AvenueQ. As we didn't make it home until way past my bedtime last night, I was happy I had had the foresight of taking the day off as I'm a bit tired today. 

That was a bit of a detour, so back to today's card. It's inspired by several challenges. The layout is inspired by the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch, the theme is inspired by the Splash challenge over at CAS on Sundays and the colours are from this weeks colourQ challenge. In addition, I'm linking up with Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge where the theme is trio of colours.

Card: 300 gsm hammered white card, Stampin' Up Rich Razzleberry
Stamps: Stampin' Up Remarkable You, Gorgeous Grunge
Ink: Stampin' Up Pool Party, Wisteria Wonder, Rich Razzleberry, Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangles dies, Stampin'  Up Hello You dies

L is for Layer at the Sisterhood

I have the immense honour of guest designing at Sisterhood of The Snarky Stampers this week as my Steampunk card was selected the winner a few weeks ago. I love their fun challenges and the inspiration from the talented DT not to mention the occasional snarkiness that makes me laugh out loud. This week the challenge is L is for Layer (or should I say L is for Lack of Layer) as you are asked to design a one layer card so hop over to the home of snarkiness to play along.

This challenge was perfect for an idea I saw over here (I wish I could take credit for the fun card design but I can't, so credit where credit is due). I love the slightly cheeky idea, and thought the Sisterhood would be the perfect place to display this fun little card. 

This is one of those cards which looks so simple, but turned out to be a bit fiddly to make. I die cut the letters for masking using my trusty Tim Holtz Inside Out Alphabet die. I then made a "practice fold" using some scrap paper and arranged the letters onto that to make sure I got the fold of the card in the right place to make the sentiment work and to make sure the card was still going to fit into an regular envelope.

The main challenge was to attach the die cut letters to the cardstock so that they would stay there during the application of colour but still come of nicely at the end. I ended up putting a bit of snail on the letters and then touching the adhesive with my finger a few times to make it less sticky before arranging it onto the cardstock. This worked pretty well, although a few of the letters still slid around a bit. If you have a nice alphabet stamp set you could use emboss resist instead, but I don't and I also love the font of the inside out alphabet so that's what I went with.

I used a foam applicator to add my favourite colours of Tim Holtz distress ink to the card. I love how the distress inks blend and form new colours as you apply it in this way and it's a nice and messy thing to do. However, sponging the ink needed a gentle hand to make sure the letter masks stayed in place. To finish, and to add something a bit extra, I used the Stampin' Up Gorgeous grunge to stamp the little speckles of colour and added three rhinestones to emphasise how awful I think the recipient is, hehe.

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm White Card
Inks: Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Mowed Lawn, Peacock Feathers, Picked Raspeberry, Salty Ocean, Seedless Preserves and Squeezed Lemonade
Stamps: Stampin' Up Gorgeous Grunge
Other: Adhesive rhinestones from my stash, Tim Holtz Alterations Inside Out Alphabet die