Operation Write Home Sketch Challenge #220

This week's OWH sketch challenge was fun because it didn't require any special measurements, just pretty much eyeballing everything. Today I received a thank you note on an OWH card from a Lieutenant Colonel in Ft Leonardwood, Missouri. It was absolutely the MOST perfect timing because that was my father's first official active duty station in the late 50's where he served as an Army Drill Sergeant. He retired after 21 years and I had the distinct pleasure of serving with him for a couple of those years in Germany. I'll be making a memorial post for him as soon as I'm up to it. He took his last breath on Saturday, April 12th and we're still in the midst of preparing for his memorial service. Making cards has always been very therapeutic for me and certainly helped me get through this day! Please keep my mom in your prayers. They were both living in the same nursing home and she slips in and out of alzheimers, but is aware of his death. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

Until I can get myself together enough to do a memorial post, here are a few pictures of my father.

With Mom wearing showing their support for the military troops.

Dad (on left) in Vietnam

Dad in his khakis

Dad at Ft Leonardwood

My Volksmarch hero!

My daughter's hero!

Dad and I

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Operation Write Home Midweek Throwdown

A Father's Day card for the Operation Write Home (OWH) Midweek throwdown. I love the texture from the wallpaper sample that is made out of some kind of straw.

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Operation Write Home Cards

I have three cards to share with you today. I just mailed a big box of cards to Operation Write Home and have already gotten started on the next box. Every so often I decide to join a challenge or two and today I did three. The first is from their Midweek Throwdown Challenge which was to use purple and yellow. I love those two colors together, so this was really quite fun. I had saved a piece of purple shimmery paper from a wedding invitation that was just too pretty to throw away. Unfortunately my husband didn't realize I was saving it for a card and used it to write some notes. AAACKKKK!!!! Luckily there was enough clear space around the edges that I could cover his writing with some awesome yellow handmade paper left over from another project. Add a few flowers and hand stamp the word "sister" and Voila! Here ya go:

Next comes a card with a sad note connected to it. I didn't know her, but one of the Operation Write Home fellow cardmakers passed away last week and in her honor they asked us to copy (CASE) one of her designs.

The last one is today's sketch challenge #118.

 

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OWH Sketch Midweek Throwdown

This card is being entered in the Operation Write Home (OWH) midweek throwdown which is asking us to use circles in our design. I've had these stamped and die cut images for a very long time and finally got around to coloring them. I don't know the name of the stamp set because they belong to someone else, but I know they are Stampin Up and probably retired by now.

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OWH Sketch Challenge #211

While continuing my own challenge to use up the majority of my excess stash of cardmaking supplies I often come across the opportunity to participate in a challenge. Most of the cards that I make are destined for soldiers serving overseas via the awesome group called Operation Write Home. They issue challenges every week and this Sunday their sketch challenge is to follow the sketch below. You can join the challenge to at their blog.

Here's my card using paper from my stash and a digital sentiment that I created.

OWH Cards for kids

I've been busy filling another large flat rate box with greeting cards for Operation Write Home (OWH). This week's challenge is to make cards for kids. I had a few stamped images (borrowed from a friend ages ago, but thing the little girl is a Penny Black stamp) and some digis that seemed to fit the bill. Here are two of the cards that I made. Oh the paper behind the little girl is printed to look like denim jeans. The sunshine stamp is from Stampin Up!

Red and Black Cards

I've been keeping busy making cards for Operation Write Home and Split Coast Stampers Cards for a Cause. I'm still convinced that the paper has parties in the middle of the night and just keeps reproducing because no matter how many cards I make the piles of paper don't get any smaller. It's been fun and it's for a great couple of causes. Here's two that I made recently.

Most of the paper is from my stash. The punches are all Stampin Up!

OWH Birthday Bash 2013

I made the card below for the Operation Write Home Birthday Bash 2013. They have great instructional videos, pdf files and other information that will enhance your cardmaking skills. You can join the fun too by clicking on the link on the sidebar ---------->>>>

Products used to make this card:
Stamps from My Favorite Things Monkey Business (part of the OWH Birthday Bash 2013 kit)
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin Up! Classic Close to Cocoa, Versamark (the watermark bananas on the blue circle)
Prismacolor and Staedtler watercolor pencils
Stampin Up! blender pen
Fiskars 2" circle punch
EK Success 2 1/4" scalloped circle punch
Bella! Ribbonz (part of the OWH Birthday Bash 2013 kit)
Paper and cardstock from my stash

OWH VCMP Card #9 and the end of the party!

Wow can you believe that we've come to the end of the two-day Virtual Card Making Party? Me neither! It's been fun and has given me loads of new ideas and inspiration.

OWH VCMP Card #9 challenge is to make a card using the negative of a die or punch. I used a large Stampin Up flower punch on the front of the card, then adhered white card stock to the inside of the card with a dragonfly stamped on it. When making cards using dark card stock we always adhere white or light colored paper to the inside so the heroes have something to write on, keeping in mind that some only have a pencil and that wouldn't show up at all on dark paper. You can visit the host of this challenge here and see cards made by other partiers.

OWH VCMP Card #8

OWH VCMP Card #8 challenge is to make a card with an image of a bee and a sentiment that plays on the word bee. When I was working on the 6th challenge I noticed a cute bee in the stamp set which shall go unnamed because quite honestly, well there isn't a manufacturer's name anywhere on the acrylic stamp sheet. Anyway, there was also some matching sentiments and the one I picked was just perfect! You can visit the host of this challenge here and see cards made by other partiers.

OWH VCMP Card #7

OWH VCMP Card #7 challenge is to make a fall themed card without being for Thanksgiving. I've always wanted to try the emboss resist technique and when I saw the sample card by the host of this challenge here I knew exactly what I wanted to do!

OWH VCMP Card #6

The OWH VCMP Card #6 challenge is to make cards for kids using the tic-tac-toe board below. We had to choose three items in a row and I selected things with wings, stamping and using punches (the small red stars).

Now on to the next challenge!

OWH VCMP Sketch Challenge #188

Good morning everyone! I've got a busy morning today because my grandson is getting baptized and family gathers afterwards, but I had a tiny bit of time to get one card done before leaving.

This card is part of the Operation Write Home Labor Day Virtual Card Making Party (OWH VCMP) and follows Sketch #188.

See you again later!

OWH VCMP Card #5

Card #5 for the OWH VCMP is a masking tape background card. You can find many other cards for this challenge here.

I made a couple different cards, one with regular white card stock and the other with watercolor paper. Can you tell which is which? I used the Stampin Up Sprinkled Expressions stamps.

OWH VCMP Card #3

Card #3 for the OWH VCMP uses a triple layer technique cut from dies. I don't have the oblong dies used in the examples, so dug out what I had and came up with this card. You can find many other cards along with the original tutorial here.

OWH VCMP Card #2

Card #2 for the OWH VCMP is a challenge to use elements based on the letters OWH. My card uses Orange, Wiggles and Happy! You can go see the other entries for this challenge over at Diane's blog.

Celebrating veterans and watching airplanes fly

Today I had the pleasure of meeting some amazing WWII veterans and watching some of the airplanes that they used during WWII fly. I even got in free because I'm a veteran! Can't beat that for a good deal! I gave my husband the camera and let him capture the memories and found this picture below of my backside. I always wonder why we don't hand the camera to someone and ask them to capture the two of us standing in front of whatever it is we're there to see, but alas! I'm usually too mesmerized by the awesomeness of the attractions to think about the memory shot. Or maybe it's that I NEED a memory shot to help me remember to do that!

Before the air show I got a big stack of Halloween cards made for Operation Write Home. I need to cut the white paper to glue inside all the black cards, then get envelopes ready for them, finish using up the scraps and then move on to non-Halloween cards to fill a box and ship off before the end of August. It's nice spending time in my craft room again!

Tell me, what have YOU been up to lately?

OWH Midweek Throw-down

Happy Wednesday everyone!  Yes I know it's been forever since I last posted, but life keeps me pretty busy these days.

I've decided to make some Halloween cards for Operation Write Home and this one fits their Midweek Throw-down challenge which is to use punches. I used my Stampin Up oval and EK Success scalloped circle punches, a cute little Stampabilities stamp and some ribbon from my stash. The sentiment is from Stampin Up's Delightful Dozen set. I love the way the faux stitching turned out, especially the blanket stitch around the sentiment layer.

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!