OWH Sketch Challenge - #251

Good afternoon!  It is new sketch week over at Operation Write Home.  They are up to #251.  This week's sketch looks like this:

I made a thank you card to send personally:

 

The strips are cut from a tag that I made at a Club Scrap Retreat workshop last summer.  It was my first experience using a Gelli Arts Gel Printing Plate, and I can tell you that we used some acrylic paint, but that is about all I remember about the supplies used for that.  The supplies I used to finish the rest of the card are:

**paper from Gina K, Club Scrap and SEI

**I think the sentiment stamp came in a kit from some class I took a long time ago, but I don't remember who was the sponsor (or even what the class was!).

**sentiment stamped with Tsukineko Brilliance ink, then embossed using Gina K clear powder

**dies are from Spellbinders

**Copic Markers used to color the bottom layer of the sentiment tag

**ribbon is upcycled, eyelet flower from Club Scrap, and brads (I believe) are from We R Memory Keepers.

Since this was such a quick and easy sketch, I also made a thank you card to send along to OWH:

This one uses another tag made at the Club Scrap Retreat.  I can tell you that the stencils used with the Gelli Plate are from Club Scrap.  I used one of the stencils along with Distress ink to create some interest on the background paper.  Other supplies I used are:

**paper from Gina K and Club Scrap

**stamp from Inkadinkado

**VersaMark and Distress ink, Zing embossing powder

**ribbon from Club Scrap

**label die from Spellbinders

**not sure what brand the nail heads are, but got them at JoAnn's a while back.

Thanks for stopping by!

Stretch Your Dies - Day 2

Ok, so one of the things I like about the Online Card Classes like Stretch Your Dies is that I don't have to be online at a certain time each day to follow along.  The OCC people, Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner generously allow life time access to the classes once you pay your fees.  The interactive parts are only open for a set amount of time, but it is great to be able to revisit the videos anytime for refreshers, or, as is my case, to finish the class when life lets you.

That said, I have completed some cards using the techniques taught on Day 2 of the Stretch Your Dies class and since the gallery is still open I thought I would share.

This one is my favorite:

This uses "Die Cuts Within Larger Die" technique.  I have to admit that I liked doing this until I got to the part where I had to add dimensional adhesive to all those little flower petals.  At that point I was thinking that I would never do this again!  However, after I saw the final results, I think I will end up doing it again...the extra effort was so worth the results!

The supplies I used are:

**paper from Club Scrap and Strathmore (Watercolor paper)

**the circle die is from Spellbinders and the flower dies are Heartfelt Creations

**Distress re-inkers for the flowers, Distress ink for the sentiment 

**sentiment stamp from Taylored Expressions

**Zing clear embossing powder (on the sentiment)

**the crepe paper was left over from a class project I took a long time ago (don't even remember the project any more).  I altered the silver color with Copic Marker.

**ribbon is from Club Scrap  

I also made cards using the other two techniques taught on day 2:

Thanks for stopping by!

Stretch You Stamps Day 1 & OWH Mid-Month Throwdown

Good Afternoon!  Once again I have one card that I am submitting to two different challenges.  The Operation Write Home Mid-Month Throwdown for March is red, white and blue.  The Online Card Class - Stretch Your Dies Day 1 introduced a few fun techniques for using word dies.  I combined the two events into one card that I will send to OWH as AnyHero mail.

Two of the three techniques taught in the class (On The Edge, and Heat Shrink Craft Foam) were used on this card :

Here are the supplies I used:

**paper and flag stamp and ribbon from Club Scrap

**"thank you" die from Die Versions, star dies from Momenta

**flag and edges inked with Club Scrap ink, stars colored with Copic Markers then sprayed with Perfect Pearls spray.

Here are three other cards from day 1's class:

 

They all were already made using red white & blue before I saw the Mid-Month challenge.  All three of them will be used as AnyHero mail.

Thanks for stopping by!

One Card - Two Challenges

Hello again!  Two blog posts in two days...it is amazing that I had that much creative time.  I'm not complaining though!  It has felt good to be in my scraproom playing with my supplies.  And, there have been some fun challenges to help spur on my creativity.  Today's card will be submitted to two different challenges.

Operation Write Home is hosting their 250th sketch challenge. Wow, now that is a lot of inspiration. You can find all of their sketches here.  Go check them out - there are some really fun ideas in that bunch!  And over at Club Scrap, they are starting up a monthly technique challenge on their blog.  This month's challenge is to use multiple ink colors on a single stamp, stamp with Gelatos and water, or stamp with markers (or any combination of the three).   

So, I took the OWH sketch:

and made this card:

Since I don't own any Gelatos, I used Faber Castell and Stampin' Up water color crayons to color directly on the butterfly stamp (Club Scrap, "Papillion" kit).  Then I sprayed a light mist of water on it, and stamped onto my paper.  After fussy cutting it out, I used some Stickles to give it the glittery look.  I can do the glitter because I will be sending this out personally, not donating it to OWH.  They have very strict guidelines that need to be followed to keep our heroes safe.  The background is done with various Glimmer Mist sprays.  

Other supplies I used are:

**paper from Club Scrap

**stamps from Club Scrap - background (on circle) "Vogue", sentiment from "Pure & Simple"

**dies from Spellbinders

**Gina K ink on circle, VersaFine ink for sentiment

**Gina K embossing powder on sentiment.

Please check out some of my other blog posts.  If you like what you see, you can sign up to "Follow by Email" and receive email notifications whenever I post.

Thanks for stopping by! 

OWH - March OBDB Challenge

Happy almost spring!  At least I hope it is almost here.  Life has been pretty crazy around here and the extra cold and wintry weather hasn't helped much.

Over on the Operation Write Home blog, Our Daily Bread Designs is hosting their monthly challenge.  For march the theme is Sentiments.  Basically we should use a sentiment as the focal point of the card.   As usual, if there are 50 cards linked up for the challenge, ODBD will pay shipping for two boxes of cards to be sent to our heroes serving overseas.  I just think that is so cool!

Anyway, here is my card for the challenge:

I learned the background technique from my Club Scrap Retreat-in-a-Box back in 2009.  (If you can't make it to either of their annual retreats in Wisconsin, you have the option of having the workshop projects, and goodies sent to you.  How convenient is that?)  I remembered how much fun it is when I recently saw this Metallic Marvels Ghosting Technique blog from Club Scrap (thanks for the reminder Julie!).

The supplies I used for this card are:

**paper from Gina K and Club Scrap

**background stamp from Heartfelt Creations, sentiment stamp from Stamp Oasis

**Club Scrap metallic re-inkers, VersaMark and Powder Puff inks

**embossing powder from Club Scrap

**polka-dotted ribbon (running diagonally) from Club Scrap, altered with Copic Markers, green ribbon from Taylored Expressions

**I am not sure where the eyelet (or is it a grommet?) and the "gems" are from.

Thank you for stopping by!

OWH Sketch Challenge - 248

Did you know that Operation Write Home has almost 250 different sketches that you can use as inspiration?  And they are still coming out with new ones a couple of times each month!  You can check all of them out here.  I'm sure you will find something you like!  Here is what #248 looks like:

For some reason I was having trouble figuring out a direction for this sketch.  I started out by trying a new to me shaving cream technique that I found on Stamp TV.  After playing around with that for a bit I came up with this card:

I used some shave cream found in the travel size section of my local commissary and re-inkers from Club Scrap.  That panel was used to cut three circles with dies from Spellbinders, and the decorative "flower" with a GEO die from Pop-Ups Etc.  The little flower dies are also from Spellbinders.

Other supplies I used are:
**paper, sentiment tag cut-apart, and ribbon all from Club Scrap
**it doesn't show up very well in the photo, but I used a stamp from Technique Junkies to add a little texture to the background.
**I don't know where the "gems" are from, but they are altered with Copic markers.

Hope you are staying warm today!  Thanks for stopping by.

Putting My Heart into it for Stamp TV

The theme of this week's Stamp TV challenge is "Put Your Heart Into It".  Adding at least one heart is all that is required...oh, and NO Valentine's cards.  No problem, except a lot of the Gina K stamps I have really lend themselves to what could be considered "Valentine's" type cards.  My first idea was pretty cool, but since Christmas is still over 11 months away, it seemed a little strange for submitting to this challenge.  So I came up with a masculine anytime card:

All the stamps used are from Gina K.  The image is from set called "Little Things Duo",  I stamped it with VersaMark ink, used Ranger Sticky embossing powder, then used some copper leaf from Art Minds.  The sentiment is from the "Just Because Duo", and I can't find which set the heart is from (I got it during their last clearance sale so they must have sold out of it!).  I stamped both of them in VersaMark and used Zing embossing powder.  

The other supplies I used are:

**paper is from Gina K, Club Scrap and Bo Bunny

**the gross-grain ribbon is from Gina K, and the rick-rack upcycled from somewhere.  Both are altered with Copic Marker.

**I also used Distress ink to distress some of the edges.

**a Crop-a-Dile Corner Chomper was used on the top two edges of the image 

**the copper brads are from my stash (probably from Club Scrap but can't say for sure)

Thanks for stopping by!

OWH - ODBD Challenge for February

Every month Our Daily Bread Designs hosts a challenge for Operation Write Home.  If they get 50 or more cards linked up to the challenge by the end of that month, they will sponsor the shipping of two boxes of cards for our deployed heroes.  Thanks to ODBD for providing a fun way to help get cards mailed to our troops!

The theme for this month is "animals", which worked out very well for me.  Yesterday I had started working on a card with an idea in mind.  Twenty four hours later, this creation had taken on a life of it's own:

About the only thing that stayed constant was using OWH sketch #125 as my inspiration.  I won't bore you with the whole long story, but I will tell you that I ended up stamping the giraffe (from Gina K Designs) on to a piece of Ranger's Specialty Stamping paper using Archival ink.   I then masked off the image, as well as the "horizon" line, and sponged on Distress inks to create the background.  I did the spritz and flick trick that I learned from Tim Holtz to create some interest before stamping the tree and grasses (all Gina K). The giraffe was colored in using Distress markers, both directly to paper, and by scribbling onto a pallet and using a water brush to blend.

For the strip on the left side, I just sponged on the Distress ink, Then I created a mask with the four squares (which came from a Club Scrap stencil) and stamped the star burst image (from Inkadinkado).  Then using the same stencil I traced the squares onto the background using a Faber-Castel pen.

Other supplies I used are:
**paper from Gina K, Club Scrap
**sentiment stamp from Gina K, stamped with Archival ink and heat embossed with Ranger Antiquities embossing powder
**ribbon from Club Scrap, altered with Copic Marker
**I am not sure what manufacturer the nail heads are from, but I had found them at JoAnns a while ago.

I didn't originally intend to build a scene on this card.  In fact, this is the first time that I have attempted that technique.  How do you think I did?

Thanks for stopping by!

Winter Inspiration for Stamp TV Challenge

Good morning!  This week's Stamp TV challenge, "winter inspiration", seems appropriate since the most famous weatherman (or is it weather-rodent?) predicted 6 more weeks of winter.  As usual, I am hopeful that he is wrong!  Here is my card:

The background for the focal image was done with Distress re-inkers on Strathmore Watercolor paper using a technique found on this video on Stamp TV.  I then stamped the mugs from Gina K's Season's Greetings set with Versa-Mark ink and embossed with Zing embossing powder.  A snowflake die from Taylored Expressions was used for the sentiment tag.  The snowflake stamp and the sentiment are both from Gina K,  

Other supplies I used are:

**paper from Gina K, Club Scrap, Bazzill 

**Distress ink for snowflake stamp and inked edges

**Spellbinders die for sentiment circle

**embossing folder for background from Sizzix

**ribbon and snowflake eyelets from Gna K.

Stay warm!  Thanks for stopping by.

OWH Team Challenge

Happy Super Bowl Sunday everyone!  I'm not as excited as I would be if my Green Bay Packers had made it to the big game. At least the league's 2014 MVP comes from my team...congrats to Aaron Rodgers!

Ok, enough about football, lets talk cards.  This week Operation Write Home had a bonus challenge encouraging crafters to show team spirit by making a card using their favorite team's colors.    Well, guess what colors I used?

This is a birthday card for my brother-in-law, but don't tell him the Packers' colors were the inspiration...he is a 49ers fan.  The background technique is one I got from Gina K's Stamp TV .  

The supplies I used are:

**paper from Gina K, Bazzil, and Club Scrap

**pine branch stamp is from Stampers Anonymous (Tim Holtz), sentiment is from Fiskars

**Distress Ink used for background, Memento ink for edging, VersaMark ink for sentiment

**Zing embossing powder used for both background and sentiment

**ribbon is from Club Scrap

**brads are from my stash (not sure what manufacturer), altered with Copic Marker

Since this is a OWH challenge, I also wanted to post a second card that will be donated to our heroes:

This one uses the same background technique.  It also uses a cut-apart from Club Scrap that I covered in Ranger Antiquities Frosted Crystal embossing powder.

.The other supplies I used are:

**paper from Club Scrap and Gina K

**stamp and ribbon are both from Club Scrap

**ink for background from Gina K, embossing ink on background from VersaMark, embossing ink on cut-apart from Distress

**Zing embossing powder on background, 

**I don't know what manufacturer the nail heads are from, but I got them at JoAnns.

Thanks for stopping by!

OWH January Mid-Month Throwdown

It has been awhile since I was able to make a card for a challenge, not to mention make any cards for Operation Write Home.  So, it felt good to jump back into the both with this month's OWH Mid-month Throwdown with the theme "thank you".  Here is my card:

For me, this is about as CAS as I get.  Awhile back I die cut this tree (using a Spellbinders die) from paper that I had covered with Glimmer Mist.  I used the tree on another project, but liked the negative enough to hang on to it.  For this card I die cut the tree again out of a coordinating color and inserted it back into the negative space.  The whole image is popped up with Scotch Clear-Mounting tape.

Other supplies that I used are:

**paper from Gina K, Club Scrap and (I believe) Cricut.

**ribbon and brads both are from Club Scrap, and both are altered with Copic Markers.

**sentiment stamp from Club Scrap stamped with VersaMark ink, embossed with Zing embossing powder.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Playing Mad Scientist

Ok, so I was working on this card for my Brother-In-Law's birthday.  It was coming together quite easily until I wanted to emboss the greeting in a color that complimented the rest of the card.  Of all the embossing powders I have, nothing was going to work. Time to play "mad scientist" and try to alter some powder to get a color that worked.  (After all, I am altering stuff all the time to make it fit the colors of my projects).  So, I set about mixing Perfect Pearls powders into embossing powders.  After several attempts, I finally got a color that looked good, and would show up on the darker background (although I admit it could be a bit brighter for better contrast).  Oh, and I got to use an art orphan piece too!  Here is the finished card:

My final mixture for the embossing was using Zing Embossing Powder in Mustard, with a smidgen of Apricot (also Zing),and Cappuccino Perfect Pearls. Other supplies I used were:

**Paper from Gina K. Authentique, Club Scrap and I'm not sure about the brown.

**background stamp Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous, image is Club Scrap, sentiment is The Stamps of Life

**Versa Mark & Destress Inks

**Ribbon is from Club Scrap, altered with Distress Marker

**The brown paper was cut using a die from Taylored Expressions

**I think the image was stamped with StazOn ink onto an art piece that used Club Scrap metallic re-inkers, then fussy cut.  I covered it with clear embossing powder to finish it off for this card. 

I highly recommend experimenting with your supplies to see if you can alter them to fit your needs.  It probably won't take the place of good ole' retail therapy, but it can be a lot of fun!

Thanks for stopping by!

OWH Top Cards of 2014 Bloghop

Happy New Year!  Operation Write Home is hosting a bloghop for cardmakers to showcase their top 14 cards of the year.  I have chosen my favorites to share with you here:

Looking back, I am grateful to find that 2014 was a good year for me creatively.  I learned new techniques, discovered new products, thought out side of the box a little more, and had even more fun making cards, scrapbook pages and other papercrafting projects.  I am excited to see what this year holds!  

If you would like to see other top cards of 2014, check out the links at our host Operation Write Home.  

Thanks for stopping by.  Wishing you a blessed and creative 2015!