Holiday card kits

This post is edited with some new photos of updated cards thanks to suggestions from Scrap to Treasure ladies who were kind enough to leave feedback.  I appreciate your help!   

I took the plunge last night and committed to having an OWH Birthday Bash party at the end of the month.  I tried to design a good kit or two last night and came up with these.  I would LOVE to get your suggestions and feedback for how they can be made better.  Or, if they're not great and you have better ideas, I would LOVE to hear those!

 From the Triple Time stamping tutorial that Donna shared during the VCMP

Remade with darker cardstock, a layer around the sentiment, and a snowflake embellishment.

Inspired by Sybrina's snowman card during the VCMP

Remade with a different hat size (still a bit wonky!), an embossed background, bling on the snowflake, and a googly eye instead of a button.

This last card still has me a little stumped.  I am a bit limited on Christmas stuff I actually like and I think the reason I'm not having good luck with this card is that I don't love the paper; I don't usually do vintage.  I'll come back to it in a couple of days! 

Missing something?

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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 928 blank and 215 AnyHero (as of 6/26)
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.

Have a Cheerful Day!

This week's OWH Midweek Throwdown is to make a card with a sentiment of encouragement.  I think this qualifies as encouraging.

Stamp: SU Furnished with Love
Nesties: Labels Two (I cut the red layer by hand after tracing around the outside of the die.)
Paper: Basic Grey Picadilly
Ribbon: Offray
Hardware: Making Memories
Coloring: Copics
Sketch: #49 (loosely based on it, anyway!)

This is one of many cards I made when my mom spent a few days at my house visiting.  We made 90 cards for a nursing home since Mom sends a set of 30 each month as part of her church's outreach program and she wanted to take advantage of my supplies.  We also made cards for OWH that I'll share over the next few days.  Our biggest project, however, was getting some new furniture for my craft room.  We went to the local Habitat ReStore for the first time this morning where we found a computer desk and a shelving unit that are now hanging out in my craft room holding my supplies.  I'm thrilled to finally have plenty of storage for my supplies at a reasonable price (just $35 for the two pieces) and to have supported a local charity that benefits my community.  This also nixes any plans for turning part of the room into a guest room.  So sorry to my guests who will have to camp out in the living room!

If you're in the market for anything for your home and you have a ReStore, it might be worth your while to stop in.  I was impressed by the wide selection of items in the store.  They had all kinds of furniture, any building materials you could want, large appliances, and even some household goods like small kitchen appliances, decorations, lamps, dishes, and more.  If you're renovating your house, they'll accept donations of useable building materials, too!  It's a great way to support Habitat for Humanity and get a bargain in the process. 

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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 928 blank and 215 AnyHero (as of 6/26)
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.

FWF Friday the 13th

Howdy!  Happy Friday the 13th.  I hope you're having a lucky day!

Friday means Friends with Flair, so here's a little Unity to share!  I've been having fun recently with these scrappy quilt backgrounds.  They're easy and a fun way to use some patterns that might be hard to use on a card in larger pieces.  

Stamps: Unity Stamp Company (Eco Chic flower and a freebie sentiment)
Papers: DCWV Fall and Halloween Stack 2011, cardstock from stash
Embellishments: MM eyelets
Tools: Crimper, eyelet setter
Coloring: Copics
Other: Curvy rectangles are cut with a Cricut and were received in a swap.  Thanks, Laura! 
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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 928 blank and 215 AnyHero (as of 6/26)
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.

Unity Chick Challenge #38 and FWF

I'm back with a little Unity fun.  I decided to make a baby card with Chick Challenge Sketch #38 for one of the many showers I'm attending this summer.  Lots of friends and family members are expecting- it's so exciting!

The yellow "baby" text is a transparency overlay by Colorbok that I layered on top of the paper pieced stroller.  I decided to use a photo corner shape instead of the semicircles in the sketch and I created some of them with paper punches by EK and Fiskars.  I added some large American Crafts eyelets and tied up the brown satin ribbon from JoAnn into a simple knot.

When I visited the Unity blog today, I was super excited to see that my last CC card was chosen by the Chicks and I get to display the featured peeps badge.  As soon as I figure out how to grab it, it will be in my sidebar!  :-D

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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 928 blank and 215 AnyHero (as of 6/26)
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 Sketch #83

OWH Sketch #83 for you.  The only other time I used this sketch, I made St. Patrick's Day cards.  This is a bit different!  Hopefully this card can be used by a guy, even if the sentiment is a bit mushy! 

 More MME papers on this card.  Hardware from MM.  Stamp by Unity. 
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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.

Carol's Rebel Challenge- Hoarder's Anonymous

What paper crafter doesn't have a stash of hoarded items "too pretty" to be used?  I have been getting better about using my favorite stuff and not saving it since I realize I have more paper than I'll ever use.  Carol's challenged us to make a card with things we've hoarded in the VCMP- Rebel Challenge. 

The patterned paper I used on this card is paste paper I made in college.  About a year ago, I finally started using my paste paper stash, one sheet at a time.  I've used four or five sheets up and have about ten left.  I remember having a great time making the paper with my roommate and some other friends from our dorm at the Lit House one Saturday.  Our good time came to a bit of a halt when Mike, the master printer teaching the class, sliced his finger badly on the paper cutter.  We offered to help him get to the hospital, but he wouldn't accept our help and drove himself around the corner to the emergency room.  Several hours later, as we were cleaning up, he was back to see how we were doing and show off his stitches.

The other items on the card have been in my collection at least several months.  The bee stamp is one of the first clear stamps I bought in 2008.  It's colored with Copics and punched with some of my earliest paper punches.  The eyelets are a few years old, too.   The bottom of the banner is punched with a MS punch I bought last fall and haven't used too often.  The sentiment was also purchased last summer and has become one of my favorites.  The ribbons are Michael's Halloween ribbons from last year's clearance. 

This challenge was great because I was able to pull out some materials I hadn't used in a while and give them some attention!  Thanks, Carol, for hosting an inspiring challenge. 

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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'm still here

My blog's been neglected in the past few weeks.  The neglect started because I was expecting my best friend for Presidents' Day weekend and was getting things in order for her arrival, then entertaining her.  The blog silence persisted because of some family matters that weighed heavily on my heart and kept me from wanting to make cards.

I was itching to craft this weekend in a big way.  I went through two rolls of ATG tape today, something I've never done in 24 hours before!  I know that OWH is having a Mother's Day challenge (see sidebar) and I wanted to finish my box.  I've been playing with some new papers that I got at Tuesday Morning on President's Day.  I love when they have great American Crafts and Pebbles, Inc. papers for $1.99!  Here are a few of the Mother's Day cards I made using my new papers.  I am also linking several of these to OWH challenges!

This card is for the March Our Daily Bread Designs Challenge on Stars and Stamps.  We were to play tic-tac-toe on the board given to choose three elements for our card.  Mine actually gets tic-tac-toe from both diagonals!  Do I get extra credit?  :)

This card is OWH Sketch #65.   I dug through my stamps again today and found this Mother's Day stamp that I'd forgotten about.  Good thing I found it so it could get some use this year! 

This card uses the scan strip from the bottom of the paper.  Love the cute designs they put on these strips.  I just wish they didn't make them perforated.  

I went searching for Mother's Day digis this afternoon.  I was thoroughly weary of looking at my Mother's Day stamps.  I have about a half dozen, but after making over a hundred Mother's Day cards, I couldn't bear the sight of those stamps any more.  Paula came to my rescue with this digi she posted last year for use on OWH Mother's Day cards.   It's so nice to be able to print a digi and save yourself a trip to the store!  Thanks for the freebie, Paula!  I made 14 of these cards with various eyelets and brads.  It also follows OWH Sketch #63, but I realized this only after I had put the card together.  :) 

 




Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: none thus far, but my box is filling up nicely! I'm going to be shipping 300 blank cards and 200 AnyHero notes this week.  Watch out, Caro! 
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695

OWH Sunday Sketch #51

The OWH blog has a new Sunday Sketch posted. I loved the sample card's use of the circle as an image element instead of a sentiment. I decided to look for something that could work as the circle first as base my card around that.

I found Colorbok's destination rub-ons in my stash. The compass had colors I liked and was the perfect size to fit the sketch dimensions. Flipping through the stack of rub-ons, I spotted this cute car. Perfect! Just to amp up the masculine element, I added some argyle paper and weathered looking eyelets. I love the look, but I hated these rub-ons! They need a TON of pressure to adhere and it took several minutes to adhere each image.