Autism Awareness: Cards for a fundraiser

Last week I dropped by Obsessed with Scrapbooking and discovered this Autism Awareness post.

Linked to a post on Cricut.com, the crafting mom of a daughter with autism suggested that fellow crafters might want to help out her daughter's Cricut-loving craft club by sending a handmade card to say hello or to be used as a part of an upcoming fundraiser.

Since the puzzle- piece ribbon represents "the mystery and complexity of autism," we were asked to include a puzzle piece in our creations.

If you know anything about me, you know that I can not pass up a request to take part in a deserving fund raising activity.

So, I noted to the original forum poster that I'd participate and immediately started to think about what I could create.

I landed on the idea of a puzzle piece representing the struggle each of us faces in life, without the added difficulty of learning or physical disabilities faced by people with autism.

Ultimately I decided that a primary goal for each of us, despite our personal hurdles, is to be unique while finding people who are like us ... our friends.

Here you have it, then. This set of six small cards has a Cuttlebug-emobssed puzzle piece with the Cricut-cut "hello friend" sentiment. The quote at the bottom of each card "Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle," is from Lewis Carroll. The printed paper is from Die Cuts With a View All Dressed Up, which I also used to cut a smaller puzzle piece to embellish the inside of each card.

Now, as this is my blog I hope nobody will mind if I give myself a little pat on the back: This set of cards is one of only five or six projects I can recall in my entire life in which the end product turned out very nearly the way I imagined.