Hambo Hoedown #49 and OWH Sketch #105

Here's a two-fer. This week's Hambo Hoedown challenges us to make a card for kids using the new Bailey digi image. This card also uses sketch #105 from Operation Write Home. I'm trying to do all the sketches this year. They make me feel very organized when I start on a card and are a great jumping off point, even if I sometimes veer a bit away from the original design.

What a cute puppy! I colored him with Bic Mark Its and Copics and added Glossy Accents for that wet puppy nose. I made the sentiment myself in MS Word. The patterned paper on the card is from Creative Memories and it's been in my stash 3 years, so I was glad to use a little piece of it up!

This is one more card for my Operation Write Home box. :)

Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: none thus far, but my box is filling up nicely!
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695

Sketch #2 and Hambo Hoedown #48

I played in the Hambo Hoedown last week but couldn't download this week's digi from my e-mail. I guess my computer doesn't like .tiff files. Therefore, I went back in my archives of Hambo digis and chose this darling camouflage bear. We were to use two different size circles on our cards this week. I used two circle punches (1" and 1.75") and layered the shapes in greens, browns, and black to make a faux camo. I know camo doesn't really have black, but it worked with the overall design, so I let that detail slide.

I also used OWH's Sketch #2 as I put the card together. The sketch called for a ribbon which I chose to embellish with a curling tag from Making Memories. I finished it up with camo patterned paper (not sure of the brand, but it was 8.5 by 11 purchased at JoAnn.)

I'll be writing a note in this card and sending it as an AnyHero card to OWH.

Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: none thus far, but my box is filling up nicely!
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695

Hambo Hoedown #47

Ugh! I missed the last Hambo Hoedown! I'm bummed I missed out on getting the cool Newt image, but I'll just jump right back in. I actually thought I missed out on this challenge too, but forgot that it was two weeks long instead of one. Thank goodness!

Here's my card which asked us to use something new to celebrate the new year. The woodgrain paper, twine, and heart punch are recent additions to my craft room. In fact, this was the first piece of cardstock I'd used from the DCWV Textures and Finishes stack!

Isn't this beaver digi just the cutest? Hambo has some darling digis and you can get one for free each week you play in their challenge. Check out hambochallenges.blogspot.com

Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: none thus far, but my box is filling up nicely!
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695

Hambo Hoedown #45

This Hambo Hoedown asked us to use a Hambo image to create a card with multiple folds. I used the dragonfly digi and sentiment from Hambo to make a zig-zag fold card. The base cardstock is 12 by 5.5 scored at 4 and 8 inches. The diagonal is done by chopping off a triangular piece with the paper cutter. The card shape seemed to fit this image well. I think it gives the effect of the dragonfly flying. Thanks for looking.

Cards shipped to OWH (as of 12/5/11): 1695

Hambo Hoedown #44

This week's Hambo Hoedown challenge is to use dry embossing. They sent out a snowball fight digi, but I chose to use the Beaver digi I got recently for winning the Queen of the Hoedown. It's perfect for OWH valentines.


The papers are from KI and Pebbles. The embossing folders are D'vine Swirls and Houndstooth from Cuttlebug.


Cards shipped to OWH (as of 10/20/11): 1642

Hambo Hoedown #43

It's been a slow card making week for me as I spent most of the past week visiting my family. I did work on a little coloring while I was gone and scored a great deal on some supplies while shopping with Mom (see the end of the post for details), but I didn't finish any cards.


Here's a card that I made for Hambo Hoedown 43 tonight. I was so happy to be picked as Queen of the Hoedown last week that I had to make sure to play along again this week. The challenge was to incorporate something soft onto the card. I had picked up a package of Martha Stewart trim this weekend so I used a tiny piece of it to make the flower on the vase.

The paper I used in the background is from American Crafts. I bought it ages ago and loved it until I tried to use it in a project and was completely stumped. This is one of the first times I've cut it and actually used the patterned side. The reverse is teal, so at least I know I'll eventually use that side if nothing else! The computer digi from Hambo Stamps is going to be great for masculine cards, once I skip the pink! I added the xoxo text to the screen in Word so this can be used for a love card for OWH. Please go play along in their challenges at www.owhstarsandstamps.org to support our heroes with plenty of cards for Valentine's Day!

More about Goodwill: Mom and I went shopping late on Black Friday but we weren't interested in hitting the big box stores for great deals on tech gadgets. We weren't even shopping for presents. It was just our day to hang out together, which happens so rarely anymore. We decided to go to a big craft warehouse that we'd never been to. It was OK, but nothing was well priced and not having a particular project in mind, we left empty-handed. We continued on to a nearby town's outlet mall for a late lunch and some browsing. Nothing was exciting there, either. I remembered a really large Goodwill store up the road, so we went there after lunch. We were surprised to see such a large number of cars in the parking lot- perhaps 75? We headed in and saw lines 6 people deep. Clearly, there were good bargains to be had! We browsed the housewares section and I came across a great find- Martha Stewart punch around the page sets new in their packages for $3.97 and a single MS border punch for $1.97. We scooped up a few designs we liked and saw a bin of K &Co and other embellishments. They weren't marked, but we found out that they were $.47 at the register. So, I left with three new PATP sets (one large and two regular size), one single border punch, and seven packs of embellishments (retail 2.99-3.99 each) for $18.20 including tax! That was my bargain of the year! Now to figure out how to store my new goodies...


Cards shipped to OWH (as of 10/20/11): 1642

Hambo Hoedown #42

Here's Hambo's little digi- Wee Henry with Turkey! He was a freebie for those of us who played along in last week's challenge. I just got this one in on time. I forgot about it yesterday when I was crafting and saw the digis today and knew I had to get cracking so as to keep up and not miss a week! I paired the digi up with some DCWV cardstock and patterned paper and some We R Memory Keepers twine. It's a simple card, in keeping with my usual style. :)

Cards shipped to OWH (as of 10/20/11): 1642

Hambo Hoedown #41

Happy Sunday! Where do the weekends go?

Here are two cards made with last week's freebie from Hambo Stamps, the camera guy. I've been loving the masculine digis we've gotten from Hambo the last few weeks. :)

Hambo's challenge this week was to use a frame on the card. I used two Sizzix frames on the first card.


The second card uses OWH's Sunday Sketch #95.


I tried to incorporate both challenges into one card, but it didn't come together right. I didn't seem to have the right sized frames and I didn't want to make one by hand.


Cards shipped to OWH (as of 10/20/11): 1642

Hambo Hoedown #40

Isn't this snail rake digi from Hambo cute? Join the Hambo Hoedown and you can get a free digital image each week you follow the requirements. I've done it for about two months now, and I've had a great time each week waiting to see what the new image and challenge will be.

This week the challenge was to use a tutorial from Splitcoast Stampers in making the card. I chose the shaving cream paper tutorial.

Cards shipped to OWH (as of 10/20/11): 1642

OWH MWT- Polka Dota and Hambo Hoedown #39

This card satisfies two challenges for this week. OWH Stars and Stamps asked us to make cards with polka dots, specifically with miss you, thanks, or birthday themes. Hambo Hoedown asked us to use their Newscaster digi to make a card that incorporated newspaper and one of their sentiments.

Patterned paper- KI memories
Punches- EK Success border, Armada corner rounder
Coloring- Bic Mark It

Remember, if you join Hambo's progressive digi, you'll get a new digi and sentiment set each week. It's a great way to collect awesome digis and keep making cards! This particular digi is perfect for my dad. He loves the news and the political talk shows on MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, and the like. Too bad his birthday won't be coming up for another 9 months or this would be the perfect card for him! Thanks for this one, Hambo!

Cards shipped to OWH (as of 10/20/11): 1642

Hambo Hoedown #38

This week's Hambo Hoedown challenge was to use their sketch to make a card. I used the free "Zombie Bunny" digi and accompanying punny sentiment that they sent me for participating in last week's challenge. I've been into what I'd consider "Crayola" colors recently and this card reflects that! Go check out Hambo and play along!

Cards shipped to OWH (as of 10/20/11): 1642

Hambo Hoedown #37

Hambo's challenge this week asked us to use the mummy digi and one of its sentiments to make a card using the colors black, green, orange, and purple.

I went for a geometric design and wrapped up some sections of my card with ribbon, just like the little mummy is wrapped up.

Thanks, Hambo, for another great challenge!

Cards shipped to OWH (as of 9/12/11): 1325

Miss you beary much

Well, I'm officially into digis. For a girl with well over 1500 stamps, that's not necessarily a good thing, since it will mean my real stamps will get used a bit less.

I started playing in Hambo's challenges a couple of weeks ago and had a good time with my cards. Here's yet another Hambo digi stamp, the camouflage bear. It was a freebie one time for Operation Write Home and is now available for sale at the Hambo store.




I found the camo paper a few months ago on clearance at JoAnn and knew I needed to get some for OWH cards, even if this isn't the camo pattern that our heroes are wearing. I made the sentiment look like dog tags by using a corner rounder and silver metallic paper. The green cardstock is embossed with a Fiskars embossing plate and my Cuttlebug.




Cards shipped to OWH (as of 9/12/11): 1325

Hambo Hoedown #36

K is for…

Kraft paper

KI Memories patterned paper

And

Kathryn!

This week, Hambo Hoedown challenges us to use their wonderful new flower monster digi to make a card that contains something that starts with the first letter of our first name. I lucked out with a fairly easy letter. The poor Xaviers of the world will have to pull out a Xyron and get to work, for there aren’t many things that start with X.

In addition to the "K" items, I used paper flowers from Making Memories, orange Studio G ink, and brads from JoAnn.

As an added bonus, let me show you the card I made with Hambo’s mummy digi and sentiment. This one was mistakenly sent out yesterday instead of the monster. Thanks, Hambo, for this bonus image! I set right to work sponging the area around the mummy. I could have sponged a background and cut the mummy out to glue on top, but instead I cut out a scrap mummy for a mask, stuck it to my good image with painter’s tape, sponged the whole thing, and removed the mask. I like how the sponging turned out. I used the same three colors (pale lime green, pale orange, and electric greenish-yellow) on the sentiment. I have no idea what the colors are called because the inks are from Studio G. The patterned paper is from Pebbles, Inc. The spider punch is also Studio G. This was the first and last spider I got from the punch because it broke when I punched this out. :(

Cards shipped to OWH (as of 9/12/11): 1325

Hambo Hoedown #35

I started Hambo's weekly Hoedown last week when they were sponsoring OWH. It was good fun, so I thought I'd try it again.

We were challenged this week to use any Hambo image and CASE one of their design team members. I chose to use the new free dragonfly digi they sent last week and CASE their sample for that digi which was made by Bonnie. I really like the colors that Bonnie used on her sample card, but what I chose to focus on in my CASE was the layout because I didn't have any papers that were that nice combination of aqua and coral.


The paper flowers are from K&Co, patterned paper from DCWV, punch from EK Success, and digi from Hambo, of course!


Cards shipped to OWH (as of 9/12/11): 1325

Hambo Hoedown for OWH, Sweet Treats, and Michelle's Scrap Challenges

This is my first Hambo Hoedown card. Lots of OWHers participate weekly and I love seeing what they come up with. I'm just not that into digis, yet, so I hadn't taken the plunge. But, since Hambo had a special challenge on OWH Stars and Stamps, I decided to try it out.

This is also for the "Sweet Treats" challenge on OWH. Lemonade is a great sweet treat!

Michelle's Scrap is also sponsoring a challenge for OWH and she left it open as an "anything goes" challenge. :)

I used one of the two free digis on their page, this cute "cool cat." I printed it out and colored it with Bic Mark-its. I paired it with a set of clear stamps from Studio G, some gingham ribbon, and a brad. I couldn't forget the Glossy Accents on the glasses, ice cubes, and flip-flops!

Cards shipped to OWH (as of 9/12/11): 1325