Autism Awareness Blog Hop 2018 | Swimming In Stamps

Welcome to the Autism Awareness Blog Hop! April is Autism Awareness Month, so my friend and fellow demonstrator Maria Willis organized this blog hop to promote autism awareness and acceptance, share our personal stories, and help raise donations. If you’re following the hop, you’ve come from the amazingly talented Elizabeth Price. Be sure to continue on through the hop using the “Next” button below, or there’s a list of all the demonstrators involved in the blog hop with their links at the bottom of the page. Additionally, there’s a list of three Autism organizations you can choose to make donations.

I don’t personally know anyone with autism, so I can only imagine the challenges people with autism and their families face. On the other hand, my son Samuel grew up with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD.) While ADD is not part of the autism spectrum, I feel I can relate a little to people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and their families as there are a few similarities. For example, people with ASD are often highly intelligent, but struggle with social interactions and reading nonverbal clues.

It’s heartbreaking to watch your kid struggle to conform in school, obtain social acceptance, and deal with self doubt. Of course, it wasn’t all the time and lots of kids without ADD struggle with similar issues. But it’s a fact that people with ADD and ASD have brains that are wired differently. The more we can learn about causes and ways to improve the education process, the better off we’ll all be. That’s why I think it’s so important to donate towards further research and education.

I wouldn’t change a thing about my son. I love him to the moon and back. I’m so proud of his accomplishments, especially given that organization and attention to detail did not come naturally. Despite the hurdles, he learned to adapt and graduated from CSU East Bay with a BS in Kinesiology last May! He’s now working towards becoming a Doctor of Physical Therapy!!! With his amazing memory (especially when it comes to subjects that really interest him), I know he’s going to be an awesome physical therapist someday.

Now, on to my card! I made this for Samuel just to remind him how much we love and support him.

I wanted to design a project that was bright and cheerful to promote tolerance and acceptance, so I used primary colors to match the Autism Awareness logo. I decided to create a background using the smooching technique. I’ve been having a lot of fun experimenting with this technique lately! There are several ways to do it, so this time I used an acrylic block to gather ink instead of a silicone craft sheet, and I painted on watercolor paper instead of Shimmery White cardstock. The results were completely different!

To create the background on this card, I used a small acrylic “C” block. I started by pressing the block directly onto a Pacific Point ink. Then, I spritzed the ink with water and used the block to “paint” across the bottom of the watercolor paper. I pressed lightly at first while twisting, and then gradually added pressure. Afterwards, I did the same thing with Rich Razzleberry, Real Red, Pumpkin Pie and Daffodil Delight ink graduating towards the top of the paper. This is a super fun technique that turns out different every time.

For the “sun,” I used a stamp from the Painted Harvest stamp set. It’s supposed to be a flower, but it works as a sun too! I inked up the stamp with Daffodil Delight and then used a Pumpkin Pie Stampin’ Write Marker to add color directly onto the stamp around the edges. (You could also use an ink pad and sponge.) Afterwards, I used an Aqua Painter to brush clear water over the stamp to slightly blend the ink before stamping on watercolor paper.

For the “sunshine” dies, I attached Multipurpose Adhesive Sheets onto the back of my watercolor and Pumpkin Pie cardstock before cutting them out to make them easy to adhere to my project. Then, I used an Aqua Painter to paint an ombre design on the watercolor die with Pumpkin Pie and Daffodil Delight ink.

Lastly, I embossed a greeting from the Sunshine Sayings stamp set in white on Basic Black cardstock and used a Classic Label Punch to cut it out. And, to break up the busy colored background, I added a Real Red banner cut with a Bunch of Banners die underneath the Stitched Shapes circle.

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