OWH Sketch Challenge #230.

Hello Peeps!

Did you ever have a day when things didn’t go as planned or as expected? Of course you have, we all have. Today is another one of those days for me. It’s actually been more than just today… try all week! [Momma said there would be days like this. But so many in a row??]

I have literally been working on Sunday’s OWH sketch all week. Crooked paper, crooked or half inked stamping, along with other mishaps has turned a simple task like making a two cards seem endless. Yes, I was about to pitch it all until my daddy’s stubborn streak kicked in and I was determined to finish, as the old saying goes, come hell or high water!

This photo looks yellow, but the cardstock and DSP are really a pretty shade of peach. The sentiment is stamped.

Now this one really is yellow in color. The sentiment is a die cut, but I'm not that fond of how it looks. Maybe it's just me.

Thanks so much for stopping by, hope you enjoyed your visit. As always, your comments are greatly appreciated. I always read them and I thank you.

Die-Version Sunshine

Good Morning Peeps! Welcome to my stop on the Die-Version Blog Hop at Operation Write Home, and sponsored by Die-Version. You can visit their shop HERE. If you came here from Lisa’s blog you’re in the right place. If not, you’ll want to start back at the beginning by going to Operation Write Home’s blog, “Stars and Stamps”, which is HERE..

I absolutely love this die and I knew I wanted to do something a little different. I kept it rather plain, only adding an orange ribbon. No bow, knot, or anything else. I backed the die with orange card stock and cut the rays out of yellow and orange. The background paper has bits of yellow and orange that coordinate with the sun. I hope you like it.

You’re next stop is the ever talented, and creative, Mary. Here blog, Come Craft w/Me” can be found at the link HERE..

Enjoy you Hop, there are lots of terrific cards and inspiration. Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed your visit!

A Background and a Sketch

Oh my goodness peeps, I've been busy, busy, busy. Part of my busy has been spent thinking of what I want to make at my 4 Day crop the end of  February. I've narrowed down the kinds of cards I want to make. Now I'll be busy making kits. Before I've always planned on the spot and I don't get very much accomplished. This time I'm going to measure, cut, and punch my pieces parts ahead of time. I'll let you know how it goes.

This week Operation Write Home has Sketch Challenge 209, and ScrapZee has a background challenge going on.

The ScrapZee challenge is to use a corner of a 12x12 design paper as the background of your card. I normally buy design paper with an overall design so I don't have to worry about the pretty corners. So I went with 6x6 paper pads where there are corner designs.

I've had this paper pad a long time so I don't remember who made it. All I did to the paper was add some Glossy Accents by Ranger on the word Love. Since there were already hearts along the bottom edge I punched out some hearts with the Heart punch by Martha Stewart. It also punches hole to thread ribbon, so that's exactly what I did to make the banner. A couple of silver Pearl Pen dots to anchor the ends, and I called it done. Clean, simple, and easy. Using a corner design suddenly became a lot easier.

The Operation Write Home weekly sketch goes together very quickly. I also used a 6x6 paper pad by Teresa Collins, and used a corner for the background. Here's the sketch:

Here's my card.

I love the colors and designs of the paper pad! The long strip on the left side, and the two banners are from the pad. I used a button die from Sizzix and some twine. For the rectangle I used design paper and matted it on card stock. The only thing I didn't do is the three dots and the bottom. I got so wrapped up in this card I didn't even give that element a thought. The center of the rectangle is a very soft gray and white. I left it blank so I could add a sentiment as needed.

I'll leave you with a parting thought: I'll be looking at Designer Series Paper [DSP] with brand new eyes!

Thanks for stopping by, hope you  enjoyed your visit!

I read and appreciate your comments.

Chalkboards and Banners

Howdy peeps! If you're wondering what chalkboards and banners have to do with each other, I'll tell you. Absolutely nothing... unless you are combining two challenges. And  I’m getting a last minute dive for the deadline for both. Nice Marlene, great way to start a new year. L

Last Wednesday the challenge on Operation Write Home's Midweek Throwdown was to make a card using the chalkboard technique. Now, I love how it looks, but have never been brave enough to try it. I Googled "Chalkboard Cards" and found lots of good samples, tutorials, videos, and Pinterest Boards. This technique was lots of fun and now I’m wondering why I was so scared!

Also on last Wednesday was a Banner Challenge on the ScrapZee online group. We were, of course, supposed to use a Banner on a card. So…. by combining both challenges I came up with this card. The background is a pretty “Valentine” red, but the photo has a nasty orange hue.

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed your visit!

I appreciate and real all comments.

Supplies:

Technique Tuesday stamp set, Bright Idea

Hero Arts Stamp&Cut set, Fun Flags [one banner die and 3 banner clear stamps]

Authentique double sided paper, Smitten collection, Fusion & Written

VersaMark Watermark ink pad

Ranger  Sea Foam White embossing powder.

Quick and Easy cards

Hello peeps! I hope you’re all feeling better than I am. I’m having one of my wonky days where my hands are real shaky and I just feel blah! It’s definitely not a good day for making cards, but I made a couple anyway.

I followed the Sketch Challenge 207 over on OWH’s blog Stars& Stamps. I like the simplicity of this sketch and I need to use up some odds and ends of 6x6 papers pads. This seems like a good chance to do both!

I made both a masculine and feminine version. These went together real fast [a good thing], added a few pearl pen accents, then called these done.

Now I’m going to give my shaky hands a rest. Mainly because I'm tired of typing the wrong letters. Lol! Take care of yourselves peeps!

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed your visit!

I read and appreciate all comments.

Combinding Challenges

Good morning peeps! So far this year has been busier than bees! There are two challenges going on over at Operation Write Home [OWH]. There’s this week’s sketch challenge #206, and also the monthly Our Daily Bread Designs [OBDB] monthly challenge

I love the layers on the Sketch Challenge so I had to give it a try. The OBDB Challenge is to use stripes. For some reason I shy away from stripes so I really wanted to try this… combining both challenges into one card really challenged me. However, I had fun and I’m glad I challenged myself to leave my comfort zone.

Links to both challenges:

Sketch #206 - The link is here.

OBDB -  The link is here.

I made three cards. For the first two I played with fall colors and embossing folders, On one my stiped paper is on an angle, while the other has the stripes vertical. It always amazes me how one paper can look so different.

My third card has papers that, believe it or not, have a summer theme. I had to play around with the center circle shape and create a banner.

Thank You so much for stopping by, hope you enjoyed your visit!

I read all comments and appreciate all of them.

Supplies:

First two cards -  Authentique 6x6 paper pad, Collection: Fresh
Third card – Echo Park 6x6 paper pad, Reflections-Fall
Hexagon dies. Scalloped circle punches, baker’s twine.

Welcome 2014

Happy New Year peeps! Wow… where did this last year go?  I like to take New Year’s to reflect back on the last year to review my life in general and my card making. This past year I had some health issues that affected my balance, and that in turn sent my card making mojo into a nose dive.

Before getting into my Top 13 I want to say a huge “Thank You” to all of you who visit my blog and/or are followers. I want you to know how much I appreciate you and all the wonderful comments you have left me.

Operation Write Home [ OWH ] is having a Blog H0hop today to review our top 13 cards of 2013. I’m one of the participants, among many, and there will be a wealth of inspiration for everyone! Be sure to visit OWH’s blog, Stars & Stamps to hop around. The link is here.

I’m sharing my Top 13 cards as examples of what I did to overcome things like shaky hands, vision trouble, and no mojo. I’ve also included some ways I was able to learn and grow as a card maker during the times I wasn’t sick. You’re never too old to learn!

Jan 5^th here. Learning a new Fun Fold card.

 Mar 5^th here. Pushing myself to use papers I don’t think will play together nicely.

Apr 16^th here. I use sketches a lot!

Apr 16^th here. It is hard for me to match greens, so it challenges me.

Apr 21^st here. Pre-colored digital images help save the day from shaky hands.

May 12^th here. Revisit a technique I haven’t used in a while.

May 15^th here. Paula’s monthly Boot Camp series at OWH helped me grow.

May 31^st here. Die cut silhouettes help when my hands are too shaky for coloring.

July 4^th here. I get great ideas from Pinterest.

Sep 11^th here. Paper piecing can save the day. [I don’t color critters very well]

Sep 17^th  here. Take a coloring class.

Oct 5^th here. More paper piecing.

Dec 23^rd here. Another Pinterest idea.

Thank You peeps for stopping by… hope you enjoyed your visit! And…

Happy New Year!

Ringing out the old!

Good morning peeps! Wow... three, count 'em, three days till a brand New Year 2014.  When I was a kid growing up in the 1950's the thought of  living past the year 2000 was... well... science fiction. Ha! I bet I'm not alone here, right?

Today there's a new sketch and challenge over on OWH's blog Stars & Stamps. To see the sketch, with measurements, click here. I tried Sketch 205 to make His & Her missing you cards. Missing You cards are always in need for the troops. I loved this sentiment stamp "I've missed You!" when I bought it. Hmmm... does "I've missed you" mean the same thing as "Missing you"? Let me know what YOU think.

I had to geehaw my card in the embossing folder so the embossing is going at an angle instead of being vertical. Now that it's done I really like the embossing this way... adds more interest.

Thank You so much for taking the time to stop by... hope you enjoyed yourself! I enjoy, and read, all comments and they are greatly appreciated.

Monster Love

Good morning peeps! The sun is shining bright, but boy is it cooooollld here in NE Ohio. A good day for what I planned... staying in and making cards!

I get the monthly card kits from Simon Says Stamps, and my January 2014 kit arrived Thursday. I couldn't wait to play with the new stamp set.The Midweek Throwdown over at OWH had a color challenge of red & white or green & white... but no Christmas cards. Soooo... I snagged OWH's sketch 195 and made this cutie. Love this monster and this sentiment!

All the stamps, including the faux stitching lines, are from the new stamp set. Here's what you get in the January kit:

Thanks you so much for stopping by... hope you enjoyed your visit!

OWH Blog Hop - World Card Making Day 2013

Good Morning Peeps, and welcome to my stop on Operation Write Home's Blog Hop celebrating World Card Making Day. If you got here from the Blog Hop you're in the right place. If you stumbled on here, then welcome. You can start at the beginning of the Blog Hop over on OWH's blog, Stars & Stamps, by clicking Here.

The theme of this Blog Hop is making thank you cards based on one of  OWH"s sketches; post the sketch or link to it in your post. Cards can be thanks cards for our heroes to send – or AnyHero cards with notes inside written TO them!

I chose this past week's sketch #192 for my two "Thank You" cards. 

Here is Sketch 192 that I used for my cards. To see the OWH members gallery with their take on the sketch you can go Here.

As you can see, I flipped the sketch from horizontal to vertical and matted my papers. The mail box and envelope stamps are from Unity Stamps "Sending my Love" stamp set. I paper pieced the outsides of the mail boxes and added a touch of color with Copics. I also used foam tape on the envelope and sentiment for dimension.

Thank You so much for stopping by and taking a look around. I do apologize for the white lines in my post. I don't know how they got there, or how to make them go away. Have a Great Day, and enjoy the rest of the Blog Hop!

OWH Birthday Bash 2013 and Stampers Best

Good Morning Peeps, and welcome!

As the banner says, it's OWH's Birthday this month and today we're having another Blog Skip. OWH has a great partnership with the fabulous Stampers Best. Stampers Best has awesome stamps in their Operation Write Home section. What's more, they donate a portion of the sales of these stamps to OWH. The link for Stampers Best is HERE.

You may have also guessed I'm one of the stops on the OWH Blog Skip. If you got here from Seongsook's blog, you're in the right place. If not, go back to the beginning by going to OWH's blog, Stars & Stamps and start from the beginning. The link is HERE.

I made two Any Hero cards for the troops using this past Sunday's sketch. Any Hero cards are specifically for the troops to let them know I think about them and their service and sacrifice. They keep these cards for themselves. For my first card I chose the set "Turtely Awesome" and paper pieced the turtle. You can find the link for this set HERE.

For my second card I chose the set "Write Soon Minnow", and also paper pieced the minnow. You can find the link for this set HERE.

I opted to keep both cards on the simple side. Card stock by Bazzill. The papers are from a 6x6 pad by My Mind's Eye, called Howdy Doody, from the Miss Caroline collection. I use a little foam tape to pop the turtle and minnow up off the cards.

You're next stop on the blog skip is the talented Cindy. Please visit her blog, Cindy's Card Co, to see what goodness she has created for you. The link is Here.

Let's get united using Unity!

Happy Hump Day Peeps! I hope everyone enjoyed the long Labor Day weekend.

As the banner says, it's OWH's Birthday this month and today we're having a Blog Skip. We're also being sponsored by the fabulous Unity Stamps. The link for Unity is here.You may have also guessed I'm one of the stops on the OWH Blog Skip. If you got here from Kristie's blog, you're in the right place. If not, go back to the beginning by going to OWH's blog, Stars & Stamps. The link is here.

My card is an "Any Hero" card and features a new set by Unity called Forever Grateful for Our Freedom, and I used all 3 stamps. I'll ask you to overlook my crooked sentiment on the largest banner. After umpteen tries to get the sentiment straight I decided, albeit unhappily, to just let it be.

I followed this past Sunday's sketch 187 to create my card using scraps in my stash. Here's the stamp set.

You're next stop on the Skip is the awesomely talented, and creative, Pam. Let me tell you, you're in for a treat! The link to Pam's blog, Airbornewife's Stamping Spot, is here.

Thank you for stopping by, hope you enjoyed your visit!

Happy Hoppin at OWH 4th of July Bloghop

Happy 4th of July peeps!!

I hope you are all having a fun and safe holiday. Today, over at Operation Write Home, we're having a bloghop on the OWH blog Stars & Stamps. Sponsoring the Hop is Tombow Adhesives, who generously provided all of us with product to try. And yes... Tombow is providing Blog Candy. Yay Tombow and Thank You for supporting OWH!!

If you're not familiar with OWH please go to their blog, Stars & Stamps, and start at the beginning. If you're already hopping, and you came here from Marie's blog, you're in the right place.

Tombow sent me a Tape Runner, Mono Multi Liquid Glue, Power Tabs, and Fastener Tabs [like Hook & Loop]. These last two are super, duper slim so they won't add too much dimension. I've used the Tape Runner and Liquid Glue for quite some time and love them both!

For my 1st card I got the idea from a card sample at Archiver's. I love the look of the design and all the white space, which is you friend, adds a clean, crisp look.

On this card I used Tombow's Tape Runner to adhere the papers. I used their Power Tabs, ultra thin dimensional squares, behind the speech bubble and stars.[ Absolutely love this product] For the rhinestones I used some of the Mono Multi Liquid Glue... because mine don't have adhesive on the back.

My 2nd card is one I found on Pinterest. Yes, I actually do get around to making things I've pinned! [grin] I like the CAS look and it will be perfect for Any Hero Mail.

For this card I used the Tape Runner to adhere all the paper layers, and Mono Multi Liquid Glue to adhere the satin ribbon.

You're next stop on the Hop is Laura's blog, Laura Kelley's Inkling. Please be sure to leave Laura, and all the BlogHop Participants, lots of love in the form of comments. We all really appreciate your feedback.

Well, Thanks you for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed your visit. And as I said earlier... have a happy, fun, and safe 4th of July!

Scrappy Trouble

Goooood morning peeps... or should I say afternoon! My oh my, can I find scrappy trouble or what? I made two  cards and the first one turned out like I planned. It's made for Wednesday's MWT over at OWH's blog, Stars & Stamps, here. The theme was transportation. I used OWH Sketch 174 found here.

I'm very happy with how it turned out! [Love it when a plan comes together... lol] The papers I used on both cards, 6x6 double sided papers, are from Simon Says Stamps May 2013 Card Kit of the Month.

The second... oh my! Now, I'm the first to admit I have trouble taking scraps and turning them into a great card. So I challenged myself to make a second card using only the scraps from the five 6x6 papers from card 1. 

I ended up with some pretty odd sizes of paper left over from card 1. Soooo.... I went "sketch hunting" through OWH sketches. I figured Sketch 147, here, would work... almost. But.... ta daaaa... I made a pretty good card! [Oh phooey, she says throwing modesty to the wind] I think it turned out great!!


Papers & card stock - SSS May 2013 Card Kit of the Month
Card 1 - Bicycle die cut from Paper Crazy. flower trinket from Serenade Trinkets by Bo Bunny
Card 2 - Dies Cuttlebug 2x2 sliders die by Provo Carft, ribbon, my stash

Well peeps, as my Great Uncle used to say... "stick a fork in me and call me done". Thank you so much for stopping by... hope you enjoyed your visit!

Memorial Day Weekend Blog Hop

Good Morning Peeps! Are you ready for the biggest and best Blog Hop ever??? Then you're in the right place... almost. This weekend OWH is having their ginormous Memorial Day Weekend Blog Hop! There are over 100 OWH Corporate Partners [companies] and Individual Bloggers [like myself]. If clicking on the badge above doesn't take you to the hop then click here.

The theme is Thank You cards, using one of our OWH sketches. You can find all the sketches by clicking here. Our Heroes always need Thank You cards to write home in. What is really needed now are Any Hero cards. It's hard to believe some heroes get very little mail, so Any Hero mail lets them know someone cares about them.

 I made my card using Sketch #81, and there is a friendly note from me to cheer up a Any Hero.

I used a die to cut the star and backed the opening with DSP. Yep, it's the same as my photo background. You can see the original OWH Sketch Challenge for this card by clicking here.

Thank you so much for stopping by. Hope you enjoyed your visit! Now go, scoot, get to hopping!

Supplies:
Dies - Stars by Sizzixs, Top Note by SU
Stamp  - from the Mar 2013 card kit by Simon Says Stamps
Embossing folder - A2 stars by Cuttlebug
Scrap DSP - "Glory" collection by Authentique
Cardstock - by Bazzill

His & Hers Cards

Howdy peeps! The weather has been so beautiful here in NE Ohio, except for today. :(  It's been rainy, cold, and damp. BUT... this is Ohio so I'll just hang around a day and the weather will change.

I haven't been around much lately. Not because I don't want to, but I just haven't had the energy. I battle on and off with depression and it has been acting up. A lot of it is situational, meaning certain things going on will make it worse. Right now it's issues with my mom, who is 90, and in the nursing home. She's had slight dementia for awhile but right now it's starting to get a little worse. Mom know exactly what she want to say but can't say the words. She knows what is going on with her and gets, understandably, upset. So sad!

Hoping to get on a brighter note: My doctor increased my med dosage and I'm starting to have some desire and energy again. I'd like to share with you 8 cards I just made. I made them for this week's Midweek Throwdown [MWT] on OWH's blog Stars & Stamps. The challenge is to make two cards, one for Him & and one for Her, using the same layout. You can find this challenge here.

The layout is one Kristina Werner used in the Online Card Class I took recently. Ironically enough the class was titles "His & Hers". The classes are fantastic and a great source for learning and inspiration. I used to following 6x6 paper pads: Set 1, Indie Chic Nutmeg by My Minds Eye; Set 2, Renew collection by Authentique; Set 3, Hope collection by Authentique; Set 4, Hers, Carefree collection  and His,Original collection, both by Authentique.

The background paper is cut at 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" and I used two border punches for the sides. Hers is by Fiskars and His is by EK Success. The white strip is 2" x 4 1/4" with rounded corners on one end. For my ribbon I used a 1 1/2" circle punch and a 2" scalloped circle punch, both by Fiskars. The banners on the ribbon are cut at 3/4" with one end cut to make the V. The sentiment is from Very Special clear stamp set in the Jan 2013 SSS card kit of the month.

Well, that's about it for me. Thank you all for stopping by, hope you enjoyed your visit!