When September 11th happened twenty years ago, I was a Stampin’ Up! customer, not a Demonstrator yet. My Demonstrator told me about this Special Edition stamp Stampin’ Up! was selling to benefit those affected by the events of 9/11. Of course, I wanted to order one and I have always loved this stamp.

As I pondered what I should put on my blog for September 11th, I happened to think of this stamp. Perfect. As you can see in the photo below, I cut the words off the stamp and anchored them on the side of the wood block. Then I could use the flag image by itself or use the words separately. I colored on the stamp with markers since I wanted to use more than one color. I used Night of Navy and Real Red.

The stamped image is layered on Real Red cardstock, Night of Navy, and then Gold Foil. The Night of Navy border is really just a background for the photo but actually, I like it as part of the card. I didn’t actually make a card, just a card front, which really could be put in a frame.

The company raised more than $1 Million for the September 11th Fund.

This was one of those events when we all remember almost every detail of what we were doing that day, what all happened, and how we felt. My boys had gotten off to school and I was home cleaning up the kitchen with the Today Show on TV. Once I realized what was happening, all I could think of was I wanted my kids and husband home, but I wondered if the schools even knew what was going on. One mom went to the high school to pick up the carpool and I went to pick up my middle-schooler and his friend that we carpooled with. I remember the parking lot full and cars all over the place picking up kids and the secretary saying there was no need to take the kids home. But we all wanted our loved ones home and close to us because we really didn’t know what else was going to happen. I didn’t want to scare my son and his friend too much since they barely, if at all, knew what was going on, so I purposely stopped at Taco Bell to pick up some lunch for them so things would seem “normal” and not too crazy. His friend, just that summer, had visited New York City and had visited the Twin Towers. My daughter was away at college but one of her best friends was in school in NYC so she called her and remembers hearing sirens in the background. I didn’t think there would be school the next day or work or anything going on, but the President decided life was going to go on, so our country continued on with our normal routines.

I love that Stampin’ Up! came up with this stamp and offered it as a way to help others. “Making a difference” has always been one of Stampin’ Up!’s values and that’s good to know about a company.