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.

Winner!

Thanks once again to everyone who made this past weekend's VCMP so much fun.  I think I've finally made it around to comment on all the hosting blogs and on all of the cards that were posted for my challenge.  Everyone is so creative and pours so much love into the cards made for OWH.  It's such a joy to volunteer for this great organization.

I had a little blog candy up for grabs for anyone who posted a card by midnight last night.  There were 37 cards posted at that time and the lucky number is 18!  Patricia is the winner of 4 rolls of yellow/orange washi paper tape and a package of birthday stickers.  There might be some extra prizes in the package, too!  Please comment here by Sunday night with your e-mail address so I can get the prize to you.  The spam filters foiled my attempts at leaving a comment!

If you haven't had a chance to link up a card yet, please do.  The Inlinkz is open through this weekend.  

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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.

B-day card for a little man

In the past two years, my family has experienced a baby explosion!   The cousins on my dad's side of the family now have 8, soon to be 9 (this week!) children and we're not done quite yet.  I wanted to do something for their birthdays but presents seemed a little over the top, especially since I won't get to see any of them on their birthdays due to geographic constraints.  The kids will, however, be getting cards! 

This is for a little man who's turning 6 on Friday.  Life's been busy lately for this little guy.  He welcomed a new little brother last week and started Kindergarten this week.  I heard he had a rough time on the bus because it was "overwhelming and loud."  What an articulate child! Hopefully this super hero will put that endearing grin I love to see on his face. 

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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.

Glitter: A Do and Don't Example

Glitter.   It's basically the bane of my crafting existence.  Once you release it, it happily settles into nooks and crannies and gets ready to attack by attaching itself to you, your clothing, or your crafting supplies at the least opportune moment.  I really regret ever buying glitter, particularly the microfine clear stuff my SU rep adores.  Messy, messy, messy!  On top of the mess, glitter is dangerous for our heroes because it makes the heroes visible to night vision goggles if it is inadvertently stuck to a hero's clothing. 

Here are my "do" and "don't" cards to make my point.  They use different materials but the same basic layout.

Do use minimal glitter if you choose to use it at all.  The best choice is to use no glitter at all, but if you must add some sparkle, buy a lovely tube of Glossy Accents and douse all glitter spots with GA to seal the glitter in.  On this card, I used three tiny spots of glitter glue on the focal point.  When they had dried, I added a layer of Glossy Accents over the top.  Still shiny, and very safe.   P.S.- Thanks to Linda for the inspiration to use a snowflake shape to make a "bow" on top of a present. 

DON'T use copious amounts of glitter or glitter products that can't be completely sealed in.  This card is NOT for OWH.  I am sending it to a relative who is turning 3 next week.  (I'm going to add her name to the plain purple strip, but I didn't want that to be posted.)  This glitter paper from DCWV is not to be trusted.  At first, I thought it was sealed.  I've since had a few problems with the edges leaving stray glitter on things.  I had a real glitter disaster when I put this paper through my mom's Cricut- there was glitter everywhere!  As a result, I only use this paper for personal projects and I protect my work surface and clean my tools afterward.  

 

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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.

Hey Chickadee

This Lawn Fawn stamp set reminds me of my former coworker who always called me, "chickadee." I wanted to make a CAS card but I don't think this is really CAS.  I paper pieced the Lawn Fawn Critters on the Farm stamps using Lawn Fawn Bright Side papers.  The red details on the hen were colored with Copic R24.   
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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.

Lawn Fawn/OWH kids cards

Lawn Fawn is graciously sponsoring this week of OWH's birthday bash.  I have two sets of LF stamps (Critters on the Farm and Quinn's Alphabet) as well as a pack of their Bright Side paper.  I can tell you the quality of the stamps is far superior to all of my other clear stamps.  The photopolymer really makes a big difference in the stamp's quality.

Here's a card using my LF supplies and the bonus sketch provided for this challenge.  I also used my sewing machine to stitch around the panels of paper.  It was fun to finally put my Singer to use on some cards. 

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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.