Layouts for the Ronald McDonald House

As many of you know, one of the charities that Stampin' Up supports every year is the Ronald Mcdonald House. This is a charity that is dear to my heart because I was on the receiving end when my son was about 9 and was in the hospital in Atlanta for an extended period of time. He is 31 now and is doing fine but things were a bit rough for a while and the house in Atlanta is wonderful! We were treated like kings when we were there and the younger kids had a blast. It made the whole hospital thing easier for all of us.

Stampin' Up also has an exclusive stamp set every year to help raise money for the Ronald McDonald House Charities. This and other efforts raise hundreds of thousands of dollars every year. I love Stampin' Up! The set in the current catalog is also on the list of stamps you can earn free with your Sale-a-bration order. Stampin' Up will still donate $2.00 per set even though they are giving them free. What a company!

I was asked to help make a layout for an album that Sherrill Graff is doing for the RMH in her area and I was glad to help. Being the over-achiever that I am, I ended up volunteering to do 3 layouts. Hey, the postage will be the same so why not???

Sherrill Graff is the "list mom" of the Stampin' Up Demos Only Stampers yahoo group that I belong to and love. See the owl on the right? Click on him to find the group. If you are a Stampin' Up demonstrator, it is a great resource.

The first layout uses some of the Night and Day designer paper that was in the Holiday Mini catalog. It is for a little girl named Hope who was adopted. I used a technique that a friend on the Demo Only group named Ilina Crouse posted. You punch 5 flowers with the Scalloped Circle punch and put them all together with a brad and then scrunch them up individually. You don't have to scrunch the back one but I did on my flowers. I figured since you don't see the brad after putting the button over it with a Stampin' Dimensional that I would use a cheap-o store brand. Bad idea, the prongs of the brad opened up by the time I was on the 3rd flower down. I replaced all the cheap brads with Stampin' Up brads and didn't have that problem with the rest of them. For the center of the flowers I punched a 3/4" circle of Real Red cardstock to match the mats and used Crystal Effects to attach them to the buttons. I pierced holes where the button holes were and added a piece of hemp twine to the center. I love this technique!

On the pink layout I used the gathered border idea like the card I posted the other day. I love the wide 1" Double Stitched grosgrain ribbon! It really adds to the layout. I also used a few beads and a hatpin from the Pretties Kit for the photo mat. I thought the butterflies would finish the layout off nicely. This layout is for a teenage girl who died. It must have been so sad to loose a daughter so young, I hope her parents will get peace from seeing the layout I made for her.

Last is a bright primary colors layout for a little boy. I used the Right on Track wheel and the Choo Choo stamp set along the bottom of the page and Real Red, Brilliant Blue, Yo Yo Yellow and Glorious Green cardstock (it lo0ks kind of blue in the picture). In real life the yellow in the background matches the yellow mat too.

I reckon I better get to the post office and send these layouts to Sherrill. Have a great day and do something nice for someone :~)