Happy Everything

The June mid-month throwdown over at Operation Write Home is to make a card with a banner. This wasn't a problem at all since I love banners on my cards! I used a set of Clearly Inspired clear stamps I recently bought at a crafty yard sale to make the banner. The set was so old it was very sticky and one of the stamps tore in half when I took it off the block. Thank goodness I'd already stamped it!

The inks for this are all SU: Old Olive, Elegant Eggplant and Pumpkin Pie.  The sentiment is by Paper Smooches and I added a little bling from Triveni. I made sure when I attached the banner that the card would still fit in an A2 envelope. The idea for this came from Pinterest.

ODBD Miss You

It's been awhile since I've done a card for this challenge, but I'm doing my best to Finish Strong for Operation Write Home. The June ODBD challenge is to make a miss you card. For this one, I used some scraps of striped paper for the stars along with basic black and white. The bling is Triveni and in two different sizes. The sentiment is Hot Off the Press stamped in VersaMark Onyx Black. I CASE'd this card idea from here.

2014 Favorite Cards for OWH

It's that time of year again...time to pick my top favorite cards I sent to Operation Write Home. Here they are in no particular order:

1. Swish Swish...original post here

2. Swirly Birthday...original post here

3. Missing U...original post here

4. Eye Heart You...original post here

5. Lucky stars...and polka dots...original post here

6. Bright Miss You...original post here

7. Merry Merry Monday 101...original post here

8. Hello Handsome...original post here

9. Round the Clock...original post here

10. Can't wait to hug you...original post here

11. Blue Hugs and Kisses...original post here

12. Pink and grey miss you...original post here

13. OWH VCMP Challenge Cards, Day 3...original post here

14. Nature for Dad...original post here

Birthday Butterflies

At first glance, this looks like a pretty boring card, no sentiments or embellishments. However, this card is made from a napkin. That's right, a napkin! 

I recently went to a three day crop at an LSS and they had this cool free demo. It involves napkins and beeswax and an iron. You divide the napkin up until it's only one layer and then iron it onto paper using wax as your adhesive. Then you add more beeswax on the top to give it a great texture and you can trim it to whatever size you want. 

This card was a birthday card for my brother's girlfriend. Not only is it the wrong size for Operation Write Home, but it also uses wax which would melt too easily in some locations that cards are sent to.

Add 'Em Up!

Welcome to your next OWH VCMP challenge! I hope you've been having fun playing along. You can find all of the challenges here as they become available.

My challenge for you is to make a Miss You card using at least one circle and at least two banners. As you can see, I've used two circles and two banners on each card. I chose to use MFT sketch 180. The striped Echo Park paper is so vibrant and goes perfectly with these adorable Eyelet Outlet monster brads. I heat embossed the Stampabilities sentiment with Recollections Snow. To make sure the sentiment was placed correctly since it's on a wood block, I used my trusty Stamp-a-ma-jig. 

Have fun, everyone!

An InLinkz Link-up

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My Dad My Hero

Today I have a simple card for dad to share with you. As Father's Day approaches, it reminds me that our troops also need year round dad cards. So I made a few of these for my Operation Write Home box using a Hampton Art stamp I found in a clearance basket. After using a Cuttlebug embossing folder for the background and some star brads from my stash, I added the black strips to emphasize the focal point.

A good idea

It's more of that Me & My Big Ideas mustache paper and another Momenta embellishment. I'm really happy with these embellishments because the whole thing is sticky on the back and the perfect thickness for Operation Write Home cards. 

#1 Mom

When the Operation Write Home Mother's Day and Father's Day deadlines were looming ever closer, I was working on some cards for those special days, as well as cards that have a mom or dad sentiment. So...here's a card you could send your mom at any time of the year. I started with SU Circle Circus and stamped it in Memento Lilac Posies, Color Box Violet and Powder Puff Lemonade. Next was trimming it down and adding the squares to a piece of popped up white. Then I added the Fiskars sentiment in black, but it looked way too harsh against those pretty colors. I tried it again with SU Tempting Turquoise and it looks so much better. This is my version of a card I found here. 

I love you more

Here is a simple card that says a lot. I used some Darice papers and a Darice embossing folder. The sentiment is by Impression Obsession and Spellbinders were used for the circles. I made several of these in different colors (greens and blues) for Operation Write Home and was assured by my hubby that they will work for masculine as well as feminine. What do you think? 

An Insect For You

Over at the Operation Write Home blog, the April ODBD challenge is INSECTS. Bugs? Yuck! But then I remembered this cute pin I made and decided to join in. All of the design papers are from a SU 12x12 pad. I used a Fiskars sentiment stamped in VersaFine Onyx Black. Those brads are American Crafts and the googlie eyes are from my stash.

Circle Circus for Mom

I think SU Circle Circus has become my new favorite set. It's so fun to use and makes wonderful backgrounds. I stamped the black circles first, then the bigger circles in SU Rich Razzleberry and the small circles in SU Old Olive. The colored papers are both Bazzill and I used Spellbinders to make the circles under the sentiment. The sentiment and sentiment punch are both SU. The ribbon is from my stash and the bling is Triveni. There are eight of these for my next Operation Write Home box. 

Each day...

I had fun with these cards, matching embossing folders with the Simple Stories paper designs. I added some ribbon to help pull the eye to the Impression Obsession sentiment. I ended up with six of each style to send to Operation Write Home.

Friendly Kid Card

I've had this EK Success Sesame Street paper for a couple of years and it was time to use it! The front side had all kinds of character squares on it and the back is the striped background. The Stampendous sentiment is heat embossed to give it a shiny look. I managed to get eight of these made for Operation Write Home, all with different characters on them.

Mother's Day Circles

I made three of these for Operation Write Home. I love the Color Box Cat's Eye stack of inks I used. They're so bright and spring like, don't you think? And I really enjoy making my own background papers. I think the SU Circle Circus is a perfect set to use for them. The ribbon is from my rather large stash, the ovals are done with Spellbinders and the sentiment is Fiskars. For the corners, I used a Tonic punch I always seem to forget about. Oh, I used a pin from Pinterest for inspiration and I'm entering this in the Midweek Throwdown over at OWH.

Seahawks and Christmas

Over at Operation Write Home, they're having a Card Bowl all weekend. There will be a new challenge Friday through Sunday. How fun is that?

Today's challenge is to make a card using the colors from either team playing in the Super Bowl this year. Since my team didn't make it, I decided to go with the home team and make a card using Seahawks colors. Not only that, but I used the new CAS(E) this Sketch and used an ornament for the Merry Monday challenge. I love being able to incorporate more than one challenge in a card!

I started with some blue, white and neon green (it really is neon in person) papers and worked from there. The snowflake punch is from Martha Stewart and the dies are Sizzix. I chose a sentiment by Mama Elephant and stamped it with VersaFine Onyx Black. For a bit of bling, I added some shiny silver stickers from Stampendous.

I already know who these two cards are going to: my dad and my brother. Enjoy your weekend!

Somebunny needs a hug

Oh my, this card was fun to make. I've never been a fan of paper piecing, but this one was fun. I have several of these My Favorite Things Flopsey sets and this one is perfect for a few challenges this week. 

The patterned papers are all Stampin' Up. Both stamps are from My Favorite Things and stamped with VersaFine Onyx Black. I added some baker's twine to repeat the stripes. The other papers are black and white card stock. Oh, and kraft paper for the bunny.

This card fits the January ODBD Challenge: Stripes over at Operation Write Home (three different colors of striped paper). It also works for A Blog Named Hero Challenge #35 to use One & Four (I used four patterned papers and a one word sentiment). Last, but not least, it works the the CAS-ual Fridays CFC125: In A Word (hugs).

OWH Top 13 Bloghop

It's that time of year again. Time to look back and remember all of the cards we've made and choose our favorites. Here are mine! Just click the picture to go to the blog post.

One: This one is way out of my comfort zone but I love how it turned out.


Two: I love this design. It's so fun and can use so many different patterns and sentiments.


Three: Who doesn't love Sylvester?


Four: I'm still in love with hexagons. This one really pulls out the colors in the paper.


Five: These turned out so cute for kids.


Six: This royal purple with matching inked sentiment looks gorgeous with my favorite winter paper.


Seven: The simplicity of this makes me smile.


Eight: This sketch goes perfectly with the polka dot paper and uses one of my favorite stamp sets.


Nine: I made a mask from my hexagon punch for this one. The colors are so pretty and I got to use so many of my thank you stamps.


Ten: I just love the look of those eyes with that sentiment.


Eleven: The sketch fits these Doodle Pantry papers, image and sentiment perfectly.


Twelve: I can't leave out one of my favorite techniques...using the owl punch as a reindeer.


Thirteen: I like the lines and patterns on this simple card.


Have an amazing 2014! I wish you happiness and success in all you choose to pursue.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

I love finding new uses for punches and dies. This is my SU owl punch with the little feet chopped off to make a reindeer head. The antlers are parts of snowflakes I chopped up. There was a lot of chopping going on with these cards since I made 31...six for me and the rest for Operation Write Home.

The brown paper is Recollections and has a linen texture. The red and green papers are Bazzill as are all of the patterned papers. The gold scalloped circle is DeNami paper and the white circle/sentiment is SU Whisper White. I also used a SU punch and sentiment stamp while the ink is VersaFine Onyx Black. The eyes have a very thin dot of Pearl Pen and I used my Copic Multi liner to draw his smile. Isn't he just so cute?

 

 

Have you started your holiday cards yet? Thankfully, I'm done with mine and can focus on making cards for gifts.

Sporty Missing You

Operation Write Home is always in need of more boy/man cards, so while I was out of town this last weekend, I made sure to visit the LSS there and pick up some non-girly paper. This piece is from K & Company and I paired it with some Bazzill scraps while using Freshly Made Sketch 103. The background is dry embossed and I made sure to stamp the Hero Arts sentiment before running it through my Cuttlebug. The brads are American Crafts. This card fits the current OWH MWT to use dry embossing perfectly.

 

Don't forget to take the time to get inky this week.

Many Authentique Thanks

Today I chose OWH sketch 151 and some 6x6 Authentique Loyal papers. I love how these two pieces seem to flow together and look like one piece. The blue and green circles are Bazzill and cut with Nestabilities. The DeNami sentiment is stamped in SU Old Olive and SU Night of Navy onto some ivory card stock. The circles are all popped up with some Scotch adhesive.

 

Are you ready for Halloween? Have you mailed your spooky cards yet?