Filling up the box for Operation Write Home

Hello blogland!  I'm almost done with another box of cards for Operation Write Home and made these two little cards today:

Both cards were made with some DCWV cardstock base and patterned paper.  The borders were cut with a Martha Stewart circle arch punch.  On the first card, I tried my hand at paper piercing with this cute little Unity Stamp.  The technique is easy, but it's a little trickier to find a paper with a pattern that goes with the design. 

I cut this little stamped image out and gave it some dimension with a few pop dots, added a few flat nail heads and I was done. 

Next I need to work on a few spring cards and my box will be all set to mail.  Did you check out the free Saturday Seminar Series that started yesterday at the OWH Stars and Stripes blog?  Great information and examples on the fundementals of creating a focal point in card making.  Check it out!

More snow and lovely blog awards

Hello blogland!  Guess what - it's snowing in New Jersey, again!  Just little flurries, but snow is snow to me and I've seen enough snow this winter.  We had 18 inches fall yesterday and I hear another big storm with another 12 inches or so is heading our way by next Wednesday.  It was fun when I was 10 and it got me a day off from school, but that boat has sailed and this gal isn't enjoying it any more.  Ok, I feel better now that I got that off my chest :)

Today I was sent two lovely blog awards from the fabulously talented Kristi at Kristi's Paper Creations - be sure to check out her blog.  I've followed her for a while and her card creations are just beautiful. Thank you Kristi for thinking of me, these awards are very much appreciated!

 In order to accept these pay-it-forward awards, I need to:

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this
2. Share 8 things about yourself
3. Pay it forward to bloggers that you have recently discovered
4. Contact those bloggers and tell them about their awards.

Here are 8 things about myself I bet you didn't know:

1. I'm watching "Ghostbusters" and laughing my head off
2. I have 135 books on my new Kindle
3. I love cheese, but cheese doesn't love me :(
4. I can count to 10 in Ukrainian which impresses no one but me
5. Besides collecting cardstock, I also collect cook books
6. I think the "Real Housewives" series are the funniest thing on TV
7. My other serious hobby is genealogy
8. There's 4 feet of snow in my yard I'm giving away for free

I'm passing these awards to these talented ladies - please go check out their great blogs, check out the wonderful creations and leave them some love:

Sandy at It's a colourful world
Sherry at Bits of Cheer
Jennifer at For the Love of Paper
Jo at Handmade Cards by Jo


Have a great evening - I'm going back to watching Ghostbusters and hoping the snow has stopped :)

Blog designs

Hello blogland!  After another stinkin' snow storm in New Jersey that left about 18 inches of the white stuff, I'm just too tired to head into my craft room.  But as I blog hopped through my long list of favorites, I noticed a lot of new blog designs being added over at Scrappin' Blogs.  Their designs are beautiful, easy to install and best of all free :)  I'm still new to the blog world but changing the design is very easy to do, so I'm heading back there to pick a new design for my little blog.  Go check 'em out!

Mid Week Throwdown at Operation Write Home

Hello Blogland!  I'd like to share with you a card that I made for Operation Write Home's Mid Week Throwdown Challenge.  My challenge was to make a card for a soldier to send home to their kids and here's what I came up with:

I used a DCWV scalloped edge card for the base then added a scrap piece of Jillie Bean cardstock on top of that.  I stamped the cute little Unity Stamp owl and sentiment on top of some craft cardstock and cut it out with a circle Nestability as well as the scallop circle under that.  I finished it off with some Stampin' Up ribbon.  Easy peasy!  Come on - play along with us today!  Follow the link above and share your card with us. 

  Here are a few more cards I made yesterday to add to my next Operation Write Home box:

This card was made from scraps, which I love to do.  I used some craft cardstock for the base and layered a cut piece of Jillie Bean patterned cardstock and topped it off with two Martha Stewart fabric embellishments and a Stampin' Up sentiment.

This card was also made from scraps.  I used a scrap piece of Stampin' Up cardstock for the base and added another piece of Jillie Bean patterned cardstock.  I had this digi stamp already colored and layered it on top of a piece of DCWV cardstock which was also used for the scalloped circle, which I stamped with a small stamp from {The Stamps of Life}.  The brown border was cut from a scrap piece of DCWV cardstock and punched with a Fiskars border punch.

One last little thing - on Saturday, January 29th, Operation Write Home will be launching the first of a brand new Saturday Seminar Series covering topics of card design. These will be FREE seminars, offered every other month on the Stars and Stamps blog, and will be taught by professional graphic designers!

The Seminars will cover design principles like Focal Point, Texture, Color, Contrast, and more. They will apply the concepts specifically to papercrafted greeting cards. Sample cards will illustrate the before-and-after in several styles, clearly showing the difference that the application of one simple principle can make in a card, and a gallery of juried projects will be added to the OWH card gallery. A preview of the January 29th seminar has received rave reviews, so you won't want to miss it!


Thanks for stopping by and I hope you come back again!

OWH stands together for our heroes

From a Facebook post byOperation Write Home tonight:

In honor of the President's speech tonight, how about we all post an Anyhero card on our wall tonight? (Make a really nice one and you could end up in a patriotic AnyHero card gallery on our site!) Let's show the world that no matter our position/party, OWH stands together for our heroes.

 

These two cards were in my last box of OWH cards as Any Hero Mail.  I hope they gave someone a smile :)

Can't get rid of this cold

Hello Blogland!  For almost 3 weeks now I've had a nasty head cold and have felt aweful.  I haven't felt well enough to play in my craft room for very long, but did cut out the pieces I need to make some bridal shower invitations.  They'll look a little something like this:

The umbrellas are cut from the Sweetheart Cricut cartridge and the border is cut from a Martha Stewart border punch. I used a scallop oval for the base instead of the one pictured above and the cardstock color is different, but this is the design the mother-of-the-bride settled on.  I'm also making a cute little tag to attach to the thank you gifts.  This afternoon I sprayed the white umbrellas with pearl Glimmer Mist to give it just a little sparkle.  Hopefully I'll feel well enough tomorrow to start assembling everything.

More clean and purge and clear stamp storage

Hello blog land and happy Monday!  My head cold has finally left me (but currently visiting my daughter) so I had big plans for some card making today.  Then I moved something from here to there, went to put something in a different spot and before you know it, I had 2 bags of stuff that I don't remember aquiring, didn't know why I had it and was pretty sure I would never use, so out it went.  Two hours later I still hadn't started making that card, but I was quite pleased with myself.  I gained a nice chunk of space and found some really pretty paper - have I told you I've got a thing for paper?  I also finished adding some clear stamps into CD cases.  It makes it so easy to keep track of what stamps I have when I'm looking for just the right one.

I store them in this repurposed CD storage cube - lots of room in there!  I have a notebook that I stamp samples of what's in each case and number each case.  Easy peasy!  Maybe tomorrow I'll get to that card :)

Hello craft room, miss me?

Hello blogland!  I'm still battling a nasty head cold but took my box of Kleenex and headed down to my craft room.  Even though I straightened up right after Christmas, I was still in a "clean and purge" mood and went to town.  Where did all this stuff come from and who snuck it into my house?  I like things organized, but I also like to repurpose things so I don't rush to throw "stuff" out.  One thing I did accomplish was to go through a growing pile of scraps.  I had a big pile of 12x12 papers that were used to cut out some Mickey Mouse heads and there was still plenty of usable real estate on this cardstock. 

I took out a pile of my Martha Stewart border punches and in about an hour I ended up with a nice pile of embelishments:

For the smaller areas, I used circle, scallop, square, flower punches and now have a nice stash of them too. By the time I was done with this, I was ready to call it a day and headed back upstairs to make some turkey chili for dinner. 

There's another snowstorm headed towards New Jersey tomorrow, but my Kleenex and sore nose and I plan to spend the day inside, hopefully doing something crafty.

Kleenex and a soft pillow

Hello blogland!  I've been battling a nasty headcold for the past few days and haven't been able to play in my craftroom. Sigh....sniffle....cough.  My best friends today have been a nice soft pillow and new box of Kleenex along with tea/honey/lemon as I read on my Kindle.  My husband made me some chicken soup but I can't taste anything.  Sigh...sniffle....cough. 

I did, however, receive and put together my new Project Life kit by Becky Higgins.  I'm using this to organize all the pictures I take that don't go into specific scrapbooks. For me, using Project life this way is much easier to keep track of the pictures and the who/what/when/where. 

The kits and the separate pieces are available on Amazon but hurry - they're going fast! 

New Year, new cardstock

Hello blogland and Happy New Year!  I hope you've had a nice first day of the new year.....I still have my jammies and robe on :)  Another querky family tradition for New Years Day has been to stay in our pjs, watch the Rose Bowl parade, munch on the rest of the finger food I made last night, finish up the Christmas cookies, and take a little snooze.  Well, we had a modified version today - oldest daughter worked, middle daughter is out with some friends, youngest daughter worked, hubby took a nap, and I made a spiral ham.  My plan was to get into my craft room while the ham was cooking and crank out a few cards and maybe a layout for a scrapbook I've been working on.  But in the two hours it took to make a delicious spiral ham, I discovered I ran out of a craft staple that I've never, ever run out of before:  white cardstock!  I kept saying it couldn't be possible - out of the kabillion pieces of cardstock and paper stacks and designer paper there must be a stash of white cardstock somewhere, but there wasn't.  Impossible I thought, but it was true.  So off to AC Moore I went to pick up some white cardstock.  And by the time I got back, I started sneezing, my nose started running, and I now have a headcold.  So much for playing in my craftroom....so I'm back in my jammies, sipping my Lemon Zinger tea and hoping this passes fast so I can try again tomorrow.  I have two new Unity stamp sets calling me to come play with them.....