If you don’t know about the Instagram Hop & MEGA Giveaway in aid of EDS Awareness that I am hosting, then you are missing out! Check it out here.

The only ‘theme’ for the Hop is to create something that makes you happy. So I grabbed a few things that are making me happy right now and smooshed them all to create this reminder to NEVER GIVE UP.

I was struggling to settle on an idea for this card; nothing really felt *right*. I wanted it to be special and I wanted it to be something that really did make me happy. Then a few days before the hop was scheduled for, I received some amazing happy mail!! One of my wonderful crafty friends had sent me a beautiful card and she had included an amazing Simon Says Stamp mini stencil. It made me SO HAPPY! I just knew I had to use it for this card.

I left the panels overnight to ensure that they were really, thoroughly dry because they were very saturated in the ink after I finished blending.

The following day I used some Nuvo Glacier Paste in Gold with my new SSS stencil to add this beautiful Damask style image to the upper half of each panel.

It is so easy to add the Glacier Paste through a stencil; this is a really smooth, easily spreadable paste so it’s a great paste to start off with if you’ve never tried using pastes before.

Once I was happy with the spread of paste I set both panels aside to dry; they don’t take too long at all really, but I wanted to make sure they were completely dry, so I left them for a couple of hours before moving onto the next step.

I used the new Envelope Art stamp set from Altenew to create the banner; I originally planned to emboss the banner in clear powder, but once it was done I just wasn’t at all happy with it. It just didn’t create as much of a difference as I had envisioned, so it was time for plan B.

I chose different powders for each card; Metalline Flame for the warm toned card and Primary Blueberry for the cool one. The blueberry is more of a matte finish and the Metalline powders have a golden shine within them.

I wanted to use a sentiment that would encompass what I really wanted to say to anyone out there struggling for a diagnosis and the support & treatment that they deserve. I may know what is wrong with me, but I am far getting the treatment I need. So in some way I chose the sentiment I wanted to tell myself. I embossed my sentiment using white super fine powder from WOW! Then I popped it up on some foam tape on a Neenah 110lb card base.

Be Brave. Never Give Up.