A Perfect Pair

What's a perfect pair, you ask? A great OWH Sketch and a couple of good college basketball games! Who could ask for more to craft away a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon? Throw in a long walk on a sunny day... Seriously, who could ask for more?  :)

And, it's always interesting to me how some sketches come so easily and others not so much. Luckily, this was an easy one for me. :)

Card 1: Pop, Poppa, Daddy, Dad

dp: Moxxie Father; cardstock: Distress Ink core, inked with Distress Ink Vintage Photo
PSX Creative Characters in Adirondack espresso
Celebrate It! jute twine; pop up dots
Creative Memories square punches

Looking at all of the green and brown paper left in my Distress Ink core pad, looks like I need to make a few more of these masculine cards. :)

Card 2 -- Today's Any Hero Card: Red, White, and Sparkly

dp & chipboard letters (with baked-in glitter) Bo Bunny Liberty
cardstock: Bazzill Admiral, Distress Ink core

These chipboard letters are really thick. So, they seemed like the perfect embellishment for an Any Hero card.

Card 3: Hello, Cupcake!

dp: Imaginisce Hello, Cupcake!; cardstock: Distress Ink core; ivory rickrack
Cuttlebug ef; cupcakes fussy cut from coordinating 12 by 12 paper

Since there are several April birthdays on our calendar, I made a second one of these for a friend.

Parting Thoughts

My last post featured a card with one of those adorable kid quotes. Sharon commented that she uses those sentiments on the inside of cards and had never thought of using it for color blocking on the front of a card. That's really interesting since I seldom stamp sentiments on the inside of cards. Most of my cards are sent to Operation Write Home. So, I leave the inside of them blank so troops can write notes to loved ones back home. What a great idea to use these stamps as inside sentiments for cards made for my family and friends. Thanks, Sharon!

As always, thanks for stopping and happy scrappin'!  Have a great week!

Monday Musings -- Another Early Edition

Hi, everyone,

Hope it's been a good weekend for you. The weather is absolutely gorgeous here -- just a tad on the chilly side, but the sun is shining and the windows are open. :)

I'm hoping to work on a design later today for that "My Dad, My Hero" card idea that's been rolling around in my head. But, for now, I have 2 cards to share. So, I thought I'd go ahead and post a little early. If this becomes a habit, I might have to think of a name other than Monday Musings. :)

OWH Sketch #115

Donna is the sample maker for this week's sketch cards -- and they are so cute. I just love the patriotic one! Nice work, Donna!

The card below is this week's Any Hero card. Again, I inked up the inside of the embossing folder. I love the texture and extra dimension that this technique gives. 

Paper: Bo Bunny Liberty, Bazzill Watermelon; Cuttlebug embossing folder; Stickles; Stampin' Up Night of Navy ink

This sketch might make for a great "My Dad, My Hero" card. And, I'll have plenty of patriotic paper to choose from when those Bo Bunny 6 by 6 Liberty pads arrive. Looks like I've got a little designing to do...

CFC46: Name That Tune

This week's CAS-ual Fridays blog challenge  is to create a card inspired by a song. After a little pondering -- and some internet searching -- I decided upon Love is in the Air. A pair of head-over-heals-in-love butterflies immediately came to mind. :)

The next decision was to find just the right paper with just the right color combination. The key palette ingredients were a blue background (so these little butterflies could dance romantically through the sky), a coordinating pattern fit for the lady, and a second coordinating pattern fit for the gent. This BasicGrey paper that I found in that unexpected Tuesday Morning spree a few weeks ago fit the bill perfectly. Finally, the inspirational song title (printed in graceful Lucida Handwriting), parallel flight paths that included hearts and loops, and some champagne-colored heart gems provided the finishing touches.

Paper: BasicGrey Granola 12 by 12 pad; Butterflies: Martha Stewart Punch around the Page; 

computer-generated font; mini champagne-colored, heart-shaped gems

I  debated about adding black rhinestones to ground the corners, but decided against it. It would be a shame if anything took away from the gems on the butterflies themselves. 


Love is definitely in the air for these little creatures. :)

Parting Thoughts

Those of you who show your cards to hubbies might get a chuckle out of this glimpse into my world. Hubby said that as he was driving home from Spring Break he realized he'd gone a whole week without hearing anything about cards, squares, triangles.... (Sound like anyone you know?) I just had to laugh -- and told him that his confession was blog-worthy!

My goal for the week is to have a "My Dad, My Hero" card to show on Friday. Until then...

Have a great week!  And, happy scrappin'!

Friday Night Writes

Hi, Everyone,

Thought I'd publish a quick post before the Buckeyes hit the court in the Big Ten Tournament.  Hope everyone had a great week.  Thanks to everyone who left such kind comments on my blog.

Half and Half OWH Challenge





I mailed my box of half Mother's Day and half general sentiment card challenge to Kris yesterday afternoon -- wanting them to get there in plenty of time for the March 15 deadline.  Almost all of the 40 cards have appeared in previous posts.

A few more of Elizabeth Dulemba's delightful cupcakes made it into the box -- and there will be a few other cupcakes in my next shipment. :)

Kudos to Kathryn

I was feeling pretty good about getting this second shipment of the year in the mail. Last year, not counting the GVD cardmaking party cards, I sent 96 cards to OWH. This year, the count is up to 80 -- plus 10 Any Hero cards!  I know our focus is not supposed to be quantity. But, it's great to be able to send as many cards as possible.

And, then I read Kathryn's post -- sending hundreds of blank cards and hundreds of Any Hero notes. Wow!!!  Well done, Kathryn!

I'm still feeling good -- but not quite as good as Kathryn must be feeling. :)

A New Twist on an Old Favorite

Okay, so I was doing a little mindless channel surfing and came upon a shopping network craft supplies show. While I was resisting the temptation to order those blasted gel pens and telling myself that my Zip'E Mate is just fine for my purposes, I stuck around and watched the Cuttlebug sales pitch. And, then came the "Why didn't I think of that?" moment!

The spokesperson suggested inking an embossing folder before running paper through the machine. So, that's exactly what I did to create the Any Hero card below.

Bazzill cardstock: Watermelon and Admiral
(which are perfect complements for Bo Bunny's Liberty line)
Folder: Cuttlebug; Ink: Stampin' Up Night of Navy
OWH digi, red Stickles for a touch of glimmer

I thought clean-up could be a real mess. But, since the ink is water-based, the folder rinsed clean in a flash.

Hubby seemed to really like this one. I'm going to try to use a similar effect for this month's ODBD challenge.

Speaking of challenges, think I'm going to venture out a little and post this card for this week's challenge at CAS-ual Fridays. Posting to a site other than OWH's Stars and Stripes is a first for me. Must say it's kind of scary...

And, speaking of digis...

The digi in the card above is one of my absolute favorite sentiments to use. Does anyone have a good source for other digital sentiments? Of course, free digis are the best digis of all!

Parting Thoughts

Hoping to get a start on Box #3 this weekend with an ODBD card and a couple more cupcake birthday cards.

Happy scrappin'!  

Sketch 108 = VCMP Challenge 13 = Any Hero Card 7

One last OWH VCMP post.

VCMP Challenge #13 was to make a card with embossing. I chose to make an Any Hero Card using this week's sketch -- and took the liberty of rotating the sketch to make a horizontal card.

Sentiment: OWH Digi,
Cuttlebug star embossing folder,
Paper: Pages of Honor paper from SignifyPink
and navy with stars from Creative Memories

Okay, family Valentine cards and VCMP cards are done. Time to get going on those Mother's Day cards. :)

Happy scappin'!