Whimsy Stamps ~ Heart Full of Hope

What do we do when things seem hopeless, when we feel helpless, well if you're creative, we share our hearts and tell our stories through our art. We share in the hopes there are hearts out there that resonate with ours. My heart is broken and afraid with these awful events in the Ukraine. I find it hard to comprehend and I hope there are millions of hearts around the world that will rise up and call a stop to this madness. Alone, one voice is small, but together, there is a volume that cannot be ignored. I live in hope that our children do not have to tell of 'living through the Third World War'. My best friend just returned from Auschwitz, assisting a school trip. She and the students were so affected by this. The horrors of that time and the war crimes are still fresh for so many, how does humanity not learn from these mistakes? We are all one. Colour, creed, class, they matter not, we are one. 

These beautiful die and stamp sets from Whimsy Stamps spoke to my heart during this time. Not because I'm religious, or think that holds the answer to the problem, but because this image represented an ideal to me, of peace, acceptance and forgiveness. I've always been touched by 'Easter', by the story of ultimate sacrifice and it is my hope that the Ukraine people will survive and thrive in spite of the current conflict. The light will prevail and although one small voice is lost in the dark, I hope and pray that the voices of many will come together, will resonate and bring change. Positive, uniting change.

If you follow my blog, you'll know we've just moved house and I've been trying to unbox my stash and find homes for it here, as I no longer have a designated craft room. Boxes were not put in logical or helpful places, so I've been struggling to find my basic stash. When I created this card, I could only find 3 ink colours, a rich blue, a mustard yellow and a burgundy red. It occurred to me how fitting that I should have access to those first two colours! I had no blending brushes at hand, so I took the ink pads straight to the paper and created this background with just the few bits of stash I could find at the time. 

The overlap between the blue and yellow created a green hill like area, which was perfect to add the lovely diecut scene of Calvary. I found a white and silver pen and added some stars to finish the sky. I stamped the sentiment in black ink, which over the yellow looked quite green, so I ran over it again with a sharpie to bring the black out better. The one frame set I had was one that arrived not long before we moved house, so this is my first time using this lovely double stitched frame set. I mounted the image panel onto foam, then onto yellow textured cardstock and finally onto the card base, which I trimmed slightly so no white showed on the edges. I wanted the image panel to be the focus, but felt it needed matting to help it stand out.

I hope you don't mind me sharing my heart tonight. It just weighs so heavily on me right now, the insanity, the mindlessness of it all. I'm not one to pray usually, but I pray today for peace, for tolerance and for safety, for the people of Ukraine, including a lovely and well known person in our crafty circles, Yana Smakula who is living through this nightmare right now. You can visit Yana's blog for her story. 

Thank you for visiting my blog today. I'm sorry if it wasn't quite what you were expecting, but thank you for being here. I know there are a lot of crafters who have created some truly beautiful images and creations in support of The Ukraine. I find that comforting, the coming together of hearts and minds to show support in any way we can. I'll be back soon but in the meantime wish you peace and love xoxo