Soldier Thank You

Wrapping up the Memorial Day Holiday Week, I am working on my box of Operation Write Home cards that will be sent for the last time on August 1.  I am happy the need has diminished to the point of OWH ceasing to exist, but am sad because I enjoyed making and sending cards to the soldiers to write home with, and making Any Hero cards for the soldiers themselves.  THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE!!!!

Kraft cardstock layered on dark brown cardstock.  I used  Sticko stickers and layered the Proud USA Cheery Lynn die on top of the tank.  The "dog tag" is a sheet metal oval from Imagine Crafts that I added the American Soldier sticker on and secured it with natural hemp cord.  Sentiment from Hero Arts Operation Write Home Everyday Sayings stamped in black.

Entered in Cherry Lynn Designs challenge:http://cheerylynndesigns.blogspot.com/search/label/challenge

Gears

Inprovise!  That's the word of the day.  I love this gear embossing folder, and I really like the gears stamp too.  Now if only I had some gears to add....I made them out of washers and put a brad in the center of each.  I love them!  

Entering this into The Kraft Journal - Use Embossing challenge and
V's Sweet Ideas - "Emboss It" challenge

Kraft Background Cardstock
The Paper Studio Gears Embossing Folder
Stampabilities Gears Border stamped in White Pigment Ink on a darker Kraft paper
and heat set with clear embossing powder
Hello tag and twine from my stash

You Rock!

Another "scrap" card!

Inspired by the beautiful southwest colors.  I love the southwest and go hiking there any time I can.  Those red rocks give me such energy.  I remember seeing jeeps and trucks on the slick rock near Arches National Park in Moab, UT.  Disclaimer: I'm not a fan of destroying the rock, but if they stay in designated areas they were having a lot of fun.  I prefer the peaceful silence.

I tore some striped scraps that were exactly the right color, against a Fiskars scallop tear edger, inked the torn edges and made the rocky surface.  All die cuts are from an Impression Obsession die (Classic Truck 218-I).   The truck was on a red scrap, hubcaps and bumpers were cut on a scrap of mirrored paper, and the tires were cut on a scrap of black paper. "Wooden" rail cut from a scrap of kraft paper.  Even the twine was a scrap that was laying on my desk.  Sentiment from Fiskars, In Search of Adventure, popped up on foam tap and added a small silver brad.

Could be used for any kind of "guy" card; Birthday, Father's Day, Just because!

Adding this to Mod Squad Challenge - Masculine and Cards in Envy - Hey Dude

#1 Teacher

Always Playing with Paper Challenge #36  Celebrating Teachers

Though I don't have any school aged children now, I think teachers are worth their weight in gold.  I couldn't do it for one day!  This is my shout out to all teachers everywhere....THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO FOR OUR CHILDREN!

The card is loosely based on Sketch #154 from Operation Write Home that my friend, card mentor, and teacher created. Giving a very special shout out to Bobbi (bobbistreasures.blogspot.com) for getting me in to all of this paper crafting!!!!
 

Made using only paper from my scrap box (no new paper was harmed) ha ha
some stickers from my friend Bobbi
The only purchased item is the Gold Star from Mixed Spangles

Hog Wild CAS

Since I am in love with the stamp die combos that are available, I decided to join the Stephanie Barnard - The Stamps of Life Die Hard Club where you get a stamp/die combo every month.  Plus it's only $1 shipping and you get discounts on anything else you buy.  Great deal, right?

I am also VERY CAS (clean and simple) challenged.  I like (love) bling and lots of layers, embellishments, patterned paper, etc.  When I saw the challenge from Addicted to CAS, I wondered.....can I possibly?

This is what I came up with.  Plenty of white space, no bling, super simple.  As CAS as I can :-)

Sending Love your way

I'm on a mission to make as many cards as I can for Operation Write Home before it disbands later this year.  (see the info below).  OWH had a Blog Hop on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, but I missed it, so I'm doing my part now.

OWH Memorial Day 2015: Finishing Strong!

Operation Write Home, a charity that has supported heroes with handmade cards since 2007, will be closing later this year. It is an organization that has been near and dear to many of us card makers.

I'm helping to get the word out that ALL cards need to be sent in by August 1st!


Entering this card in the Unity Stamp Challenge.

Dark gray and White Core'dinations Card Stock, Arrow paper from My Mind's Eye,  Unity Stamps-Sending My Love, stamped with Versamark and heat set with embossing powder.  Mailbox panel colored with a combination of Spectrum Noir markers and some old kids colored pencils.  Panels are popped up with foam tape.  I cut a slit in the mailbox and slid the card that is heat embossed in turquoise, and added a tiny enamel heart on the card in the mailbox and some turquoise and yellow twine at the top of the card.  

Smile!

I've been on a quest to figure out how to make a shaker card.  Seemed like it shouldn't be so hard, right?
Tried cutting some circles with the big shot on some clear transparency paper (remember that?) from my friend, Bobbi, but had no luck at all. I just couldn't cut a clean circle.  Ok, there has to be another way to make a shaker without a circle.  I mean, why does it need to be a circle?  It doesn't !!!!

Then I remembered I had these really cute frames from Jillibean and thought that would work really well as the window.  When I saw the Words to Scrap by Challenge #17 - Say Cheese!  I also remembered one of the frames had the word "smile" cut out. Perfect!  I went through my 6x6 pads and found a sheet that had cameras on it.  Perfect again!  All the parts seem perfect, but alas, the card is not so perfect :-(
I used foam tape to pop the frame up, but I'm not crazy about how you can see the edges of it all the way around.  Found out the transparency paper has kind of a yellowish cast to it which I didn't like against the white of the frame and the white in the patterned paper so I sponged some turquoise, green, and teal ink around the frame to break up the white a bit.  Added some sequins and jewels and a stamped image of a camera in the window.

What I've found out since (Youtube) appears the most successful way to make a shaker card is to use fun foam rather than foam tape to pop your window up.  I am going to go buy myself some white fun foam tomorrow and try this again.

Say Cheese!

Time to try this shaker thing again!!!!  I went to a card class on Saturday and while I was at the store I saw these shaker pouches from Impression Obsessions.  They are called "Shake It" and come in circles and squares.  I picked up the small circles.

I won 2 prizes from 2 different stores from a shop hop last week.  One of the prizes was a 4 pack of paper pads, 2 12x12 and 2 6x6.  Wow, what a nice prize!  In one of the 12x12 packs there was a great piece of black and white paper with cameras on it.  Thought this would work great for the Words to Scrap by challenge - Say Cheese! I added red sequins, some mirror squares, and some black beads.  I stamped "smile" on the shake it front and wiggled it a bit so it wouldn't be so straight, just like all the pictures I take, LOL.  It needed more color, so I added some additional red sequins outside of the shaker pouch.  I also had these black and white paper bows that I'd never tried so I thought a polka dot bow would look kinda cool.

Not sure I like this one any better than the other shaker card I made.  Gotta give that fun foam a try and see if it works any better than either of my two attempts.

Freedom-Memorial Day

Made this great patriotic card at a class I went to.  Of course, I just had to buy that fabulous United States die.  Isn't this a great card for Memorial Day?

Bokeh

House of Cards:May challenge Bokeh effect

A few weeks ago I was in the Cincinnati, OH area and was able to take a class with my friend Bobbi and my granddaughter at Simply Said Stamps in Loveland (fabulous store by the way!).  The class included the Bokeh technique, but could I remember how to do it when I saw the challenge at House of Cards?  Of course not!  Off to Utube I went.  Did I have a circle stencil?  No!  Did I have any daubers?  No!  Did I have any water color paper?  No!  Hmmmm....maybe this isn't the challenge for me!  But, I wanted to do it....

A quick trip to Michael's got me some water color paper.  They had no daubers and I forgot about the stencil when I was there.  So, I made my own stencil and used a piece of a sponge for a dauber.  The only white ink I had was a pigment pad in frost white and some white craft paint, so I tried both.  The background is made with a new product called Color Burst that I got at a shoppe hop yesterday.  

Here's the outcome.  Not quite as much white as I wanted, but my handmade stencil wore out.

Best Together

For The Crooked Stamper CSSC # 4 (Sketch Challenge)

Handmade purple paper layered on silver mirrored paper.  Big, bold Sentiment from Heidi Swapp (Words) stamped with silver pigment ink and heat embossed with silver embossing powder.  Silver ribbon and bling. Silver butterfly stickers from Stamp on It.  I think it would make a nice wedding or anniversary card.

I Ruff You

Kraft Challenge - You pick 3 - I chose Stamped, Pink, and Buttons with a bit of Mint Green too!

I used a scalloped Kraft A2 Kraft card and put a strip of pink behind the scallops.  The stamp is "I RUFF YOU." from Unity.  All of the layers are from my scrap stash and the buttons from my button stash.  I colored the dog with Spectrum Noir markers.

I then made the same card in a masculine version and will enter both in the May Mid-Month throwdown - His and Hers - Make a Masculine and a Feminine card using the same card layout/design.

Sunflower

Three of our local scrapbook/card shops had a Shoppe Hop where you go to each of the three different stores and make three cards at each store.  One of the stores always has a great technique for you to learn, or a new product to use.   For this one, we made three cards using a product called Color Burst, which is a powder you tap or gently shake on water color paper that has been spritzed down.

It's almost planting time here in MI and my flower seeds are ready if the ground ever warms up.

I love the way my sunflower turned out.

Entering in the Cards in Envy-When Nature Calls challenge

Birds of a Feather

Just in time to use some of my new stuff, I found 2 challenges using birds....Perfect!

Also entering in Moving Along with the times - Birds and Feathers

Super clean and simple, one layer only.  I thought it would be a cute card for a male friend.

Spellbinders in'spire Birds on a wire die and Stephanie Barnard Stamps of Life Birdcage sentiment that I masked off and only used half.  Yellow birds perched on a piece of black and white twine.