Quick! A Post for July!

Aaaacckkkk!  I almost let the month get away without posting.  I'm supposed to be getting ready for a 2-day outing with a friend for the Southern California Shop Hop of scrapbook stores.  The ones we'll be visiting over the next couple of days aren't way, way far away but the furthest is probably about 50 miles away and there are several out that we we want to see.  I've visited 10 of the 40 stores that are participating and we'll probably hit 7 or 8 of them by the end of the day on Tuesday.  I hope to get to at least one or two more by the end of this week and that'll be it.  Some of the participating stores are a couple of hours away and I just can't get to them this time.  Maybe next year.

Anyway, I have a couple of cards to post and then I'd better finish getting things ready for my mini trip.  I also need to sleep tonight, doggone it.

I made a card for a one-to-one card swap that is organized by Technique Junkies.  TJ is a group I found online that publishes a newsletter 6 times each year and also produces CD's of each year's newsletters, CD's for specialty techniques, makes the newletters available online for subscribers and orgainizes lots of fun activities for subscribers.  Folks can sign up for the one-to-one swap each month and we're required to make a card using a technique from a newsletter or specialty CD and send it to our partner for the month.  You can find more information about Technique Junkies here. 

 In my last post, I included cards made during a class taught by Michael Strong.  One of the cards was a yellow floral that I hadn't quite finished.  I've since added touches of Pearl Pen and am now re-posting it.

Another card made during class used the same octagon, stamped on red, on white, and on blue, and then cut up reassembled to make a patriotic card.  Silver Pearl Pen dots were added.

And, finally, I've been working on making cards that can be sent to kids.  After all, some of the deployed troops have children that they want to stay in touch with, whether their own or others close to them.  I found some darling digital images and one of them was used on the following card.

That's it for now.  I have other cards to scan before I mail them off to Operation Write Home and hope to get them done this week.  Thanks for taking a look at my work.  I appreciate the visit.

New Cards

I spent the day in classes taught by Michael Strong today.  I've missed his classes for a couple of months now and it was so great to be able to once again bask in his creativity.  The first class focused on one of his new stamps, a hexagon that can be used in different ways just by making a few cuts here and there.  For one of the designs, we cut away all but the center of the stamped image and made 8 cards of all the same design but in 8 different colors.  We then applied dots with either a glitter writer or a pearl pen.  These cards are meant to be a set and I can either leave them as is or stamp some sort of sentiment in the blank spot under the image.  I'm posting just 2 of the cards just so you can see the design in different colors.  The card base on each is white.

Another card made with the hexagon used the image stamped a couple of times on yellow card stock and then heat embossed in gold.  The images were cut up to leave one center intact and 2 bowl shapes plus some diamond shapes.  We brushed orange ink on parts of the cut images and then placed them on our cards.  The bowl shapes were arranged with flowers punched from different plain and inked colored card stock.  I just realized that I haven't yet added the liquid pearls or glitter writer embellishments to my card so will post it again for you to see the "after" effect.

This next card used almost all of the parts of the hexagon image that was stamped twice on purple card stock.  The images were cut up and rearranged; the portions with hearts and one of the centers weren't used at all.  That Michael Strong is tricky......often times he'll use his images in different ways so it's impossible to know which stamps he used unless you see him in action or take his classes and learn his techniques.  I love it!

These last 3 cards were really fun to make.  We learned how to cut aluminum beverage cans (Diet Pepsi and Sierra Mist are my choices) and dry emboss them with embossing folders and a Cuttle Bug.  Wow,  so easy and what a great effect!  We then applied alcohol inks to the embossed aluminum and, yep, embellished with glitter writers and pearl pens as desired.  So far, I've only embellished the embossed fleur de lis image, with gold dots of pearl pen.  I may or may not embellish the other two and I have others I need to finish and will share them another time.

Michael said that the card embossed with numerals is a birthday card because, after all, age is just a number.  Ha!

With any luck, I'll post again before the end of the month.   Besides additonal cards from Michael's classes today, I have cards I've made recently for Operation Write Home.  Wouldn't that be something, 4 posts in a month?  Progress.

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Retirement Card

I didn't want to include this card in my post about cards for Operation Write Home.  I made a retirement card for a friend who is currently with the same public school district from which I retired a couple of  years ago.  5 of us are taking her to dinner and I volunteered to make a card for all of us to sign.  I made the card large enough to fit into a 6" x 9" envelope so it's nearly twice the size of cards I usually make.

I used papers and chipboard stickers from Bo Bunny; designs that I fell in love with when they first arrived at my local scrapbooking store.  The card base and one of the layers is from that Bo Bunny line.  I used coordinating card stock and natural (color name) seam binding for ribbon.  I laid down Scor Tape, some wonderful double-sided tape that holds forever, to fasten the seam binding as I pleated it.  Sandie's name consists of stickers as does the swirl design.  The sentiment is the top part of a large clear sticker made to be a card sentiment; the other part of the sentiment was placed inside the card.  The entire sentiment reads: "Retirment is a celebration of old memories and new beginnings.  A time to be grateful for the years behind you.  A time to welcome the years ahead.  Retirement is a wonderful feeling filled with the gift of knowing that all you've accomplished has made a lasting difference...and all that lies ahead will become a lasting treasure."  The quote is attributed to Kimberly Rinehart; I think I've seen her name in the past on some pre-printed cards in the stores.  I thought it was perfect for this card.

Thanks for taking a look at my blog.  I appreciate your visit and hope you will leave a comment to let me know you were here.

Thank you, miss you, thinking of you

I've begun filling a box with cards to send to Operation Write Home this month.  Designs that I've completed so far are shown below.  During June, I will be working on cards that were inspired by the Memorial Weekend Blog Hop that was hosted by OWH.  The requested theme was using one of the sketches that is found at the OWH site here.  I've never worked from a sketch before and it will be fun to use pre-made layouts and see what I come up with.  If you're interested in seeing the designs submitted by those who participated in the hop, go here.  I didn't participate in the hop this time but I hope to the next time.  Perhaps it will be for Veterans Day.

While I looked at the blog submissions, I found many cardmakers whose interpretations of the designs I really, really admired.  Such talent is out there, such inspiration!  It's an honor to be among folks who care about and appreciate our service people and want to do their part in letting them know that.  I bought a stamp set recently that includes a sentiment "Freedom isn't free."  Doesn't that just say it all?

Okay, now my cards:

Thanks for stopping by.  I appreciate all comments and hope you will leave one so I'll know you were here and what you think of my cards.

Another Post for May

Alas, I cannot post daily as I'd originally hoped/planned/
dreamed.  But, in keeping with my resolve not to drift back into an all or nothing mentality, I offer another sharing of cards I've made for Operation Write home as well as a card I made for a cousin's upcoming wedding.  I sent the cards off to OWH on Friday, 55 of them.  The next deadline will be for Halloween cards so I will be focusing on thank you cards, which are greatly needed, as well as birthday, miss you and thinking of you cards over the next couple of months. I also need to start making some Thanksgiving and Christmas cards because there will be a great need for those when the time comes.  Kind of creepy how I make cards for holidays that are so far off and when the event actually occurs I am so past it.  Like Father's Day.  It'll be here in just a few weeks and yet it seems that it's already been here and gone since I sent those cards in so long ago.  I have to remember to wrest my mind back to the present or the holidays get away from me.  Anyway.....hope you enjoy my cards.  Please leave a comment and consider subscribing to my blog or following me by email.  Thanks for stopping by!

A few more cards

I was so busy last month with various family activities and May is proving to be the same kind of month so far.  I thought I'd post a couple of cards for now, just to make sure I get something posted.  I continue to work on cards for Operation Write Home and just need to scan some additional ones before I send them off for my May contributions.  They're looking for more than Independence Day cards so I've been focusing on birthdays and have some  "miss you" cards in the works.  I hope you enjoy the cards I'm posting today.  Thanks for stopping by.  I'd love it if you'd leave a comment or decide to follow me.

Creations

I've been busy making Father's Day and other cards for Operation Write Home.  Following are cards I made to send this month.

I cut the ties from printed designer paper using a die I purchased from Paper Trey Inks.

I have fallen in love with Lawn Fawn stamps and the butterflies are from the Flutter By collection.  I stamped them on a sheet of Lawn Fawn designer paper from the Bright Side collection.

For this butterfly, I smeared different colors of pigment ink on a piece of white card stock, picking up the colors of the butterflies that are on the printed paper used for the background on this card.

Thanks for visiting!

And more cards.....

These are the cards that I made to send to OWH this month.  Some were made as Mother's Day cards and some just carry the word Mom on them so they can be used at any time.  I also included birthday and thinking of you cards and I'll need to step up on thank you and miss you cards to send the next time.

The flower pot card includes a tag topped with flowers that slips into the top of the flower pot.  There's more room for writing on the back of the tag.  The following picture is of the card with the tag pulled out and placed on top of the pot.

In the next picture, the tag has been slipped into the top of the flower pot.

In the following, I used a birthday embossing folder on white card stock and then placed a dot of glitter  (glue) in the center of each embossed flower.

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Cards

I finally made time to scan some cards so I could post them here.  I've spent the past few weeks reorganizing, cleaning out and tossing in several rooms in my house.  I hate to admit it....I'm on craft overload and it causes me to stop working on cards for OWH unless I'm at the local scrapbook store where I can't leave a mess.  So I needed to tackle things at home and it's helping.

I've spent time working on Mother's Day cards for OWH as well as a few others such as birthday and thinking of you cards.  Next I'll start Father's Day cards and I just ordered a cutting die that creates a man's tie shape to do that.  While I was at it I ordered balloon stamps and a coordinating die for those.

I took a couple of classes and am posting here a cute Easter card that I will duplicate for OWH next Easter. The rabbit and his neck bow were colored/shaded with Copics and the neck bow is shiny from an application of ink from a clear gel pen.  I figured that when making them in quantity it will make more sense to use a bottled glossing agent such as Judikins Diamond Glaze.

I also attended Michael Strong's class at the end of February and following are cards I made in his class.  You'll see the stamp used in the trio of girls and the ladybug hug girl stamp on this year's Christmas cards in a few months.

Thanks for stopping by.  I plan to post again soon and will include the cards I've been making for OWH.