Happy Valentine's Day!!!
For the past three years I have been delighted to volunteer for With Love From Friends (WLFF) by making Valentine's Day cards for people who are without family or friends to remember them.
The fabulous Eve Elzenga developed and coordinates this project. WLFF is such a wonderful program. I adore Eve and her work. I'm not alone... Eve was the recipient of a Jefferson Award in 2011 for her public service for WLFF!
Eve strives to have high quality cards made with great materials and by artists in our community. She really wants the cards to be well made as the people who get them really do cherish them and deserve nice cards created by adults for adults. In years passed she opened her home for all of January so people could come over and make cards. Her collection of high quality supplies, papers embellishments, ribbons, and little gorgeous what-nots were made available to artists to pick up and use this year. She collects Valentine art supplies all year round.
As someone who has been lucky enough to spend a lot of time with my grandparents and great grandparents, I appreciate and value my elders. Now that they are gone, as well as my beloved father - who will always be my first Valentine - I felt like their memory needed to be honored, especially on a day all about love. So in memory of my loved ones passed, I made ten cards for With Love From Friends.
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| "You Are Loved" acrylic monoprint, paper, mixed media 4.25" x 5.5" © 2013 Victoria Porter |
My cards started as Artist Trading Card sized (2.5" x 3.5") original monoprints made on my Gelli Plate. I added red and pink cardstock mats behind and stitched them together. The heart is crumbled red cardstock inked to add some dimension. Don't you love the tiny staples?! Everything but the straight lines on the mats behind the monoprint are all hand cut by me. The words are all hand stamped. The wings are my design and took a long time to cut out. (I do not even own a die cutting machine. I do it old school!)
Each card I made is a one-of-a-kind piece of artwork as all of the monoprinted backgrounds are different.
Every card donated to WLFF is stamped with "With Love From Friends" on the inside. Did someone say 1500 cards need to be stamped?!?!?! I am so on that. My mother and I spent many hours stamping the inside of cards last week. We had a ball hanging out with Eve and her partner!
This year WLFF is in need of a Sizzix Big Shot Die Cutting Machine, Valentine themed cutting dies, and cash gifts so they can update their website. Supporting Eve in her efforts pays off in ways you can't even imagine. Hop on over to WLFF and see how you can help for next year!
- Vickie
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3 comments:
Excellent, Vickie! Great card and I'm glad you and your mom got to help so much this year!
Great tribute Vickie! It's a sad time for those who have lost their loves and also for people who don't feel the love. I would like to keep in this tradition by giving cards to those who you know and don't know who might be lonely or just not feeling it.
I am always impressed with the time and detail that you put into all of your creations. I would love to see all the cards you made, I'm sure each one is more beautiful than the last. They are truly works of art.
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