OWH VCMP #5

As I've said before, I'm old and slow.  I know this challenge was issued several days ago.  The challenge was issued the first day of the OWH Presidents Day Virtual Card Making Party.  Challenge #5 is the Disappearing Act - making a sheet of 12X12 paper disappear using one sketch.  Since I do not make cards from sketches, I chose to jut make all these cards from the same sheet of patterned paper.

Since you can't really see the details in the group photo, I scanned one of the cards.

The pattern on the background paper doesn't show up well, but it has butterflies flying around all over the paper.  I cut the pieces and adhered them to the dark blue cardstock, then ran them through the Big Shot with a Cuttlebug embossing folder.

The image is from Our Daily Bread Designs, stamped on white cardstock with Adirondack Denim ink and cut out with Spellbinders Labels 18 die.  The sentiment is an unmounted rubber stamp, using the same ink.  The butterflies are punched with a Martha Stewart punch, with tiny pearls added for emphasis and to draw the eye to the focal point.

To learn more about creating a focal point on your cards, please see the OWH Boot Camp called Get to the Point.  This is part of a series of great tutorials to help us make better cards to send to our heroes.

OWH VCMP #4

The 4th challenge in the Operation Write Home Virtual Card Making Party is to make a card using Things with Wings.  I had plans to make a card with birds, but just didn't make it happen.  I decided to start over and make a card with butterflies:

This image is a stamp from Our Daily Bread Designs that coordinates with Spellbinders dies - Labels 18.  Those blue colors really do look better in person.  The scanner seems to distort some of the colors so they don't appear to look good together.

This card was also made with the same stamp set.  I embossed the background paper on these cards to give them some texture.

OWH VCMP #3

Challenge #3 in the OWH Virtual Card Making Party is to make a card using Selective Embossing.

This one turned out to be easier than I expected.  A few months ago, I bought the Tim Holtz set of embossing diffusers.  These are made of acrylic instead of having to cut my own.  I had never made them work until today.

The butterfly is cut and embossed with a very old set from Cuttlebug.  The die and embossing folder are separate pieces.  The sentiment is an old rubber stamp from the Stamp Doctor.

OWH VCMP #2

Continuing with the Virtual Card Making Party, Challenge #2 is to All Creatures Great and Small; Cards for Kids.

This is an old House Mouse stamp that I think would be good for kids to dream about - going for a ride with a dragonfly.  Clouds are stickers.  I see that the white card base doesn't show up well, but it looks good in person.

OWH VCMP #1

This weekend, Operation Write Home is holding a Virtual Card Making Party.  The first challenge is HERE.  The challenge is to use zig zags (or chevrons) on a card.  Here is my entry:

The stamp is by Penny Black and called Hedgehog Kisses and colored with Prismacolor pencils.  The chevron paper is from Fancy Pants.

Mother's Day cards

When making cards for Operation Write Home, we think well ahead of the upcoming holidays.  Here it is nearly Valentine's Day and I'm making cards for Mother's Day.  The Valentines were mailed to shipper in December.

I bought this stamp by Stampabilities called Mare and Colt, thinking about Mother's Day cards.  This is the first time I've used it in that way.  It's such a nice stamp that I don't need to color it, the stamped image works well.

With this card, I couldn't decide how to use my Mother's Day sentiment, so just said Thinking of you.  After making this card, I worked on some other possibilities of using the Mother's Day sentiment.

Looking for mojo

This has been a tough week for me.  3 flat tires!  I learned more about tires than I ever wanted to know.  Apparently, valve stems can leak and the tires go flat.  In the process of this, I lost all mojo for making cards.  I'm trying to force some this week.

My goal was to make Mother's Day cards for Operation Write Home.  I've been trying to decide how to do that with this stamp of horses.  I found I didn't have a stamp for Mother's Day that would fit on my card.  I decided that Thinking of You could be sent to a mother or someone else, making it more versatile.

 

Next, I decided to participate in the Our Daily Bread Designs challenge for February.  This challenge is to make a card using an image of fruit.  I don't have many stamps of fruit, but found this House Mouse stamp in my collection.

 

These colors look much better in person than they do in the scan.

Roses for Mom

I'm still thinking about making Mother's Day cards for OWH.  Cards are more versatile for our troops without a sentiment, so these could be used for any occasion for a lady.

The stamp is a very old wood mounted rubber stamp by Anita's  I stamped it with black ink and colored it with Prismacolor pencils and blended with mineral spirits.  The image was cut out with long rectangle Nestibilities.

I adhered the pink patterned paper to the darker pink cardstock, the ran the combo through the Big Shot with an embossing folder.  I added the pink ribbon and adhered it to a white card base.

It looked good until I saw it on the computer screen.  I made a second card, using different colored pencil.

One advantage to using colored pencils, I went back and erased a bit of the Mulberry color on the first card and added the Crimson Red that I used here.  Now the first card looks better too.

Framed flowers

I found these frame dies that I've had for many years and not used them in quite a while.  They are Sizzix Originals.  I decided to frame some flowers with them.  This stamp is by Rubber Stampede.  I colored the images with Prismacolor pencils and blended with mineral spirits.  There are little pearls in the center of each flower, but they don't show up in the scan.

Mother's Day card

When making cards for Operation Write Home, you learn to make cards well ahead of holidays to allow shipping time.  Since I've already mailed in my Easter cards, it's time to begin Mother's Day cards.

I used a lot of dies to make this card.  The scalloped frame is a very old Sizzix original die.  The tag was also cut from an old Sizzix original die.  I used a Spellbinders die to cut the flower frame.  I cut 2 colors with the same die, then trim the edge from the top one so the frame shows.  That ribbon is very sheer so doesn't show real well in scan.