In a World of Craft: May 2012

Monday, May 28, 2012

ANYHERO CARDS FOR MEMORIAL DAY

Happy Memorial Day! I decided to make AnyHero cards for today. I know Operation Write Home* needs lots of these during the summer, so I am trying to step it up!

This first card is from the bonus sketch at OWH.

This one is made with Doodle Pantry’s Firecracker Bugs_Ants, Ants Fun Paper, and their Patriotic Sheep sentiment “Yay for our troops”. The inside sentiment is from their Patriotic Turtle set. The red card stock is from Stamp School and the brown is from Craftwell.

Here is the sketch used for this card:

Now for my second card:

This one was made with Can You Digi It papers and elements. The sentiment on the front of the card was made by me and the one inside is a freebie I got from OWH. The red paper is Craftwell and the white is Recollections. The white panel is embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder.

And here is the sketch for the second card:

After completing the card and looking at the sketch again, I realize I took a few liberties with it. That is what I get for being in a hurry.

*Operation Write Home: Supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them.

Thank you so much for stopping by! I am always so happy to see that you have been to my blog. Please leave comments so I know you were here! PLEASE HELP ME GROW! If you are not a follower yet, would you please click follow?

hugs,

SUPPLIES
SIZE: 5.5 x 4.25

STAMPS: Doodle Pantry, Can You Digi It

PAPER: Recollections, Doodle Pantry, Can You Digi It, Stamp School, Craftwell

TOOLS: Big Shot, Spellbinders Labels Four, Classic Square; Sewing machine; Crop-a-dile; circle punch

INK: Printer

ACCESSORIES: Seam binding, red and white ribbon from stash, red and white pearls, Tim Holtz brads and eyelets

WITH GRATITUDE ON MEMORIAL DAY

Hello to all my blogging buddies. This post does not include a card, but please check back later today. I wanted to have this post specifically to honor our fallen loved ones.
Since today is Memorial Day, I wanted to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude to all families who have lost a loved one in the defense of America’s freedom. I know we all love to have fun on Memorial Day with our picnics, barbeques and time with friends and family, but there are so many for whom this day also brings sadness. Words can never express my gratitude for the sacrifice your family has made for the freedom we enjoy.
Our country is the most wonderful country on this earth because of our brave men and women in arms. They sacrifice their time, strength, youth, and some even their life to make sure we can continue to enjoy freedom. Freedom is not free, and for those who paid the ultimate price, I am sincerely thankful and will NEVER forget!
Please know that today, and every day, you are in my thoughts and prayers. God Bless you on this Memorial Day. May you feel God’s peace on this day and others.
With Gratitude,
Ellen
P.S. AnyHero cards later today!

Saturday, May 26, 2012

OWH MEMORIAL DAY Sketch BLOGHOP

Hello and welcome to Operation Write Home’s HUGE Memorial Day Sketch Bloghop!
I am very excited to be a part of this hop because OWH is my favorite organization. I know our guys and gals who are in harms way have limited access to paper and pens, much less pretty cards to send home to their loved ones, so I love making cards for them to use.
The awesome team at OWH works hard organizing and packaging our cards, then they are boxed up and sent to our troops. And, since my son is now a soldier, I have extra incentive for making these. Honestly though, I love our troops and am proud to have a way to help make their days brighter. If you have never heard of Operation Write Home, or never been to their site, just click here to check it out (after you see my card LOL).

I used OWH sketch #54 for my card and decided to go a little shabby today. If you want details about this card, please scroll down to the bottom of the post.

Thanks again for joining the OWH Memorial Day Sketch Bloghop. I know you will want to see what everyone has in store for you so just click the image below to go back to the main page of the hop.

SUPPLIES
SIZE: 5.5 x 4.25

STAMPS: Rubber Stamp Tapestry Thinking of You Peg Stamp - Mini

PAPER: Stamp School heavy card stock, Prima DSP Madeline 6 x 6 paper stack

TOOLS: Big Shot; Spellbinders Standard Circles Large, Lacey Circles; Sewing machine; Tim Holtz Alterations On the Edge Dies – Brackets

INK: Stazon

ACCESSORIES: Really Reasonable Ribbon, Recollections flourish, Prima flower, Lace

Friday, May 25, 2012

FMS#36 and MMM50

Hi everyone and Happy Friday!! I am finally back from vacation and making cards again! We had such a wonderful trip and were thrilled to see our son graduate from Army Basic Training. He is still at Ft. Benning for three months, then hopefully a leave!!!!!

Splitcoaststampers Wednesday Tutorial is shaped cards, so I decided to combine that with Freshly Made Sketches sketch this week. The Splitcoaststampers tutorial can be seen here.

Make My Monday is looking for wildflowers and grasses this week, so I pulled out my Rubber Stamp Tapestry peg stamps and got busy. I used RST’s Believe/Dream/Peace Designer Block Prints leaf stamp to make the 3 squares. I then used their Little Posy Basket peg set and Miss You block stamp for the focal panel.

The DSP is from Prima’s Botanical collection 6 x 6 paper stack and the card stock is from Recollections. I used my sewing machine to stitch the panels together.

A Michaels flower, ZVA flourish, some stitching and seam binding finish this little card up.

THIS CARD QUALIFIES FOR THESE CHALLENGES:

Freshly Made Sketches FMS#36

Make My Monday Week 50 – Wildflowers and Grass: Please remember that this is a floral themed challenge and the flowers or grasses should be the main focus of your projects and not just added as embellishments - thank you.

Ways To Use It WT376: Use Green on your card.

I also made this card for:

Mynnette’s Spread the L-O-V-E challenge:

*Operation Write Home: Supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them.

AROUND MY HOUSE:

The details for this card are below, but first I wanted to share some pictures from our trip. Please scroll down for more information on my card

This is Grant at Graduation in his dress uniform. They do not wear the coat in hot weather because too many soldiers pass out during the ceremony.

And here he is in his regular uniform….

….and with proud Dad….

…and proud Mom!

hugs,

SUPPLIES
SIZE: 4 x 4¾″

STAMPS: Rubber Stamp Tapestry Believe/Dream/Peace Designer Block Prints leaf stamp, Little Posy Basket peg set and Miss You block stamp

PAPER: Recollections, Prima Botanical

TOOLS: Big Shot, Spellbinders Fleur de Lis Rectangles, Sewing machine

INK: VersaColor

ACCESSORIES: Seam binding, ZVA flourish, Michaels flower, White pearl

Saturday, May 19, 2012

OWH BLOG SKIP

Welcome to Operation Write Home’s Stars and Stamps Blog Skip! Since I have some of the Stamper’s Best OWH Fundraiser Stamps, Sandy asked me to make a card for the skip (yeah)! I chose the True Soldier Rubber Stamp OWH Fundraiser Stamp for my card.

Stamper’s Best’s red rubber stamps specifically support Operation Write Home. StampersBest.com is a proud partner and supporter of OWH. They feature selected deep etch rubber art stamps made especially to assist the fundraising efforts of OWH and donate $1 to Operation Write Home for each stamp sold that is designated with the OWH logo icon. Not only do they support my favorite organization, I love the quality of their stamps! Click the link below to see these wonderful stamps.

www.stampersbest.com

For those who may not know about Operation Write Home, they are an organization made up of thousands of card makers who care about our military, and want to support them through creativity and encouragement. We support our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them. Be sure to click the link below to read more about Operation Write Home.

www.operationwritehome.org

If you are starting out the skip on my blog, please follow the links below to see all of the beautiful cards made by our team.

Stars and Stamps http://www.owhstarsandstamps.org/
Stampers Best - Susan Janicki - http://stampersbest.blogspot.com/
Pam Tetreault http://airbornewifestamping.blogspot.com/
Seongsook Duncan http://seongsookduncan.blogspot.com/
Natasha Hensel http://cleversoiree.blogspot.com/
Sherry Hickey www.bitsofcheer.blogspot.com
Roni Johnson http://inkstainswithroni.blogspot.com/
Beth Lyons http://bunnyscrap.blogspot.com/
Marge Gilmer http://www.nutsandcats.blogspot.com/
Cindy McNeil http://cindyscardco.blogspot.com/
Ellen Parker http://www.inaworldofcraft.blogspot.com/
Thank you for stopping by the Operation Write Home Blog Skip today! I hope you have a chance to check out all of the cards and please remember to leave a little love so we know what you think of our cards!
hugs,

SUPPLIES
SIZE: 5.5 x 4.25

STAMPS: True Soldier by Stamper’s Best (OWH Fundraiser)

PAPER: Recollections, Craftwell

TOOLS: Big Shot, Spellbinders Labels Eighteen, Cuttlebug embossing folder, Tim Holtz Alterations Brackets

INK: Memento, Versacolor

ACCESSORIES: Really Reasonable Ribbon, Recollections flourish and pearls

Thursday, May 10, 2012

STAMP SCHOOL AND OWH MWTD

Happy Thursday everyone! I know I am going to get pretty busy soon as we prepare to go to our son’s graduation, so I’m not sure how many cards I will get posted before we go. Yesterday, his Company had a 10 mile march that culminates in the Cold Steel Ceremony. They had a huge bonfire and here is what his 1st Sergeant said about the ceremony: “During the ceremony we will explain exactly what it actually means to be an American Soldier..... the sacrifices of our fallen comrades and our accomplishments throughout history. They will remember this night for the rest of they're life.” Man! This morning, 1st Sergeant posted “They made it! Congratulations to our new Brothers in Arms! Sir, Delta Dawgs have met the standard and ready for graduation, Sir!” I couldn’t be more proud of my soldier!

Operation Write Home’s* Stars and Stamps Mid-Week Throw Down is to make patriotic cards, I think that is very fitting for me today and I was very happy making this AnyHero card that will go to a hero who is deployed somewhere in the world.

All paper is card stock from Craftwell and Recollections. For the sentiment panel, I stamped the sentiment in black and used Brick Red and Broken China Distress Inks with a blending tool to add the color. This panel was then attached to a red panel and decorated with white seam binding. The white panel is embossed with Cuttlebug’s Swiss Dots embossing folder and placed on a blue base panel.

The flower on the seam binding is homemade by me.

THIS CARD QUALIFIES FOR THESE CHALLENGES:

Operation Write Home Stars and Stamps Mid-Week Throw Down: Patriotic

Stamp School Geometry Class 5-09-12

I also made this card for:

Mynnette’s Spread the L-O-V-E challenge:

*Operation Write Home: Supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them.

hugs,

SUPPLIES
SIZE: 5.5 x 4.25

STAMPS: Soldier Calligraphy by Paper Inspirations, True Soldier by Stamper’s Best (OWH Fundraiser), Verve (stars inside card)

PAPER: Recollections, Craftwell

TOOLS: Blending tool

INK: Memento, Tim Holtz Distress Ink: Broken China, Brick Red

ACCESSORIES: Seam binding, Recollections red pearls, handmade crochet flower

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

MMM 48 AND FMS 34

Hi cuties! With that title I have to admit; when I retired, I thought I was leaving the acronym world behind me. Now that I am making cards, I have started learning a whole NEW series of acronyms. LOL yesterday I finally found out what CASE means. Oh well, acronyms just make life easier, so its all good.

I tried a couple of new things on this card. Make My Monday’s challenge is for us to use white flowers as the focal point. I wanted to use my StampinUp! Triple Treat Flower stamp, but using black ink didn’t give it the look I wanted, so I decided to emboss white on white and use two different white papers; one is a very light grey card stock and the other is a reflective white card stock. Standard card stock was used for the center which is stamped with Versacolor ink.

The second thing I tried was the bow. I saw a tutorial somewhere that shows how to make small bows using a fork of all things! I really wanted a small bow for this card and I love how it turned out.

The DSP is from K & Company’s Brenda Walton Madeline Mat Pad. The colors are so beautiful in this mat pad and the paper is textured which makes the colors somewhat muted. Each panel is matted using the brown paper. Really Reasonable Ribbon was used for the ribbon and bow.

A Spellbinders Big Scalloped Circles LG die cut is underneath the white flower and a Recollections flourish finishes off the card.

THIS CARD QUALIFIES FOR THESE CHALLENGES:

Freshly Made Sketches 34

Make My Monday Week 48: LILY OF THE VALLEY FLOWERS OR WHITE FLOWERS

- please make the flowers the main focus of your projects - not just added as an embellishment.

I also made this card for:

Mynnette’s Spread the L-O-V-E challenge:

*Operation Write Home: Supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them.

hugs,

SUPPLIES
SIZE: 5.5 x 4.25

STAMPS: StampinUp!

PAPER: Recollections, K & Company Madeline Mat Pad

TOOLS: Big Shot, Spellbinders Big Scalloped Circles LG, heat tool

INK: Versacolor , VersaMark, StampinUP! Clear embossing powder

ACCESSORIES: Really Reasonable Ribbon, Recollections flourish