World Autism Awareness Day

Today is World Autism Awareness Day and I’ve joined up with 50 other Stampin Up Demonstrators from around the world to share this special day. We are going Blue to celebrate people with autism and the people who support and care for them.

The statistics on the number of children diagnosed on the autism spectrum every year is staggering, affecting an estimated 1 in 88 births. This means that roughly 1.5 million Americans today have some form of autism and this number is increasing at a rate of more than 10% every year.

Autism knows no racial, social, or religious boundaries. It can affect any family, any child and it is four times more prevalent in boys than girls. There is no known single cause of autism. However, it is generally accepted by the medical community that it is caused by abnormalities in the brain structure or function, which means people with autism process information differently than non-autistic people and their behavior can reflect that. What you see is how they are responding to the world around them – the sights, the smells, and the noise.

I believe that every person has magic in them. Every person desires the same thing from us – our love and support. They deserve our patience, our praise, and our pride in their accomplishments. Here are some details on today’s card…To make the background, I stamped the stars and “magic” sprinkles with Versamark ink and used clear embossing powder, which I set with my heat tool. Then I sprinkled the blue Brusho all over the background, concentrating around the stars and sprinkles. I spritzed the Brusho with water to melt the color crystals. I repeated this step several times until I was happy with the background.

The wizard is stamped twice – once on white card stock and once on the pattern paper. The wizards hands, face, and beard are colored in using our Blends markers. The robe and hat were cut out and pieced onto the white card stock.

I hope you have enjoyed today’s Hop around the World celebrating Autism Awareness. We have tons of ideas and projects to share with you. Click the next button and it will take you to the next website.

If you’d like to support World Autism Awareness Day, a group of crafters have joined together to raise awareness for this special cause by creating a single donation link, directly to the Organization for Autism Research. You can make a donation here. OAR was founded in 2001 by a group of parents and grandparents of children and adults on the autism spectrum. 87% of OARs funds and donations go to research and services. You can read more about this organization here.

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