OWH Sketch #155

This is a complete CASE from this week's sample Sunday Sketch card on the OWH blog.   I think the sample was made by Sandy, but I'm not positive.

While it's not a card for kids, 8-year-old me would have loved this card!  I was obsessed with teal and hot air balloons at that age.  Ah, nostalgia!

In other news, this is my 500th post on this blog since its inception in December 2010.  Wow!

And a little "commercial," if you will: there's a new page linked at the top of my blog where I'm selling some items from my craft room.  Click on "for sale" to see what's available now. 
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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.

Getting back in the card making groove

November came and went and I made very few cards.  I am getting back in the swing of things now that I've crafted all of my Christmas cards, too.  Yesterday, I made some thank you cards using some new-to-me SU items I bought from a coworker and tonight I decided to pull out yet another color of ink I hadn't played with before, Orchid Opulence (now retired).

I snagged an Inkadinkado stamp set for myself at TJMaxx today when I was picking out some Christmas presents.  I liked the balloon and this sentiment was one I knew I would use a lot for OWH.  The quotation marks are all wrong, though.  I think I'll trim them off with my scissors since they make no sense! 

Stamps: Inkadinkado (balloon, sentiment, and flower) and American Crafts (clouds)

Gems: TPC Studios
Flowers: Making Memories and Hero Arts
Brad: Making Memories

I'm going to enter this card into December's ODBD challenge which asks us to use flowers on our cards.  This looks springy to me!  Our Daily Bread Designs is so generous to offer to pay for shipping for two boxes each month as long as we link up cards from 50 different card makers.  Can you help this month? 


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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.

Kits- DCWV A Type of Art Stack

Here are two more kits for next Friday's party.  I've got 15 different kits made now with just over 150 cards ready to be assembled.  Both of these cards were made with OWH Sketches (#100 and #2) and use papers from DCWV's A Type of Art stack.  I made a dozen of each of these.  At first, I only made six of the top card and then I saw Joanne's post on the OWH FB page that encouraged us to use up all of the paper in our stash once we designed a card.  I realized I had another sheet of each of the patterned papers, so I ran with it and made double the kits.

Sketch: OWH #100
Stamp: SU Whimsical Words
Die: Sizzix Flower #2
Embossing: Cuttlebug Script
Punch: EK corner punch (not sure of the name, but it has an orange body) 

Sketch: OWH #2
Embossing: Sizzix/Tim Holtz Swirls
Twine: Whisker Graphics Divine Twine- Peach

 

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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.

Mom's Design!

When I got this Basic Grey paper, I was so excited to use it.  Unfortunately, no inspiration came when I tried to use it.  Mom came up with this design.  We made a dozen of these to send to OWH.  I also got to use my new argyle paper punch! When Father's Day rolls around next year, I'll make more of these. 

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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.

A new twist

I was cleaning up a bit in my craft room and saw a stack of four partially completed cards.  I used these at a card party I hosted in September.  I think we ran out of the flowers that were supposed to go across the center stripe.   What I found were the stamped bases with the two stripes across the middle.  I found a sofa stamp I had never used, stamped it on colored cardstock that matched the ink used on the sentiment, cut it out, and popped it up on a square the same color as the base.  I inked everything with Antique Linen distress ink and tied it up with a black bow.  It felt good to use up those partially completed cards!

And now that I have my Tonic paper trimmer, I can really see how bad the old one was.  The edges on this card aren't perfectly clean or straight.  Combine that with the fact that some of my guests weren't very good at lining things up, and you have a recipe for a "handmade" card.  :)

This was the original card that I made for the party.  I switched the colors before I made kits, I guess. 

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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.

Awash in Washi

I'm always late on the bandwagon for any trend, though I may have succeeded in not being the last person on the face of the planet to use washi.

A few people were posting about the Target washi on the OWH FB page and since I made several more cards with it yesterday, I thought I'd post the group of them here.  The red, green, and blue packs are currently available and contain 4 rolls for $4. The yellow/orange pack has been discontinued but I was lucky enough to happen upon it at a Goodwill store quite by accident. 

The things I like most about washi are that it's quick to use and very easy to remedy a mistake because you can peel it up and reposition it.  These cards took less than 10 minutes each on average. 

This one is my entry for Unity's opportunity challenge to use bright colors.  :)

This card uses the Studio G paper tape available at Walmart for 97 cents a roll.  I don't like it as well as Target's, but I have it, so I should use it!  The designs are cool, but it's just not as nice to work with. 

I hope you can spend a few dollars on a few rolls of washi and have some fun!  If you would like to see other cards I've posted using washi, click the label "washi" at the bottom of this post. 
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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.

Washi trial

I bought a roll of washi tape at Walmart to see what this craze is all about.   I figured I was willing to pay 97 cents to try out this trend. 

What I like: it's easy to cut or tear and already has adhesive on the back. 
What I don't like: the adhesive doesn't seem strong enough to be permanent- I was able to peel several pieces up to reposition them with no trouble. 

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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.

OWH Sketch #100

It's always nice to have a little card like this waiting in the wings.  Based off Sketch #100, featuring papers by Basic Grey's Picadilly and using stamps by Unity and Studio G.

It's field day at school.  I'm saying a prayer that I'll come home the same shade of pale I leave here this morning.  Even wearing my SPF 85, I'm not sure how well I'll do since it's two hours in the sun.  It should be a blast, though.  We've got kids doing egg tosses, relay races, hula hoop passes, and more then we're capping it off with a rematch of today's students versus teachers volleyball game.  As happens every year, we wipe the floor up with them.  Today, we played 5 or 6 rounds and won them all by at least 8 points.  Hehe!  Somehow, the kids think they'll win every year.  We always show them up! 
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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.

Maggie's challenge- Thinking of You

Maggie from the Perfect Sentiments bloghop challenged us to use colors from a picture of red, yellow, green, orange, and white along with a thinking of you sentiment.  Here's what I made:

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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.

Tutorial Part 2: Repurposed Stickers

Yesterday, I shared a technique to repurpose epoxy stickers using a Sharpie marker. 

 

Today, I want to take that tutorial one step further.  You'll need:

• epoxy stickers
• black Sharpie
• Versamark
• embossing powder (opaque color)
• heat tool
• protected work surface

We're going to make these: 

1. Color your epoxy dot stickers with the Sharpie and let them dry.  I also tried this without coloring the dots and it produced a lighter finished product with the original color showing through.  Experiment! 
2. Gently stamp the dots into the Versamark.  If your Versamark pad is new and clean, you might notice some ink rub off and stain the pad.  Avoid excessive pressure when inking the dots to reduce ink transfer.  (Ask me how I know.  ;)  Thankfully, my Versamark pad is 7 or so years old, so this wasn't its first small stain.)
3. Coat the dots in embossing powder.  I used a color called "hematite" by Stampendous that produces an interesting metallic look.  
4. Use your heat tool to melt the embossing powder.  
5. If you have ragged edges on your finished product, they will likely come off easily with your fingers, or you can use a small sanding block to gently remove excess embossing powder trails.  

The finished product on a couple of cards:

 This one is lighter because I didn't color the dot first.  The dot was pink before it was embossed. 

I hope you try these dots on your cards and let me know what you think!


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

VCMP #4- Beachy Thinking of You

So, it's time for another VCMP post.  Can you tell I don't want to do lesson plans or chores?  If you want more details about the VCMP, scroll down to my recent posts. 

This challenge was to make a beach-themed thinking of you card.  While I have a couple of beach stamps, they lend themselves to making a scene and I never like what I make with them.  Instead, I grabbed this decade-old die cut, mounted it on white to help it look a bit cleaner, and placed it on a card based on Sketch 42.  The stamp is my KI Memories, the brads are from Colorbok, and the papers are from K&Co. 



















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

CAS Thinking of You

This CAS thinking of you card is one of my favorite cards I've made recently. I used a cling stamp (perhaps from i-cling, but I've tossed the packaging and don't remember) to stamp tree trunks. I punched paste paper circles for the leaves and cut 1/4 inch strips for the trim from the same paste paper. I used a "Thinking of You" sentiment from an Easter set by SU. I finished the card by rounding two corners and lining the inside with white paper. This is such a simple card, but I think the paste paper's texture and shimmer makes it look more complex than it is. The shimmer didn't photograph well, but nonetheless, it's there.

I saw a card similar to this with three trees on a blog recently and I cannot remember which blog I CASEd from. If it's you, please let me know so I can link up to your post!

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

Masculine Cards

I wanted to make some masculine cards and I know I don't have many decent stamps for masculine images. I bought a stack of K & Co Boy Scouts paper and decided to use it for these cards. I cut down large 12x12 sheets into card front sizes from some of the patterned papers with large images. The cards are simple, but to me that's an aspect of many masculine cards. When I add too much stuff, my cards end up girly!





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

Some random cards

Here are some more cards I've made in the past week.




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

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

Inchie Fever

Please go vote for my card at Spotted Canary. If I win, I'm going to donate the prize money to OWH. You need to be logged into FB and you may vote once a day until Sept. 7th. Tell your friends!!! Thanks so much!

Back to the point of the post- inchies! These are stamps that create 1-inch square images. As luck would have it, I recently picked up a set of Asian inches from Inkadinkado. They're different than my usual stamp style and I wanted to try them out. I really liked the panda and bamboo the most. I chose 4 images and stamped them with Versamark, then embossed with black powder from A La Mode (JoAnn's store brand, I think). I cut them out, mounted them on red and black and added a sentiment from SU on a piece of cardstock edged with a Fiskars border punch.


If you like what you see, read some of my recent posts. I'm in the midst of a "10 paper challenge" to encourage myself to use old paper. Get inspired to use your stash!!!


Cards shipped to OWH (as of 8/2/11): 964

New toys for the MWT

I got a new EK Success 3-in-1 flower punch and a new Studio G sentiment stamp that I just love and tried them out on this card for the Midweek Throwdown on OWH Stars and Stamps. The cardstock is from a DCWV matstack (Hippie Chick?) I'm seeing this one as a kit for my party. The punches are simple to do and easy to assemble with a ZIG pen. It's about a 15 minute card, but would be faster in multiples I'm sure.



Thanks for visiting my blog today. Would you do me a favor and vote for my card on EK Success/Spotted Canary's page on Facebook? If my card wins, I'm going to donate the prize money to OWH. That could be $300!!! Thanks for your help! (You must be logged into Facebook and "like" the Spotted Canary page to vote. You can vote once every 24 hours until Sept. 7. Please tell your friends and family, too!)


Cards shipped to OWH (as of 8/2/11): 964