Friday Night Writes: An OWH Memorial Day Blog Hop Edition

Hi, everyone,

I am so excited about this weekend's blog hop.

              

Hope everyone will be able to make at least a few stops. All three of the cards I'm sharing tomorrow were inspired by OWH Sketch #59. I heat embossed using Versamark and clear powder on both of the cards shown below.
 
                                     

For Our Troops: Two American Treasures

Know how every 6 x 6 pad of paper has a couple of patterns that seem a little more challenging to use than the others? For me, this flag and eagle image was one of those challenging papers. So, I chose to use just a part of the paper. Finally, I heat embossed the eagle to give it a little extra oomph!

Paper: Bo Bunny Liberty, Bazzill watermelon; jute and gems

Summertime: Footprints of Love

Summer has always been filled with family celebrations for as long as I can remember. Let's start with our summer birthdays: hubby, dad, mother-in-law, nephew, and me. Then, we had the anniversaries: my parents, my in-laws, and hubby's and mine. (Before I started making cards, you wouldn't believe how many trips I made to Hallmark during the summer months. Now, I visit my favorite LSS and Michael's! Hmmm...) The Fourth of July was a time for fireworks, parades, an occasional picnic, ice cream, and time with family and friends. And, of course, there were family road trips and vacations.

When I first experimented with heat embossing, the image I got reminded me of wet sand. So, I thought about how I could incorporate that into a beach-related card to commemorate beach vacations with hubby. When I came across the Inkadinkado footprint stamp at a garage sale, I took it as a sign that I really needed to work on that beach vacation card.

Paper and Vellum: Recollections; Stamps: Inkadinkado, PSX; FiberScraps, BasicGrey opaline half pearls

I'm not sure I'm completely satisfied with the letters. The original stamped letters were too light. So, I used a Q-tip-like tool to apply a little more Versamark and re-embossed.

But, the heart turned out pretty well. And, hubby approved of the footprints. More importantly, he immediately knew what they were -- and that was seeing only footprints on an otherwise plain rectangular brown piece of cardstock! He reassured me even more by saying that sand footprints aren't perfect. :)

The Recollections paper is actually from its baby boy collection. The fibers were another garage sale find. I was planning on using a piece of corrugated darker brown cardstock instead of the fibers. But, the card felt like it needed more color variety. When, I pulled out ribbons and found these... Well, they grew on me. The colors seemed perfect. And, the collection of fibers felt organic and flow-ey -- reminiscent of seaweed, but  in a totally good way.

Parting Thoughts

Looking to achieve the right balance this weekend: time to honor and remember, time to be inspired, time to relax, and time with family.

Hope to see you at the hop!