Saturday, August 31, 2013

OWH Labor Day VCMP

Woo hoo!  Let's get this party started!
 This is one of my favorite things to participate in - so much inspiration.  I like to put all the challenges in big post, so here goes.

Challenge #1: Nancy's Sketch Challenge
This is a great sketch for using up scraps, which I did on this Christmas card:
  
 
Challenge #2: Diane's OWH Letter
O - Orange; W - White; H - Happy Birthday
 
Challenge #3: Seongsook's Triple Die Cutting
 

 Challenge #4: Annette's Love Card
 
 
Image by Doodledragon
 
Challenge #5: Donna's Masking Tape Stamping
 
 OWH Sketch #188
 
 Challenge #6: Sybrina's Cards 4 kids
 
I chose the center on the Bingo tile - Stamping/Punny Sentiment/Things with 4 legs
 
Challenge #7: Marilyn's Fall Card using an OWH sketch
I used sketch #88:
 
Challenge #8: Blue Moon's Un-BEE-lievable challenge:
 
 Challenge #9: Donna's Negative space
 
 
 Woohoo!  I completed all the challenges and I see many other ladies did too!  Can we do this again?  Please!  How about over the holiday break - one a day??  This was lots of fun and I'm going to go check out what everyone else did.
 
Thanks to all the ladies who hosted a challenge.
 
 
 
 




OWH Aug Bootcamp - Relationship advice

Before I dig into this weekend's OWH VCMP, I wanted to submit a card for the August Bootcamp lesson - Relationship advice.  Paula's homework was to re-do a card from the past and apply the techniques we've learned.
 
I'm not afraid to take an epic-fail card and re-do it!  Here's a one-layer card I made using with a floral stamp set.  I thought that the flowers were supposed to be stamped together, which I tried along the bottom and side of the card:
 
I colored them with Inktense pencils and then watercolored them.  Every time I looked at the card, it just seemed off to me.
 
After reading the lesson, I realized that I didn't group the flowers together and the sentiment seemed to just float by itself.  For the lesson, I dragged out the stamps again and tried to group them together - it just wasn't working.
 
I was forcing the flowers to have a relationship, so I chose one flower and a sentiment and stamped them together.  Here's my re-do of the card:
I took inspiration from the latest Muse challenge - #32 - to make the flower and sentiment "relate" to each other.  I used the Muse card sketch for my version:
 
 
I enjoyed the chance to fix a card and Paula's lessons have helped me along the way.
 
Now, on to the VCMP!
 


Friday, August 30, 2013

OWH Midweek Throwdown - Thank you

Happy Friday to ya!  I am lookin' forward to Labor Day weekend and the OWH VCMP!  The parties are one of my favorite things to do at OWH and I love seeing everyone's cards and get lots of inspiration.
 
While I'm waiting for the party to start tomorrow, I'm catching up with the latest Mid Week Throwdown - Thank You cards .  Jan has been hosting this for several years and will be stepping down, so I'd like to thank her for challenging us every week. 
 
Here's my card:
The ship is a sticker and I kept with the brown tones to make it a masculine card.
 
Can't wait for the party this weekend - see ya'll there!


Wednesday, August 21, 2013

OWH Midweek Throwdown

It's time for the Midweek Throwdown at OWH and this week's challenge is Cards for kids.  I bought this great Snoopy ribbon and used it as the main feature on my card:
 
The stamps are from Simon Says Stamp and the red strip is embossed with lines to mimic the striped paper.  I thought this would be a good "boy" card.  Ya just gotta love Snoopy!
 
Thanks for checking in!


Sunday, August 18, 2013

Thinking of You

I'm loving the OWH weekly sketches!  Every Sunday, I think the sketch is one of my favorites, but then the next week, that one becomes a favorite too!  After listening to Sandy's weekly OWH TV episode, I put away my spring papers and pulled out a pad that I bought a year ago and haven't used (for shame!).  This is my Thinking of You card with the Orchard Harvest pad:
 
And here's the sketch:
 
I also made a card for Muse Challenge #30 .  We were inspired by this lovely card:
 
This is the card I made:
 
I used a stencil from the Simon Says Stamp August card kit and Tim Holtz Distress Inks.  I cut the birds on my Cricut and used the sentiment from Hero Arts.
 
Thanks for stopping by!


Sunday, August 11, 2013

Muse Challenge #29

Whew!  I just barely finished my card for the latest Muse Challenge - #29 which inspired us with this card:
 
I loved the red roses on the card and against the pastel colors, they really stood out.  For Operation rite Home, however, I can't make cards with 3d flowers, so I stamped flowers from the Simon Says Best Mom Ever set:
The sentiment is also Simon Says Stamp - Card Exchanging Friends.  It's been a while since I stamped roses and it's nice to do something different.
 
Thanks for stopping by!


OWH Sketch #185

Hi there!  Today's OWH sketch went together pretty easily for me in a few holiday cards:
 

 
The paper is from Michael's that I still had from last year.  These cards and a few others went into my box to OWH.  I've sent 569 cards to OWH since January!  Wow - how did that happen?  Just goes to show ya my obsession is a problem!  Ha ha.
 
I'm trying to squeeze in a few more cards today for some challenges - will see how it goes.
 
Have a lovely day!  I'm enjoying all the beautiful cards that are being submitted for this challenge.

Friday, August 9, 2013

OWH Mid-week throwdown

I don't like to miss out on OWH card challenges, so even though I'm a few days late, I wanted to join in on this week's OWH midweek throwdown, which challenged us to make cards with a fall theme.  I used OWH sketch #125 as a starting point for my card with fall-like colors:
 
 
 
I love any sketch that gives me a chance to use up those small scraps!
 
Yeah for Friday, right?  Have a nice day!
 
 

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Sunday Cards

Hello there!  I've had a busy weekend sewing and crafting.  It's marching band season again and I'm the uniform chairperson, which means sewing and measuring, but I enjoy working with the students so I don't mind.  I'm learning how to cut with fabric on my Cricut, but it's the most frustrating thing ever!
 
#1 - Challenge #29 at A Blog Named Hero
ABNH challenged us to re-use something we intended to throw away.  After my last card (see here), I was going to throw away the extra circles I cut out.  I played around with the shapes and came up with this card:
 
The large scallop is imperfect - one of the scallops was cut clean off, but I hid this underneath my circle sentiment, which uses the Hero Arts Fancy Basics stamp.  So, I re-used the imperfect scallop on a card!  Pretty pleased with myself.  (Ink is Versafine Smokey Gray.)
 
#2 - August ODBD Challenge
Our Daily Bread Designs provides a monthly challenge at Operation Write Home and this month, we're challenge to make something using the colors brown, green, and pink.  I  came up with cherry blossoms as my focal point, which was a free file from SVG Cuts - cherry blossoms -
 
#3 - Sketch #184 at OWH
This week, Doodle Pantry is sponsoring our weekly sketch.  The last time they did this for us, I bought several digi stamps from them and received the Rounded sentiments free with my purchase.  These stamps are exactly what I was looking for on my cards and I printed several of them for today's sketch:
 
This card was my best for today, but here's my first two cards using the sketch:
 
Thanks, Doodle Pantry!  Hope ya'll enjoy the rest of your day.