Last OWH sketch for 2013

It's hard to believe that this is the last Sunday OWH sketch for 2013!  It's a great clean-and-simple sketch and I've already made 4 cards with it today!  Good thing that it's simple because I'm fighting a cold and my brain isn't functioning very well.  Here's two of the cards I made:

Sentiment: Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler

TV - Birdie Brown (so sad that she closed her store)

Paper: my stash 

Sentiment: Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler

Ribbon: Peanuts

Paper: Jillibean Watermelon Gazpacho Soup

 

I moved the sentiment to the left because I didn't want to cover the Snoopy sitting up.

Gotta go see if the Carolina Panthers are going to win!  Thanks for stopping by.

 

Color challenge

I hope you had a lovely Christmas!  I was lucky enough to receive a Silhouette Cameo cutter:

 

I got it up and running in an hour and used it to cut the deer head for this card: 

I decided to leave off a sentiment so it would be a general purpose card.  The green/white paper is old, old Creative Memories paper - it feels to good to finally use it up!

 

I've still got my Cricut and don't plan on abandoning it soon....I'll see how much I use it in the coming months and if it sits unused, then I'll sell it.  I've wanted a Silhouette for a long time and am excited to see how it cuts!

 

This card fits our weekly throwdown challenge at OWH - Two color challenge .  This wasn't quite so easy to do and it made me think how to highlight an image with only one other color.  Good challenge, Allison!

 

Enjoy those after-Christmas shopping sales (I got a 6x6 pad today for $2.09 at Joann's!)  I need to stop buying paper!!! 



A pack of penguins!

I planned on scrapbooking today, but then I read about the call for penguin cards at OWH and got totally sidetracked.  I used the Beach Penguins cutting file from My Scrap Chick and made these cards.  Each one's different, so I'm hoping that helps fill the specific penguin request:

 

It's fun to see the different penguins everyone's making!  It's time to get back to home life for tonight and enjoy Christmas Eve with my family. 

I hope you have a lovely holiday!



His and Hers sketch challenge

For today's sketch challenge at Operation Write Home, I made two cards - a his and hers version.  For the masculine card, I turned the sketch on its side like so: 

 

For this card:

I love the sentiment, which is from a paper pad.

 

I used the original orientation of the sketch for my feminine version:

The papers and stickers are from the March Simon Says Stamp card kit.  I seem to be in a spring mood right now and I'm going to use up all these bright colors for more cards.

 

Thanks for checking in!

 

 



Muse Challenge #48

This week's Muse challenge is #48  and Marion has posted this lovely card as inspiration:

 

I love her window card with the decorated inside, which inspired me to make this window card:

I added acetate, embossed it, and sandwiched it behind the window. Here's the inside of my card:

 

The paper on the left hides the glue that's holding the acetate in place.  The paper on the right shows through the window and is attached to piece of paper that lines the inside of the card.  Here's another look:

Window cards are fun to make and I enjoyed using those spring colors.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Stamp: Hero Arts CL596 Pattern Flowers & Hearts

 

 



Penguin card

I'm so happy to be on vacation and I've got a long to-do list, but I hope to sneak in some crafting time as well.  Sandy at OWH asked us to make one Penguin card as a special request by a Brigadier General.  Here's my card:

 

This card fits the Midweek Throwdown challenge - Love cards for kids   The penguin is from the Create a Critter Cricut cartridge, along with the sentiment.  The heart brads are from my stash and the paper is the SEI Silver Valley pad.  (I thought the silver looked like ice cubes!)

 

One of the items on my to-do list is to sell my Gypsy.  When I bought it, I thought I'd use it all the time, but that didn't happen, so I'm selling it on Ebay.  If you're interested, here's the link to the listing: Erika's Gypsy .

 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

 



OWH Sketch #203

Happy Sunday to ya!  I loved today's OWH sketch and took a departure from the reds & greens of holiday cards to make a birthday card using teals & yellows:

 

I like my little birdie, which I colored with Copics, but I don't know who makes that stamp.  The "Celebrate" is by Paper Smooches and this is the first time I used their Sentiment Sampler set.  About time!  That means I can also enter this card into their Anything Goes challenge for this week.

 

I'm going to make a few more birthday cards with this, but not too many since OWH doesn't need tons of birthday cards. 

 

Hope you have a restful day and can find some time to craft.

 

 

Paper Smooches

 

 

 



Happy Sketch Saturday!

Today is a rainy, cold day in the South and it's a good time to catch up on some crafting and last minute card making.  I needed to add some holiday cards to my stash and selected Sketch #238 for the Anything goes challenge at the Sketch Saturday blog :

This is from the Holiday Traditions paper pad by Recollections from last year.  I didn't know how to use the images on the paper until I pulled out my dies and cut around them.  Maybe I'll be able to use up the rest of this paper pad (I'd really rather not see it again next year)

 

The strips behind Santa are a ribbon and the sentiment is by Papertrey Ink.

 

My next challenge is to actually put this in the mail - some years I didn't finish that last step!

 

See you tomorrow for the OWH Sunday sketch.

 

 

Red + Green = love!

This week's Muse challenge (#47) is red and green but no Christmas with this card as our inspiration:

The green alligator inspired me to make a froggy love card:

The die cuts are from Lettering Delight's "Frogs and Kisses" collection.  I used a Pearl Pen for his eyes and the papers are from my stash.

 

This card also fits the Midweek Throwdown challenge at OWH , which is general love cards!  I think this would make a great card for someone to send to their child.

 

Happy Wednesday to ya - thanks for stopping by.

 

 

 



My purple issues

I like all the colors, but I fight with purple the most!  I have trouble matching it with other colors or even with other purples!  This leaves me with a stash of purple that lays waiting for me to use.

 

At the holidays, I find that I can successfully pair purple with silver and white!  Ta da!  Those look great together and I used them on this card:

 

The deer is from the Winter Woodland cartridge, the sentiment is embossed in silver on a white die and I added a bit of silver ribbon.  It was difficult to photograph, but I like all the blingy-silver, which the purple handles just fine!

 

I'm entering this in this week's holiday card challenge at the Fantabulous Cricut blog .

 

Maybe I need to just use purple more?  Perhaps with green?  I'll keep trying....



December ODBD challenge

I've been in kind of a rut for card inspiration and was happy to see that the ODBD challenge for December is masculine cards .  I reached for some Tim Holtz stamps for inspiration and his Distress crackle paint.  I crackled a tag, then distressed it with Vintage Photo and Walnut stain inks.

 

I stamped on top of the "crackled" (is that a word?) paper with the map, plane, and compass.  The sentiment is from the Hero Arts OWH All the Time stamp set, which I just bought.  I kept to browns, blues, and neutral colors to keep it masculine too.

 

I hope I can also fit in some more challenges this week - they always help kick start my mojo.

 

Have a nice day - and stay warm!



White on White

I made a quick card for the OWH midweek throwdown challenge - White on White  - but my laptop didn't feel like cooperating until today for me to post it. (I guess it was being lazy)  Here's my card:

 

I think white on white needs dry embossing and layering to make the images pop.  I embossed the label die in white and found a small sentiment.  This was a good challenge because I rarely make white-on-white and it was fun to do.

 

Have a Happy Thanksgiving and good luck with your Black Friday shopping!!!



OWH Sketch #200

OWH's latest sketch is number 200!  Wow!  When I joined in on the fun, we were at sketch #134.  I've learned so much about cardmaking from Sandy and the gang and am happy to contribute to a great cause. 

 

My next box of OWH cards will have 47 holiday Any Hero cards - the most I've ever made.  Woo hoo!  I've also been on a mission to make cards for kids and once again, I used the Doodle Pantry images for today's sketch card:

 

I made the heart embellishment gold and stamped paws from the Paper Smooches Santa Paws set.  I made another version of this sketch:

 

I'm looking forward to our Thanksgiving holiday, but not the weather because it will be chilly (highs in the 40's) and rainy. 

 

Hope you get some time to play in today's sketch challenge! Thanks for stopping by.

 



SSS Wednesday challenge

I'm working on my holiday cards and thought I'd use a sketch from Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday challenge, which is here:

 

I'm working on making a 12x12 holiday paper disappear by making several cards with it and this is the one I made from this sketch:

I embossed the white background that our cute doggie is sitting on for some added interest.  This is the Paper Smooches Santa Paws set.  Gotta love it!

 

I'm holding out for Black Friday sales from some of our stamp companies, aren't you?

 

T



OWH Nov Design Bootcamp

The November Design Bootcamp lesson is on Texture and how it adds interest to your cards.  I learned there are two types of texture and for my card, I went with the tactile texture by embossing this background stamp in black:

I colored in the flowers with Smooch ink.  The sentiment is actually covering up a boo-boo, but it was a happy mistake since I wasn't sure where to place a sentiment anyway!  I can rub this card and feel the embossing on it, so I believe it fits the lesson.

 

Thanks for stopping by.

Miss You + Love cards

Yeah - it's Sunday!  Boo - tomorrow is another work day!  Time to get in a few cards for OWH - right?

 

Today's  OWH sketch is here:

and my card:

I've had those heart brads for ages!  I threaded a hot pink ribbon through them.  The sentiment is embossed in pink - "Miss You" (my camera sure didn't pick that up very well).  Yes - this is pink overload!

 

Supplies:

Hero Arts Clink Lattice Background

Paper Smooches Sentiment sampler

Papers from my stash

 

I've had fun putting together more cards using the Doodle Pantry digital stamp set.  I thought I'd share some of them:

 

 

Those images are so cute and I hope they make a soldier's child smile!

 

Thanks for checking in.  Have a nice Sunday night!

Catching up with OWH Design Bootcamp lessons

Yesterday, I blogged that I had finished most of this year's OWH Bootcamp lessons, but after checking, I saw that I missed two of them.  So, here's my catch up on those lessons.

 

May - Variety is the spice of life

 

I used two patterns for this card - the cupcake top is much smaller in pattern but the color matches the circles in the background pattern.  I embossed the bottom of the cupcake (for a bit of variety) and kept the banner and sentiment simple to stand out against the pattern.

 

October - All things being equal

This card was made from some old paper in my stash - some of the first scrapbook paper I ever bought.  I tried to balance the larger house image with a smaller sentiment for an Asymmetrical effect.  The red layers help break up the busy background. 

 

Now I really am caught up with the bootcamp lessons! 

 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

 



Saturday card making

In between chores and shopping, I found a few minutes to make some cards.  The first ones are from the 2013 Holiday Card workshop at Online Card classes . We learned how to make inlaid die cuts and I cut the word "Noel" and used the positive and negative pieces to lay the word within the card.  It makes great one-layer cards:

 

 

 

I also made a catch up card from September's OWH Bootcamp design lesson on Drawing a blank :

 

 

I had a hard time getting a good picture of the card, but I embossed the sentiment in gold and scored a line above and below it.  I finished it off with a holiday sticker from K&Company. 

 

We've got one more bootcamp lesson coming and I'm pretty sure I've participated in every one this year.  Paula's taught us several design concepts that are great to learn, especially since I do computers for a living and have no formal art training.  Thanks so much, Paula!



Embossed tree

The Midweek Throwdown challenge at OWH is Dry embossing and I chose an embossing folder that I've never used - a tree embossing folder.  All of my other embossers are patterns, but this one is just a tree.  After embossing it, I colored it several times with Inktense pencils and chalks and decided I liked the chalk best:

 

It's very hard to see it in this photo, but here's a closeup:

 

I only made one of these because I heard Sandy's request to make more cards for kids.  I'm just loving the Doodle Pantry set that we learned about last Sunday and here's one of the cards I made using one of their images:

That chunky cat is too cute!  I layered her up for a girly card, but I'm going to use the dog for some boy cards. 

 

Thanks for checking in and Happy Hump Day to ya!

 



Hero holiday cards

I've been making holiday cards to send to our Heroes and I've burned through one 6x6 MME holiday pad - finally!  I've had the pad for two years now - why has it taken me so long to use it up?

 

This week's sketch is great for using up those last strips of paper and I made these two cards:

 

Did you get the OWH digi stamps from Doodle Pantry ?  I did - they are soooo adorable!  I'm going to use them for Love/Valentine's Day cards!

 

Next week I'm taking the Holiday Card Workshop class and I hope to participate in the lessons.  Sometimes, I can't keep up with daily lessons, but they've slowed the pace down and will post lessons every other day, which should help me keep up.  I hope to see some fellow OWHers there!

 

Thanks for stopping by.

Fleas Navidad!

Hello and I hope you're as happy as I am that we're almost done with another week.  Although the OWH deadline for holiday cards has passed, we can still make them for our soldiers which works for me, since my Christmas spirit is kicking in.  To encourage us, the OWH Mid-week throwdown is Any Hero Holiday Cards.

 

I used a Paper Smooches stamp to make a punny sentiment card:

 

He makes me smile and I hope he does the same for one of our heroes.  This little guy fits the latest Paper Sparks challenge  - Trend watch - stripes .

 

www.papersmoochesstamps.com

I hope you've got something to smile about too. 

Take care!

Supplies:
Paper Smooches Santa Paws
Paper: MME Merry 6x6 pad
Memento Tuxedo black ink


 



 



Buckets of love

The November Simon Says Stamp card kit is great for Love/Valentine's Day cards and several fellow OWH cardmakers are using it to create wonderful cards.  This is the first kit I've gotten in several months and I used it as well for this week's OWH sketch - Challenge #197:

 

I didn't have a bucket cut file, so I used this basket from Little Scraps of Heaven design.  I love all the layering in our sketches lately - it makes such a difference in the card and helps me use up all that paper!

 

Thanks for stopping by!