Star Spangled

I got this adorable patriotic digi from Nikki's Melonheadz Illustrating blog.  She offers tons of freebie digis as well as reasonably priced themed bundles.  Go check her out!  Here are all of her patriotic images. 

I colored the images with Marvy LePlume markers.  Papers are Colorbok and K&Co.  Ribbon is Offray.  I'm really loving digis of late because I can print 6 or 8 alike on a page, cut them easily, and assemble more cards than if I were stamping (and flubbing up the stamping) many times over!  I made 16 of these patriotic cards, a few of each design.  

If you made it over here thanks to Stars and Stamps, thanks very much for visiting!  I hope you enjoyed the tutorial! 

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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 620 blank and 200 AnyHero (as of 4/24)
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695
Check out OWH at www.operationwritehome.org to learn more about its mission and how to get involved.

Bloggie Award

Kathy from My Creative Impulse left me a comment yesterday letting me know she was awarding me the Liebster Award.  How sweet is that? It was so nice to wake up to that surprise.  :)

I copied this description from her site:

<i>The origins of the Liebster Blog Award are somewhat unclear, but the general consensus is that it originated in Germany. Liebster, means favorite or dearest, and the Liebster Award is designed to showcase bloggers with fewer than 200 followers. Upon accepting the award, the recipient must pass it on to five more blogs of note.</i>

It's so hard to choose, but here are my five picks:

Donna from Designing Keepsakes

Linda from Creepin' Along

Lisa from Stamping with a Mission

Sybrina from Scrapping with Purpose

Theresa from Playing with Pictures and Paper

Okay winners, here's what you need to do.

1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog.

2. Link back to the blogger who presented the award to you.

3. Copy and past the blog award on your blog.

4. Present the Liebster Blog Award to 5 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve recognition.

5. Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment at their blog.

Thanks again, Kathy.  You're so sweet to think of me!  :)

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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 620 blank and 200 AnyHero (as of 4/24)
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695
Check out OWH at www.operationwritehome.org to learn more about its mission and how to get involved.

OWH Sketches #119 and #60

Here's this week's S&S Sketch #119 and also #60.  I'm still working on my goal of doing all of the OWH sketches during 2012.  As of now, I have 85 completed.  If you're looking for great sketches, check here. 

I had started this card earlier in the week and got as far as mounting the patterned paper background on the red cardstock and stamping the image.  Then I was stumped and put the card aside.  Insert today's sketch, and I found a way to put the card together.

Sketch 60 was one that stumped me originally, probably because I had a terrible excuse for a paper trimmer then and no 1" square punch.  With both of those challenges overcome, I was able to put this card together pretty easily.  The patterns on this card are all from the same 12x12 sheet.

All papers today are from the K&Co Best Of stack, stamps by Inkadinkado ("Happy Birthday") and Michael's (Ferris wheel), border punch by Fiskars.     

Thanks for visiting! 
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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 620 blank and 200 AnyHero (as of 4/24)
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695 Check out OWH at www.operationwritehome.org to learn more about its mission and how to get involved.

I just got this Unity Stamp Company stamp called "love is everything" and I was excited to ink it up today.  I used a scrap of polka dotted paper by KI memories, a scrap of green cardstock, a new sheet of blue cardstock, several random brads from Making Memories and Colorbok, and white cardstock.  

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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 620 blank and 200 AnyHero (as of 4/24)
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695
Check out OWH at www.operationwritehome.org to learn more about its mission and how to get involved.

Alien Missing You

I got this sentiment stamp in my Unity grab bag last week and I wanted to play along with the Unity Friends with Flair challenge.  I love the sentiment and knew it would be perfect for OWH cards.  I thought about the papers I had and this patterned paper by Hot Off the Press came to mind.   I also remembered my Sizzix Boys Rule dies which had this "Robot" that I thought was more alien-like.  I used Nesties for the large circles and EK punches for the small circle and heart.  Eighteen of these are making their way to North Carolina right now.  :)

Thanks for visiting! 
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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 620 blank and 200 AnyHero (as of 4/24)
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695 Check out OWH at www.operationwritehome.org to learn more about its mission and how to get involved.

That's how we roll!

I was playing around with the polka dot paper scraps I had and decided to use my new "wheely fun" stamp from Unity.  I paired it with a sentiment from "crappy day" instead of "hope your birthday is wheely fun" which came with the image. 

I sponged clouds to give some extra dimension and interest to the focal point.  The brad is an epoxy brad from Making Memories- I really love those brads. 

Thanks, as always, for visiting!  
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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 620 blank and 200 AnyHero (as of 4/24)
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695 Check out OWH at www.operationwritehome.org to learn more about its mission and how to get involved.

Shirts for Dad

Here are a few more cards for dads that made it into my Muscle Card Challenge box.  I shipped my box of 318 cards off to Caro today.  

These shirts follow an OWH tutorial from last spring.  I made about 50 shirts last year and just couldn't manage to make them all into cards.  I still had a pile left and I used some for this year's cards.

 

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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 620 blank and 200 AnyHero (as of 4/24)
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695 Check out OWH at www.operationwritehome.org to learn more about its mission and how to get involved.

It's a scrap round up!

The scrap wrangler is in town!  I actually spent some time last weekend getting my scraps in order.  I'm not going to be following the suggestion of cutting scraps down to certain sizes.  I'm a scrapbooker, too, so I don't think it makes sense for me to cut everything down small.

I made some cards tonight with papers I'd left on my desk from recent projects.  As the pile dwindled, I had some scraps, so I made a scrappy strip card to use up some of the smaller bits.  All the patterned papers are from the DCWV Indian Summer stack from a couple of years ago.  The "thanks" sentiment is a digi I made.  Ribbon on the last card is May Arts that I got as a prize from Sandy. 

 

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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 302 blank and 200 AnyHero (as of 3/4)
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695

Vintage golfer cards

After Pam shared this great digi yesterday, I just couldn't help but make some more cards with it.  These cards are based off OWH Sketches and use the great digi from Free Vintage Digi Stamps.   I went ahead and made a dozen of each card.  The burgundy card is blank with no sentiment.  The green card is a thank you card.  Either one could be used for Father's Day if needed or for other occasions if there are enough Father's Day cards.  

Sketch 111

Sketch 59

I hope to have time to make another 10 or so cards tomorrow to top off my box for mailing out on Wednesday.  That's a little later than I would have liked, but as I didn't have a lot of multiples, I hope it won't be too overwhelming for Caro!  I prefer to be in advance of the deadlines to help my shipper spread out the work load, but that doesn't always happen.  The Mother's Day and Father's Day deadlines were on each others' heels, so it was hard to be ready early. 

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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 302 blank and 200 AnyHero (as of 3/4)
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695

Some final Dad cards

The Muscle Card Challenge ends next Monday, so it's time to get those boxes in to the OWH shippers!

Pam posted a lovely card on her blog today that used this great vintage golfer digi.  I had been looking for something in this style in a free digi and hadn't come up with any. 

I printed off several sheets of this digi and put 12 of these together tonight.  I have plans to make another dozen or so before I send my box.

Image from Free Vintage Digi Stamps, Sentiment from Studio G

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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 302 blank and 200 AnyHero (as of 3/4)
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695

OWH Sketch #118

Sketch #118 looks so cute with its scalloped borders.  At first, I tried to make big scallops using my circle punch, but the effect wasn't what I was going for.  I switched to the border punch instead and was much happier with the overall design.

Stamp by Recollections (Michaels), border punch by Fiskars, coloring with Copics, papers by American Crafts and Making Memories

Are you ready to ship out your box for the Muscle Card challenge?  I have 223 cards to send- not enough for a large FRB but too many for a medium FRB.  I will hold some general cards back for my next shipment and send a medium FRB tomorrow. 

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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 302 blank and 200 AnyHero (as of 3/4)
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695

Swap cards part II

I decided to make use of some OWH sketches that I hadn't tried yet this year while working on the patterned papers I got from a recent swap.  Below are cards made with papers from Ann and Sandi.

This kit was from Sandi.  It made two cards.  

Sketch 52

Sketch 49

 This kit was also from Sandi and made two cards:

Sketch 39

This kit was from Ann and I used it for another set of two cards. 

Sketch 44

Sketch 58

 These cards are made with my cardstock and scraps from kits I've posted above or yesterday. 

This swap has been a lot of fun.  I still have three or four kits to work on and I'll be sure to share what I create with them.  :)


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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 302 blank and 200 AnyHero (as of 3/4)
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695

Photo paper patterned paper

The patterned papers on these cards are made with glossy photo paper and bingo daubers. 

Rub-ons by American Crafts.  Thanks for visiting!

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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 302 blank and 200 AnyHero (as of 3/4)
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695

Swap card #1 and OWH Sketch #116

A FB group I belong to called "Scrap to Treasure" often has a swap (or two or three) going for paper crafting goodies.  I've never played along with any until I decided to host my own patterned paper swap.  Who doesn't have too much paper?  And who doesn't like getting some new papers to play with?  It seemed like a great plan.

I have several kits from the swap and I grabbed one at random tonight as my challenge.  This kit is from Sandi.  It included all the papers you see except the black cardstock.  The blue and blue circles are from the same two-sided sheet of paper.   I added the brads as well.  I loved the papers in this kit.  I would love to have Sandi pick my papers all the time- these went together so well but I don't think I would have put them together on my own! 

This is also my contribution for Sketch #116.  I've been behind for the past two months or so on getting the weekly sketches done.  I must get back on track!  This weekend, I'm going to make sure to do the sketch before church. 


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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 302 blank and 200 AnyHero (as of 3/4)
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695

Unity Friends with Flair

More love for Unity Stamp Company (and kraft paper) right here!

This uses a sentiment from You & Me.  I punched out the circle, hand cut the tree trunk, and doodled the dots.

I'll be making a half dozen of these for my next donation to Operation Write Home.  They're doing a masculine card drive until the end of the month. 

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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 302 blank and 200 AnyHero (as of 3/4)
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695

The storms of life

After speaking with a friend who is going through a difficult time, I made this card to send her way.  I think the sweet chick will cheer her up. 

Sketch by Sandy

Stamps by Unity

Papers by American Crafts and Making Memories, brads by Making Memories

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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 302 blank and 200 AnyHero (as of 3/4)
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695

Brown and Teal MWT

OWH gave us a color challenge this week.  As I continue to add masculine cards to my box for the Muscle Card Challenge, I decided to make a Father's Day card.

 I had no chocolate brown ribbon (none!), so I improvised with a piece of paper.  It's not the paper ribbon from this week's OWH tutorial, but that was where I drew my inspiration from. 
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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 302 blank and 200 AnyHero (as of 3/4)
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695

Unity Sketch Challenge

Okay, so I made this card for a Sketch Challenge on the Unity blog.  Then I realized I used a stamp that wasn't allowed in the challenge because it wasn't from a kit of the month.  Oh well.   I still wanted to share how it turned out.  I think it will make a great masculine love card for my OWH box.

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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 302 blank and 200 AnyHero (as of 3/4)
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695

OWH Sketch 117

This sketch was so difficult for me.  I think this is a draft card at best- something needs to be changed. I like the center element but I don't think it goes with the background like I was hoping it would. 


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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 302 blank and 200 AnyHero (as of 3/4)
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695

Scrap box

Since I can't post photos directly to Facebook (and I have no idea why), I decided to post my scrap box here.  This is a recent set-up for me.  The file box holds legal hanging folders organized by color.  Last weekend I actually went through my scraps and used many of them up making some cards.  I think I'll be keeping this box under my desk from now on so it will be easy to grab a scrap when needed and to file them when I make them.  

I'm starting to wonder why I don't keep my 8.5 x 11 cardstock in the same kind of container.  That might turn into my next organizational upgrade.  
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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 302 blank and 200 AnyHero (as of 3/4)
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695

Unity+black+kraft

I'm getting on a roll with this combo of great stamps from Unity Stamp Company paired with black and kraft cardstock.  I won a few Unity stamps as blog candy from Ellen Hutson back around October or November and thought they were kind of fun but not awesome.  To be honest, many of the ones I won weren't much in keeping with my style.  The heart below was an exception!  Then I won a contest on Unity's blog using the stamps I won in that original blog candy grouping.  Based on that win, I got a pair of itty bitty stamps to play with.  Then there was a good sale or two, and now I'm pretty much loving my Unity stamps.  I think my favorite part of Unity stamps is that they are sized so well for cards.  I have entirely too many stamps that are just too small to make a great focal point on a card.  Unity "itty bitty" stamps are not at all small- I'd say they range from 2"x2" to 2"x4"  The chair stamp below is considered an "itty bitty" and it fills up a good portion of the card.  It's also really easy to get a good image with the deeply etched red rubber.  Rubber beats clear stamps every day in my book, even if clear stamps are cheaper. 

Here are the two little cards I whipped up this evening.  Both use stamps from my recent Unity purchase which included a grab bag (and thus the KOTM stamp).  

Stamps from "Hello friend" and November 2011 KOTM, EK Success border punch, brad from stash

Stamp from "Enjoy your Company", ribbon by Making Memories, rub-on by Karen Foster Designs, embossing by Cuttlebug

I did get a few stamps in my grab bag that I just can't identify.  I searched around the Unity website and Google and have about 8 I can't match to a set.  I'm making a list because I love to be able to tell you all where my stamps are from (when I remember to include those details).  So, as I use these mystery stamps, I'll ask for your help in case any of you are Unity experts.  I'm just a novice, but I'm loving everything I make with Unity!

Like most all of my cards, these will be donated to Operation Write Home.  
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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 302 blank and 200 AnyHero (as of 3/4)
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695

Missing you with Unity Stamp Co

Here's a little "missing you" card I made for Operation Write Home with stamps by Unity Stamp Co.  The sentiment is from "Love Runs Deep" and the paper clip is from "Note of Thanks."  I love a good CAS card made with kraft, though I don't know that this qualifies because it has a few layers! 

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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 302 blank and 200 AnyHero (as of 3/4)
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695

Humorous birthday card

I made this card after visiting all the stops on the OWH Make 'Em Laugh blog hop.  About 15 companies have partnered with OWH to put on the blog hop and many of them were offering prizes to people who created cards and linked them up using Inlinkz. 

Caro mentioned recently that she needed birthday cards and thank you cards, so I made one of each from the hop.  This sentiment is one of my favorite stamps.  I love all the Inkadinkado kid quotes!  The character (bear?  groundhog?  hamster?) is by Inkadinkado also.

The blue and green papers are from a pack I bought at Michael's yesterday.  I didn't need more paper, but they were having a good sale!  The pack of 25 sheets (8.5 x 11) cost just $2 and the weight of the paper is so thick - 281 grams per square meter.  It's gently textured and just wonderful.  Right now, it comes in a pack with yellow, red, blue, purple, and lime.  Oddly, you get more of some colors than others.  But it's great paper and I hope they make other packs in the future. 

If you have some time, scroll down to read the other two posts I made today.  I'm offering a set of free digis in one.  :)
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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 302 blank and 200 AnyHero (as of March 4)
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695

"Tank" you

Here's a thank you card I made for the Make 'Em Laugh blog hop for OWH.  I put together several stickers for the sentiment, like I saw on a card that used SRM stickers to spell "a cherry hello" with Christmas stickers.  The letters are old and might be by KI Memories.  The epoxy stickers are from Creative Imaginations.  Hopefully the recipient will get the coded message! 

If you haven't done so yet, be sure to check out the hop and leave some love for the wonderful companies that support OWH.  
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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 302 blank and 200 AnyHero (as of March 4)
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695

Clean up the scraps and FREE digis for you

I made about 20 striped card bases this weekend using the technique here that Yolanda shared recently. It was a great way to get through most of the patterned paper bits in my scrap stash.  I worked on sorting my scraps into file folders based on color.  Anything that was sufficiently patterned or multi-colored got cut down to .75" strips and adhered to cardstock cut to 4" by 5.25" in order to make backgrounds for my cards. 

Next, I created two files with "thanks" and "love" digi sentiments.  I printed these, punched them with my 1.75" circle punch, and backed them with various colored cardstock scallop circles. 

I put these all together and got a bunch of cards for OWH.  The best part of these cards was that they don't take a lot of thought, so I was able to catch up on TV at the same time.  :)

Want the digis for your own use?  Leave a comment with your e-mail address and I'll send them your way. 

Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 302 blank and 200 AnyHero (as of March 4)
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695

Happy Birthday

Recently, Caro posted that she was running short of birthday cards to send her OWH contacts.  I cannot tell you why, but birthday cards are my least favorite cards to make.  I even prefer making sympathy cards to making birthday cards.  But our heroes need more birthday cards, so I did my best to oblige.    Despite the weird shape of some of the photos (thanks, Blogger!) I can assure you these are all A2 size. 

The yellow card uses OWH Sunday Sketch #38.  How are you doing on the sketch challenge for 2012?  This card is so far out of my normal comfort zone but I love the result.  The sketch pushed my creative limits.  That's why I love sketches! 
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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 302 blank and 200 AnyHero (as of March 4)
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695