Paper crafters unite

Hello and thank you for joining me today for this very special blog hop to stand up and show our unity against racism. You should have come from Juliana Michaels. Your next stop is Betz Golden. What I love about paper crafting, besides getting to play with stickers and fun stamps, is the supportive and inclusive community.  When Justine Hovey asked for participants to this blog hop I did not hesitate to sign up.The goal of this hop is to come together to stand with our crafty sisters and brothers of color not just in the paper crafting community, but also to show our support in the never ending fight for equality all over the world. I hope you feel inspired today and unite with the papercrafting community to stand against racism. Please continue reading to find out how I made three encouraging cards. Affiliate links are used at no cost to you. If you choose to shop through these links, I will receive a small commission. I am pledging my affiliate sales to Black Table Arts which organizes and brings in black artists into communities and provides creative spaces for leadership. Thank you for your support today. 

To me, rainbows signify hope and new beginnings. I hope that in the world, there will be more discourse between people of different cultures and backgrounds from which understanding and acceptance would grow. The rainbows in this card are from Concord & 9th Rainbow Turnabout stamp set. When there is such a busy background, I typically use vellum to set off the sentiment. This sentiment comes from a Hero Arts My Monthly Hero May 2020 Kit. I stamped the sentiment in Altenew Obsidian Black ink and then used Hero Arts Clear Embossing powder to deepen the color and provide some shine. The sentiment was cut out using Hero Arts Cloud Infinity Dies. The markers to provide a frame for the vellum cloud and color in “Better” are Karin Decobrush metallic markers from the MMH Kit. 

When I was invited to join this hop with the theme of encouragement, I immediately grabbed my Hero Arts You are Loved stamp set. This set comes with so many encouraging sentiments and has a few images like these people holding hands. I used this stamp image to build a repeating pattern of paper doll people. These people represent the beauty of diversity. Again with a bold background, I used vellum to house the sentiment which is also from Hero Arts You are Loved stamp set. A navy ribbon from my stash sets off the vellum sentiment. 

This last card I would like to share with you is about my hope that the world is a welcoming place for everyone. The background of this card comes from Altenew Nebula Washi tape. The images from the Hero Arts Dreams are Made stamp set were colored in using Copic Markers. The sentiment comes from Hero Arts You are Loved stamp set which was heat embossed onto the washi using Altenew Crisp White Embossing Powder. I want to acknowledge another paper crafter, Sandy Allnock, who is an amazing artist and encourages other crafters to color #thehumanrainbow. Sandy Allnock has a lot of information and links about coloring different varieties of skin tones to represent the diversity of the human race. Please check out Sandy’s website and YouTube channel for more information. 

Thank you so much for joining me today. Please visit Justine’s blog for information on other ways to unite against racism. I want to share one other way you can get involved. If you are a teacher or in education, I encourage you to join a book discussion that is happening August 8-13, 2020. The discussion is free but I encourage you to donate to help defray the costs of organizing this event. This book discussion is being organized by a teacher in Massachusetts to build dialogue and understanding around equity and access in public schools in the United States. The book we will be discussing is: We Want to do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom by Dr. Bettina Love. Dr. Love will have a keynote address and breakout discussions will be separated by subject matter and grade level. If you are not a teacher or educator, I encourage you to start your own discussion groups to have a conversation around anti-racism and how you can be an agent of change. 

Thanks for hopping along…Your next stop is Betz Golden. Your kind comments on my blog post mean so much.  Thank you so much for your time today.