Prehistoric Party Cards

I love coloring in this images from the old Prehistoric Party stamp set from Stampin' Up!

I hear Stampin' Up! is going to be selling alcohol markers. I've never tried coloring with that type of marker (the images above were colored in with ink pads and an aquapainter), I may need to give it a try. I do hope the company releases lots of fun images to color with the new markers, it seems there are not as many great line type images for coloring as they have had in the past. Still lots (and LOTS!) of those old stamp sets I'd love to own...................

These cards were donated to Operation Write Home.

Thanks for looking =)

It's Your Day Cards

I love how easily embossing folders 

and texturz plates give cards extra, tactile interest.

I used a Happy Birthday folder from Cuttlebug on this card.

The stamp images are from an old set by Stampin' Up!, Girlfriends. 

It is colored with an aquapainter and ink pads.

These cards were sent to Operation Write Home.

I'm hoping "It's Your Day!"

for several animals to be adopted

from a local rescue adoptathon today.

I'll be going to help out, my very first time

so I am both excited and nervous !

Willpower be strong,

I do NOT need to bring one home with me !

Thanks for looking =) 

Glittering Snow

 

 Ahhhhh, sunshine at last !!!!

BITTER cold out, though.

 The snow was soooo pretty, glittering with the sunlight

hitting it this morning.

It looked as if angels had been doing craft projects

and glitter fell to the earth ;)

Don't let the pretty, glittery snow and blue skies fool you, though:

Yes, that is NEGATIVE 12.8 degrees Fahrenheit 

at 7:10 AM (not PM as it says) this morning !

It must be at least -20 degrees wind chill factor.

Yippee !!!!

The prize pack from Operation Write Home arrived yesterday!

Lots of great stamp supplies to be put to good use !

Thank you, thank you OWH !

On The Go Card Set

All of the above cards were made by myself and donated to Operation Write Home.
The sporting images are from an old stamp set, On The Go, by Stampin' Up!
I used various other stamp images as well as card stocks and inks from Stampin' Up!, too.
The mulitcolored backgrounds were created by brayering on ink from Kaleidacolor ink pads onto glossy white card stock.

I do not know who to give credit for this card design. 

It is one I saw several years ago and always remembered the basic use

 of the rock climber stamp image for in this set. 

Thanks for looking =)

My Heart BEElongs To You Card

I whipped this card up for the Midweek Throwdown Challenge at Operation Write Home: Hexagons.

http://operationwritehome.org/midweek-throwdown-hexagons/

The hexagons on my card are the embossing folder (from Stampin' Up!) background to simulate honeycomb.

I used various punches, yellow and black card stock and shimmery paper to create the bee. I adhered just the top ends of the wings to the body. Cute googlie eyes to finish it off.

Note to self when I make more of these: glue the black head under the yellow body before adhering the wings. This is the first time I made a paper punch bumble bee; next time I need to make it much smaller ;)

The sentiment was created by typing a text box with the flag path to follow in Photoshop Elements 10. I printed it out on my home printer then hand cut it with scissors. I'm no PSE guru, but was able to figure this out pretty easily while playing around with it. Here is how I did it:

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking !

Luck Of The Draw

Granted, it was the luck of the draw from a random generator, but nonetheless, I was one of the two winners from the Card Bowl Challenge at Operation Write Home over Super Bowl Weekend !!!!

I'm soooooooooooooo excited !

If you have the time, take a look at each post below to see thumbnail links to nearly 250 cards - inspiring !
Nearly all of these cards will be sent in to Operation Write Home for our heroes to write home on.
http://operationwritehome.org/card-bowl-2014/   - team inspiration
http://operationwritehome.org/odbd-february-challenge/ - use browns
http://operationwritehome.org/sketch-challenge-210/ - sketch


Here is the blog post that features three of my cards ( I made six total, two for each challenge all of which were posted to my blog over the past few days) and three by the other winner, Bobbi.

http://operationwritehome.org/card-bowl-our-heroes-win/
 

I've hundreds more to make before sending them in since I like to fill a large box when I donate.

I clipped the portion of the year end donation summary email

sent to me that states how many cards I sent in to OWH

then made a quick graphic with it. 

Each and every one of those cards was made by myself,

personally created with deep gratitude for our heroes

to write home to their loved ones on.

Just a small thing I can do to help support them

(and their families). 

THANK YOU, TROOPS! 

I didn't notice this at the bottom of the email at first!

PS Your lifetime number of cards and letters is: 804

I plan on making it to a lifetime total of 1000 (at least!) this year.

Minecraft Creeper Greeting Card

I cut a piece of scrap rubber into a 1/2" square then stamped it with several shades of green ink (and dark gray ink) to recreate the "creeper" from the video game Minecraft.

I thought about creating one digitally then printing it out, in the end decided against it because I probably would not have had enough ink in my printer !

It was made for a nephews Minecraft themed birthday party.

My son and daughter gave me their approval before I gave it to my nephew =)

Thanks for looking !

Operation Write Home Card Bowl 2014 - Challenge 3

http://operationwritehome.org/sketch-challenge-210/
It's a sketch challenge for the Card Bowl Challenge today !
I tried to make masculine cards for younger boys with today's challenge, though there are certainly many little girls that would like them, too.

Stamp image from Stampin' Up!, Lots Of Bots.
"Happy Birthday, Human" is actually part of the bot image. I colored each word individually with a marker and stamped them on a scrap of card stock. I then cut the words apart and mounted them to scraps of Certainly Celery card stock.
The bot is water colored with various colors of classic inks from Stampin' Up!.
Papers from an old Die Cuts With A View Stack.
After taking the photo of this card and the feeling that it was missing something, I went back in with a marker and added a doodle line around the edge of the panel that the bot is stamped on.

I turned the sketch on its side for this card !

Stamp image from Stampin' Up!, Darling Dragons.
Water colored with various colors of inks.
Papers from an old Die Cuts With A View Stack.
Two different size heart punches layered on top of each other. I carefully pulled the smaller heart apart creating two from the one and giving one side of the card stock that sort of suede look to it. I glued the smooth side of the small heart down on top of the large heart so the rougher, suede like side of the small heart was showing.
(I should have done a better job of cutting out "Miss you" so no white was showing............)



Thanks for looking =)

Operation Write Home Card Bowl 2014 - Challenge 2

Challenge 2 for the Card Bowl at operation Write Home:
 Use BROWNS to make masculine cards.
This time I tried to make them more suitable
for teenage boys. 

On The Go stamp image from Stampin' Up!

stamped on glossy white card stock with gray ink.

I stamped with Versamark ink then heat embossed black

embossing powder on top of it, slightly off center. 

I was trying to give the image a feeling of motion.

I sponged brown inks over a torn paper mask

to create the ground.

Three shades of blue ink sponged on for the sky.

Various inks, bleach and water as well

as crumpling of the paper to make the distressed layer.

Faux brads are 1/4" circle punched brown card stock

 with clear dimensional liquid applied to the tops.

Grungy stamp on the bottom brown layer, Stampin' Up!

I had too much fun making this one -

I dug out my acrylic craft paints to splatter

"mud" on the water colored truck image !

I also used a silver Signo gel pen for "chrome".

Stamps are from Hero Arts.

Stamped, hand cut then applied with dimensionals.

Ribbed cardboard from inside a light bulb box.

More home made distressed card stock to resemble dirt.

Plaid card stock base, Lasting Impressions.

Home made cloud stencil I sponged 

Bashful Blue ink over for the sky.

Go check out the blog post for many inspiring submissions -

and play along ! 

http://operationwritehome.org/odbd-february-challenge/

Thanks for looking =)

Operation Write Home Card Bowl 2014 - Challenge 1

Operation Write Home is having a fun weekend of challenges in honor of Super Bowl weekend !            http://operationwritehome.org/card-bowl-2014/


The first challenge posted earlier today: 
Masculine Ode to the teams! Make a masculine card – for men, teens, or little boys – in any OWH-approved theme. And make your card somehow reflect either the Seahawks or Broncos. Use their colors, something about their city, their mascot – get creative! It doesn’t have to be a sports/football-related card. 





Here are two cards I made, one in honor of each team. All supplies used were from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted and most of which are no longer available.
I used the team colors and tried to incorporate their mascot somehow. 

The Denver Broncos Card:
Bronc Buster and Wanted stamp sets
Glossy white card stock
Textured blue card stock, unknown
Pumpkin Pie card stock
Woodgrain texture plate, Fiskars
twine, unknown: it was on a package I received a long time ago
various inks
stampin' sponge
circle punch
star punch, McGill
scrap paper


I stamped the bucking bronc image onto glossy card stock (I should have heat embossed it with black embossing powder...........) then sponged inks over it. I created a mask with torn paper for the ground and another using a circle punch for the sun, sponging various colors of classic inks from Stampin' Up! over them.

After dry embossing the background of the card with an embossing folder, I lightly sponged some ink around the edges.

I gave the star punch accent some dimension by scoring the back side of it in the center of each point of the star then gently pinching inwards along the score marks. This also has some inking around the edges. I then stamped and cut out the tiny star image from the Wanted stamp set, glued it in the center of the dimensional star and finally hot glued it in place over the twine.






The coloring of the sunset on the Broncos card was inspired by this photo I took last fall.

The Seattle Seahawks Card:
I don't have any hawk image rubber stamps so I used feather images !
Soft As A Feather and Vogue Verses stamp sets
Midnight Muse and Gable Green card stocks
Midnight Muse ink (looks black in the photo, but it is a navy blue)
pale gray card stock, unknown

This one was a pretty quick card, a sort of go-to card idea I've used many times over the years. It's a versatile idea. Tear a strip of colored card stock, cut another slightly smaller and distress the edges then mount your stamped sentiment piece to the top. Add little bit of sponged ink to the edges of the stamped piece before mounting if you'd like. 


If you have time , go to the blog post to see many inspiring projects shared by other talented stampers - and play along !

Thanks for looking =)