Monday, January 28, 2013

Oldie Moldie Monday


Went into my pink and brown drawer and found a sheet of double sided paper.  I was able to get one card out of what was left on the sheet.  The  back was the pink and the floral is the front.  I stamped a simple sentiment a piece of the pink and matted it with white to coordinate with the white flowers in the design.  A strip of pink grounded the circle.

See - one simple card - that will go in my next Operation Write Home box.  

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Operation Write Home Sketch Challenge


Yeah - the sketch challenge on Stars and Stripes (Operation Write Home's card blog) was up early today - and so I got a chance to play - this paper was laying on my table from yesterday so thought I would use it again.  Check Saturday's post if you want to see a very similar card.

The sentiment is a favorite from Hero Arts for my Operation Write Home cards.  A "hello" card can be used for so many things.

Enjoy your Sunday - we are suppose to have snow, freezing rain,sleet and rain starting this afternoon - hopefully as it warms up - the roads will be OK for getting to work tomorrow.  Thanks for stopping by.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Freshly Made Sketch and Play Date Cafe Unite


Feels good to make a card.  Work - this last month - has sucked the creativity out of my soul - hopefully another week it will be better.  This card actually is for two different challenges.

It is based on the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.

It is also based on the color challenge at the Play Date Cafe - I think this is the first time I have ever played along.  I have a hard time with color challenges - I never know where the paper is in that color.  I must confess I went and bought the paper today for this card because I knew I wanted to use some of my favorite pattern paper - black and white houndstooth.


The sentiment is from Hero Arts and the butterfly stamp and punch are old - they are from - Paper Shapers and Purple Daisy Designs.

Everyone enjoy your evening - maybe I will use this color combo to make a few cards for my next Operation Write Home Box.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

CAS-ual Friday Challenge - Long and Short


Here is the long and short of this post.  My card is based on the challenge at CAS-ual Friday to make a card that is not your typical A2 card - but to make it long and short.  My card is 3 x 5.  I actually have been making some of my personal cards different sizes lately - shake your creativity up a little.



The stamp is a Hero Arts set that has stamps and coordinating dies.  The bee is from the same set.  I like the sentiment - because yes - I made this card - just me, thinking of you.  I will send the card the card to my mom - I have a couple more on the drawing board that I will send to some very dear older ladies - add a little bright note to their long winters.

Enjoy your Tuesday.

Monday, January 21, 2013

Oldie Moldie Monday and Sweet Sunday Sketch


It is Monday - time to show some love for your older supplies.  Of course, you need to know where the supplies are that you want to use.  I had put everything away at Christmas but I had this one piece I had left out so I could color my images - took me awhile to find the remainder of the collection.

I have a special group of friends and I did not get holiday cards made for them so this is their holiday card.  They can be a flaky group of friends.  So to add the flakiness of the card not only being late - I made the cards so they all open backwards to make them smile.    I hope they enjoy them - each card is different but all use the same image and the same paper collection.  The stamp is a Whipper Snapper Design and the paper collection is from Collage Press.

The card is based on the sketch from Sweet Sunday.  The sketch is active for two weeks.


I had been going to do the sketch from the last two weeks but work has been busy and there was no creativity in my soul for the last couple weeks.  But yesterday, mission accomplished - I was able to complete that sketch also.  I just moved the accent to the other side of the circle.  


Here is the sketch I used.
I have two more cards I am working on - stop by later in the week and you will be able to see them.

Remember to show some love for your oldier supplies.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Brrrrrrrrrr - It is Cold


I wanted to share a card I started a couple weeks ago - the circle shapes were cut from manila folders using my Silhouette - of course then I added acrylic paints and gesso to them to get the splotchy colors.  I glued the circle shapes to the blue background and then embossed everything.  I went with the big circle embossing folder to add to the circle theme.

I found some green paper that matched the green paint and heat embossed a simple sentiment on it and pop dotted it on top of my card front.

This card will go in my Operation Write Home Box. This week the mid week throw down on Stars and Stamps is the color green - I do believe this qualifies.

Monday, January 14, 2013

Oldie Moldie Monday




Oldie Moldie Monday - the day to show some love for old supplies.  I got out one of my Basic Grey 6 x 6 pads and found this pear paper - I knew I had a stamp from Unity with pears on it and a sentiment - these cards will go into my next Operation Write Home - they will bring a smile to the sender and receiver.  Two sheets of pear paper made 4 cards - one card I made is very similar to the middle one.

I actually like how I colored the pears - they actually have a little life to them.  Come back next week - I think we will be using the paper in the pad that has strawberries on it or there is a piece with cupcakes on it.

Enjoy your week and remember to show some love to your old supplies.

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Itty Bitty Cards

3 x 3 card

Moxie Fab World is having a challenge for "itty bitty cards" - the largest they can be is 3 x 3.  They have a new special edition titled "75 Creative Card Challenges" - hmmm must find this magazine.  

I decided to make a little valentine card.  I bought a new paper pad at Target last night (wow I got stuff to make chili and a paper pad in the same store - how great is that).  The paper pad is from American Crafts - isn't that the sweetest houndstooth.  The stamp is a $1 stamp I got somewhere.  Added some twine and a pearl.  These little cards are fun.

Thanks for stopping by today.  

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Basic Grey and Freshly Made Sketches


Had to play with a little paper tonight so I went to see what the sketch was on Freshly Made Sketches - it looked like something I could handle after a long day at work.  Good clean lines.  Here is the sketch.
I used paper from a Basic Grey 6 x 6 pad.  A strong addiction I have.  The peachy/pink paper seemed just a little blah when I got the card laid out - so I got out my Hero Arts friend definition background stamped and inked it up with grey and then kinda stamped it - I did not want a clean stamp - I just wanted some extra depth to the paper.  The flower stamp is from Hampton Art.  I stamped the center again on the peach paper, fussy cut it and pop dotted it for a little dimension.  I ended up having to mat the floral image.  I brought the black into my accent strip and embellishments.

Tomorrow is Friday - but alas I am forcing myself to work on Saturday.  I need to get some more stuff accomplished.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Creative Ways to Use Tags

Yes - how do you use the good old basic manila office tag in your creative endeavors.  My friend Ivanka and I are taking a free online class Creative JumpStart coordinated by Nat Kalbach and one of the videos is using tags.  Since both of us are basically card makers - we adapted what we learned to make cards.  We decided we would challenge each other to make something with our tags - and post today.

Of course I did not have any office tags to use that you can buy in packages.  But I did have some old recycled manila file folders - so I found a file on my Silhouette and cut myself a bunch of tags.  Most of them I left the hole out.  So in that respect I did cheat a little but it is the same basic material as a tag you would purchase.

Here is my first card - I painted the tag with acrylic paint.  After the paint was dry, I cut myself a stencil with a circle design on it with my Silhouette.  I just rubbed ink over the dots onto the tag.  I then used the tag as the focal point for a very simple masculine card.  The patterned paper is from Authentique.  The sentiment is from Hero Arts.



My second card is a birthday card for my daughter.  I imagine she is going to wonder what artistic endeavor her mother was up to because this is not my traditional type of card.  The tag was painted with green acrylic paint - the same as the one above.  I then used a die cut (the stripes and dabbed some blue paint on - well a little blue paint strayed so then I added more blue paint.  After it was dried - I then came in and did some stamping with Gesso - the big circles were stamped with a bottle cap I dipped in the gesso.  The white dots were done with the end of a pen dipped in the gesso.  The green background in also a piece of manila folder painted with the green paint and then I had to add more circles to coordinate with the tag.  The sentiment is stamped on more painted folder.  I like that sentiment for a birthday card - I will be a little late with the card. I added some dyed seam binding to make the card a little feminine.  Hopefully she likes it.



My last card is entirely different than the other two (can you see I have had so much fun doing this) - sometimes you just need to do some different things with your creativity.  The tag and the heart are cut with the Silhouette from the manila folder material.  I then got out my Tattered Angels glimmer mist which never gets used and sprayed my elements.  Of course, the color of the card - was based on my limited supply of glimmer mists.  Luckily I had a pink and brown - a wonderful color combination for creating.  I also misted a doily I had in my supplies - the background script paper is a piece that was laying on the floor that worked wonderful into the design.  I dug into my bag of cream/white trims - found the tea dyed lace, the torn strips of muslin which is tea dyed and that cream color trim.  In the bag was also that little piece of pearls.  I ran the tag through the Cuddlebug.  I added twine to a large cream colored button I had.  The muslin bow was tied with the twine.   I added part of a Love sticker from SRM Stickers.  


The card is for the weekly challenge from The Paper Players to make a "love is in the air" card.  This valentine will go to my Mom - pink is her favorite color.  


I hope you enjoyed my creating with tags - try something new - that is what Ivanka and I are trying to do.  Her word for 2013 is "different" and this type of creating is very "different" for me - hop over to her blog and check her creations out.  

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Retro Sketches, Fiskar and Lawn Fawn


I love the weekly sketch challenge from Retro Sketches - it is so simple in its design with so much potential.

With a basic design, you have to make sure that every element you use - packs a punch and coordinates together.  I grabbed a new to me 6 x 6 pad from Lawn Fawn (Dewey Decimal).  I love the colors.  I had cut a different shape for the main shape but it was too big and the lines of the shape did not go with the line of the banners.

I do have a problem making a single layer card so had to cut the same color rectangle as the card base and ink the edge to make the base for the design.  The sentiment is from Hero Arts - it is a sentiment I use lots on my Operation Write Home cards.  The bird shape is a punch from Fiskars.

Tuesday - one day closer to the week end.

Monday, January 7, 2013

Oldie Moldie Monday




Monday - Oldie Moldie Monday - time to show some love to your old supplies.  I am showing love to this 6 x 6 pad of paper from Crate Paper (Farmhouse).  I used two sheets of the cream floral and the last card is made from what I trimmed off the sheet to make card 1 and 2.  The stamps are both from Hero Arts.

These three cards are going in my next Operation Write Home box.  I make lots of "general cards" because you can always use those for almost any occasion.

Have a wonderful Monday and dang - it is a five day work week - I hope I make it.

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Is It Spring Yet?


I know - it is too early - to start thinking Spring should be around the corner.  The next best thing - well kinda - but not really - is to make cards with spring like colors.  I needed a Thank You card - so I went to check out the challenges around "blog world".  CAS-ual Friday has one for Thank You cards and this card is based on the weekly sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.

Since I had the butterfly punches out and those spring colors - and it is now time to work on spring cards for Operation Write Home - I made another card.  The monthly challenge on Stars and Stamps - for Our Daily Bread Designs - is to use dry embossing on your card.  Our Daily Bread Designs will pay for shipping for up to two boxes of cards to our Heroes.  This means we need to post a minimum of 50 cards for the month of January.  We are well on our way to reaching that goal.  I had to add some bling to my card - I wonder if I overdid it - maybe I should take the bling out in the loops.  I may still still do that.



Enjoy your day - still thinking about going to work - the roads did look a little icy earlier so that is why I did not race out of the house this morning to do it - I wonder if I will go.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Thanks for Your Kindness



It is only the beginning of January and I am ready to dig out my spring colors and think warmth - of course - that may be because I have friends who are heading to Florida for the winter.  I would love to just lay in the sun and soak in some sunshine - oh well - maybe the sun will shine and I could lay on the floor in front of the patio door like a cat or dog.  Don't worry folks - I won't do that.

The weekly challenge on CAS-ual Friday is to make thank you cards.


I did some white embossing on a Bo Bunny paper- I found the yellow in my scrap bin and thought it would add a "sunny" touch to the card.  Dug out my scallop border die from Paper Trey Ink.  The scalloped rectangle was cut on my Silhouette.  The butterflies are one of the Martha Stewart butterfly punch.

Thanks for stopping by.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Spring Flowers



The midweek challenge on Stars and Stamps is to make floral cards - I did not dig out my flower stamps - I just grabbed some pretty paper and used some floral paper.  The floral paper - one 6 x 6 sheet used on two different cards.  I just used some pieces of other papers to complete the cards.  The sentiments were stamped on two of the little journal cards.

Have a good Thursday.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

More OWH Cards



A couple more cards with paper out of the scrap bag from 2012.  The bottom card is the first card for Operation Write Home for the year 2013.

Trying to make some cards for little girls since I made 5 robot cards earlier in the week.  The bunny card could be for Easter but it could also just be for general use also.  The bunny is a Studio G stamp which I bought for a $1 - I have got my money out of that stamp.  The bottom card - the Fluffles stamp is from Stampendous.  The top sentiment is Studio G and the "big hugs" is a Hero Arts stamp - a favorite sentiment for my OWH stamps.

Back to work today.  At least it is only a 3 day work week.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

More Operation Write Home Cards



A couple more cards for my next Operation Write Home box.  I do still need to make some personal holiday cards that I did not get out.  My OWH cards were a good way to jump start my creativity.

Happy New Year - may 2013 be full of health, happiness, prosperity and creativity.

I am still thinking what crafting resolution I would like to make for the upcoming year.  I need to finish the inside of my personal cards when I have all the paper out.  I think that is a good resolution - I need to make a few more.  Buy less - create more.