OWH Boot Camp - Drawing a Blank

After cutting the patterned paper for the previous post, I had a strip of the blue paper left over.  I decided it looked like water, so I used a lighthouse stamp on the card.  I still wanted this to be a masculine love card, so I added this sentiment.

I was tempted to fill the white space at the top of card with clouds or birds, but decided to use this card for the September Boot Camp on the Stars & Stamps blog.  The challenge is to use the White Space as a Design Element.

Masculine love cards

I've been making a lot of love cards in pinks.  We have heard from our heroes that many of them are women and wish to send love cards to men.  My challenge is to make masculine love cards.

I'm going to keep working on this idea.  My challenge is to use patterned papers that are more masculine and sentiments that aren't too flourishy.  Is that a word?  Try your luck and see what you can do for our heroes.

More love cards

I'm still making cards aimed at Valentine Day for OWH.  The love cards can be used for valentines or any time cards.  I'm working with using the scraps I've created with this pretty paper, then I need to move on to other colors.  The background paper on these cards is rice paper.  I found a folder of it that has been in my stash for years.

The strip of chevron under the pink ribbon is washi tape.  I like to adhere it to a strip of cardstock for stability.

Continuing with scraps

I've been trying to use the scraps I created while making valentines.  Here's a few more love cards.

More love cards

I'm working toward more valentine cards, but the love cards are more versatile.

I'm using up some of my scraps and using more papers from the same paper pad.  This helps to get colors that work well together.

Using the scraps

When I make cards, I always have scraps of pretty paper that I hate to discard.  After the last group of cards with cut out spaces for the sentiments, I had lots of ovals and other scraps left.  Here's how I used some of them.

The paper with the birds is from the same 6X6 pad from MME.

I stamped and embossed the sentiment with gold embossing powder and added some gold paper to emphasize the gold.  I made the little gold hearts with a Pearl Pen.  I need to practice to get them the same size.

Valentines for OWH

I've learned that mojo comes and goes for crafters.  When  you spot of glimmer of mojo, reach up & grab it and don't let it slip away.  Yesterday, I had one of these moments.  This is the result.

These papers are from a 6X6 pad by MME, called Blush.  They just shouted romance for me, so I turned them into Valentines for our deployed heroes to send to loved ones.  The sentiment stamp is from Stampa Rosa.  I used a Spellbinders die to cut the opening in both top layers (adhere them together first), then stamped the sentiment on the base card using a Stamp-a-ma-jig for placement.  I put the scalloped and straight edges dies together and taped them to cardstock.  When run through my Big Shot, you have a scalloped oval frame for the sentiment.  

Love cards

I decided to turn some of my valentines into Love cards, which can be used for Valentine's Day or just anytime love.

The background is made by embossing some Core'dinations chocolate box cardstock, then sanding it.  This is more like dark chocolate with a red core, so sanded areas didn't need additional ink.  The sentiment is a die by Memory Box.  Hearts cut with Spellbinder's dies and chain with Martha Stewart punch.

Valentine cards

When we make cards for Operation Write Home, cards need to be made well in advance of holidays to give time for lots of mailing - to our shipper, to the deployed troops, then mailed back home to loved ones.  Since it takes me a couple months to fill a box to send to shipper, I'm already making Valentines.

I decided to make some cards similar to these, but with a simple Love sentiment to make them more versatile.  This cardstock is from the Core'dinations chocolate box collection, embossed, sanded & ink added to sanded areas.  I made several of these. 

The chain punch on the valentines is made by EK Success and the punch used on the love cards is made by Martha Stewart.

 

The ribbon is added by using a very old ribbon punch that makes 2 slots in the cardstock to thread the ribbon through to the back of heart.  The ribbon is more secure than it would be if just glued in place.

 

Taking a break

For those of you who follow my blog.  I've been taking a little break from making cards.  There was a death in my family and I haven't made cards except for a few sympathy cards.

I also have not been feeling well.  It's been monsoon season in the desert and my body doesn't tolerate high humidity very well.  The rains stimulated the ragweed to grow.  Now, I'm suffering from allergies.  My little dog also has allergies, so I've had him to the vet to help with his symptoms.

I'm hoping to get back to making cards soon.

Thank you cards

Monsoon season in the desert makes me pretty miserable.  The older I get the more my joints ache with weather changes.  I moved to the desert to escape high humidity and we're having lots of humidity lately.  It's also peak allergy season for me.  With aching joints and sinus headache, etc. I'm not feeling much like making cards.

I made a couple of these these week, but nothing terribly creative.  I used a Sizzix embossing folder of holly with my Core'dinations Chocolate Box cards stock.  It's brown on the front with a green core.  After embossing, I sanded the raised areas then colored the holly berries with a red Marvy LePlume marker.  I wanted the berries to be distressed like the sanded leaves.

I cut the holly leaves & berries with a very old Sizzix original die.  The sentiment is cut with a Memory Box die.  I mounted this on green cardstock to make the embossed holly look more green.

These cards will go to Operation Write Home for our deployed troops to send thank yous for Christmas gifts they may receive.

Trying a challenge

I've been looking at challenges to get my mojo flowing.  Here's one that I tried.

This challenge was to make a card using this sketch:

I've always been challenged by sketches.  I never seem to be pleased with the results.  This is like the others I've tried and will probably give up on sketches, but at least I tried.  I used scraps for the squares and cut them out with with a Spellbinders die.  I didn't have any more scraps the right color to finish the card, so just quit where I was.

 

If you enjoy challenges, you can find more of them in the Labor Day Virtual Card Making Party on the Stars & Stamps blog.  I didn't get past #1.

 

I decided to go back to my embossing & sanding with embossing folders on the Core-dinations Chocolate Box cardstock.

                              

More embossing folders

I really do enjoy embossing folders combined with Core'dinations cardstock.  This folder is one of my early ones and came as a set with a die for cutting words.  I used the back side of my paper to cut the words so they would match the color of the sanding.  It didn't work as well as I'd hoped, so I added some in to embossed areas and the words to make them more compatible.  Ink works on this dark paper, but can get messy if your ink pad is too wet.  I just pat lightly over the embossed area.

Without ink

With Ink

I used Memento New Sprout ink on the last 2 because I think it helped.  Now to see what I can come up with to use some of my other embossing folders and sandpaper.

Love embossing folders

When I first began making cards, I used stencils, a light box & stylus to dry emboss on my cards.  It was very tedious and didn't work on dark colored papers because the light didn't show through.  I was so delighted when companies began making embossing folders.  I went crazy and bought many of them that sit unused because I always tend to use the newest ones.  I decided to pull out some of earlier folders and give them some love.

The brown cardstock is Core'dinations from the Chocolate Box collection.   The first 2 were just sanded & the last 2 had some ink added after sanding.