Happy Easter!

This week's Midweek Throwdown is to create an Easter card.  I won't be sending another box before that deadline, so I just made one card.  It'll go in my box to hold for next year.  I keep a box with dividers where I store cards after deadlines have passed.  Often, I'll make a few cards close to the holiday because I'm inspired but I might not have recipients for all of them.  Rather than send the cards late and force my shipper to store them, I keep them myself. 

I used some really old paper that I'd cut to A2 size years ago.  The cardstock pieces were all in the A2 pile or scrap pile as well. 

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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.

ODBD Missing Home

Does this card look like a Christmas card?  That wasn't my intention, by as I put it together, I felt like it ended up screaming Christmas.  That bummed me out because I was so thrilled that I had actually colored something!  It should probably have some sort of sky but I didn't know where to start on that, so I left it alone for fear of ruining it. 

 The image stamp is by ODBD and the sentiment is from a $1 clear set by Studio G. 
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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.

Flowers MWT

Although joining in OWH challenges was not one of the 2013 card making goals I set, it's been in the back of my mind that I've been slacking in this department since about mid-November.

Here's a flower card for the Midweek Throwdown.  I used an old Cuttlebug die for the flowers, inspired by several cards featuring flower dies I've seen lately.

Rachel G. set a goal to include more details/embellishments on her cards.  I thought that was an awesome goal and it caused me to add the gems to the sentiment panel and Glossy Accents to the flower centers.  Thanks, Rachel, for the inspiration! 
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Cards shipped to OWH in 2013: None thus far, but I will be mailing a box of 300+ blank and 140 AnyHero notes this week!
Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 1284 blank and 218 AnyHero (as of 10/9)
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.

Simple Christmas

I'm looking for a simple, elegant card design for Christmas.  I'm going to make a few sets and dontate them to my church's holiday bazaar and make some for OWH.  This might not be the final design, but I like its simplicity.  

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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.

Angry Bird Card

This angry bird wants to be happy!

I CASEd this card from one that Sandy posted to the OWH Facebook page.   I changed a few of the punches based on what I had on hand.  I don't have many of the SU punches and those are so frequently used in punch art creations that I sometimes try to improvise. 
I punched out enough pieces for a dozen cards that I'll have my friends assemble at my OWH Birthday Bash party later this month.  :)

For anyone who wants a "recipe," here's what I used:

For the background:

• Inkadinkado sentiment and black Versafine
• 4.25 x 5.5" card front in orange
• 4 x 5.25" cloud paper
• 4 x 2" green paper
• 4 x 1" white paper punched with Martha Stewart Scary Fence punch

 For the bird:

• 3.25" red circle
• 2.5" tan circle
• .75" white circles (2)
• .5" black circles (2)
• .75" orange square
• Black "photo corner scalloped" from EK Success
• Red and black (one each) "round flower layering punch" from EK Success

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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.

Hay there!

This Lawn Fawn card could just as easily be for kids as adults.  I sewed around the panels, tied on the bell with twine, and colored the image with Copics.  This isn't a sketch, but I think it could be tweaked into one. 

The funny thing with this card is that I tried to add a googly eye to make it appeal to kids more and suddenly the cow looked like a mutant! FYI- googly eyes aren't always a good plan.  Thanks for stopping by! 
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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.

Paula's digis= missing you!

Many thanks to Paula for sharing her talents as a graphic designer in the form of these great digi sentiments.  She has many, many free digis on her blog, so you should absolutely go check it out!  I printed off a few sheets of them and went to work making sets of multiples for OWH.  I made 20 of the pink/white/black card and 3 each of the others.

For the card below, I changed Paula's digi to print in blues using MS Word's recoloring features.   I have a tough time freeing diecut paper from this Nestie so I didn't make very many of these. 

I hope to share one other similar card with another of Paula's digis if I can figure out why my new laptop doesn't let me upload rotated photos.  I wouldn't want you to have to tilt your head!  
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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.

Cards with Mom

Mom and I designed these cards to send to the residents at a nursing home.  Mom makes 30 cards a month for the residents and while she visited we got three months of cards made.  The cards need to have large print, so this Unity stamp was a great choice. 

I also made the card below which inspired Mom to make the same card in white, black, and pink with a heart embellishment for February's Valentine's Day cards.  I didn't get a picture of the version we made for her.

 
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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.

Christmas with a swap

Time for another Christmas card.  They're my least favorite cards of the year and I'm not sure why.  Perhaps I don't feel as much creative license when it comes to this holiday or perhaps it's my lack of great Christmas supplies.  Either way, I'm trying to do a few more Christmas cards here and there.  This one used some scraps of patterned paper, a new snowman stamp I bought in January and a Cricut cut of a snowflake sent to me in a swap by Rachel.  Thanks, Rachel!   

Stamp: Inkadinkado
Paper: scraps from K & Co and unknown
Die cuts/Punches: Cricut snowflake, EK circle and scalloped circle, and Nestabilities Scalloped Rectangle
Coloring: Copics
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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.

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

It's Super Dad!

Thanks to the generous peeps at Operation Write Home, there was a new Stampendous Father's Day stamp and two yards of May Arts ribbon in my mailbox tonight when I got home from work.  I won a contest on the Operation Write Home YouTube channel last week in which I had to give a shout out to my dad. I think the biggest compliment he has ever been paid was from my maternal grandmother (his mother-in-law).  She has told me more times than I can count, "you'll never find a man as good as your father."  She loves him like her own son and when I see her light up with him around, I think he might just be her favorite child.  Due to a stroke, my grandmother hasn't been able to talk in a couple of years, but every time she sees my father, she is nothing but smiles and giggles.  Not many women think so highly of their sons-in-law. 



Back to the card!  The sentiment, "Dad, you're my hero," made me think of my super hero stamps.  They haven't been inked up lately, but that's because my mom borrowed them before Christmas and still has them.  Thankfully, I had a few left over images that I'd stamped and never colored in.  I got to work with my Bic Markers (clothing) and Copics (face).  Super Dad needed to fly over something, so I grabbed a Unity Stamp Co stamp of a city scape from a Valentine's Set and stamped it twice so I'd have enough to put across the whole card.  Super Dad needed clouds, too, so I used printed paper by American Crafts.  I stamped the sentiment on patterned paper, which I generally avoid, but such a subtle pattern didn't seem to take away from the stamp at all. I called attention to it with some of the striped twill by May Arts that Sandy sent and attached it with a staple. 

I'm also proud to say that I revised this card thanks to a month of card makeover inspiration on the OWH FB page.  Here are the before and after shots.  The more I look at them, the more I realize just how much of a difference a simple mat can make around an image.  I thought I was doing the image a favor by fussy cutting it, but it needed to be the focal point.  In the first card, the sentiment stole the attention away from the character.  Thank goodness I was able to peel up the dimensional adhesive and fix it!  My other change was cutting the cloud paper straight across instead of following the pattern.  I think that cleaned up the design some. 


This card will join the others in my OWH box.  Are you working on the Muscle Card challenge, due April 30?


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

Happy Birthday

My Copics and I are getting to know each other.  I only have a few so far and I really need to fill in some other colors in order to be able to color well.  Just having one marker in a color family isn't good, but I'm learning with what I have before I get more. 

I made this simple card tonight using some scraps that were laying around and an SU Lots of Bots image I colored last night with my Copics.  I think this card counts for the masculine half of the box and I think I like it enough to make more.  I'm having friends over to make cards on Friday, so I'm looking for simple ideas I can work on while hosting that won't having me hauling out every supply I own.  :) 

Round Easel Card

I've been absent from blogging again, but I'm back to share a round easel card that I made based off the OWH tutorial here. 

I followed the directions exactly (well, except for that part where I had to rip the whole card apart and re-cut some pieces because I attached parts out of order and in the wrong place).  This was fairly easy to construct and is super cute.  My only gripe is how little space is left for writing, but that can be overcome with an additional sheet of writing paper. 

I used an image from SU Lighthouse and the accompanying sentiment.  I tried Staz-on but it doesn't work well with Copics.  I guess it's Memento that everyone uses.  Darn!  I was so excited that I finally bought Staz-on, too.  Nevertheless, I used Copics to color the image.  I stamped the sentiment in blue chalk ink.  The cardstock is Bazzill (dark) and Pebbles Inc (light).  Eyelets are Making Memories.

 A little perspective:

Thanks for stopping by.  Don't forget to link your round easel card to the challenge. 

Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 302 blank, 200 AnyHero
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695

VCMP #1

 

It's time for a Virtual Card Making Party!   The first challenge during this weeks "party" is to create a card using green, yellow, and hot pink.  As soon as I read the challenge, I thought of a pack of paper I have with exactly those colors of cardstock.  I used a technique I saw on Tonic's blog a while ago to make another Mom card.  It's a bit time consuming to make because of the border punch work, but I really think it looks nice, so I'm happy to put in the effort!  I wish I had a heart die so I could do the same thing to a heart shape. 

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

CASEd from Sarah

I spotted this sketch on Sarah's card earlier today and had to try it out pronto!

I used a Unity wood mounted tree stamp (Bauble Tree) and Unity's itty bitty "hello my friend." The patterned paper by Pebbles Inc is a remarkable match to the stamp. The cuts were made with Nestabilities. Gems and ribbon from stash.


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

Unity stamps shaped card challenge

Unity had a challenge linked on their FB page today to make a shaped card (no squares or circles, either) and so I decided to use my newest Nesties.

I won these Unity Stamps from a contest on Ellen Hutson's blog back in October and decided to use them tonight. I love how they look with the black, white, and red combo, especially with some of the stamps heat embossed. I use the oval and scallop oval Nesties to frame an image in the center of the card. I tied on a red heart paper clip as a charm using some plaid Offray ribbon.

I sent my Valentine's Day cards to OWH today, so this one won't make it this year. Maybe I'll send it to someone special. ;-)

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

First Copic Card

Not feeling the pink/red/hearts Valentine mojo tonight, I opted to make a general love card with earthy papers and a squirrel stamp and sentiment from Hampton Arts. It ended up a fall card, a bit by accident, but I still like it.

It's the first card I colored entirely with Copics! The squirrel is colored with W3, the acorn with E31, and the sentiment with Y17. I started small. I'm working on shading but the colors I have in my collection don't all have blending buddies yet. Perhaps I'll be able to add more soon! Also, I need to get an inkpad that doesn't smear. SU Basic Black is all kinds of runny on this. :(

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

Veterans' Day 2011

Today is Veterans' Day and across the USA, people are commemorating the bravery and sacrifice made by our nation's veterans. In that spirit, I wanted to share a card I made this evening.


I used the bargello technique to make the background of the card. (I could swear that I first saw this on OWH Stars and Stamps but I cannot find the post! I seem to remember a card with a blue background and a fish focal as the focal point.)

Anyway, all the patterned papers and the flag embellishment are from the K&Co Americana line. I love that line! I removed the back layer of foam from the flag and layered it on black so it would stand out more against the patterned papers. The sentiment is from Stampin' Up All Natural (long ago retired) and the die cut is a scallop circle nestability from Spellbinders.

Happy Veterans' Day!

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

Elegant Thinking of You

Have you ever taken a patterned paper out of context? By this, I mean have you ever used a seasonal paper for a different season, used a child-themed paper on an adult project, or something similar? I used a sheet of paper from the Rockstar stack by DCWV on this elegant card.

I cut the greenish patterned sheet into wedges and layered them on a coordinating shade of green cardstock. The sentiment from Studio G is stamped on cardstock cut with Nestabilities and decorated with a swirl stamp by Autumn Leaves. The ribbon is from JoAnn and was a great clearance steal at 50 cents for a whole spool!

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