Happy New Year! And my top ten for OWH

How is it that every year seems to go by a little bit faster? I swear it was just summer. Now the holidays are almost over and it's time to face a new year. I choose to look at it as letting the old year go...I had some huge challenges to overcome, but I came out wiser and know I can face the new year with a positive attitude and a smile!

Over on the Stars & Stamps blog is a challenge to choose our top ten OWH cards for 2011. It was fun going back through my posts and remembering these cards. They aren't in any particular order, but they are my top ten.

Have a safe and fun day. Happy New Year!
Cherie

Crafty Contagion: 12 Days of Christmas

How many of you remember all the words to the "12 Days of Christmas?" Hopefully this newest challenge over on the Crafty Contagion blog will help! Everyone on the DT participated in this one and I think you'll be impressed with what was accomplished.

I had "9 Ladies Dancing" and had the perfect image for it. When I was younger, I loved taking ballet and dressing up as a ballerina. It always made me feel so special. The sentiment is from Studio G and required some masking. The papers and sparkle were already in my stash. I colored her with, of course, Copics.

I wish you all a very merry Christmas!

Cherie

Crafty Contagion: Thankful Challenge

It's time for another challenge over on the Crafty Contagion Blog! This one is all about being thankful. We all have so many things to be thankful for, don't you think? Even though it doesn't always feel like it, we can all step back and realize how lucky we are.

I used the Gina K. set Framed Greetings and colored it with Copics. I had all the papers and ribbon already. The bow is a "fork bow." If you're curious on how to make one, check it out here.

Thank you for taking a peek!

Cherie

Happy Halloween

I hope everyone is having (or had) a happy Halloween. Did any of you dress up? I didn't. Unless it's for a Halloween party, it's just not worth it to me since we don't get any trick-or-treaters.

Today I made some Halloween cards. Nothing like waiting until the last minute, right? My favorite is this little devil. All of the digis are from Bugaboo and I colored them all with Copics. I had all the papers, stamps, ribbons and embellies in my stash. I just love their bobblehead stamps. This card is for my hubby because he is my little devil.

I'm not sure who this one is for. It will probably hang around until next year. Do you have any cards like that? I made the pattern on him using my Colorless Blender.

This witch is so adorable. She looks like she's surfing on a sugar high lol. Those little silver dots are Pearl Pen.

Happy Halloween, everyone!
Cherie

It's time for Pumpkin!

The new Crafty Contagion challenge is all about pumpkin! It doesn't have to be a pumpkin, just anything that makes you think of pumpkin. For me, the first thing that came to mind was the color.

I've never been big on the color orange, except for on an actual pumpkin itself. So, I decided to use the color on something besides a pumpkin.

This is one of my favorite kid digis. I used a piece of Basic Grey double-sided paper. I love how the sides go so well together so I don't have to go searching for a matching paper. I added a cute little bow and some pink/white twine to help make the card a bit more girly. Orange doesn't seem to be much of a girly color to me.

Since I did a girly one, I figured I might as well do a boyish one.

No bow on this one! I used some of my leftover Basic Grey for the background, then added some textured DCVW I've had for awhile. Add on three cute embellies in silver I got on clearance at Michaels and tada! It's much more appropriate for a boy.

And, I broke down...here are some pumpkins...

 I added Stickles to make the pumpkins pop out a bit more, then some pretty twine. It's a pretty, basic card I will be sending out around Thanksgiving time.

Thank you for checking out my pumpkin blog and don't forget to play along over at Crafty Contagion!

Cherie

Crafty Contagion!

I'm so excited to be part of the new challenge blog Crafty Contagion! My crafting group came up with the idea and we're running with it. Of course, we're putting our scissors down before we start running! I know, I know, but I couldn't resist lol.

You should check it out. We'll be doing a new challenge every two weeks. Practically ANYone can do one card in two weeks, right?

Our first challenge is called Twisty Twine. I got so inspired by doing the challenge and seeing the other cards, that I decided to do a couple more. These are birthday cards for my stepsisters who I'm seeing tonight. What do you think?

I had all of the papers in my stash. And I haven't used eyelets in almost forever! Thanks, Kelly, for that idea.

Time to get ready to go. I have a birthday dinner to go to. Have a great week, everyone!

Cherie

Twisty Twine Challenge

I have to admit I've had some baker's twine for awhile now and never really used it. This was a perfect time! The twine part was easy, but what papers was I going to use? I had so many different ideas running through my head. Here's what I came up with:

The patterned papers are from a DCWV six inch pad that I've had for a couple of years. I thought it was the perfect pad to use since all the papers went so well together. It took me a couple of tries to find the right sentiment. The first two I tried just didn't have enough pizzazz. This one is from Stamps by Judith. I added a little dab of pearl pen to give it a bit more jazz. The twine is cream soda from We R Memory Keepers. The plain cardstock all came from my stash and I glued the twine down with Scotch Quick-Dry Adhesive.

I like how this turned out. You can change the papers and use it for male or female, change the sentiment to anything you want. This is definitely one to keep on hand!

Thanks for stopping by,
Cherie

oh happy day

I've been thinking about what to make for our Christmas card this year. In the process, I found this adorable penguin paper and knew I had to get some to make a few winter cards for OWH. I went to a new (new for me) store called Scrap That! and was so glad I did.

The penguin paper is from Three Bugs in a Rug and the polka dot paper is from Bo-Bunny. I cut it out using my Cuttlebug. The ribbon is Celebrate It from Michaels. I used one of the dollar stamps from Studio G for the sentiment and added three Pearl Pen dots in the corner. I didn't want too much bling so it can be used for male or female.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Cherie

One Card = Four Challenges

When I make a card for a challenge, I usually make it for only one challenge. This time I managed to make a card that fits into four of the OWH Birthday Bash challenges!

First of all, let's take a look at the card:

It's my favorite digi again! I love this little dog. When I first saw Ciara's Dog Challenge, this is the image that popped into my head. But I didn't immediately print it out, and that was a good thing. It's not often procrastinating is positive lol.

The next challenge for the birthday bash was to make a card using the Fun Fold. When I first watched this video, I was a little overwhelmed. It looked tricky and a bit time consuming. But I'm so glad I tried it. It's really quite easy and I think the person who receives the card will be pleasantly surprised to see how it opens. Here's a better picture, kind of, of the card opened. I really need to find a better place to take pictures than on my keyboard!

This card also falls under the Paper and Such color challenge. We are supposed to use kraft, red and black or dark blue. I had a whole pack of kraft paper I hadn't even opened, so it was a perfect time to break that plastic. I printed out the digi on kraft paper and colored it with Copics, cut it out, then paper pieced the heart and added Glossy Accents to it.

The last challenge this covers is the Digi Challenge. This one is pretty simple...make a card using a digi. I wish I could remember where I got this adorable dog from. Does anyone out there recognize it?

As for supplies, I already had all of the papers just waiting to be used. The coloring was done with Copics (I love my Copics), the heart has Glossy Accents and the pearls are Obsidian Dimensional Pearls from Martha Stewart that I found on clearance.

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Cherie

VCMP Challenges 13, 14, 15, 16

Yay! I made it through all of the VCMP challenges. This is the first time I've attempted to do that. Let's jump right into it, shall we?

Challenge 13 is at Thinking of Inking. This one took a little thought. It's called Think O-W-H! We were challenged to use at least one thing starting with each letter: O, W and H. I managed to pull it together.

I used a couple of Os...an orange balloon and two different colors of orange paper. For the W and H, you can look at the sentiment. I haven't used brads for awhile, but I knew I had some balloon ones somewhere. You can't tell, but that red balloon has a pretty metallic sheen. The stamps are from SU! Smiles and Smiles II. The dots are black Pearl Pen. I almost added a party hat on top of the head, but didn't want to chance it lol.

Playing with Pictures and Paper has challenge 14 called Cold Temps, Warm Heart. Theresa challenged us to make a winter love card. This was a challenge since my winter/Christmas stamps are all at my mom's house. Thankfully, I had a set of clear stamps handy.

What do you think? I made my own background paper by adding embossed snowflakes. The snowman is colored with Copics. Yes, those are googlie eyes! Both stamps, snowman and sentiment, are from my clear set that I have no idea who makes. I used Sandy's stitching trick by piercing along the edges and using a black pen to connect the dots. I like this one enough to probably make more.

Next stop is Caffeine and Stamps. I enjoyed this challenge (#15) issued by Michelle. Titled Splish Splash, we were to use black and white then add a splash of color.

Polka dots...LOVE them! When I read about the black and white, I knew I had to use this paper. I got it about a month ago at this little store on my way to the ocean. I was so glad I stopped. I mounted it on black card stock and cut out the scalloped circle with a Nestabilities. For my pop of color, I chose to create a Prima flower. I have a lot of these and rarely use them. I think I might be using them more often now. The center is a brad. I like the fact that this card can be turned either way to be used.

Dawn is our last stop on the VCMP tour. You can find it over at The Chatty Stamper. Since I had made it through all of the other challenges, I was determined to finish this one. It's called 1+1+1...use 1 button, 1 tag and 1 chipboard. I actually gave in and went to Joanns today to get some chipboard because I didn't have any! I have to give a shout out to Kathryn who posted on the OWH FB page that I could create my own using thin plain cardboard, like the kind you find on the back of a paper pack and use a die cut or Nestabilities to cut it out. I got that detail after I did my shopping lol but now I know for the future!

Can you see all three elements? The tag is the actual card. I have some pre-made ones and remembered them when I was trying to figure out where to put the tag. The button was originally white, but I used Copics to color it brown so it would blend a bit with the chipboard. Along the edges I used a border punch. I tried running ribbon through the bottom border before I added the top border and it looked really busy. So that's where the top border came from.

Thanks for everyone who visited and played along! I hope you had as much fun as I did.

Cherie

VCMP Challenge #10, #11, #12

Challenge 10 over at Tinkerin In Ink made me ponder for a bit. It's another first for me: a color challenge. Here we go!

First...my card:

I think it was the blue that threw me off. I don't have a light blue in my stash (Hard to believe, huh?), so I went with the closest I had. The best way I could figure to get all four colors in was to do some layering. The patterned paper is Basic Grey that I got on clearance when the closest Paper Zone to me closed. I was so sad! However, now the closest one is only a block or two from Impress Rubber Stamps. That grey cloud certainly had a silver lining.

But I digress. The sentiment is from Hero Arts set Take Good Care Greetings. I kept the design simple. Those seem to be the ones I gravitate towards.

Next we pop over to visit The Sparkle Within. Her challenge is 11th on our list and is CAS. CAS means clean and simple. I enjoyed this one. I had the perfect focal point!

Here's the card:

I love this smiley. It's one of the dollar ones from Michaels. I first had it mounted on white, but it looked kind of creepy and I wasn't going for the Halloween look! So I ripped it off and put it on black. Much better lol. At first I stamped the background with grey happy faces from the SU! Smiles, but it was very distracting. So I flipped it over and used VersaMark embossing ink to make it lighter. The same set also has the sentiment in it. A few runs with some Nestabilites through the Cuttlebug and presto! That grey paper is actually silver. It's doubled because it is so thin. Just looking at it makes me smile.

Zooming over to our next challenge (that's 12 for those of you keeping track), we find ourselves visiting Tami's Craft Connection. The challenge is to make a Daddy's Child card. That's a card a dad can send to his girl or boy back home.

The card I came up with:

It looks a bit busy with all the ruffles and I admit I might have gotten a little carried away. But it looks so perfect for a little princess, don't you think?

I've had these Disney princess stickers since my favorite little girl became a grown up 5 year old and had a princess party that called for a princess card. They quickly became buried on my table and I had to search for awhile to find them. I put Ariel on white to help her stand out from all of the patterns. We don't want her getting lost in the ruffles! I enjoyed using some of my patterned paper scraps. I've started tossing most of my scraps in the recycle bin, but I still have some tucked in my file folders full of paper.

Whew! Only four challenges left to go. How far have you gotten?

Cherie

VCMP Challenge #9: Sketch 86/Any Hero Card

Next up is Challenge 9 using the newest sketch to make an Any Hero Card. I've made a lot of cards for Operation Write Home, but I've never made, or written, an Any Hero Card. For those of you who don't know, these are different than the cards we make so our heroes can write home. They are cards we send to say thank you to our heroes.

My card:

And proof I wrote in it:

It was an easy card to write, especially today when we remember not just the heroes, but everyone, who lost their lives in three separate terrorist attacks 10 years ago.

This doesn't follow the sketch exactly. The thanks stamp, by Impress Stamps, is my favorite thank you stamp. I have to admit..the card reminds me a bit of the Texas flag lol. I embossed the stamp and added the stars from EK Success. It's a simple looking card, I think, but the red, white and blue expresses part of the pride I felt I felt in writing a note to our heroes.

I find myself fighting tears as I remember and send up prayers.

Cherie

VCMP Challenge #6, #7, #8

Goodness, I'm finally done with yesterday's challenges! Challenge 6 is found here on Elizabeth's blog. The challenge is called A Piece of Birthday. It has everyone doing paper piecing to create a masculine birthday card. Let me tell you, this was really a challenge for me. I have a tough time making masculine cards and I discovered quite awhile ago that I don't enjoy paper piecing. But I was determined to try!

Here is the card I ended up with:

It's more of a boy's card than a man's, but it's what I came up with when I plopped myself down at my table.The monster came from the Recollections set My Little Monsters. The Wish Big is from SU! Word Play. The little bursts on the background are a stub from Stamps by Judith. He was just begging for a googlie eye, so naturally I conceded to his wishes lol.

On to Challenge 7: Nontraditional Valentine. It didn't surprise me when I saw Dixie was sponsoring this challenge. What did surprise me were the hearts on her card! Most of us know of her ambivalent feelings about hearts.  It just so happens I didn't use any on my card:

This one was fun for me. I adore the alien with googlie eyes. He is from SU! Make a Monster. Ok, I know, it's supposed to be a monster, but it looks like an alien to me! I wanted to make him pop a little, but with the eyes, I wasn't able to do it. I printed the sentiment out in Word. The patterned paper is BoBunny. This can also be used as a love or miss you card. Don't we love cards that have possible multiple uses?

Over on Sheila's blog is Challenge 7: Take the Scenic Route. This one was hard for me. Most of my stamps don't fall into being able to make a complete scene, but I gave it the old Girl Scout try!

I'm still not completely happy with this card. I think it needs trees in the background, but I don't have any tree stamps and the ones I attempted to draw weren't that great. So I settled for what I had on hand. I could've made a trip to Js or Ms, but that would be way too tempting.

I haven't used this set very often. I got it to scrapbook the pictures from when I was a Girl Scout leader. I honestly don't even know where those pictures are at the moment lol. The set is from SU! and I'm not sure what the name of it is. I colored it all with Copics, cut the images out, and popped up the fire. Since it still needed a little zing, I used black Pearl Pen around two of the corners.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Cherie

VCMP Challenge #4: Pick one and Challenge #5: Falling for You

This is a bit long, so take a deep breath and go for it!

It's day two of the VCMP over at the Stars & Stamps blog. There were eight challenges yesterday, but I only got through three of them. It's time for me to get moving!

In order to do a little catching up, I only did one card for the next two challenges. I actually did challenge 4 last night, but had already shut the computer down for the day so I didn't get it posted. So, let's go...

Here is my card for Challenge 4: Pick One. You can check it out on Julie's blog as well. She challenged us to pick a number then use a sketch from the S&S blog that matches that number. I chose the number 6. I was so glad I picked a low number so I didn't have to scroll through all of them lol.

I've been thinking about tags for a few days, so this was a perfect sketch! I tried three new techniques on this card. The first one is the background paper. I inked up my embossing folder from Sizzix then put my paper in it and ran it through my Cuddlebug. It was a bit messy, but I love how it turned out, even if I did manage to cover most of it up. The clean up of the folder was easy, I simply ran it under the faucet.

The second technique was making my own pocket. It took a bit of thinking on my part. After all, it was late and I was tired. But I managed to make one without any template. It was easy once I realized I needed to leave extra paper to create the flaps to fold under. The last new thing I tried is on the pocket. I ran it through my Cuddlebug with the same Sizzix folder as the background paper. This time, I didn't ink the folder. I dabbed my ink pad over it after it was embossed. I like how it looks. I'll be trying this one again.

The stamp on the tag is from SU! Too Terrific Tags. The red squares are popped with Scotch dimensional adhesive. I already had all of the papers.

My card for Challenge 5: Falling for You follows the same lines as my last one:

The only reason I can think of doing two love type cards in a row is that I'm anxiously waiting for my hubby to come home from Alaska. He's been gone since May and won't be back for another couple of months. This card will go to OWH, but the first one will be mailed to him. Anyway...it's hard to tell but I scored the red paper so the ribbon fits in the middle of the score lines. I ran the ribbon through my printer and it reads "Falling for You."

The theme didn't have to be exactly Falling for You, but it fit my frame of mind. The stamp is from Savvy Stamps. I originally purchased it to use on our wedding invitations, but we ended up going in a different direction. I love all those Xs and Os used to make a heart. I matted it a few times then used Scotch dimensional adhesive to pop it off the card.

I have a feeling I'll be using a lot of red and black in the upcoming months. I got huge reams of both colors on sale at Paper Zone.

I'm off to the next challenges. Have a wonderful day!

Cherie

VCMP Challenge #3: Unique Christmas

It's time for my take on the VCMP Challenge 3! This one is to make a Christmas card using non-traditional Christmas colors.

Here is card one:

Whew! This took more time than I expected, but I should have known better. All of the circles on both cards were cut out one by one since I used my Cuttlebug and Nestabilities. I don't have any circle punches. I also used by Cuttlebug to emboss the background paper. My first thought when I saw this challenge was to use purple. I just happens to be my favorite color. I used one of those dollar alphabet sets from Studio G. Papers and ribbon are from my stash. I like how the pink of the ribbon blends with the background so the hearts pop better.

And my second one:

I borrowed the red, white and blue idea from Barb over at Paper Therapy Ponderings which is our third stop on the VCMP. I love this star ribbon that I got at Scrapbook Nook. Did I mention I like how Christ fits on one line on both cards? It's so easy to get lost in all of the holiday stuff. This is a gentle reminder of what the season is truly about.

It's time for a dinner break. I missed lunch while I was playing along lol. Thanks for stopping by.

Cherie

VCMP Challenge #2: Celebrating Nature!

Time for challenge two in our VCMP! This one is Celebrating Nature...or Au Natural depending on where you look.

My first thought was to use flowers. I have several of those, not just stamps but paper and embellies as well. But, no, it's the end of summer and time to think fall. It's hard since today it's supposed to be over 80 here. Yet I was determined!

Here is my first card:

I have a set of four leaf stamps from Hero Arts that I've never used. I didn't feel any mojo to use them separately, so I used them together, several times. Yes, that's right, I made my own paper. It was fun and fairly quick. I didn't realize how many fall type colors of ink I had. This is from OWH Sketch #69. The brown paper is from my stash, naturally, and the ribbon is American Crafts.

And I made a second card:

On this one, I inked the edges of the white paper so they blended a little better with the brown paper. As you can see, my bow is all over the place, but I like the look. This ribbon is from Ribbon Trends.

I hope you're enjoying the VCMP!

Cherie

VCMP Challenge #1: Garanimals!

This weekend Operation Write Home is having a virtual card making party! That's VCMP for those who haven't figured it out lol. You can find all of the challenges over on the Stars & Stamps blog. Every couple of hours a new challenge will be posted. You can play along with all of them, or pick and choose. It's entirely up to you!

The first challenge is to make a card for a child with an animal. I've had these Disney Eeyore stickers from Sandylion for awhile now. I originally got them to make a card for my mom, and I still have plenty left for when I get around to her card.

Here's my first card:

The background flower paper is from an old Bitty Pad I've had for ages. The other papers are all from my stash. I used two stickers on this card. The flower on his foot is a separate sticker. The sentiment is from the SU! set So Happy For You. I originally stamped it directly on to the purple paper...upside down! Oops lol. I like the way it turned out, though, with the touch of pink pulling in the color from the bow on his tail.

And my second card:

I tried to make this one a little more appropriate for a boy, but I'm not sure it worked. Again, as usual, all of the paper is from my stash. The smile stamp is from SU! Wonderful Words II that I embossed in black. I had a little issue with embossing powder speckles, but I think it still passes muster.

I'm a few hours behind on challenges, so I'm off to see about the next one!

Cherie

Yikes!

I found these cute conversation balloon cards at Joanns today. Eight for $1, so I bought two sets! They already had the "Yikes!" on them and I thought it would be perfect with an "I miss you" sentiment. Of course, I couldn't find any of that sentiment in my stamps, even though I KNOW I have a couple somewhere. So I improvised and used one of the alphabet sets I have. 

I did four different colors of embossing powder: silver, red, purple and turquoise. Purple and silver are shown here. Then I added some cute Halloween embellishments I had. I also used some plain bling (if there is such a thing lol) on a few of the cards so they don't have to be used for Halloween. Fourteen of these will be going to OWH.

Enjoy your Labor Day tomorrow!

Cherie

Howdy!

I can't believe it's September already! Where did summer go? Oh, that's right. We only had a few weeks of summer here. I shouldn't complain, though, because when the sun is shining, this is the most beautiful place in the world! I'm hoping we have a nice warm September. We'll see.

I took a beginning Copic coloring class at Impress last Saturday with my mom. I can't say I learned a whole lot since I've been playing with them for awhile now. I did learn about some good papers to use. After the class, I was ready to tackle this stamp set I've had for a few weeks. It's called Howdy by Hero Arts. It only has three stamps in it, but it was so cute that I couldn't resist it.

I've done three different colors so far. I can't decide which one is my favorite. They're all cute in their own way.

I first stamped the cowgirl, then masked her and stamped the cacti. I wanted to do more than simply having her standing next to a single cactus. I used cardstock from my stash and the white is GP. There's no bling or ribbon added. I figured that might overshadow the girl. I decided to put the sentiment on the outside since these will most likely go to Operation Write Home.

Thanks for taking a look,

Cherie

Dahlia Fold

Here's my first attempt at doing the dahlia fold for a card. I didn't realize it would turn out to be quite so big, but I like it. I'm not sure I want to attempt doing this with smaller circles. My fingers felt clumsy enough as it was! I found the tutorial for it on the OWH Stars and Stamps blog. They have such a wide variety of amazing tutorials over there.

The patterned paper is Glimpses by SignifyPink. The pink background paper is from my stash and I ran it through my Cuttlebug using the Swiss Dots embossing folder. The sentiment is from the SU! set Wonderful Words rounded with a corner rounder. In the middle is a half round acrylic crystal I found at Craft Warehouse in Yakima a few weeks ago. I got a big bag of about 500 for $4. If you tip your head just right, you can see the black cardstock base.

I'm off to try some smaller circles. Wish me luck!

Cherie

Some Fall Colors

Hello, again!

It's hard for me to think fall when we've only had a few weeks of summer so far. In fact, I actually went to Joanns and bought these design papers specifically for a few fall cards. I got 12 of these made and 10 of them will go to Operation Write Home. The other two are for personal use.

I managed to use all of the leaf paper before I remembered I needed to see who made it. Oops, my bad. The stripe paper is from DCWV. The solid orange, yellow and mulberry papers are from my stash. I used Pearl Pen for the circle accents. The water on the leaf is actually Glossy Accents.  

Thanks for stopping by,

Cherie

Thinking of You

Happy Friday, everyone.

I hope you all had a good week. Mine was pretty good. I've been housesitting for my mom and her hubby and it's so different than where I live. It's so quiet. Dare I say...too quiet! At least I have their dog to keep me company.

My mom has a craft room, compared to my little craft corner. But I'm finding it really hard to be creative in there. Maybe I need my cramped little messy corner with everything within arm's length to feel my mojo lol.

So...I took the digis I had printed out and went back home for a few hours yesterday. These are pretty simple, but I still like them.

The digi is a freebie from Paula or you can find it at Operation Write Home under Free Stuff. All of the paper is from my stash. I don't need to buy paper for years!

The first one has some Baker's Twine wrapped around it and tied in a bow. This was definitely a challenge for my lack of bow tying skills.

The second one has some rhinestones added to it. They were from my stash, too. Some of the squares are shiny. The paper came that way. I didn't even have to add Glossy Accents!

The last one has two different sets of silver Pearl Pen dots. The bottom ones were big dots...then I dropped it by accident and they completely flattened. I liked the look so I did it to the rest of that set, too.

Enjoy your weekend,
Cherie