OWH ODBD challenge

I've been a bit out of touch in making cards for Operation Write Home since I heard about the upcoming change in deployment.  The group is still going, but at a slower pace for now.  For more information, please go to this post on Operation Rolling Tape Gun.  There are still expenses for mailing boxes of cards to our remaining deployed troops all over the world and at sea.

One way to help meet these expenses is by supporting some of our supporting organizations, such as Our Daily Bread Designs.  They post a challenge for us to make cards each month.  They pay for shipping one box of cards for each 25 cards we sign up to meet the challenge.  Each person can only submit one card monthly.  We aren't quite at 50 cards this month, so I decided to make a card for this challenge.  The August challenge is to make a card with stars on it.  Here is my entry.

Paper piecing

Since Operation Write Home is on a slowdown while our troops are packing up to leave their posts, I decided to work on some personal cards for my family and friends who have been neglected lately.  I usually enjoy making cards with the recipient in mind instead of just guessing who will receive it.

These are very old stamps that I've had for years.  I used paper piecing for the golfer's clothing, but colored his face and shoes with colored pencils.  I also used colored pencils for the scene in the oval.  Both images were cut out with Spellbinder's dies.  The head of golf club was cut out first and left out of the die while cutting the rectangle.  I then popped it on a tiny piece of foam tape.  The golf ball is punched out several times with layers glued together.  The oval is also popped on foam tape to protect the other raised areas in the mail.

Trying again

If you saw my previous post, you'll know I wanted to try to improve my card.  This is the 2nd card.

I stamped the images and sentiment onto watercolor paper with Encore Honeydew Ultimate Metallic ink and embossed with clear embossing powder.  I then colored the image and background with Peerless watercolor papers and a water brush.  All is mounted on copper metallic paper and pearlescent green paper before mounted on a white card base.

Trying watercolor once again

My mojo has been on vacation for a while.  I'm hoping it returns soon.  I'm trying to stimulate it by reading blogs of creative people.  This blog inspired me to try my watercolors again with stamped images.  Jennifer McGuire showed how to use a white pearl embossing powder to stamp the images of flowers.  As usual, I didn't have the same stamps she used or the same embossing powder.  I made some substitutes, using silver pearl embossing powder and some clear stamps from my stash (unlabeled).

I used my old Peerless watercolor papers to add color.  I added enough color to the background to make the embossing lines more visible.  It took several attempts to get a photo that would show some of the details.  I tried the scanner and none of the embossing was visible.  This image was mounted with Miracle Tape to a copper metallic layer and then to a green pearlescent paper.  This entire card front was then attached to a white card base.

I may try this technique again with darker ink and clear embossing powder.  I enjoy the watercoloring and would like to improve my skills.  I'll also look for some images that may work better with this technique.  When I have problems, I like to try to solve them and perfect the technique.  I hate to fail to be satisfied with a finished card without trying to get better at the technique.  How do you handle problems in making cards?

My little blooming cactus

A while back, I picked up some small cactus plants at the garden center at Wal-Mart.  I planted them in small pots on the patio and they have done rather well.  In fact, several of them have bloomed this summer.  They have also grown, so I transplanted them into larger containers.  They seem to love having new root room and are doing well.

They bloom at night, so it's hard to see much of these flowers.  Last night, I saw that one of them was getting ready to bloom so I took photos.

Early this morning, the flower was beautiful and fresh.  My dog loved it.

About the time the sun first hit the plants, I decided to take another photo.  To my surprise, there was a small 'bee' pollinating the flower.

Very soon after the flower was pollinated, the flower began to close.  This photos were taken at 8 AM and 9 AM.

OWH Operation Rolling Tapegun

With the changes in military deployment in an unknown status, Operation Write Home is making some changes.  To learn about these changes, please go to this link and watch the video:
Operation Rolling Tapegun

Since this change coincides with my own loss of mojo, I'm just working getting the cards I have finished packed up to mail so they get to our troops.  We are all happy to have a lot of our heroes return home to their families.  However, we also know that things may change in the future and an increase in cards will be needed.  We are in standby position and will see what the future brings.

Thanksgiving cards

I'm still struggling a lot with mojo.  I decided to pull out some of my old punches and try to give them some use.  I've used this combination of stamped sentiment with border corner punch before, so decided to try some Thanksgiving cards.

This scan of the cards is a true optical illusion.  The edges of the cream cardstock were punched with a Martha Stewart border/corner punch set.  The sentiment is a Paper Inspiration rubber stamp.  The background paper is by Colorbok (Wal-Mart) and called Bright Splash Watercolor Paper.  To show you how the cards look in a photo, you'll see that the sentiment paper is sitting on top of embossed background.

I made some cutting errors and the card on the left is really smaller than the card on the right.

There are definitely different impressions from photos and scans.  The scanner shows more detail, but the camera picks up the dimension better.