Shopping tips, OWH Rule of Thirds Bootcamp, and more Masculine Swap cards from Julie's kit

I wanted to start today's post off with a couple of money-saving shopping tips.  First of all, you have probably seen Sandy's "Precious" if you've watched OWHtv.  It's her gigantic roll of dimensional foam tape.  Sold on Amazon for $32.91 for 38 yards, it's cheaper than buying smaller rolls of Scotch adhesive elsewhere.  I've been buying small rolls of another brand from Big Lots for about two years because I didn't want to deal with the storage of a gigantic roll nor the big sticker price all at once.  When I picked up a new roll yesterday, I decided to do a price comparison.  The Scotch stuff is 1/2" wide by 38 yards (114 feet) long.  The price works out to 29 cents per linear foot or 5 cents per square inch.  The Big Lots brand "Front Porch Treasures" is 3/4" wide and 16 feet long for $1.50.  The price works out to 9 cents per linear foot or 1 cent per square inch.  So, if you've been buying the Scotch brand and want to save some money, you can save at least 2/3 off the price by shopping at Big Lots.  I've found it to be plenty sticky and it's marked as photo safe, so I feel comfortable using it on my cards.  

Look in the stationary aisle or the hardware aisle.  I've found it in both places. 

Another great deal at Big Lots yesterday: Elmer's brand washi tape was in packs of three rolls for $1.  Each roll is 30 feet long.  These were in the stationary aisle in my store. 

I put some of the black and white washi on this card made from one of Julie's kits.   I think the placement of the tree and washi stripes makes this one qualify for Paula's Rule of Thirds boot camp.  I love reading her design lessons and was honored that she used one of my cards as an example.  I never took any studio art classes after 8th grade, so all of my learning on the topic has either been theory (in Humanities class in high school) or through helping my college roommate with her projects.  She majored in art but recognized that I had a better eye than she did for layout so she would always have me help her with her collage projects.  All that is to say, I enjoy reading the theory behind why some of my cards work better than others!  Now, I just have to remember to put it into practice all the time. 

The other card I made from Julie's kit with a sentiment of my own:

I used the extra sentiment from Julie's kit for this card: 

A left over scrap of the orange paper from Sandi's kit made it onto this card:

Have an excellent week!  Remember that the OWH Mother's Day deadline is just a week away. 
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Cards shipped to OWH in 2013: 340 blank and 140 AnyHero (as of 1/7/13)
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.

Mojo stuck? Unstick it with this freebie! Plus: focal points.

If you've ever been stuck with no mojo (and from the posts I've seen recently on the OWH FB page, this is a problem that runs rampant), you might want to try these cards I made.  I typed up a smattering of ideas on themes, color schemes, embellishments, and techniques and formatted them like a deck of cards.  They are color coded by category: theme, technique, tool/supply, and color scheme.  You could draw one or more cards from the deck when you're stuck with no inspiration to get you rolling!  There are 72 total ideas in the stack and you could certainly add in your own.  Just print these out, trim them apart, and tuck the deck somewhere handy for when you need to be inspired.  (If you're not familiar with Box, it's pretty user-friendly.  Just click the download link and you should be able to open the Word file within seconds.)


Part 2 of this post is going to let me showcase the cards I made with the last of the kids kits from the swap Scrap to Treasure did last month.   Here are the final cards.   I stretched a few of the kits with a bit of my own cardstock and was able to make more than one card from most kits.  The first three cards came from Mary's kit and the last was from my own kit.  These kits also are going to help me enter Paula's boot camp from 2/18 on creating a focal point.  I really try to think about creating a focal point each time I design a card and I think I do a pretty good job of it at least 90% of the time. That was not so when I started making cards, but I've learned a lot in the past two or three years. 

Cupcake as focal point

Sentiment as focal point.  I love this paper.  I wish I knew where it was from because I would buy a few more sheets.  :)

Girl as focal point. 

Dragon as focal point.

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Cards shipped to OWH in 2013: 340 blank and 140 AnyHero (as of 1/7/13)
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.