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 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 (we're talking HUNDREDS!) 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 that are my favorites. I love the contract between the red and black.

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OWH Sketch Challenge #199

Hi again everyone! I know that my posts are few and far between these days so I figured I'd better show you what I've been up to. No it's not organizing my craft room, more like messing it up more and more each day, but hey, at least I'm getting things done. In the midst of making 100+ cards for Operation Write Home I saw a post from them about Sketch Challenge #199 and decided to play along. I had recently purchased some cute little dies from Stampin Up and thought they'd be perfect for this sketch.

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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 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 #4

Card #4 for the OWH VCMP is a love card. You can find many other cards for this challenge here.

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 World Cardmaking Day Boghop

Welcome to the Operation Write Home World Cardmaking Day Bloghop! I am so excited to be participating another OWH bloghop! What a great opportunity to spend the day with a bunch of creative, talented bloggers and blog-readers who have a desire to make sure our military men and women have great greeting cards to send home to loved ones and friends. When you're done here just click on the hop picture above to get the list of other blogs.

 Many of you already know that I am military through-and-through, born in to an Army family who traveled the world over helping ensure the safety of our great nation. Then I also joined the Army and served alongside my father in Germany as possibly the first documented father-daughter team in the Big Red One. Well, Dad was an Infantryman and I worked in Personnel, but we served on the same base anyway and loved it!

If you're interested in learning more about OWH and how you too can get involved in making cards for our heroes click on the banner at the top of this post. I'd love to hear from you, so please take a minute to leave a comment below! Thanks for stopping by!

The card below is based on an Operation Write Home S&S Sketch #1 that you can find here along with a whole bunch of other free card sketches. I picked this one because it is also CAS (Clean and Simple) and a great way to make a whole bunch of cards with just a few cuts.

Card-making Craze

The first two cards in this post are for this week's OWH Stars and Stamps Sketch Challenge #110. I'm linking the second one on their blog. I hope you'll come play along with us this week!

The next pictures are from Saturday's card-making day at Grace Community Church in Overbrook, Kansas. They have an awesome card ministry that sends cards to all kinds of places like nursing homes, prisons, and homeless shelters. What fun it was to go play with all those supplies and make cards that are sure to bring a smile to many faces! That's my daughter Emily on the far right in the back. She was also the photographer and made some lovely cards too! I'm the one in the plaid shirt. Aren't we a great looking bunch of gals and guy?!?!

OWH Challenges #1, 4, 5, 6 & 9

I've already linked these pictures on the OWH challenge blog posts using my Flickr account, but also wanted them posted here for your enjoyment. All of these cards are part of the 100 that I made to donate to the church ministry. My next goal is to make 100 for Operation Write Home, so the remainder of this week's challenges will go in the box for OWH. #1 is called Hot Tropics and uses hot pink, green and yellow.

#4 is Beachy Thinking of You.

#5 is a Birthday card.

#6 is called Sand and Sea - Use Blues and Tans

#9 is called Cut it Out! Die Cuts and Punches