Polka Dots, Stripes, and Stars

Hi, everyone.

Today's Any Hero card is inspired by OWH Sketch #192.

Bo Bunny Pride, Bazzill admiral, Distress Ink antique linen
Ribbon Boutique natural jute, OWH fundraising ribbon
Fiskars and Paper Studio star punches; garage sale brads
Zots 3D glue dots, Recollections foam adhesive

I really liked this week's sketch, and decided to play with some different textures. I'm pretty pleased with the patterns and textures used in the card above. If I were to change anything , I might move up the star just a tad. But, I don't think that star's moving anywhere anytime soon. :)

Parting Thought

Have a great week! Thanks for stopping and happy scrappin'!

A Birthday Card Fit for a Princess

Hi, everyone.

Wednesday night, we had another fun Stampin' Up! class with Bernadette during which we made a really cool tri-fold card. So, I decided to try out the technique on a princess-themed birthday card.

Outside of Card
computer-generated sentiment
Stampendous vintage crown stamp, scanned and resized
Distress Ink core, Bazzill white; stash gems
Martha Stewart butterfly punches, sponged with Distress Ink
Cuttlebug embossing folder
Creative Memories cutting system

Inside of Card

The card base is 5.25" by 12" with scores at 2", 4", 8", and 10". Pretty easy card. Thanks, Bernadette!

Parting Thoughts

Have a great weekend!

Thanks for stopping and happy scrappin'!

The True Soldier

Hi, everyone.

Today's Any Hero card was inspired by OWH Sketch #191, a new (OWH fundraising) Unity stamp, and the Declaration of Independence. It had been a while since I used this Bo Bunny Liberty paper. And, because of all of the layers on the sketch, I ended up using two layers of same pattern, one 6-by-6 version and one 12-by-12 version -- and really like this effect.

Bo Bunny Liberty (6 by 6 and 12 by 12)
Unity sentiment heat embossed on watercolor paper in Distress Ink walnut stain
Distress Ink core, Bazzill cardstock
Sizzix and Darice embossing folders
inking in Distress Ink vintage photo with Stampin' Up! daubers
Zot 3D glue dots

Short and sweet for a football Sunday.

Have a great week. Thanks for stopping and happy scrappin'!

OWH Party @ SBA: September 2013

Hi, everyone!

It's been such a fun day! Jeri Carmichael and her merry band of card makers hosted the third annual card making party for Operation Write Home at Scrapbook Art in Lewis Center, Ohio. 

It was so much fun reconnecting with fellow OWHers. The best part was seeing so much love being put into so many holiday cards for our troops and their loved ones. :)

I'll update with card totals and other stats as soon as I get the information. One stat worth sharing is that, for the second year, a massage therapist was there to offer free massage breaks to us card makers. For now, I'll let the pictures do the talking...

Thanks to Jeri and her crew for organizing the event, to Terri and the SBA staff for their ongoing support of OWH, to all of today's volunteer cardmakers, and to Carol for her fabulous stress-relieving massages.

Shaving Cream... It's Just Not for Faces Anymore

Hi, everyone.

Last night was another fun Stampin' Up! technique class with Bernadette. One of the new techniques she taught us was creating a really cool background with shaving cream. Think this would be lots of fun with kids.  :)

The cards below, a card for a friend at work who is leaving the company for a great opportunity and a Thanksgiving card for my brother's family, were both made using the technique featured in these videos.

• Tutorial #1 
• Tutorial #2 

In class, we used a paper plate as shown in Tutorial #1. I used a baking pan at home, as shown in Tutorial #2 -- and thought the baking pan was less fussy/messy. But, I think the size of the baking pan resulted in too much foam and not enough ink... which created a more subtle marbling effect.

Rockin' It Out with Shaving Cream
Kids' Quotes sentiment from Inkadinkado on watercolor paper
cardstock: AC pink, Bazzill black; Paper Studio brads
Tombow foam adhesives
all other materials: Stampin' Up!

Falling for Shaving Cream
photo paper marbled with shaving cream and Ranger butterscotch alcohol ink
Distress Ink cardstock; Really Reasonable Ribbon ribbon
Craft Smart image heat embossed in Distress Ink walnut stain
edges inked in Distress Ink vintage photo and wild honey
leaf colors sponged on with Distress Inks using cotton swabs

Wish the colors in the second card showed up closer to their real colors. The background is much more golden than yellow. Regardless, think I'll post the second card for this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge to make a card featuring fall colors and at least one leaf. Love this yummy ribbon and the real-life autumnal Distress palette. :)

 Parting Thoughts

Looking forward to tomorrow's cardmaking party for Operation Write Home at Scrapbook Art. It'll be great making holiday cards for our deployed troops to send home to loved ones, as well as catching up with some friends. 

Thanks for stopping. Happy scrappin' and happy weekend!

A Wintry Escape

Hi, everyone.

Paula's Boot Camp challenge for us this month is to consider our use of "white" space as a design element. For the card below, I went with some "pine needle" space as the canvas for some winter flora.

We R Memory Keeper's Winter Frost; Distress Ink core; stash cardstock
OWH fundraising ribbon; garage sale brads; Tombow foam adhesives

 In addition to this month's focus, I tried to incorporate several other boot camp lessons: a strong focal point, the rule of thirds, [kind of] the 10-30-70 color rule, and an odd number of embellishments.

Short and sweet tonight. Thanks for stopping and happy scrappin'! And, thanks Paula, for another wonderful lesson!

A True Soldier

Hi, everyone.

Don't you just love inking up a new stamp? Today's Any Hero card was inspired by OWH Sketch #190 and features a Unity stamp I ordered during a birthday bash blog skip. :)

MME dp; Bazzill cardstock; watercolor paper
Unity sentiment heat embossed in Distress Ink walnut stain
inking in Distress Ink walnut stain
Fiskars and Paper Studio star punches, EK hole punch
garage sale brads; Tombow foam adhesives

Because of the size of the sentiment, I slightly changed the dimensions of the focal point rectangle. This resulted in a change to the sketch embellishments.

 Parting Thoughts

Not much else today. Keeping it short and sweet.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend and have a great week.

Thanks for stopping and happy scrappin'!

Say It with Paint Swatches

Hi, everyone.

Seems like a long time since my last post, but guess it's just been about a week. Maybe it seems longer because OWH is celebrating its birthday month week with midweek events, like blog skips featuring partner companies, and I haven't been posting cards for the usual Midweek Throwdown.

Today's card is inspired by this week's Tuesday Tutorial to make a card using paint swatches, reworking a previous card using some monochromatic paint swatches. What a fabulous idea for getting a cool ombre effect! Thanks, Nancy, for sharing this idea. :)

Glidden swatches: Porcelain Peach, Venus Star, Apricot, Colorado Dawn, Golden Tan, Pumpkin Pie
blue: Distress Ink core, brown: AC
computer-generated sentiment (Mistral) on watercolor paper; hand-cut flames
OWH Sketch #182
Please click here for details on original card.

As always, thanks for stopping and happy scrappin'!

God Bless You for Serving

Hi, everyone.

Today's Any Hero card was inspired by OWH Sketch #189. Nothing too fancy here. Just a patriotic thank you using a fabulous patriotic collection of paper. [Sorry about the shadow on the sentiment. Our scanner doesn't like brads. :) ]

dp Authentique Pride; Bazzill almond cream, stash cream
Stamper's Best sentiment, heat embossed in Distress Ink black walnut
garage sale brads

Have a great week. Thanks for stopping and happy scrappin'!

A Special Delivery

Hi, everyone.

Today's card was made for this month's OWH ODBD challenge to make a card with wheels.  So I asked myself what could I do to make a holiday card with my Stampin' Up! truck stamps...

snow, snowflakes, snowman, sentiment paper: watercolor paper
dp: Doodlebug; cardstock: Distress Ink core
punches: Recollections snowflake, Stampin' Up! snowman, ??? corner punch for stars
stamps: Stampin' Up! I Dig You, Hero Arts Season's Greetings for tree
images heat embossed with clear powder
original sentiment, computer-generated (Andy)

I used a similar design as with Happy Dirtday! When I started to put a little bear in the truck cab, I thought why not try a snowman? Why not, indeed?! And, while I was at it, why not use a couple of stars for hubcaps?

Parting Thoughts

Thanks again to everyone who made a Card 4 a Kiddie during last weekend's VCMP. The linked cards are just adorable... and are sure to bring lots and lots of smiles.

It was great to see so many new cardmakers -- not to mention an increase in the total number of cardmakers -- at this year's VCMP!

Thanks for stopping and happy scrappin'! Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Getting an A.... Priceless!

Hi, everyone.

The card below was inspired by this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge to make a back-to-school themed card. Since I spent 24 years teaching high school math, back to school has a special meaning to me. My mind went from some stash number-themed dp to school shopping... to school supply shopping... to a series of credit card commercials from a few years back.

Yep, getting an A on a math test... PRICELESS!

dp: stash kimemories Go Figure; Distress Ink core; dark brown: Bazzill or AC
Really Reasonable Ribbon (September ribbon)
original sentiment, computer-generated (Andy) on watercolor paper
inking in Distress Ink

I soooo loved this month's selection of Really Reasonable Ribbon ribbons, I had to use at least one on this back-to-school card. (I decided to pair up ribbons so the leaves would really pop off of the brownish-red base ribbon.) I then chose the Distress Ink core papers based on the leaves' colors.

As always, thanks for stopping and happy scrappin'!

OWH VCMP: And the winner is...

The Real Winners are...

Actually, the real winners are all the kiddies who are going to be receiving cute, adorable cards from their moms and dad. Heartfelt thanks to those who shared their creations with all of us and/or left some very sweet comments.

Speaking of comments, I wanted to leave comments for all of the posted cards. Unfortunately, I ran into a few technical glitches -- broken links, not having account access, etc. -- when following a couple of the links. If you didn't receive a comment, please know how much each and every card was appreciated. It is so heartwarming to think of the smile on each little one's face when he or she opens his or her very own card. Thank you all so very much.

But the winner of the gift certificate is..... DianeW!

Appropriately enough, Diane used a Paper Smooches stamp set to make her too cute cow card. :)

DianeW's Card 4 Kids card

                                               

 Congratulations, Diane! I love this card MOO and MOO every time I see it.

Parting Thoughts

Whew! What a fun-filled weekend! But, I must be getting old because I think I need a nap. LOL!

Thanks again to everyone who made cards. Special thanks to Allison, the OWH Blog Team, and the hostesses (including Diane) for challenging us to step out of our creative boxes. 

Have a great week!

OWH VCMP: Cards 4 Kids

Hi, everyone.

Welcome, party goers! Happy Birthday, Operation Write Home!

Operation Write Home is a wonderful nonprofit organization that sends blank homemade greeting cards to our deployed troops so that they can write to loved ones back home in the States. Today's post is a stop on a Virtual Cardmaking Party to celebrate OWH's birthday month. :)

Please click here to return to the Master Thread.

Before we get to the challenge, let me send a big shout-out to Allison and the OWH blog team. And, thanks to yesterday's hostesses for a great day of challenges.

 The Challenge

Swiss dot embossing on red border
polar bear cub
paper-only embellishments
Please click here for card details.

The challenge on this stop is to make a kiddie card using the tic-tac-toe board shown below.

Today's sample card was inspired by a recent Tuesday Tutorial on polar bear cards and several adorable photos of polar bear cubs.

So, what will you choose? Maybe you're a softie for a punny sentiment... or have a favorite technique... or have a new truck stamp that you can't wait to ink up and color. Whether you go 3-across, down or diagonally, I can't wait to see your kiddie cards!

Blog Candy

And, what's a birthday party without some candy?

So, a $15 gift certificate to Paper Smooches will be awarded to one lucky, randomly-selected cardmaker! Just link a tic-tac-toe inspired kiddie card by noon (Eastern Time) Tuesday to be eligible.

Thanks for playing and happy scrappin'!

Have a BEARY Merry Christmas!

Hi, everyone.

The card below was inspired by Operation Write Home's Polar Bear Tutorial and photos of adorable baby polar bears in ice caves. I have to say I am THRILLED with the way this little guy turned out.   :)

Distress Ink core paper; cardstock: Bazzill black, AC white
Cuttlebug embossing folder
punches: EK hole, Paper Shaper circle, Recollection snowflake
Creative Memories oval cutting system
pens: Uniball white, Micron black; tool: Staedtler bendable ruler
techniques: paper piecing and fussy cutting

While this digital picture is one of my better efforts, there are a few details that don't show up. The red core paper around the borders was embossed, and lightly sanded, using a Swiss dot embossing folder. Also, the outlines of the bear cub and the Santa hat were lightly inked using blue and black shades of Distress Ink, respectively.

Speaking of the Santa hat, Microsoft clip art images were used to make the hat and candy cane. After images were printed, they were cut out to use as templates.

If you haven't seen a Staedtler bendable ruler, you might want to check them out. A good friend gave me one a while ago, and I it comes in handy at the most unexpected times. For this card, I used it to outline the "cave" opening so I didn't get too tear-crazy.

Parting Thoughts

I'm hoping that this little cub brings a big smile to the face of one of our troop's little ones.

And, I'm thinking this could be a popular card at this season's craft fairs. Just need to find a way to keep the cuteness -- and attention to detail, while streamlining the process. Trust me, this little guy was pretty labor intensive... but definitely worth the effort! I couldn't be happier with this little bear cub.   :)

Thanks for stopping and happy scrappin'!