Whimsy Stamps ~ Memorial Day Hop

Hey crafty friends, I'm here today sharing some tributes for a special hop with Whimsy Stamps. It is Memorial Day in America, a time to remember the fallen who have lost their lives in service to their country. I have made several cards for this hop and one was made particularly for my mum, who lost her dad very young. He was a fighter pilot. I've shared his story in previous years, so you can visit one of those posts here.

We have a poppy appeal during our ANZAC day which raises funds for our returned service men and women. I have made the card above for my mum to remember her dad and honour his sacrifice. I used a very beautiful poppy paper which is part of the Slimline Military Paper Pack from Whimsy. They have a beautiful Poppy themed stamp set which had a perfect image to pair with this paper. I coloured the poppy to echo how the paper had coloured the poppies and love how that turned out. I've kept it a very CAS design, this feels respectful and appropriate. I like CAS cards for things like bereavements cards and it felt appropriate for this too.

This card, I used a postmark stamp, which in my mind, was an honouring of all the different places soldiers can find themselves during their time serving. It must be quite a difficult thing to more around so much, to not be able to put roots down for long, if at all. So this was my way of honouring that side of their service. The silhouette dies from Whimsy are so wonderful for this type of design and I stamped the 'Honor, Gratitude, Respect' straight onto the patterned paper to complete this design. 

I love that Whimsy has such a wonderful range of Military themed elements to design with. They're so tastefully done. The sentiments are heartfelt and so honouring of those who serve. I love that they have representation for women in the military too. There are several sets with some fantastic images to honour our Military Women. 

I also love the Camouflage Background Stamp Whimsy created. This is such a cool and versatile design. You may recall me using it in a card I made for a friend, fighting Breast Cancer. You can see that post here. You can stamp it once on white or coloured cardstock for a striking design, but I had fun with this design and actually stamped it twice in two different colours of ink, rotating it one half turn each time to get the pattern to stamp and overlap in slightly different ways each time. My cardstock is Neenah Desert Storm, so it had a kraft hue, with then the two layers of green overtop, created a really fun grungy camouflage pattern. The ink colours I used were Bundled Sage and Forest Moss. I was going to add a third colour, Crushed Olive too, but decided I loved the look at just the two ink colours. But I would like to try a 3 colour blend another time. I think turning the stamp a quarter turn three times, could look quite cool! I finished off this design with some fabulous Military Dog-Tags, which I cut once from the camouflage panel I created and another time from silver cardstock. I cut a single star from the centre of the silver tag, that star is part of the Dog-Tags Die Set. It's quite a comprehensive set, which lots of elements, well worth a look. The sentiment was stamped with Shady Lane VersaFine Clair Ink to complete this card.

We have a special guest hopping with us today, Mary Polanco is a retired 24 year Air Force Veteran. She is an educator and craft enthusiast and has been spreading joy and crafty knowledge through her YouTube channel since retiring from the Air Force. We are delighted to have her hopping with us for this event and we are also happy to share that she is offering anyone who joins us for the hop, a 50% discount to her 'All Access Pass', the details of which, you can read in the banner above. This content is already a great price, so this is a wonderful opportunity! Mary is an engaging speaker and teacher and her tutorials are great fun. I highly encourage you to check out her social media links. You can click through on the banner above to the Video she shared for this hop.

Thank you for visiting today. I hope you're able to hop with us over on Instagram today, as we honour the fallen on Memorial Day. We'd love you to join us and show your support. I'll be back again soon, though we've had a family bereavement this week, so I'll be tied up for the next week, but I'll be back as soon as I can with more crafty content. Hugs, Wends xoxo

(I share thumbnails to the elements I design with in order to make your search for them easier, in case you like something I've used. I do use affiliate links where possible, which gives me a tiny commission but costs you no extra whatsoever. It helps the companies I design for to improve their marketing practice and track my contributions. I am deeply grateful if you use them for these reasons. I am proud to design for the companies I do and always feel happy to share where my inspiration and where my crafty stash comes from. I am occasionally gifted products to use, but I only design for companies whose products I absolutely love and buy for myself. My opinions are always my own.)

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