Saturday, November 13, 2010

Operation Write Home Be my Valentine Bloghop Today!


Welcome to my little contribution to the Operation Write Home Be My Valentine Blog Hop! I’m so glad that you made it over here and hope that I am able to provide you with some fun and inspiration so you too can create some Valentine’s cards to send over to soldiers serving our country. If you didn’t come here from Susie at SA Scrapping Gal, then please make sure to hop over there for a looksy at what she’s doing. When you’re done on my blog please hop over to Jamie’s site Glitter, Paper, Stamps, Oh My! There are over 100 blogs participating in this awesome event today so please visit as many as possible and leave some shout-outs. If you come across a link that doesn't work you can get to the beginning page at OWH here. I know the rest of the folks love comments as much as I do *hint, hint*.

Now before proceeding with my contribution today, here are some formalities:

The reason this is called “Be My Valentine” blog hop is because we want you all to start making Valentine cards to send overseas to our soldiers. The deadline for getting those to your shipper is January 7, 2011. It’s never too early to start planning. Contact your friends and family and maybe even set up a little get-together so others can join in on the fun. I did my first group card-making session for the Christmas holiday cards and I tell ya, it was a barrel of laughs and so rewarding! With each card that I made I whispered a little prayer for the soldier who would hold it in his or her hands and so lovingly write their personal message to send home to family or friends. There are tons of suggestions, tutorials and card galleries on the OWH site. They even have a page that tells you how to get a card-making party set up. It’s on their Event’s tab. If you haven’t heard yet, I am the daughter of a career Army dad and also served with him in the Army for three years; so I know firsthand how much OWH means to our soldiers! Oh yes, the deadline for mailing Christmas cards has already passed, but you can always start planning for next year.


2.       Did you know that Operation Write Home was a finalist in the JoAnn’s Craft for a Cause? Well, in fact, we are one of three finalists and we NEED YOUR HELP to win the $50,000 Grand Prize! You can vote once during every 24 hour period, so please go vote and then bookmark the site so you can vote every day!

Ok, so now ladies and gentlemen, let’s get On with the Shee-ohhh (if you’re not old enough to know what that means, just ask your parents or grandparents and they’ll have lots of funny stories to share!) Here are a few of the cards I made to send to OWH for Valentine’s Day. I wanted to show you that cards can be very simple or very ornate, most of mine fall in the simple category. My camera was not cooperating with me, so I’ve just put three pics below and made a slide show of some of the others. The first card below is a sheet of paper from the DCWV stack cut to fit the front of the card, then a sticker and some ribbon from my stash to bling it up a bit. (I'm giving away one of those Love and Wedding stacks in my blog candy at the end of this message.)

The card below is a mosaic made out of paint chip samples. Fun and something your kids would love doing!
To make the card below I inked up the brayer to create my own background, then stamped words on top.

I just took a sneak peek at one of the other participants at Creations by Christie and am so happy to see that she posted a video tutorial of one of the techniques I used on a couple of the cards in the slide show below. (PHEW, got me off the hook!) You've GOT to go watch it and learn how to use your Cuttlebug embossing folder to ink up your card while embossing it at the same time! The one below that uses that technique is the one with the 1/4 inch red ribbon bow over the heart. Since I'm all about using up what I have and couldn't bear to part with the ink left on my brayer I slipped a piece of onion skin paper over the embossing folder and brayered over it, leaving a faint design on the paper. Then I cut a rectangle in the front of the card and glued that paper on as a window to what was inside. It's the one with the red sequins in each corner. If you have any questions about any of the techniques please ask and I'll prepare a tutorial. So far I haven't gotten brave enough to attempt a video tutorial, but with a little prompting maybe I'll try!

Card components:
Paper:  DCWV Love and Wedding, StampinUp Ruby Red
Ink:  SU Ruby Red classic
Sentiments:  Making Memories Express It
Embellishments:  ribbon from stash, stickers by Special Moments
Cuttlebug and Sizzix embossing folders
Stickles and Studio G Glitter Writer

I've got some candy for one lucky winner and it's full of stuff you can use to make tons more Valentine's Day cards for our soldiers. Please leave a comment with your email address and become a follower, then I'll draw the winner randomly on Monday. Thank you so much for participating today!



Now, please please hop over to Jamie’s site Glitter, Paper, Stamps, Oh My!
Photobucket
Pin It!

68 comments:

  1. Love all your cards Sharon! And thank you for sharing so many ideas to make different style cards, great!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love all of your card designs today, each is so beautiful.You've inspired me to try that mosaic technique. How cool is that!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very COOL projects - I got distracted looking at all of your other stuff too LOL - the brayer card is my favorite!!! Simple and sweet! Says it all!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nice projects. I made sure to ba a follower and bookmarked the site for future reference.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love the paint chip idea - so creative and neat! Thank you for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow, you've been busy! Those are great cards, Sharon!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Your cards are so great. The mosaic is a great idea. TFS.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Stunning cards! Thanks for your comment on my blog.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Nice cards. It all turned out great! Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Great cards! They are all so unique! cwins89203@aol.com

    ReplyDelete
  11. Love those cards! Thanks for sharing some of your techniques:-)

    ReplyDelete
  12. One technique I have never tried is braying! Your card is beautiful and inspiring me to try it.

    ReplyDelete
  13. What wonderful cards! I love the bow on the first card! It's so pretty without the normal ends. And what a great idea for the paint chips! Thanks for sharing! :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Great cards!! I LOVE the heart shaped one made from the paint chips! What a great idea!

    I just became a new follower of your blog!

    Melissa
    www.disneydreamerdesigns.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  15. Super, creative work! You are full of good ideas!
    mirthmaker at dslextreme dot com

    ReplyDelete
  16. Sharon, these are beautiful cards! I just became a new follower and look forward to seeing more of your talent :)
    Doris
    MomsBeenScrappin at yahoo dot com

    ReplyDelete
  17. What fun, new ideas.
    Patty
    sportsfan80 at aol dot com

    ReplyDelete
  18. Great cards! I especially love that mosaic one! Thanks for the great ideas!

    spunkycrayon at yahoo dot com

    ReplyDelete
  19. Thanks for joining the OWH bloghop. I enjoy seeing the different techniques. My e-mail is pearx2 at zoominternet dot net.

    ReplyDelete
  20. That paint chip idea is also great for those little scrap bits. Your crocheted necklaces are stunning! I might be back for one.

    ReplyDelete
  21. What a wonderful set of cards!! Definitely lots of eye candy here! I need to come back and look more after I'm done hopping.

    ReplyDelete
  22. I love all of the cards and now I really want to try the mosaic technique. Thanks for all the inspiration and this wonderful hop!! I am a follower!!
    lfuchs1 at wi. rr. com

    ReplyDelete
  23. Hi Sharon. Thanks for visiting my blog and becoming a follower! I'd like to chat w/ my lonnnnnng lost twin. :-)

    Please go to my blog and click on "e-mail me" and we can shoot the breeze! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  24. All of those cards are beautiful (and much more so in person!) :o) Great job, mom!!!

    ReplyDelete
  25. Wow! You are an amazing artist!!

    ReplyDelete
  26. The cards are amazing and I would love the candy for my daughter's scrapbook club to make cards for OWH!

    mum2eight(at)hotmail(dot)com

    ReplyDelete
  27. Thanks for sharing your talents with us! I especially like the brayered background technique; must try that! Except I'm having too much fun bloghopping, hehe.

    ReplyDelete
  28. I love the quote on the first card! Great cards!

    ReplyDelete
  29. Fun cards!!! Have to try that mosaic technique!

    ReplyDelete
  30. Beautiful cards! I love the brayer technique!

    ReplyDelete
  31. Nice cards and some great techniques. Thanks for joining the OWH hop.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Love your work, so creative. Thanks for your hard work for OWH.

    Oh, I would just love the opportunity to be an empty nester - mine are in their 20's and keep moving back home like its a revolving door. Oh well. lol
    cbersch254@comcast.net newbie for candy

    ReplyDelete
  33. Great idea for using the 'paint chip' samples! I'll have to borrow that one ;)

    ReplyDelete
  34. Love all of your cards! Using the paint chips was pure creative genius!!
    bjohn3237@aol.com

    ReplyDelete
  35. Oh, I love the paint chip idea! Thanks for sharing your cards on the hop today!

    ReplyDelete
  36. Wow a whole slideshow filled with love!!! Thanks for making the hop special for everyone :)

    ReplyDelete
  37. I love your idea to get the kids involved. They love to help.

    ReplyDelete
  38. the mosaic idea - SO cool. Starting to follow you for more great ideas as a new card maker! ksbortz@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  39. Great cards! I'd love to win your stuff and have added you to my RSS reader

    ReplyDelete
  40. Thanks for supporting OWH! Fun blog!
    BobbisTreasure@aol.com

    ReplyDelete
  41. You've created some great cards! Thanks for your support of OWH and our Heroes!
    R/

    ReplyDelete
  42. Hi Sharon! Beautiful cards, they are going to be treasured the the recipients for a long time! I enjoyed the slide show you made for Veteran's Day too.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Wow! Thank you and your father for your service!

    I love your mosaic heart card! TFS!

    ReplyDelete
  44. You've got some really great ideas... I'm a follower now and I'll be back to check out your other posts! bosco_79 at yahoo dot com

    ReplyDelete
  45. Loved all the cards! Very creative! My father was career military and I was in while he was too. Thank you for your service!

    hiscreation 2 at hotmail dot com

    And I joined as a follower! Happy to!

    ReplyDelete
  46. Great cards and great ides ! Thank you !

    ReplyDelete
  47. I love all the cards, such versatility! Thanks for the chance to win :)

    Kelly1801us@hotmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  48. What beautiful cards! Thanks for sharing

    ReplyDelete
  49. Lovely collection of cards. Have a gallon bag full of paint chip I have forgotten what I was going to do with them. Lol Will give them a try with the mosaic technique.

    ReplyDelete
  50. Sharon, your first card is so delicate--and I love that mosaic heart! TFS!

    ReplyDelete
  51. love all your cards!!! I'll have to give the paint chip technique a try sometime....what a clever idea!!! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  52. Love your cards! I love to see all of the tutorials during an OWH bloghop...thanks for posting yours! Loved your video on your dad. Very touching! Also, sorry to see you lost a part of your family recently. When the kids leave home, our animals are even more important than ever. Sorry for your loss.

    ReplyDelete
  53. Ooops! I just read what I wrote about the tutorial...as you can tell I've been at too many blogs today! I do love your SLIDESHOW of your cards! Wonderful creations! I'll be back for more since I'm now a follower!

    ReplyDelete
  54. Fantastic! I have tried to hard to keep on hopping. . . I really want to go make more cards and try that embossing / inking trick!!! Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  55. I love the idea of using paint chips for cards. Now I need to raid Home Depot and Lowes. :) Cre8tivegirls@yahoo.com

    ReplyDelete
  56. All of your cards were beautiful and very creative. Thanks for hopping.
    try god 20 @ verizon dot net

    www.mylittlepatchofdirt.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  57. Wow your cards are very creative. I just became a new follower and look forward to seeing several new creations in the future.

    business@circlebenterprises.com

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for stopping by. Now won't you please leave a comment to let me know you were here? I just love hearing from you!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...