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!