September ODBD challenge and Fall foliage color challenge.

Every month Our Daily Bread Designs issues a challenge to make a card and post it.  For every 50 cards submitted they sponsor the postage on a large flat rate box of cards to be sent from OWH for our troops.  A couple of days ago, there were only 47, so I wanted to add one more.  Today, I see there are 51, so whoopee, they made the goal.  Mine will be #52.  I just have to get on the challenge sooner in October!

The September challenge card was to make a card with a background we made ourselves, so here is my entry.  I love fall colors.

Sentiment - Hero Arts / Autumn 

Leaves - Stampendous / Fall Foliage

CS - stash

Brads - stash

Ink:

SU - Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Gumball Green

CTMH - Oak Brown, Terracotta

Memento - Tuxedo Black

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This card also qualifies as one for the fall foliage challenge Cora posted yesterday inspired by this picture she shared from a news source in Minnesota.  These challenges sure do serve to stretch our creative boundaries...and add a lot of color to our FB wall on Seongsook's Stampers.  I love this group of crafty ladies.  <3

A baby card for Shannon Daughtry. It's a girl! (soon)

My dear BFFTINMIP  (best friend forever that I never met in person), Shannon, is having a baby soon. We met on Navy4Moms when Trevor went into the Navy.  Shannon's husband is in the Navy Reserves and we bonded on line over recipes, crafting, having kids, missing our loved ones and being progressive supporters of the military.  She has 2 teenagers now, and a happy little miracle on the way.  I can't wait to see pictures.  She lives in Pennsylvania and I hope to get back there one day to meet her face to face.

Anyway, I've been meaning to make her a special card and found this darling idea on Pinterest.  So I got some baby yarn and whipped out a couple of skewers and knit up a little shirt, dug into my stash for papers, stamps, and voila.  A baby card to send to my dear friend.  I cut off the skewers after I knit the shirt to a more realistic length and glued some beads on the end...miniature knitting needles.  (See, I can knit!)

I can't wait to hear how she likes it.

Sentiment - Kathy Davis / Inkadinkado 

Baby Baby / Rubber Stampede

Lion Brand Baby Soft Yarn / Twinkle Print

CS - stash

Ink - SU / Regal Rose

Memento / Tuxedo Black

Glossy Accents on the heart

Patriotic Thank You

Cora had a card recently that had ribbons tied on the edge that I just loved.  I had to make a card using that idea.  The ribbon is threaded through holes in the card stock to simulate a bow, but done this way really cuts down on the thickness because it is not a knot.  I like how it turned out, although threading the ribbon through the holes and back up and out wore out one needle threader.  Those are meant for thread, not ribbon, after all.  :)  These will probably be Any Hero cards and I can also toss a couple in my next OWH box for the troops.  They ask for thank you cards they can send too.  Win, win.

9/29/14

Sentiment - Inkadinkado

DP - Kraft w/stars / Reminisce We R Memory Keepers / Let Freedom Ring

Red/ w/stars - We R Memory Keepers

CS - Gina K / In the Navy

Gina K / cherry Red

Ribbon - stash (some more of that super ribbons my friend Rose gave me)

Ink - SU / Midnight Muse

Catching up on posting pictures of cards for OWH.

I find that I've been busy making cards and not blogging about it.  :)  So here are the ones I've been working on in the last month or so.  I managed to fill a shoe box with about 100 cards that will probably be going out to Sandy at OWH on Monday.

August 19 / Using up Stickers:

Sentiment - computer generated

DP - Durham Ent. / rulers

CS - stash

"Missing U" - Hero Arts / Year Round Sentiments

DP / CS / Stickers - stash

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Baker's Twine - stash

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August 22

Sentiment - Hero Arts OWH / Dude Set

DP - Teresa Collins / You Are My Happy

CS - yellow - stash

SU Pumpkin Pie

Brads - stash

Ink - SU / Soft Suede

Dies - SU / Perfect Pennants

GOOGLY EYES!

Sentiment - Hero Arts / You're A Winner

DP - Reminisce / Monsters

CS - SU / Real Red

Gina K.  - Navy

Ink - SU / Midnight Muse

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August 24

Sentiment - Mama Elephant / In My Heart

Motorcycle - SU / Rev Up the Fun

Stamp images behind sentiment - CTMH / Pen Pals

Queen & Co. Washi Tape / Travel

CS and DP - stash

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Stamps behind sentiment stamped in CTMH - Creme Brûlée & SU - Soft Suede

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August 26

Sentiment - Hero Arts / My Type

DP - Authentique / Studious

Border DP - stash

CS - stash

Ink - SU Pacific Point

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Sentiment - SU / Rev Up The Fun

Bicycle - Gourmet Rubber Stamps

DP - DCWV 6x6 Big Stack

CS - Gina K. / Pure Luxury Navy

Sequins - stash

Ink - SU / Midnight Muse

Memento Tuxedo Black

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September 6

OWH Sketch B13

Sentiment - Viva Las Vegas Stamps

Bike - Gourmet Rubber Stamps

DP - SU / Birthday

CS - stash

Ink - SU / Pacific Point

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September 25

Sentiment & Image - My Favorite Things / Scientist

DP - More of that Periodic Table of Elements Chart paper

CS - Stash

Scientist colored with Copics

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

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September 23, 24, 25...oh OK, 26 and 27 too.

I decided to wrestle scraps to the ground and work on sun burst cards.  I went to YouTube for a tutorial.  But for the life of me, my brain just wouldn't wrap itself around cutting the pieces for some reason.  What I should have done is go to the OWH blog about them, http://operationwritehome.org/tutorial-starburst/.  I had major brain freeze.  So I spent nearly three whole days just trying to play with the paper scraps and my paper cutter and finally just started slapping some long skinny triangles down on paper, then covered the center where the points met with sentiment elements.  I think I will not be making these again for awhile, but I think they came out nicely.  Off they go in the box.  I also used up an entire 6x6 pad - Echo Park by Lori Whitlock Paper Co. / Here and Now. Phew.  I think the scraps won.

Sentiment/heart/star - Simon Says Stamp - Avery Elle for OWH / Brave

CS - stash

ink - SU Primrose Petals

SU Pacific Point

SU Gumball Green

Sentiment - Saavy Stamps

Sentiment - Penny Black

Sentiment - Eat Cake Graphics

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These two used scraps from 2 different 6x6 pads.

Sentiment - SU / Perfect Pennants embossed in white

Black board paper / DCWV Chalkboard Stack

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And last, but not least is my Halloween Challenge card that will be going out in October.  Cora has been issuing a monthly challenge, and other ladies are suggesting weekly challenges.  My Red/Black/White card with the kitty posted earlier is one of those weekly challenges.  (I'm behind..I completely missed Cora's food challenge.  I was wrestling with the sun burst cards, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.)  

It's fun to make a card to send to one specific person.  I have Ronni Unger this month, so I hope she doesn't come over here to my blog before she gets it in the mail.  Shhhh.

(I didn't write the date down on this one, but it was probably during the week of the 16th if anyone is keeping track.  hee hee)

I made several of these with different sentiments and I'll send her one with a Halloween sentiment. 

Scarecrow and fall field silhouette - Karen Meder Collection by Peddler's Pack (Beaverton OR LSS)

Sentiment and branch - CTMH / Treasure Life

Row of cross stitches - Paper Smooches / Needle Little Love

Leaves - EK Autumn Leaves Border Punch

Crow - Die-Versions

Leaf brad - stash

CS - stash

Green Twine - Karen Foster Scrapper's Spools

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

SU - Old Olive

Weekly challenge on Seongsook's Stampers...Red/Black/White

I spent most of the week wrangling with scraps and mostly they won. But I finally did get a few sunburst cards done that will go in my OWH box. So today, when the red/black/white challenge came up, I thought, yeah, I need to make a different card! So here is my contribution. The red zig zag is hand made paper that I bought at a local paper store and the film strip was the back side of some 12x12 card stock with cameras on the front that I've had for ages. I stamped the sweet kittens face in the frames and it just came together. This was fun.

Cat image - All Night Media

Sentiment - Impression Obsession

Chevron paper - Hand made paper from The Paper Place

CS - Film Strip - Echo Park Paper Co. / Oh Snap

Black CS - SU

Ink - Real Red (distressing on sentiment)

Memento Tuxedo Black

Black Pearl Pen dots

Thanks for the challenge this week Raeanna.

The hardest cards to make...

For a dear friend.

Sentiment - SU / So Sorry

DP/CS - stash

Ribbon - Offray

Ink - SU / Rich Razzleberry

OWH Sketch #23

Happy Birthday card fun...

So I was thinking it was time to make some more birthday cards.  Now that I'm not concentrating so much on OWH, I have time to restock my drawer with cards I send out to my personal friends and family.  Yeah, they have been sadly neglected the last couple of years with most of my energy going to card making for the troops...and card kits for the OWH card making parties with my besties.

So here are a group of cards I made recently using a darling stamp set I got from Inkadinkado.

Images - Inkadinkado / Humorous Birthday

DP - SU / Birthday

CS / Stash

Images colored with Copics

Cora has the best ideas....Fall Card Swap.

With the need for fewer cards at Operation Write Home (with our troops coming home, YAY!), some of us have had bittersweet feelings knowing we do not have nearly as many cards to make anymore.  Seongsook started a page where we could post our latest card creations and share our fun and art with each other.  Go over and check out Seongsook's Stampers and see all the pretty cards everyone is making.

Then....

One of our stalwart card makers, Cora Jean Johnson,  suggested a swap on FB.  Thus a new tradition was born!  We're all a little OCD or ADD or just addicted to paper/stamps/ink pads/punches/ribbon...you get the idea...and if something is worth doing, it's worthing doing a lot!  So the urge to really go all out, drag out the stuff we have been hoarding or saving for non-OWH cards and make a card for a friend became the Fall Card Swap.

This is the card I made for the name I was given, AND I got a new friend in the exchange.  Woohoo!  And truth be told, the one she made for someone else was very similar.  I swear, I did NOT copy her card.  Honest!  She said it's because great minds think alike.  That works for me.  Here is my card for my new friend Annie Frazer in Minnesota.

Sentiment - CTMH / Timeless

Trees - Hero Arts / Three Winter Trees

Bronze CS - stash

Cherry Red CS - Gina K Designs / Pure Luxury

Image colored with Copics

Ink Distressing around Image - Tim Holtz / Tea Dye

Sentiment stamped with Memento / Tuxedo Black

Leaf punch outs done with EK Fall Leaves Border Punch

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We had such fun doing this and it's great to see everyone's cards on the FB page.  Next is Halloween, and I'm looking forward to that.  We haven't really needed Halloween cards for OWH, so my drawer of stamps for that "holiday" have been neglected the last few years.  Can't wait to get those stamps out and go to town!

Booooo!