Dear Santa -- UPDATED

7/22 UPDATE: A special welcome to those of you who have come from this week's OWH Tuesday Tutorial. I was so excited when Nancy said that she would like to feature Dear Santa. Thanks, Nancy!

Paper Smooches Super stamp set
computer-generated shapes & text
Distress Ink core
lots and lots of fussy cutting

Since I made Dear Santa, I applied the same technique to make a Super Hero card. One tip I learned when making this second card involves the white strip used at the bottom of both cards. If you're interested in including a similar strip of writing space, I had my best luck when the strip went from the left edge to the right edge. While I played with a number of combinations, the one that seemed to have the biggest visual impact was this full-width strip of white. 


Thanks so much for stopping and happy scrappin'.  Can't wait to see your take on fold cards! [As soon as my Blitzy stamp order comes in, I'll be making a princess card version. :)]


Hi, everyone.

The card below was born from two inspirations: a Crafting at the Spotted Canary show about making greeting cards with surprises and movement and a Studio G stamp purchased a couple of years ago.

This card's surprise is a sentiment that pops up when you open the card. The first two images show the front and inside of the card. The latter images illustrate a few of the steps used to create the popped sentiment.

Inside of Card
AC Christmas cardstock
computer-generated sentiment, inspired by Studio G stamp
Marvy and Paper Shapers circle punches, EK hole punch
Creative Memories cutting system
Stampin' Up! trimmer with scoring blade

Front of Card
AC Christmas cardstock
computer-generated sentiment (Andy), inspired by Studio G stamp
Marvy and Paper Shapers circle punches, EK hole punch

The Steps

Step 1: Cut out two 5.5" by 8.5" sheets of cardstock
Step 2: Fold one of the sheets in half, and make cuts 1" length that are 1.5" from either edge
Step 3: On the cut sheet, score along the card fold between the two 1" cuts
Step 4: Pop out the cut section, or "step", towards the interior of the card

Step 5: Apply tape/glue to the front of the "step"
Step 6: Attach sentiment/ image to be popped

Step 7: Apply tape/glue to inside cardstock, taking care to not apply any adhesive to the step.
Step 8: Attach interior (cut, scored) cardstock to the exterior (uncut) cardstock.
Step 9: Decorate, decorate, decorate!

Other Considerations:

• I used solid cardstock as my bases. But, there's no reason not to use dp. I'm thinking 8.5" by 11" sheets or 12" by 12" sheets would work better for this purpose than 6" by 6" pads.
• I added the wavy, white strip on the inside for a handwritten note.
• When making cuts and applying adhesive, you'll want the "better" sides (textured, patterned) to face inside and out.
• I popped a sentiment on the inside, but images would work, too. :)

BTW

• In the past, Operation Write Home has offered tutorials and hosted challenges dealing with fold cards. In addition, the Spotted Canary broadcast (Show 106) showed more elaborate, intricate cards. If these really interest you, there are lots of internet resources to help you create more elaborate folds. 
• That said, this is the first fold card I've ever tried. There were two reasons for this: 1) I wasn't sure I had the skills needed for these fold cards, and 2) I definitely didn't have precise enough tools for them. So, for my first effort, I went with a much simpler model.
• Because of the sentiment, I chose to embellish with a variety of circles and a few waves to create a more whimsical feel.

Parting Thoughts

July 12 Postscript: Today's CAS-ual Fridays challenge is to create a polka-dotted creation. Think I'm going to post this little card for this challenge.

Hope you give one of these a try. I'm planning on making a few for OWH and the holiday craft fairs.

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

Rhapsody in Blue and White

Hi, everyone.

At a recent Stampin' Up! class, our demonstrator shared the technique of scoring the midpoints of adjacent sides and crimping the corners formed. I really liked the idea, but didn't like how the crimping distorted the shape of the paper.

A few days later, I changed up the technique to score, rather than crimp, the corners. I paired this idea with a challenge from Operation Write Home's Cardmaking Party for President's Day 2013. The challenge was to create white-on-white or cream-on-cream. For the card below, I modified the challenge "rules" to allow for a little light blue.

AC white and blue cardstock; Martha Stewart punch
Cuttlebug and Spellbinder embossing folders; Stampin Up! trimmer
Mark Richards crystals

a detailed look at the scoring and embossing

I love the elegance and CAS-like design. Really like how the layers of blue help pop the three scored and embossed patterns. Feel like there is just the right amount of  bling to add a touch of sparkle in all the right places. Decided to go sentiment-less so the card could be sent to OWH for birthday, graduation, wedding, anniversary, love you, miss you, thinking of you, thank you, or just because occasions.

Sorry about the quality of the images above. I went back forth between scanning and using a digital snapshot. The scanned image seems to do a little better job of capturing the overall appearance of the card, while the digital picture better shows the details.

Parting Thought

Thanks for stopping. Happy scrappin'!

OWH Sketch #156

Hi everyone,

Can you believe 2 posts in one day?! It's shocking, I know!

This week's OWH sketch really has a strong focal point. The rectangle I cut from a scrapbook-page-sized Bo Bunny circular die cut seemed a perfect fit for the sketch's large rectangular element.

Paper: Bo Bunny Liberty, Bazzill Admiral and Watermelon
Sentiment stamped in Stampin' Up! Night of Navy
embellishments: metallic brads; tool: crimper

For this Any Hero card, I rotated the sketch 90 degrees clockwise, extended the smaller rectangle, and added a sentiment in the bottom right. The result is a CAS All-American card just right for a no-frill
All- American hero.  :)  And, hubby actually sees the sketch in the card on this one!

Parting Thoughts

I  think the simplicity of the sketch will make it a versatile one to use for a variety of cards. Hoping to make a couple more cards, including a Midweek Throwdown card, from this sketch later on this week.

Still on track with my resolutions to leave comments for fellow OWHers and to clean up my space after each card-making session. :)  And, from the activity at the gym, folks are sticking with their exercise resolutions. Hope your resolutions are going well.

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

Friday Night Writes

Hi, everyone,

It looks like it's going to be a pretty busy weekend around here. So, how about a quick post?

OWH Midweek Challenge

 

This week's OWH challenge is to make a Thinking of You card. I decided to rework the ribbon-stamped card from last week. It was just way too overworked to send as it was. It's looking much fresher now. :)

Bo Bunny Konstrukt paper, Kaiser rhinestones

Help Requested

The card below is my first attempt at a My Dad, My Hero card. I really like the gold embossed medals -- and embossing around the edge of the sentiment. I also like the ribbon -- although it didn't scan well. And, I like the sentiment itself, but not its appearance. It seems to need something, but I don't quite know what. Any suggestions?

Stampin' Around image by Stampin' Up!, computer-generated font

ODBD April Challenge

It's time again for another ODBD Challenge for OWH. This month's ODBD challenge is to create a card with critters. Since I liked these little song-inspired, lovesick CAS butterflies so much, I posted them for this challenge as well. 

BasicGrey paper, Martha Stewart punch

Parting Thoughts

Wishing everyone a blessed Easter celebration!

OWH Midweek Color Challenge

This week OWH posed a color challenge to make a card using green, blue, kraft/tan.

So yesterday, when I was making tone-on-tone cards from pastel cardstock for Mother's Day, I decided to make the same card using a blue and green printed paper.

Paper: KaiserCraft's Konstrukt collection
Punch: Martha Stewart punch-around-the-page butterfly
Embossed Border: Hero Arts Large Fabric Design stamp
Embossed Sentiment: 2000 Stampin' Up!
Butterfly Accents: gold gel pen and gold stickles

Technically, this card is green, blue, and gold. I hope all will forgive me as this was the closest I could come in the Mother's Day assembly line going on in my craft room yesterday. :)

A couple of points worth noting:

• Tone-on tone and masking ideas came from the recent CAS Online Card Class
• I lightly pressed a rectangular strip of paper into the embossing pad -- embossing the paper before punching out the butterfly.
• And, interestingly enough, I purchased this paper to make OWH Father's Day cards.

I never would have thought to heat emboss on printed paper before this challenge. It's an interesting result. And, I must say, the embossing and stickling really lose something in the JPG.

Well, off to finish up Mother's Day cards from yesterday.
Happy scrappin' to all!

OWH Sketch #109

Can't think of a better way to spend the observed President's Day holiday than supporting our troops through OWH!  :)

OWH Sketch 109 is a great look. I was drawn to its simplicity and immediately knew the 3 main papers I wanted to use. And, I quickly decided to forego a cut-out star and go with a heat-embossed, framed star image.

After that, however, I felt like Goldilocks struggling to find just the right amount of detail and embellishment for the card shown below.

Paper: K&Company's Americana mat pad, BasicGrey kraft
Embossed Image: Stampin' Up!

• The kraft needed a little pop off the navy. So, I decided to go with a little white -- but I had to be careful not to use too much white and take away from the framed star.
• The framed star needed a little background to pop off the kraft and red -- but my first two choices of paper were too busy.
• The brads added nice texture and shine -- but the card still needed a little something more.
• I thought about red or navy corners for the top left and right corners of the kraft rectangle -- but, since the corners took away from the embossed star and red strip, the corners were too much.
• Hand-drawn stitching popped into my head. This looked nice -- but was still not quite enough. The kraft still seemed to be the dominating focus when I wanted it to be the star and red strip.
• Rubbing brown pastels intermittently on the kraft helped add more dimension -- but the kraft was still too dominant.
• Finally -- the card looks just right after adding the stamped sentiment!!!  The tone-on-tone sentiment nicely enhanced the kraft without detracting from the embossed star and red strip. And, since this is an Any Hero card, "Thanks!" was exactly what the card needed. [When hubby said he really liked this one, I knew I had landed on the right combination of details and embellishments. :)]

This was one of those times when there was a whole lot more involved in designing the card than will meet the eye. Isn't it interesting how some cards come together so quickly and others... well, not so quickly?

Happy scrappin'!

OWH VCMP Challenges

Hi, everyone,

If you haven't checked out the challenges posted on OWH's Stars and Stamps blog in honor of OWH's cruise, make sure you take a look. There are some great challenges -- and lots of wonderful cards that have been linked to the blog posts.

It looks like my fellow party goers are publishing separate posts for each challenge -- and I know that short posts are preferable in the blogging community. So, I apologize in advance for going with one longer post for the sake of efficiency. That being said, I have 5 cards to share. :)


Card 1: Challenge 2 (Masculine Nautical) and Challenge 6 (Sand and Sea)

Yes, I confess that I posted the following card twice because it fits both challenges perfectly. I'm telling myself I'm really not cheating because I liked this first card so much that I made 3 more -- 2 more for OWH and 1 for my brother's birthday. :)

The most exciting thing about this card is that the sand dollars were cut and embossed using a Zip'e Mate that I purchased at a scrapbook garage sale!  I'd been able to use it for embossing, but this was my first success at getting it to die cut!!!

DMC floss, garage sale brads, background paper: DCWV Travel Pack,
blue netting: your guess is as good as mine -- just a great leftover in the scrap pile,
and a Zip'E Mate!!!!

Card 2: Challenge 7 (CAS)

This card actually came together quickly, which is not always the case for me.  I was pleased that the stamped sentiment blended in so perfectly with the aged look of the printed paper.


Bo Bunny Timepiece Collection from last year: 6 x 6 pad and card-making set


Card 3: Challenge 8 (Jungle Animals -- for a kid's card)

Well, it's a good thing a couple of the other cards came together quickly, because this one did not. I didn't have one blasted jungle animal in all my stash! So, I went online and found an adorable pattern/template for a lion at DLTK's Growing Together.

The mane, face, body, and tail tip are all created from punched-out hearts. The ears and nose are also supposed to be hearts. But, since I printed the pattern at 50%, the hearts were too tiny for my liking. Hope you like this one because I'm thinking it was well worth the effort. I'm also thinking I need to make more kid cards for OWH. :)

DLTK template, EK Success 3-heart punch,
Sizzix croc embossing folder, Kaiser rhinestones,
computer-generated font,

Card 4: Cut It Out! (punches and die cuts)

I started the following card for the Hot Tropics challenge, but the orange and green butterflies just didn't look quite right. The white butterflies with a light-blue grid pattern look so much better -- even though the pattern doesn't show up very well in the JPG.

Jillibean Blossom Soup paper pad and embellishment

Card 5: Vintage

This last card also came to me very quickly. When my hubby saw it, I think he was hoping it was his Valentine card. I must admit, it probably is more suited to him than the card he will be receiving. But, since I had already written in his card, it was too late to switch. Guess it will just have to be sent to one of our troop's loved ones... Oh, darn!  :)

Once again, Bo Bunny Timepiece 6 x 6 pad and card-making set -- perfect for a vintage look

This week's VCMP was great fun!  At first I wasn't going to participate because I had planned to get a jump on Mother's Day cards. But, the variety of the challenges have resulted in a nice assortment of cards for the "other half cards" for the half Mother's Day/half other cards challenge. Nice job, OWH blog team!

Thanks for visiting! Happy scrappin'!

6 for 6!

Hi, everyone,

Yay!!!  OWH Sketch 107 = 2012 Any Hero Card #6

This card might have been CAS-inspired, but it took 3 tries to get just the right look.  :)

Paper: K&Company Americana Mat Pad and BasicGrey kraft
Embellishments: garage store brads and generic packing twine

Long -- but good -- day at work. Calling it a night.  So glad the DVR is set to record "Smash!" because there's no way I'd make it up to 10!

Happy scrappin!

2 Birds with 1 Stone -- CAS and ribbon challenges

CAS cards -- what a wonderful idea for an OWH Blog Skip!  Thanks to our CAS blog hostesses for posting such lovely cards.

There are so many OWHers and cardmakers who make fabulous cards -- with great vignettes, amazing layers of textures, and wonderfully colored images. And, then there are my cards. Well, for those of us who have seen Steve Martin in "The Jerk", remember the scene in which his character discovers his kind of music? I must say that's what I felt like when I first came across the term CAS!  :)

I, too, enrolled in last month's Clean and Simple class. The class was full of creative and inspirational ideas! Fortunately, there is lifetime access to the lessons because our desktop computer experienced some technical difficulties -- and I have not yet viewed all the lessons.


In spite of this, I'd like to share three cards inspired from this class. The first card will be included in my next OWH shipment. The second card was featured on last Sunday's OWH Sketch Challenge #106 post, while the third card is going to be linked to this month's ODBD challenge, which is to do something creative with ribbon. The last two cards were sent out in this week's shipment.


Card 1: Masking Technique, Tone-on-Tone Palette

Techniques: Masking and Heat Embossing;
Supplies: Hero Arts Cling stamp, Stampin' Up sentiment,
Martha Stewart punch-around-the-page butterfly punch

Card 2: Layering Elements

Technique: Layering Elements
Supplies: BasicGrey kraft, Creative Memories dp

Card 3: Stamping on Watercolor Paper

Technique: Stamping on Watercolor Paper, Embossing and Distressing
Supplies: DMC floss, Hero Arts stamp, watercolor paper,
Sizzix folder, Ranger core paper,

Time to make a couple of CAS cards for friends before starting on more Mother's Day cards for OWH! 

Thanks for stopping by. Happy scrappin'!