Mid-week throw down...punny cards.

This week's challenge for OWH is punny cards.  And if you know me, you have to know I would want to be in on this one.  I'd say one fourth of my cards are word plays...and probably half of my stamps are funny.  I can't help myself.

Here is one I made recently that will be on the way to Sandy soon in a box from East Woods Presbyterian Church where I conspire with my Vancouver BFF stamping buddies, Esther and Ellen (the E Sisters), and others, to make cards to send to OWH.  They're not really sisters, but we are all sisters in our hearts.  (We call ourselves S.I.S.T.R.Rs - Sisters in Stamping That Really Rock.   OK, it's corny, I know.)

The fox stamp is from Inky Antics, and the sentiment is computer generated.

The ink is CTMH Autumn Terracotta, the DP is "Groovy" from KI Memories, and the CS is from my stash.

 I made this one yesterday:

The fan is from Viva Las Vegas Stamp that I bought at the store in Vegas!  It has thousands of stamps and you can spend a couple of hours in there just ogling the stamps.  They have a fantastic web page too.  Go check it out.  http://www.vivalasvegastamps.com

The  sentiment is B Line Designs that I purchased 2 weeks ago up in Tukwila, WA at Impress by South Center Mall.  We were all anticipating the Super Bowl Game on Feb. 2nd,  and of course, they had a large display of sporting stamps and papers.  I thought this one would be a perfect pairing with the fan stamp.  If you're in the area and haven't visited this store, you MUST go.  Drool.  Sandy Allnock taught a class on fancy folds that I took there.  She is teaching more classes each month, so do go check out their website too.  http://www.impresscardsandcrafts.com

The papers were in my stash and the orange was embossed with my Cuttle Bug.  This is the very last of that cute ribbon I had in a drawer.  I like to think those flowers are dandelions and you know that is in keeping with the theme of the mighty wind the fan is blowing too, right?

Thanks for stopping by.  :)

Penguins for the General

Sandy sent out a call for penguin cards last month.  Seems one of her contacts loves penguins and requested a box of cards with them featured!  I bet he had no idea what his request would result in.  LOL  I haven't heard the total Sandy sent to him yet, but I'm sure it was overwhelming.

Here are a few I sent in.  Who knew I had so many penguin stamps...and these are just half of them.  I should make up some more for our winter theme boxes for next year.

Sentiment - CTMH - Sweet Talk

Penguin - Inky Antics

DP - Doodle Bug Designs

Lime DP - my stash

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Snowflake brad - stash

This darling penguin stamp was given to me by my BFF, Lanora.  There were no markings on it, so I have no idea who made it and she said she had it for ages.  I'm pretty sure it it no longer available from whoever made it.  I made this card for Sandy especially.  I will probably make up a batch of them for next year because who wouldn't want to have some skate boarding penguins?  That paper was from a 6x6 pad of BoBunny Papers (I think), and the maroon ribbon is CTMH.  The dots are Pearl Pen.

This cute little penguin is a Whipper Snapper Designs stamp.  The CS and DP are from my stash and the tag I punched from some CTMH CS and tied with some waxy flax from CTMH.  They don't make this anymore (the waxy flax) and I am sad.  I love this stuff.

CS - stash

Penguins on a sled - Art Impressions

Sentiment - Inkadinkado

Ribbon - CTMH Wild Berry Chiffon

Image colored with 'Copics

Sentiment stamped with SU Tempting Turquoise

CS and DP - stash

Image - Inky Antics

Sentiment - computer generated

Image colored with Copics

Our next challenge is bunnies, so be watching for lots of those.  

Punches and kid cards...

This week I've been making cards for kids for OWH and mulling over other ideas.  Here's a pic of a few that will get sent to Sandy this next week.  And later I'll post some that I've made over the last month.  It's finally sunny today after 3 or 4 days of fog, so I think we'll go out and about today and I'll finally get off the computer.  :)

These were made using punches and Cuttle Bug dies.  And I got the lovely vibrant colored paper from Craft Warehouse.  Love me some Bazille paper!

December already?

Well, I see I've been VERY bad at keeping my blog updated this past couple of months.  I guess it's partly because Grant has been using my camera for a photography class he took this term, which is nearly over, and partly because fall and Christmas approaching have kept me busy.  OK...and the ooh shiny thing.  LOL

I did get a new camera this weekend.  With Pete and Grant egging me on (OK, it didn't take too much convincing), we went to Best Buys and got me a new digital camera.  It's small and compact and easy to use and it's RED, like our new Scion we bought ourselves last month.  Well, that isn't the real reason I bought it, but it's a bonus.  This is a Samsung SMART CAMERA with WiFi connectivity, 10x zoom lens, 24 mm Ultra Wide Angle and 16.2 megapixels.  I intend to upload pics more often now.  I love the other camera, but it is very big and kind of hard for me to handle.  (I'm a delicate flower, don't ya know?)

Now, on to cards...

I will post some cards I've made this fall that have gone on to OWH and some to friends and try to catch up.  Then, with paperwork (can we still call it that in this digital age?) out of the way, I can hit my craft table and get going on my Christmas cards.  I have some made already, but lots more to do because I LOVE sending Christmas cards.  I know most do not send them anymore, but I still love the tradition of writing out folks addresses and putting stamps on envelopes and taking them to the post office and sending them on their way in those blue old fashioned post boxes.  I'm not as ADD as that actress in that movie with the guy* (her name and the movie name escapes me right now) that put her Christmas cards in the box one at a time and then checked the pull down flap after each one to see that it did indeed go into the box, but I do enjoy that act of shoving them in the box.  :)

These are some we made at an OWH party this fall that went into a box for Sandy.  

And these are ones I made.  Most of the design ideas come from OWH sketches and some just come from my musings after looking at the OWH site, the OWH blogs, the FB page, numerous magazines and just ideas from my other card making buddies.  We love to CASE (copy and share everything).

One of my many Any Hero designs.

I computer generated the sentiment for this one.

DP - We R Memory Keepers/Passport Stamp/Mail Cancellation

DP - Red Petite Prints/Doodlebug Design, Inc.

CS - Brown mat SU Chocolate Chip

Card base - stash

Sentiment - Computer generated

CS - CTMH Vinyard Berry

Ink - CTMH Vinyard Berry

DP - Gingham CTMH Vinyard Berry

DP - Flowered paper from my stash

Stamp - Letters CTMH "Pen Pals"

Stamp - Paper Smooches - Circle of Honor OWH fund raising set.

DP and CS from my stash.

CS - stash

Sentiment - CTMH "One of a Kind"

Ribbon - CTMH

Heart is from some gift tags in my stash

Sentiment - Hero Arts "This is Big"

CS - stash

Ink - SU Tangerine Tango

Tim Holtz Distress Ink Peeled Paint

The following 4 cards are ones I made at Tracy Nolta's card making classes.  She is a SU demonstrator and has one class a month.  It's fun, stamping, socializing and getting new card ideas!

These are Any Hero cards I made that were shared with my other besties at OWH card making meetings at Ellen's and East Woods Presbyterian Church and Emeritus Senior Living.  And most of them have been written in and sent on their way to the troops to bring cheer and a shout out from Vancouver, WA.  We <3 our troops.

Thanks for stopping by.  Stay tuned for more Christmas soon.  

*Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail.

Fall begins!

Well, it's been a busy September.  Birthdays, card parties, clean out the shed projects. Phew.  I thought I'd post some of my latest cards to share some of my crafty projects that have been keeping me sane.  :)

But first, here's one of Hel enjoying the last few sunny days of summer while I gather my thoughts...

OK, let's get back to cards...


September is the month we celebrate OWH's birthday because this is the month OWH was awarded Non-Profit status  in 2009.  So we have been having all kinds of fun on the OWH FB page, Sandy Allnock's blog and OWH TV on YouTube.  Our local group of friends have been having lots of fun with card making parties here in the Vancouver area too.

We started out on Labor Day, Sept. 2nd, with a party at East Woods Presbyterian Church, and made a great bunch of cards.  Then continuing the fun...we had a gathering the next day at Emeritus Senior Living.  At this meeting we helped a few residents decorate a Fall bulletin board for their center and had the use of tons of fun stuff provided by the center.  Esther then added pictures of the residents to it afterwards.  It turned out pretty nice.

(This is a pic of Mary and I at the last group meeting at Emeritus, but she had this same great smile on when we were crafting the bulletin board too.)

And Esther found a friend:

The following week, we had our evening gathering on the 10th (Happy Birthday Pete), at Ellen's house and put together kits.  Here are a couple I brought.  I'm slowly getting into Fall and Christmas cards...

Then we drove into Portland on the 14th for a party that was put on by a Portland card maker, Angel Koch.  She had arranged for us to use a meeting room at the Hollywood Branch of Multnomah County library and she had brought over 500 cards to be put together.  There were two young girls happily writing out Any Hero letters when we arrived.  They had wandered into the meeting room by mistake, but took to OWH like ducks to water.  They put together cards, then wrote out letters to the troops.  They were 11 and 12 years old, I believe Angel said, and they wrote jokes and nice notes and did a great job on the cards.  They were there for at least 2 hours!  Thank you Sharon and Ming Ma.  Such cuties.

We had such fun that I told Angel I would love for her to come with us on the following Monday at East Woods.   We were expecting, Sandy Allnock to join us and this would be a great opportunity for Angel to meet her face to face.  Angel wasn't going to have a way to get up to Vancouver, so I told her I'd drive down and pick her up.  She lives just across the river and it was no problem going to get her.   The more the merrier, right?

 Our OWH Fearless Leader, Sandy Allnock, drove down from Federal Way, WA so this was a very special group meeting.  Woo Hoo!  We had cookies and brownies, door prizes, and lots of card kits to put together.  And Sandy took some video that she then incorporated into her OWH TV show.  We had a blast.

We always have door prizes at some point during our meetings, so to help with this Sandy brought down big zip lock bags of card stock, design paper, stickers and embellishments that had been parceled out into themes to contribute.  She had a Hugh Garage Sale last month and a lot of this stuff hadn't sold.  She figured we would put it to good use!  I brought home one stuffed with baseball/softball/sports type stuff and let me tell you, I will be able to make tons of cards with this stuff!  Thanks Sandy.



The following are some of the card kits I took to this group meeting:

CTMH - One of a Kind - Sentiment

Impression Obsession - birds on clothes line image "Hang in There" by Alesa Baker Designs

CS - stash

Baker's twine - hand stitched between the clothes pins and birds feet

 Brads - stash

There was a call on the blog and FB for more masculine cards, so I've done several sets of sports theme cards.  I have a stack of paper with sports stuff that I've been trying to work my way through.  And I am getting tired of the brown and red.  I will dig into that sports package of goodies Sandy provided as a door prize for next year as most of it is baseball theme.  Can't wait.

Sandy had asked us last month what kinds of cards men would pick to send to other men, so I've been trying to make some totally with out froo-froo things on them like lacy ribbons and cutesie things.  Hopefully, these cards will get chosen by some of the troops.

OWH Sketch #78

CTMH cream card stock

SU Soft Suede card stock (mat for tank strip)

A Fistful of Stamps - tank image (this is a great company for military and patriotic stamps)

All Night Media - "Many Tanks" sentiment stamp

Sentiment - CTMH Rustic Alphabet

DP - That great sports stack

Ribbon - May Arts

Kraft paper - stash

(Snap is a football term, right?)

Stampendous - Alphabet stamps

CS/DP - stash

CTMH - Pepperwood ink

Michael's - ribbon

Brads - stash

And here are some Christmasy/winter ones I've been making this month.  I still don't have the urge to make Christmas cards yet.  Sometimes the call for seasonal cards two months ahead of time finds me way behind schedule...or missing it altogether.  Maybe I should just stick with missing you and love you themes.  Safer that way.

I used my Cuttle Bug to emboss the white background.

And some other general themes:

Sketch - variation of OWH B24

CS - stash

DP - K&I Memories - Glitter Paper - Birds

CTMH - Sentiment "One of a Kind" set

And, my favorite that I'm taking to the next group:

You may not be able to see it, but the white pieces are shiny.  I can't remember who gave me this paper, but I have a few precious pieces left.  I typed the sentiment on the flag.  Yes, I still have an honest to goodness manual typewriter.  The yellow card stock is really garishly bright yellow, but I think works great with the black and red.  The sentiment is CTMH from the Play It Safe set.  CTMH - Holiday Red ink.  And the Crime Scene tape is from Scotch Tape that I picked up from Powell's Book Store.  I HAD to have it.

I gave the first one to my sweetie as a belated birthday card.  I got a kiss.

Steaming right along...challenge #2. Homage to Operation Write Home...OWH, get it?

This is my take on challenge #2...

O = Over the hill (and through the woods).
W = White, wreathe, warm window light.
H = Home, Hero Arts, Right at Home.

Ahhh, the light from the windows just makes me feel warm and cozy in that quiet snow fall, don't you feel it?

I'm loving this VCMP.  But I'm off now to make cards with my besties at East Woods Presbyterian Church.  Look for pics later of our cards and happy faces!

Thanks for visiting.

Labor Day VCMP on Operation Write Home this weekend and here's my take on #1.

The challenge was here:  http://brujahrose.blogspot.com/2013/08/labor-day-weekend-vcmp.html, and this is my take on it.   I hope I can get to making more than one new card this weekend!

CS and DP from my stash.  The stamps are from SU, Six Sided Sampler and matching punch.  Who can take the time to cut out all those hexagons?  :)

Oh, and Cuttle Bug for the embossed white panel.