OWH Sketch #131 & sending off my cards!

I'm getting my cards ready to send off to OWH and when I counted them, I had 84.  Gee...I was hoping to have at least 100.  So, I'm going to make more cards today and get that number higher!  I used sketch #131 to make these four Congratulations cards:

I used an SVG file to cut the Congrautlations sentiment on my Cricut.

Here's the sketch, which is very helpful to use up my scraps.

I'll tuck in a few Any Hero cards into my box and off they go tomorrow to my shipper!

Hope you're enjoying a relaxing Sunday.  I enjoyed a brunch with my children and need to squeeze in some sewing today too!  I need another weekend day off!

Thanks for looking!



OWH Midweek Throwdown

Hi bloggers!  I'm feeling quite happy because I've managed to fit in scrapbooking along with a bit of cardmaking this week (actually, a little less guilty for being so far behind scrapbooking). 

This week's OWH Midweek Throwdown challenge is to make cards of encouragement. 

I cut balloons from Lettering Delight's Balloon Craze for these cards, along with the loopy frame behind them.  The stamp set is from Papertrey Ink - framed out #5.  I love the little "Follow your dreams" sentiment - it just seems like a balloon would go with that to remind you to take flight with your dreams!

Here are my two cards:

Now I'm off to make a few more balloons.  My next goal is to make some "Missing You" cards since Sandy Allnock posted a need for those on the Homefront Blog.  It's still too hot to make holiday cards - 102 degrees here today in the Carolinas!  Ugh!

Thanks for your lovely comments....I truly appreciate them!

OWH Sketch #130

While I'm working on my scrapbooks, I still enjoy fitting in at least one card!  Today's OWH Sketch was great!  Everyone who's made a sample has really taken the sketch into a different place and I enjoy seeing what the other talented ladies do. 

I had some leftover paper from one of my scrapbook pages and used it to make this card:

I colored in the word "Happy" to make it stand out.  Here's the sketch, which started as a vertical card:

The paper and embellishments came from one of the Apron Strings kits that I subscribe to.  I've tried other kit clubs, but theirs is the best!  I love the papers and embellies...but I need to use them and get CAUGHT UP!!!  Haha....I'm a-workin' on it!

Hope everyone had a great weekend.  Our big accomplishment is that our son passed his road test and is now a licensed driver!   Up goes my insurance!



Squeezin in some scrapbooking....

Our online card class is coming to an end..boo hoo.  To get myself caught up on my scrapbooking, I'm taking another online class - 28 Days of Sketches.  I've got to get caught up - I'm scrapping pictures from 2008 and need to work on my son's Boy Scout album, my father in law's heritage album and my 2010 picture-a-day album.  Wowza. 

This will be my first online scrapbooking class.  I don't know if I'll be able to put my card-making addiction aside too long, but I'm going to give it a try!

Here we go.....



OWH Midweek Throwdown - Color Challenge

This week's OWH Midweek throwdown is a color challenge - use complementary colors.  I was working on making "Unfrog-getable" cards and changed up the colors for the challenge.  My first card uses the red (primary) and green (complementary) colors.  The stamp is from My Pink Stamper and I stamped it four times - something I've learned from the Stretch Your Stamps class:

My second card is another version with a different background.  Sometimes I just gotta switch from all that stamping to paper piecing and I think these cards would be great for someone to send to a child.

Thanks for looking!

Stretch Your Stamps - Day 7

I'm catching up with class from Day 7.  Here are my two cards - one using the floral stamp as a background and one as the main image. 

I embossed the flowers in white and then used different Smooch inks to color the flower.  I didn't want to embellish it too much since it's a Sympathy card.  I think it's important to leave Sympathy cards as simple as you can.

Thanks for looking!



OWH Sketch 129/SSS Day 6/Organizing

It took 3 cards before I was satisfied with OWH's Sketch #129:

The last one is my favorite.  And here's the sketch:

I really like this sketch because it uses up scraps and I'm really building up tons of scraps!

As if my weekend wasn't busy enough, I decided to organize my Cricut cartridges - for the third time!  I was storing them in the Artbin containers, but was frustrated because they took up a lot of room.  So, I cut out little boxes for them (using a cut file from Dtsart) and stored them in a shoe box from the Container Store:

I also made boxes that hold the cartridge booklet and overlay and stored them in memory boxes:

I'm going to use the empty Artbin containers to store paper kits in (I removed the inserts).  I think this will work better for me.  As I was organizing them, I realized that there are cartridges that I've never used.  Awful!  I need to pull those out and cut out some images! 

Finally, I managed to make a card using an example from Kristina in day 6 of the Stretch your stamps class.  Kristina made a rainbow background using markers, however, I wanted to try a technique called Rainbow Distress Inking by Shari Carroll in her video here: Rainbow Distress Inking.  I rubbed the inks on my craft sheet and then pushed my floral stamp into them, then onto the watercolor paper.   I couldn't leave all that ink on the mat, so I squirted water on the ink and pulled another white card through the ink.

Then I cut out the butterflies from the second paper, embossed the image on top and used one of the sentiments to add to the card.  It really came out great and I absolutely love the dies:

Whew!  This was a busy weekend and I need to go back to work tomorrow to recover!  Ha ha!  I hope everyone had a great weekend.  It was so much cooler here in South Carolina, but not enough to spend any time outside! 

Thanks for looking and reading this long post!



Catching up on challenges....

With the online class I'm taking (Stretch Your Stamps), I'm falling behind in keeping up with card challenges, so I'm going to post several cards today.  Here's my contribution to last week's OWH Midweek Throwdown (Christmas in July):

I have no idea who makes the paper, since it was a gift from Simon Says Stamp because one of the stamp sets I ordered was on back order.  I used the Blackletter Cricut cartridge to make the word "Joy".

On to another challenge!  Although I don't participate in Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2012, I always check out his creations.  I loved the technique for July's tag (here: July 2012 tag) - spraying ink with an air compressor to make a sprayed effect.  I made this card using that technique:

It was really fun and I'll be using this again.  I sprayed so much that the can of compressed air actually got frosty!  I'm going to enter this in the layered challenge at the Simon Says Stamp and Show Stamp and Show - my first time entering a challenge there!

I'm working on several cards using today's OWH sketch and will post those later.  I'm not yet satisfied with any of them.....but each one is better than the one before!

Thanks for looking!





Stretch Your Stamps - Day 3 & 4

OK - Day 3 of our online card class - Stretch Your Stamps - didn't go so well for me.  My first two attempts were bad - the card on the left is boooooring and the one on the right is just all wrong!  But, I'm not afraid to show my failed attempts:

The purple and yellow??  Yuck.  These cards were modeled after one of Kristina Werner's videos - A Year in Cards (she makes it look sooo easy).  So I tried again and embossed "thanks" this time.  It came out much better:

I also had a version where I used Staz On opaque ink that was an absolute disaster!

On to day 4....and lo and behold, Julie Ebersole shows a card using Staz On opaque ink!  Now, I've tried using this ink several times, giving up and putting it away in total frustration.

Julie showed us how to stamp the Staz On acetate using a graphic stamp and voila!  It worked!  On my first try! I am so pumped.  Here's my card using the Staz On ink:

Thank you, Julie!  I feel like you made this video in my hour of need and got me thru my Staz On ink difficulties!  Haha - I make it sound serious, but I am happy about this timely lesson.

OK.  I feel like a load  has been lifted....I won't throw my Staz On ink away now (which I had been contemplating.....)





Stretch Your Stamps - Day 1 & 2

Class started yesterday and I'm loving it!  There are so many techniques and fun things to try.  I don't want to give too much away about the techniques, so I'll just pop in the cards.

Day one - lattice background with double stamping

Day two - embossing resist with color blocking

I'm going to enter the above card in the ODBD challenge on the OWH blog.

Thanks for looking!

OWH Sketch #128

Hi everyone!  I made a card using the latest OWH Sketch - #128 . Something about the sketch made me think of a musical score, so I cut black paper and embossed with the musical Cuttlebug folder.  I cut small music notes on my Cricut about three times because I couldn't get the size right for the card!

This is the sketch:

Since I cut out so many music notes, I used the extras to create another card.

Today we start the latest Online card class called "Stretch your Stamps".  It should be a lot of fun and I hope to learn new techniques that I can use to make more OWH cards!

Here in South Carolina, 500 National Guard soldiers are going to Kosovo on a peace keeping mission (the article is here: SC Guardsmen) and my thoughts and prayers are with these men and women.  It motivates me to keep helping in whatever way I can.

Happy Monday to ya'll from sweltering South Carolina!



Midweek Throwdown Challenge at OWH

This week's MWT challenge is Anniversary cards.  I jumped right in and made a few cards using supplies from the June Simon Says Stamp card kit.

This is the feminine card:

Here's a different one, more old-fashioned looking.  I made 4 cards and used up an entire spool of ribbon!  Yeah!  Now I can go buy more ribbon (as if I really need an excuse)!





Clean & Simple #197

Hi everyone!  I hope you're enjoying your holiday - I'm trying to avoid the 100 degree South Carolina heat today.  It's a great time to catch up making cards for OWH.  I found inspiration using the latest Clean & Simple sketch - Sketch 197.  Here's my card, using scraps from the May Simon Says Stamp card kit:

I'm trying to use up every little scrap, but I really need to get over it and purge the tiny bits of paper that I'm not going to use!  When I first saw the sketch, I couldn't get inspired, but now that I've used it, I think I'll give it another try.

Have a great holiday!