Another card for Operation Write Home

This card is for this week's OWH challenge to make cards for kids.  We are challenged to make cards for our heroes to send home to their kids.  Big kids, Little kids, Birthday, Miss You, Love You, Thinking of You are some ideas to start off with.  I thought this little guy "fetching you well wishes" would be good for a soldier to send to a sick child or even just to say "hi!" If you'd like to join along and make some cards too, go to the OWH Blog here.

Other challenges entered:

Stamps R Us - animals

Creative Craft World - cuddly

Cutie Sundy - Anything Goes

Free SVG, PNG and SCUT2 file for the Paws in Hearts Design I made

This is my first attempt at posting a file I made to use with Sure Cuts A Lot to cut out shapes on the Cricut, so here goes....

SCUT2, SVG, PNG, JPG and PDF

ps. Please feel free to grab this design for personal use, but I ask that you not use it on anything you intend to sell without clearing it with me first. I'm really new at all this so probably need some kind of standard disclaimer or something. That will come later I'm sure with the help of some of my awesome fellow crafters. I hope that you can bring blessings to someone who either recently lost a pet, got a new pet or is just plain in love with their pets as my husband and I are (go see their most recent romp in the snow on Katie's blog here.)

Pet sympathy card using my very own SVG cut file!

What's a girl to do when she's got a totally cute stamp set by Clear Dollar Stamps, but not the perfect embellishment to go along with it? Well, she gets on her computer and starts designing her own! I made an awesome svg file using Sure Cuts A Lot 2 and cut it out on my Cricut Expression. I also created cut files for the stamps to save my arthritic fingers from that pain that comes from too much fine detailed cutting with scissors. There are still some adjustments to be made to the cut files matching the stamps, but for now I'll use  the ones that turned out ok. Don't you love the cloud embossing on this card? That has got to be one of my favorite roller/embossing combinations!



This card is currently listed in my Etsy Shop, Eco Chique Boutique along with a bunch of other pet cards. My daughter and I are donating a portion of the proceeds from all the pet cards to our local animal shelter, Helping Hands Humane Society where we have both adopted dogs and cats.

One of the Loss of Pet Sympathy Cards I made

I've had several requests for sympathy cards  for folks who have lost a pet, so finally got some made and posted in our Etsy shop, Eco Chique Boutique (see sidebar). Here is one that I think is so adorable. I also made some happy ones for "Happy Barkday" that could be used for a pet's birthday or a human, either way they're really cute. The pictures for this series all came from the back of a calendar, so they are partially upcycled materials. Since two of our remaining dogs were adopted from the local shelter we are donating a portion of the proceeds to the Helping Hands Humane Society here in Topeka, Kansas. The fact that my son-in-law works there has nothing to do with it, but he assures me that they will be VERY thankful for ANY amount we can raise! I used a Clear Dollar Stamp set for the sentiment and a variety of card stock. The embossing was done with my Cuttlebug. What fun!

WOW! Awesome earrings made by my daughter!!!

My daughter never ceases to amaze me at her artistic talent, but I've got to tell you that her latest accomplishment just took my breath away! Yes of course I'm very proud of her, but hey, you've got to admit that the earrings below are very pretty, unique, jazzy, snappy, luscious and well, I could go on and on and on, but I'll let the picture speak for itself. They are available in our Etsy shop Sharon and Emily Designs.

Sneak peak at today's projects

I've promised a couple of my Etsy buyers that I'd get busy making cards for pet owners or their dogs. I spent some time matching up decorative paper and cardstock with some awesomely cute dog pictures I found on the back of a calendar that was destined for the recycle bin and today I'm making them in to cards.

 I thought the paper below needed a little something extra, so I held it in place over the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder and sanded it until the dots showed up. I think it turned out pretty nice, don't you? I 'll show the cards later. We're going to our daughter and SIL's home tonight and she's got the light box and good camera skills.

Inspirational Quote

"See the rocks in your path not as obstacles, but as opportunities to climb higher."
---Eleanor Wiley, maker of contemporary prayer beads

Inspirational Quote

Faith is not believing God can; it is knowing that he will.

—Ruth Park, Guideposts reader,
Escalon, California

More cards for OWH

I just sent another shipment of cards to Operation Write Home today. Half of them are Valentines that I already posted during the November blog hop. The rest are "I Miss You" cards for kids. Here are pictures of some of them.

Another OWH Card using one of my new stamps

Whew! We've made it through another one of those Mondays following a holiday!!! I don't know about you, but after getting spoiled on those days off it sure is hard to get out of bed on Monday morning. Maybe I should start taking Mondays off after holidays, except then Tuesday just becomes Monday....

Ok, so I've decided to make some more cards to go with the Valentines cards for Operation Write Home (OWH) and since they need Missing You cards for adults to send to their kiddos I made a couple of stamps Saturday that fit the theme. While digging through my old stamps I came across this darling Honeybear from Fiskars (do they even make stamps anymore?) and then found the perfect paper in a pad from the angel company called "Country Cottage". The Honeybear stamp has stars in the background, so I dug out my homemade stars embossing folder and got to work making a couple of cards. I ended up regluing that corner you see sticking up in this picture. To meet the OWH Sunday Challenge #50 I used the sketch below. If you're interested in joining you can enter your card here. The sketch is below before my card.

I am entering this card in the following challenges and invite you to join in the fun too! (Thank you Lisa for the inspiration! You've GOT to go look at the card she made over at The Purple Place!)

Operation Write Home - Stars & Stamps Blog - Sketch # 50 (no glitter)

CES Challenge Blog - Challenge # 17 - Anything Goes

Creative Inspiration Challenge Blog - # 50 Something New (New DSP)

Alphabet Challenge Blog - The Letter 'I'  - I is for Infants

Mark's Finest Papers - Challenge #36  - Use Something New (DSP)

Success with Teresa Collins Stampmaker!

I finally made some stamps today with my Teresa Collins Stampmaker and they turned out great! Now if my photography skills would improve you'd get a better feel for what the stamps look like, but here goes...

 If you're wondering why one of the "I miss you" stamps is backwards, well let's just say I turned lemons in to lemonade when I discovered that I'd done it wrong. I made a second one the right way and will use the wrong one as a reflection, maybe in a pool of water... or how about a pool of tears?

 The stamp above is of a boy hugging his teddy bear. So cute!

 You can see what these two stamps look like below. The tree has hearts for leaves. I cut it a little too close at the top, so will have to manipulate it a bit to get a full circle. The whole process from start to finish is quite time consuming and rather tricky, but all in all I'd say it's worth it to do some custom stamps.

Oh and the piece de la resistance is this one...

WOOHOO!!! These are my daughter's designs for our two Etsy shops and one of the main reasons for buying the Stampmaker in the first place. Eventually she'll create some more art that I can make in to stamps for our note and greeting cards. I am so blessed to be working with my daughter even if it is just a part time side venture for both of us, it still gives us time together!

My Mother's Art!

I always knew that my mother was an artist at heart and that when her five kids took over her life she put her art aside, but little did I know how talented this woman really is until seeing this picture hanging on her wall while visiting her yesterday! Seems it's been well hidden all these years until my sister found it, had it framed and mounted on the wall of their new independent living apartment. All I can say is WOW! and that now I know where my daughter's talent comes from. Anyway, before I head out to find some good sales this morning I thought I'd share a few pics with you. First is her drawing (it's about 24 by 36 inches), then a shot of the four of us together and also a shot of my sale finds at Scrapbook Garden yesterday. Ok, no matter what I do to her picture it insists on importing sideways, so if anyone has a clue as to what I'm doing wrong please let me know. I've saved it rotated, but it still imports sideways...

I have been trying to find the old Fabrico brand stamp pads, so was very pleased to find them on clearance yesterday. They even had two of the refills available. My most exciting "find" was the Stazon refill which our local stores have not carried for a long time. The cardstock in the back on the left is actually embossed and is soooo what I was looking for to go with that new vintage paper. When I take pictures of a gift that came in the mail last week you'll understand why I was looking for vintage paper. I let a friend borrow part of the gift and will wait until it comes back next week to take pictures. I hope everyone had a safe New Years Eve and will have a nice relaxing and productive day today!