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Saturday, March 22, 2014

Raeanna's 6x6 Challenge

Raeanna's a great one for posting challenges to the OWH FB wall to get our mojo going.  This time she really threw down the gauntlet.  We were to take a whole 6x6 pad and turn it into cards.  Kristie does this all the time.  I don't know if I've ever completely used up any paper pad.

I did Raeanna's challenge...halfway.  I purposely took the smallest unused 6x6 I had, just 24 sheets, and took one of each design from the pack.  That meant I was only dealing with 12 sheets.  I decided I had the time and energy to do that much.  This pad was one that I'd gotten as a Christmas present and hadn't dug in to yet.   I'm not really a fan of pastel pink, so that made this even more of a challenge.  Here are the 14 cards I made last night and tonight. One of the pages was little journaling tags, so lots of the focal points were already made...score! Oh, and a few of these meet Raeanna's secondary challenge, polka dots and stripes. 








Down by half!


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Cards shipped to OWH in 2014: 21
Cards shipped to OWH in 2013: 829 blank and 301 AnyHero
Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 1284 blank and 218 AnyHero
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 3.0

I can't believe it's taken me a whole week to blog about the awesome time I had supporting OWH last Saturday.

The story really starts back in October.  Nancy posted a photo to the OWH FB page with a gigantic pile of cards that she and her friends had made at their OWH card party.  I guess she had posted it from her phone, because the photo was tagged with the location.  Nancy and I live in the same state about 90 minutes apart.  I wrote a comment and asked if they had met at an LSS to make cards; I don't have one near me, but I'm sure there are some elsewhere in the state.  No, the group had met at Nancy's home.  Nancy graciously invited me to her home for the next party which was already planned for March 15th.  How amazingly organized is she? 

Fast forward a couple of months.  I asked if I should bring kits.  Nancy asked if I could do three.  In my typical style, I went overboard and made 13, which meant 150 cards to assemble.  Whoops!  Good thing there was lots of help!  :)

So last Saturday, I packed up and headed across the bridge to meet Nancy.  We'd only "met" online but right away we confessed to having done plenty of FB research on the other just to make sure we were OK!  And we were.  I had a great time.  Nancy, her sister, and her friend made lots of card kits.  The other guests were mostly non-card makers but after three of these parties, they're pretty good with the ATG!  There was lots of good food, an opportunity to earn tickets for wonderful raffle items, and good company.  I stayed almost 12 hours and made it home just before midnight.  I've already got the September date reserved. 

Here are some photos.
Nancy made this board to display my cards. 

Half of the 490 cards we made

The other half!

Look at the wonderful raffle items.

A few ladies hard at work on the final kit.


The kit makers!
I was happy to make some new friends and get to support OWH!  I am so looking forward to the next one in September!

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Cards shipped to OWH in 2014: 21
Cards shipped to OWH in 2013: 829 blank and 301 AnyHero
Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 1284 blank and 218 AnyHero
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.

Monday, March 10, 2014

Crafty spending

I'm getting ready to buy my first house soon.  While I'm a thrifty shopper, I'm a shopper.  I enjoy hunting out good bargains but that also means I spend money on non-essentials on a pretty regular basis.  A few dollars here and a few dollars there will add up over the course of the year.  I decided to start being very, very mindful about my spending in the months leading up to my purchase since I know expenses will come (literally?) out of the woodwork when I'm a homeowner. 

I didn't call it a New Year's Resolution, but I suppose that's what it was- I decided not to spend money on craft supplies in 2014 unless I was replenishing a staple.  To me, staples are white card stock, envelopes, dimensional tape, and ATG tape.  I would also consider specialty adhesives like a glue pen if the need arose.  I have enough of the other stuff (stamps, papers, stickers, punches, and dies) to keep me crafting for years and years.  So far, I've bought $11.90 worth of foam tape and white card stock, using a Kmart rewards points coupon to get the foam tape for about half price. 

My plan was somewhat foiled when I won the ODBD challenge last month.  The prize is a super-generous $25 gift certificate to the store. (Thanks ODBD!)  They have great stamps and it would be a shame to let that gift certificate expire (if such a date exists).  So, I read that they were having their anniversary sale this week and I waited to see what it would be.  It's 20% off if you buy 4 or more stamps or stamp sets.  Of course, that also makes shipping a bit more expensive (though still very reasonable at $5.50) and would have created more expense for me.  Well, I didn't need 4 stamps, so I found 3 totaling $26 and used the $3 shipping option then subtracted the gift certificate and the $0.75 in rewards points that I'd accrued.  Grand total for 3 stamps: $3.25.  I can absolutely be OK with that!  In case you're wondering, I bought Blessed Virgin Mary (I'm Catholic and a friend is soon to become a nun, so this set was a must-have so I can make her a card), Moose Single (I wanted the Father's Day set that it's part of, but I restrained myself because I know I already have a good collection of sentiments I can use with the image), and Ship Single.  The latter two stamps will be great for masculine cards and I can use them to practice coloring or stamp them as is due to their great detail.  Yay!  I can't wait to get some new purple rubber in the mail in a few days! 

Grand total for the year thus far: $15.15.  If I continue along doing this well, I will have spent well under $100 this year for my hobby.  In the past, I never specifically counted, but I would estimate $500 per year would not have been out of the ordinary. 
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Cards shipped to OWH in 2014: 21
Cards shipped to OWH in 2013: 829 blank and 301 AnyHero
Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 1284 blank and 218 AnyHero
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.

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Snow Day #10

I had the wrong title on yesterday's post.  That was actually snow day #9 and today is #10.  I cannot remember a year when we've had so many days off nor a year with as many snow storms as this one.  We have had years with more total snowfall.  This year, we're just getting it in little frequent bursts.

For March, the ODBD challenge is to make a thank you card.  I'm especially grateful to them this month as I won last month's $25 gift certificate.  I have my eye on a moose stamp set and a few others.

I had this stamp and paper collection out yesterday to make some western cards, so I just used the scraps that were left to make a thank you card.  I hadn't made a sunburst (actually called "starburst" on the blog, oops!) card for a while and I had forgotten just how fun they are.  I might whip up a few more of them today.

Happy Crafting!
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Cards shipped to OWH in 2014: 21
Cards shipped to OWH in 2013: 829 blank and 301 AnyHero
Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 1284 blank and 218 AnyHero
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.

Monday, March 3, 2014

Snow Day #8

I think we might be at the record for the most snow days in one year, at least as far back as I can remember.  Today is #8 and tomorrow doesn't look too promising, at least not for an on-time start.  

I made a set of "cowboy" cards for Sandy's special request.  And after watching OWHtv today, I challenged myself to make the same card in three ways: masculine, feminine, and kid-friendly. 


Feminine Version- This card photographed strangely.  The green color is really a drab olive shade, not lime!

Masculine/Unisex Version

Kid Version

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Cards shipped to OWH in 2014: 21
Cards shipped to OWH in 2013: 829 blank and 301 AnyHero
Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 1284 blank and 218 AnyHero
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.