Christmas Burst

This is my attempt at a starburst. There is a tutorial at OWHStars&Stamp blog for this technique. I was short on Christmas cards I had colored with copics and thought I would try. The green cardstock is Bazzill. The pattern paper is Tim Holtz. The cardstock on bottom was punched with Martha Stewart punch. The fiber is some I had. The sentiment was a tag punch and handwritten.

All You Need is Love

The top cards are the sentiment challenge at Stars & Stamp Blog. They want the sentiment is suppose to be the focal point. If we get 50 cards linked they will cover the shipping of two large boxes to our troops. The sentiment was typed in Inkscape. The floral paper is from Colorbok the rosewood collection. The charms are pearl. The corner punch is fiskars.

The blue cards are for the Sunday Sketch Challenge at Stars and Stamps. All of these are for the Archway Love match and will be mailed in the morning. The cardstock is Bazzill. The paper is also the Colorbok Rosewood Collection.

Snow Love

I fell in love with this image the first time I saw it. I had put off using it, afraid I could not make it look nice. Now I am thinking of using it for Christmas cards. The image is from Inger Harding. She does the nicest images.

I am going to link this card to Operation Write Home's Stars & Stamp Blog Midweek Challenge to use a digital Image. I also used it for the Divas by design anything goes challenge. Scrapbook Sisters also has an anything goes challenge.

The cardstock is Bazzill. The patterned paper which included the aqua and reds is from g.c.d. The fiber is some I had. I added just a few bling dots. The image is colored with copics. The edges were inked with Martha Stewart inks. These were fun cards that made me happy just making them.

Love is in the Air

The above cards are for the Operation Write Home Sunday Sketch Challenge.  These will also be sent for the Archway Love/Valentines where Archway matches the donations of cards with cookies for the troops.

The purple card is a digistamp rose colored with Copics.  The heart stamp and stamped sentiment is from American Crafts.  The card stock is Bazzill and the purple dp is from my stash.  The purple fiber is also from my stash.  Funny I colored 9 of these roses to make love cards. I only did one in purple incase I could not make it work for a card.  It turned out to be one of my favorites.

The little girl in the next card is from Simply Inger she is colored with copics.  I have had fun this last week with the copics.  I was not sure I would like coloring with markers as I have loved the watercolor pencils and I usually do not do well with markers.  The watercolor blending covers how bad I am.  But I have been happy with most of my images.  I used the same papers and stamps as above.  The white square is embossed with hearts that my mom made for me.  The yellow is cardstock that been scalloped punched with Martha Stewart scallop border punch with a pink ribbon.

This card will go to OWH as well.  I just fell in love with this card.  It just strikes at my heart. I usually don't have that happen with my own art work.  I loved how she worked out on the pink gingham.  This was in my stash from years ago.  I had gotten dischanted with scrapbooking after my scrapbook area got flooded from a water leak and damaged all the albums I had made.  I am glad I keep what I salvaged and found cardmaking a few months ago to be something I enjoy.  I may even start scrapbooking again.

Love Copic Style

I ordered copics off ebay and got them Monday. I have not had a lot of time to practice with them. These are the third and fourth images I tried. The others had bad mistakes. I think I will like the copics once I get more practice.

  I love these images from Inger Harding. I think they make the card and do not need anything to distract from them. The cardstock is Bazzill in burgundy. The rose pattern is colorbok from the rosewood collection pak. I hope I did justice to the image. I added the lace to get a more vintage feel.  

This reminded me of when you were young and made valentines for the young love of your life.

Making Valentines without RED!

I have no true red cardstock! I realized this about a month ago making Christmas cards for Operation Write Home. I have a tight budget and I had spent money to make cards already and was determined to use what I had bought. It worked. My Christmas cards were blue and green.

Luckily I do have maroons and pink. I have some DP that is reddish. Here is a love/valentine in blue that follows the sketch at Operation Write Home Stars and Stamp blog challenge. I also just realized I am not using a lot of hearts on my love cards. I had heard my shipper Dixie does not like hearts-Dixie has retired as shipper (I have not gotten to know her as I am new). I wonder if I subconsiously was not using hearts for this reason because I love hearts.

The above blue card was made following the sketch closely. The bow in the sketch scared me. I think I don't like bows after working as a florist and seeing so many. The blue card stock is Bazzill. The patterned paper is ColorBok from the Rosewood pack. The yellow fiber is one I have had for years. I buy these in the yarn section. I think they triple the price when they put items in the scrapbook section. The brads are from Oriental Trading. The sentiment was in my pile of printed sentiments I for some reason don't like the white sentiment on my cards. So I ink them. All the edges are distressed in blue even the cardstock. This card wanted to be made it threw itself together. A blue valentine. I am not using Valentine sayings so they have more time to be used.


This card is based on the sketch as well. I had made cards with this saying. They were not vintage and I LOVE vintage. I think the sentiment works with this layout. Again I did not like the white. I am not completely happy with this even inked. Off white Cardstock is my next priority even over red to use for sentiments. I love how the flower on the Colorbok Rosewood DP works for this card. I used another piece for the Wednesday challenge from the same 12x12 sheet and wondered if I could use this piece. The maroon cardstock is Bazzill. The lace and red bling work for the vintage effect.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week.

Midweek Valentine!

Here is my card for the Midweek Challenge and it is Saturday. This week was crazy. This card was pretty much just made from the DP. The simple Love is not as simple as it looks. The only stamps I have say I love you, or For My Love. It was so hard just to get the Love inked and placed right. Only eight tries to get it. There was black ink everywhere. The paper is g.c.d. that has the beautiful roses. The cardstock is bazzill. The scallop punch and flower punch are Martha Stewart punch. The four corners are punched with fiskars on the little tag, and I got all four corners on the first try. I love the pink bling and the pink fiber on the tag. This is for the challenge at Stars & Stamp blog.

I just love both of these bears. My son gave me the greatest compliement. He said, "I only like the one's you color. They are art. The printed ones are okay." I love the way the daisy charm matches the flower of the image. The bear I colored is from Beccy's Place her link in on the sidebar. I love the dp paper has daisies on the colored image. The blue daisy paper was the favorite of many little girls at a card making class I did. So I think although these are blue they would be great for a son or daughter. I love the charms on cards. Wouldn't it be cool if some one's daughter had a charm bracelet and could add these?

The printed card on the left has a cloud dp. that does not show up in the picture. I think that added to the sadness of the missing you. I love the mouse and bear using a daisy as an umbrella.

Valentine for ODBD

Here are my valentine's cards. I decided not to use a Valentine sentiment as it makes the card more versatile for Operation Write Home. This card is being linked to the Our Daily Bread challenge for Stars and Stamps blog.

The first card has a white heart embossed background. The colored image is from Beccy's place. The border is bazil textured cardstock in pink and purple. The two purple brads hold a fuzzy pink ribbon with a cute pink heart charm.

The second card uses most of the same elements. The background is pink here with a colorful striped ribbon with a double heart charm held in place with a gold brad and adhesive.

I was thinking that some little girl may have a charm bracelet made from the charms from the cards sent home by someone who loves and misses them. Wouldn't that be precious?

Why I made this card-

From the blog at Stars and Stripes "It's Sandy here with a special new challenge! Our new friends over at Our Daily Bread Designs came to OWH after hearing about us from a wonderful cardmaker, Michelle - and ODBD wants to sponsor a monthly challenge in support of our heroes! Woohoo!!Every first Saturday we'll be posting the challenge here on the Stars and Stamps blog, and you'll have all month til just before next challenge starts in December to get your card linked up. ODBD is offering TWO generous $25 gift certificates for prizes, so you'll want a chance at that!

Bonus prize for our heroes:Our Daily Bread Designs will be making a shipping donation based on the number of cards in the InLinkz (only one entry per person!) - ODBD will sponsor one large box of cards for every 25 cards linked to the challenge post, with a maximum of 2 boxes per month. So be sure to tell all your friends to come and enter the challenge too!"

Inspiration

Okay I should be working. I was talking to my mom and I looked to see what the Midweek challenge was at Stars & Stamp blog. The challenge was to let the picture of the beautiful shirt inspire you. I can't wait to see what my mom comes up with.

I instantly thought of this paper I had seen in my box over the last weekend. The paper is the teal and orangey gold. I printed the digital stamp I got from my grafico onto the paper called perched birds. I liked the effect it has and I didn't make an inky mess. The sentiment is one I really like right now printed and inked in teal. I made a mess with that instead.

The orange cardstock paper is textured. The sentiment is popped with foam tape. I accidentally put the sentiment on the back side of the paper. I would have left it but the back is flat and darker than the front. It bothered me. The border is punched with a Martha Stewart border punch. The bling is red and lavender. I do not trust the adhesive it comes with so I glued them on. The red ribbon was used as it looked like it needed "something" to give it more depth. In my first thinking it was going to have more "layers". I just worry about it getting too bulky to fit the envelope and also be damaged.

For a quick and simple card I am happy with how it turned out.

Punky Hearts

The cards above are made for the Stars & Stamp Sunday Sketch . The digital stamp was Sansdesign. I used Kimberly watercolors to color. The embossed black piece on both has gears on it which I think "so go" with this heart. My mom embossed some different papers for me. I inked over it in white so you can see the gears. They show up much better in real life. I really like the overall effect of these colors and patterns together. I would send this to my teen and young adult daughter so I am hoping a hero would like to send to theirs.

I do not remember where I got these hearts but I love them. I like to different styles of these cards one style is "punk" one is country. I used Kimberly watercolors I am really liking the watercolor I feel like I am creating a painting. I also use the watercolor on the sentiments. I am never happy with the white space on the digital stamps or sentiments on my cards.

They are asking for hearts at Operation Write Home hope these are what they have in mind.

Miss you

The Wednesday challenge at OWH Stars & Stamps is polka dots. I only had this polka dot paper because my mom gave me a gift this week of embossed papers, papers, ribbon and goodies. The bear stamp is from Beccy's Place. The sentiment was from my computer. The blue card stock is from gcd.

I used Kimberly's watercolor pencils to color this sad bear in. The sentiment was colored with the same background color as the bear. I think the blue adds to the sadness of this little guy. I think this would be a sweet card for a hero to send to their child. I used the sketch from Sunday at OWH Stars & Stamps challenge as a guideline for the layout. It just seemed to work once I cut out the pieces.

Cup of Tea

Decided to try to do some of the card challenges that are out there. It seemed to turn into a series of missteps. The first mailbox I did with watercolor pictures came out perfect. I then was cutting out the image next to it so I would not mess it up and cut right into the colored image.

Then when coloring the teacup I put the side of my hand right down on the color image and then dropped the paintbrush right across the image.

The first image is a stamp from Meljen's Designs colored with Kimberly's watercolor pencils and entered for their red and gold challenge. I used cardstock in red and gold. The DP is from gcd and is red and gold. I used a fiskars punch for the corners. I went a little crazy with the red gems. It just did not look right with a red ribbon.

The next card is an image from Lindsay Stamp Stuff that I used my win from another Tuesday Throwdown to purchase from MyGrafico. I am entering it is this weeks Tuesday Throwdown #72. I really like this image. It is hard for me to use all primary colors for some reason. I tend to go with one primary or color and then add designs. The flowers were punched with Martha Stewart's punch. The coloring was Kimberly's watercolor pencils. I tried to use mostly red, blue and yellow.

This card will also work for Scrappy Frogs Challenge- something that flies.

Both of these cards will be sent to Operation Write Home. The K n K design team is still doing a fundraiser for them offering some cute stamps for a great price that be donated to Operation Write Home. Just click the cute button with the rabbit.

It's the Little Things in Life

I started to work on the Sunday Sketch at Operation Write Home yesterday. This snowman from K n K Designs kept calling to me. I probably could have made him work on card following the challenge but I couldn't color him any smaller. I also was in a purple mood yesterday. Then I after making the card I remembered I have had these charms for years. I ordered several sets and never made jewelry with them. The heart matches perfectly!! There are other patriotic charms in the set they are at Oriental trading. How perfect is that. That is what excited me! It is the little things in life.

That image is available as the fundraiser for Operation Write Home and the button on the sidebar takes you there.

The patterned paper is from g*c*d in the sophisticated Frost collections. The both blue textured cardstock is from bazzil. The yarn is a feathered effect I like.

Still so excited that I remembered these charms.

Gift of Freedom

I am testing something. I have designed this cute image for the cards I was making for Operation Write Home to use for my any Hero cards. I would like to share with anyone making cards for OWH. If you would like feel free to use for your crafts. I hope this works. If you have problems with it let me know. Also if you download please let me know in comments just so I know if anyone likes it.

Here is how I used these images on one card. I use these for Any Hero Cards. The Christmas one was shipped to OWH already. I made the thank you card on the previous post since I forgot to take pictures of the cards using the above stamp that did not look like Christmas. I reposted here so you don't have to go looking for it.

 

Thank you

I made this card for Doodle Pantry Digital Challenge 17 at http://doodlepantryblog.com/. It is neat that it also works for the Midweek challenge at http://www.owhstarsandstamps.org/2011/10/thank-you.html. They are asking for thank you cards.

I used the picture from Doodle Pantry and the sentiment was typed in inkscape. The blue and white cardstock is Bazzil textured. The pattered DP was some I had and was not sure how to use. I thought the pattern worked for this. I used the brads that look like the same flower in the pattern. I used a Martha Stewart punch to make the flowers out of the patterned paper. I really ended up liking this card with the patterned paper.

This is another thank card I did using a image I made. I am happy to share with anyone it is here http://honeyhomeschoolhomestead.blogspot.com/2011/10/gift-of-freedom_20.html

Jingle Cards, Jingle Cards

These cards don't jingle. But they do put you in the mood for Christmas. The images were colored images from Beccy's Place. Her button is on my side bar. She is very generous with her images. The time I would have spent coloring gave me more time for crafting the cards. I do something a little different on each card. For example blue instead of green mats for the image. Or I use different gem embellishments. I included a picture of 8 cards at the bottom that demonstrate that. Some of the blue and green is pearlessence paper which simmers. These are the only papers I have that look "Christmas-ey" I am trying to stay with general papers. The ornaments that are cut out are because my corner stamp always messes up on the fourth corner. I may start only using three corners punched. Oh well, I think they are cute and give it a different style.