Hop Along to Honor Dawn

Welcome to a Blog Hop in honor of Dawn McVey!  Today's projects feature Stamps and Dies designed by Dawn (Raspberry Suite) for Papertrey Ink.  Dawn received her long awaited small intestine transplant in the early morning hours last Sunday. We are so happy for her. She has a long period of recovery ahead of her and several members of the Papertrey Forum wanted to honor her with this Blog Hop. This way, while Dawn is recuperating, she can stroll though all the posts and see the projects made with her designs and how she inspires us.  For me, hands down, it's her faith first but second would be her love for and use of color.  This hop is meant to be an encouragement to her and she can go back and look anytime she likes.  We hope it will tell her that we cherish her and wanted to find a way to encourage her as she is on the road to recovery.  Special thanks to Nichole Heady for setting up the link-up on the Papertrey Blog. The linky will be open for one week and you may post as many projects as you like, as long as they contain stamps and/or dies designed by Dawn.  I hope to have several projects added to the link-up before the end of the week long hop.

My first card uses a well loved set called Spruce & Sprigs.  I used this same set for Thursday's post so if you want to have some details, you can see that post here. The coordinating Spruce & Sprigs Dies cut everything out and if you detest fussy cutting as much as I do, then by all means you should get the dies.

I did a little experimenting here to get the colors I wanted and they are as follows: The holly leaves, pine boughs and pine sprigs are all stamped in a combination of  Prairie Grass & Ripe Avocado with a bit of Olive Twist blended in on the edges. The various berry sprigs are stamped in Enchanted Evening and Amethyst Allure with a touch of Plum Pudding around the edges.  The sentiment is from another of Dawn's sets, Vintage Ornaments II.  When I had this card assembled, I used some little gems on the card front for accents.  The background panel is a shimmer cardstock in a color that I love but haven't seen for quite a while.  I only have about 5 sheets of it left, so you know I am hoarding it a little bit.

My second card uses the same sets plus uses one of those little extra pieces I seem to always have on my desk. It's from a completely different manufacturer, but it totally worked with Dawn's Spruce & Sprigs and I'm planning to make a couple more for Holiday Cards.  I need to get with it as it's time for the Caring Hearts Card Drive which provides Christmas or Holiday Cards to the elderly that live in Nursing Homes.  My mother-in-law lives in a nursing home and I try to send a card every 2-4 weeks.  This month, I will get to deliver one in person.

All of the greenery is stamped in New Leaf while all the berries were stamped in Pure Poppy.  The flower is from a set from another company but it was stamped in Pure Poppy also, so I grouped it with these greens from Dawn.  It even had a piece of foam tape on the back already, so I didn't even have to cut a piece of that to create my card.  The center of the bloom has tiny gold glass seed beads that I adhered with Ranger Multi Medium Matte.  I was having trouble deciding what to use for my background panel and had in fact, decided on a striped piece of Pinefeather Bitty Big.  But I just wasn't convinced it was the right thing.  I had my arrangement picked up with a piece of Press N Seal, so I could lay it over various choices but finally decided (given Dawn's love for color) that the green with gold metallic stripe was just the thing to use for this card.  That also tied in the sentiment strip that was heat embossed in Gold.

Next up I have a couple of encouragement cards using Dawn's Cheerful Heart and New Every Morning Stamp Sets with Center Style: Feminine Die. Again, knowing Dawn's love for color, I used some fun patterned papers here that remind me of some I've seen by Rifle Paper Company.

This first card uses Dark Indigo Cardstock with Sweet Blush Cardstock and was paired with a sentiment from New Every Morning.  I die cut the Center Style Feminine Die to serve as the focal area and as a background layer for the sentiment.  The sentiment was stamped in Versamark and heat set with Gold Embossing Powder.  I used some Tonic Nuvo Drops in Bright Gold for accents.

Next up, we have another of those fun patterned papers in a different color palette.  I paired it with Berry Sorbet, Honey Nut and Pale Peony.  The bloom is a Prima Flower with a little added gem in the center.  As a transplant recipient, Dawn can't have flowers for a while so I wanted to send her this little paper one to make her smile.  If you follow her on Instagram, her feed is full of brightly colored flowers, many from a cutting garden her husband planted this year. Again, I used Tonic Nuvo Drops in Bright Gold.  I wish they made a Coral colored drop but so far I haven't seen any.

Thank you so much for stopping by today. I hope you'll look through all of your supplies and see if you have anything designed by Dawn so you can join in the hop.  You can find the list of her stamp sets here and her dies here.

We hope you'll join in the Blog Hop and perhaps send her a card that you've made using one of her stamps and dies.  Dawn is doing really well and will be moving out of ICU as soon as a bed is available in the transplant unit. We are so thankful for this.

Dawn McVey

PO Box 25322

Overland Park, KS 66213

*Updated Adderess 11/17/2017*

Thanks for stopping by and thank you to all who are participating this week!  I am planning to make several more projects featuring Dawn's Stamps and Dies to share at the link-up this week.