Card-making temporarily took a back seat to Thanksgiving preparations (and recuperation!). Finally got back to working on cards for Operation Write Home, and finished two sets (8 each) today.
The images are by Stampin' Up!, and were colored with Stampin' Up! markers.
The backgrounds were embossed, and Teddy Bear one distressed, with Ranger Distress Inks. Wild Honey on the "Miss You" and Tea Dye on "Thinking of you". I'm trying to make use of the stockpile of random papers I have. The copper matting is left over from making my son's wedding invitations three years ago.
Sandy Allnock, of Operation Write Home, posted a "Veterans' Day Giveaway" this week. In honor of Veterans Day, she is giving a couple of yards of a great patriotic striped ribbon to each of
three winners. All you have to do is post a patriotic (red, white & blue) valentine card
before next Sunday.
Operation Write Home needs us to make and ship Valentines
now, so they can get shipped overseas by the end of this year. That
way the Heroes will get them in time to send Valentines home to loved
ones by mid-February.
The borders on this card were made with a "bubbles" corner rounder done along the edge. The sentiment was created digitally, and punched with a 1" scallop punch. The little red hearts are the punch-out "left overs" from a pop-up center-fold row of hearts. The large red heart was made with the Stampin' Up! "movers and shapers" heart, and the creamy flourish heart was punched with the Stampin' Up! heart punch. I had to add a bit of ribbon, since this card is for a "Sandy" challenge.
This week One Stop Craft Challenge wants cards that are inspired by fireworks. I love the inspirational picture they posted.
However, my card efforts weren't very successful. I wanted to do emboss resist to have bright, colorful snowflake "bursts" and then ink over in black. However, the techniques just didn't work out like I'd hoped.
First I sponged Distress inks onto the card base using a "stencil" of the Stampin' Up! snowflake punch-negative space. Then I used a VersaMark pen to trace the colored flakes so I could emboss with clear embossing powder. Finally, I did direct to paper with Memento Tuxedo Black dye ink over the whole thing. Wiping off the embossed areas to show the colors really just showed that the embossing wasn't good enough.
Then I tried using the stamp with Distress inks and clear embossing powder. This made much more delicate "bursts" and when I sponged on dark inks it didn't get as dark as I'd imagined.
Then I tried sponging on the Distress Inks thru a punched out snowflake negative again. After creating all the colored bursts, I laid the stencil over each one and sponged on Distress embossing ink. I used iridescent embossing powder for this one, but again the dark ink just made it look messy. If anyone has a good idea for how to stamp/ink/emboss bright firework bursts and get the background black, please let me know.
The finished card uses the second try, and I added a sparkly sheer ribbon along with the sentiment.
The current Cute Card Thursday challenge is to do a card with angels or fairies. I have this digital image of a darling little boy fairy, with a pet (or captured?) dragonfly. The uncolored image is by Ina Jane. She's done several darling fairies, and I chose the boy since I have three sons. The image came from www.SweetColoringPages.com, and I did the coloring in PhotoShop Elements. The sentiment is by Gina K Designs. Turns out the challenge closed before I got this posted. Oh, well. He's awful cute anyway.
This card combines The Craft's Meow's November sketch challenge, and last week's Mid-week Throwdown at Operation Write Home (a valentine). This card uses Gina K Designs stamps, and various bits of ribbon scraps I had around.
The challenge for 365 Cards Day 245 is to choose something from your home decor as inspiration for a card. I immediately thought of a print we have in our living room, by Lee Teter, depicting a veteran at the Viet Nam Memorial in Washington D.C. The first time I saw this print it grabbed my heart. I wasn't sure I could handle living with it, so didn't
buy it. But the image stuck with me, and a few years later I had
another opportunity to buy the print. So, this is the inspiration for
my forest green sympathy sentiment card.
I did one masculine version, with tan for the
focal point and a leaf border punch, and one more feminine version, with
a pale olive green for the focal point, swiss dot embossing, and a lacy scallop border punch (from Stampin' Up!). The sketch is from the Just Us Girls JUGS #161 challenge.
Another winter card for Joan's Garden and Oozak, using the first November sketch from Viva le Verve. This card uses a Hero Arts image, as well as the color scheme AND dry embossing for their November contest.
The color scheme was a little different - wet cement, soft olive, red royal, soft granite, and tide pool. The olive, red and tide pool (teal) are pretty obvious. The soft granite is the grey mat that has been embossed with a Cuttlebug snowflakes folder. The olive oval is also dry embossed, using a Stampin' Up! folder. The wet cement color is the body of the house (clapboards). The rest of the image was colored with Copic Markers, and then I added white flocking to the image where snow is indicated. The wet cement color just didn't work for snow. LOL!
This card almost qualifies for six challenges - the most I think I've hit with one card! CAS-ual Friday current challenge is to make a masculine card. The layout comes from the current I {heart| Sketches challenge (Sketch For You To Try - SFYTT). Color scheme is from 365 Cards Day 247. The winter card theme fits for both Joan's Garden challenge this week, and Oozak's November challenge.
Three different Cuttlebug embossing folders were used. Dry-embossing fits for the Hero Arts November challenge. I didn't use a Hero Arts stamp, but did use Hero Arts Soft Grey Shadow Ink. The snowflake image stamped with that ink is by Stampin' Up!, and the words are from a Northwoods Rubber stamp.
There are two challenges to make "winter" cards this week. One is Joan's Garden challenge #40, and the other is the Oozak November challenge. For 365 Cards Day 246 the challenge was to "say it with flair" - have one item on your card that really "POPS!" Sandy Allnock recently did a card that had clear embossing on a black background, and I decided a nice bright snowflake would "pop" on black.
This card uses three Stampin' Up! snowflake stamps for the embossed background of irridecent snowflakes on black. The bright snowflake is also by Stampin' Up! - both the stamp and the punch that does all the fine cutting for you.
I wanted my punched snowflake to sparkle, too, so I used Versa Mark and the iridescent embossing powder to give it two coats of sparkle. Multilayer embossing is a technique that I haven't used in awhile, so it fits for the Our Daily Bread challenge to Operation Write Home. However, there's a limit of one card per person on that challenge, and I already submitted one. Even with the double embossing, the snowflake didn't "pop" enough for me, so I punched a second snowflake from glossy white card stock and layered it under as a "shadow" to the flake. That made it work for me. Of course, to attach the snowflake to the card I used the Xyron Create-a-Sticker.
I'm in a card club that meets every other month, and tomorrow's our day. The challenge for our swap is to make a "cute" (but non-juvenile) birthday card. I've had this set by Stampin' Up! for awhile, and not used it much. I think it qualifies as adult "cute", even if the sentiment is a little mean.
The 365 Cards Day 248 challenge is "half and half" - do the sentiment half on the outside, and half on the inside. (I took that generally, not exactly half.) This sentiment is in two parts, but I also did an inside sentiment to complete the card.
The dry embossed background was done with a 5x7 Cuttlebug folder. The gears and clock parts reminded me of "time" and that fits for birthdays with lots of candles. The image was colored with Copic Markers, cut with a Spellbinder's classic oval Nestability, and then the edges were distressed with Wild Honey and Tea Dye Distress Inks.
Stamp TV's Mix-it-up Monday challenge is to do a card that is "warm and cozy." I figured snuggling up knitting is a warm and cozy occupation. The 365 Cards Day 44 challenge is this recipe:
So, I started with a pink card base, made it a patterned paper by stamping a swirly background and dusting with Perfect Pearls. Using Perfect Pearls is "pulling out an old technique or tool" that I haven't used for awhile. That's the challenge for Our Daily Bread's November challenge to Operation Write Home. It also fits for the Simon Says Stamp & Show challenge to "Just add pearls." Then I used the same stamp to add pattern to the darker pink paper mat. This time I added the same Perfect Pearls (violet) to clear embossing powder, and heat embossed. Unfortunately, you can't really see the shine in the photo. 
The image stamp and the sentiment come from the Gina K Designs "Basket Additions" set. The basket is stamped on one patterned paper, and the basket liner is stamped on another - both by Stampin' Up! That covers the four patterned papers, the two stamps and the one sentiment. The knitting supplies, as well as shading on the basket and liner were done with Copic Markers. To complete the Day 244 challenge, I added three chipboard hearts, colored with Copic Marker and then shined up with Diamond Glaze.
My mother-in-law had a birthday last week, and we are celebrating with a little party tomorrow. Naturally, her birthday card was "influenced" by the current challenges. LOL!
The sketch is from 365 Cards Day 242. The addition of the sentiment "tag" covers the StampTV Free-for-All Friday to do a "backward" or "recessed" card. That challenge comes from an Australian woman, and I think it's pretty clever. The sentiment comes from the Gina K Designs set "Garden Silhouettes" and the strip of background paper is from the rubber-band background challenge.
Another thank you card - this one with a masculine feel for Our Daily Bread challenge. It also fits the Simon Says Stamp challenge to "Get in Shape", and the Outlawz October Opulance color challenge with the twist to use a pumpkin on the card. This card does use a Gina K Designs sentiment stamp from the Basket Additions set, so it works for the StampTV Oldies but Goodies challenge this week. Also, being a Thank You card, it fits for the 365 Cards Day 243 challenge, and (if it's not too late) for the Paper Smooches challenge. Whoo Hoo!! The dry embossing was done with the Cuttlebug "Pumpkin Harvest" folder, and the embossed die cut is "Pumpkin Spice" by Cuttlebug. The designer paper for the leaf and vine is from a Stampin' Up! pack, and the sentiment was shaped by a Stampin' Up! punch.
Paper Smooches has a little blog candy this week. We need to make and post a Thank You card (before midnight tonight!), and I just found out this evening. It just so happens that there are a couple of other challenges to do a Thank You card - 365 Cards Day 243, and StampTV's Oldies but Goodies STVOLDIES10. I began with paper folded in half (copper on the outside, and cream on the inside) and cut with the medium Nestabilities Leafy Square. The image and sentiment are both by Stampin' Up! The grey goose was colored with Copic Markers, and then I used Antique Linen and Wild Honey Distress inks to add a little more color. As a finishing touch, I added a sheer ribbon bow, that is actually tied around the neck of the goose. I decided this card also very loosely works for the Mojo Monday challenge #265.
Card-making temporarily took a back seat to Thanksgiving preparations (and recuperation!). Finally got back to working on cards for Operation Write Home, and finished two sets (8 each) today. 
The images are by Stampin' Up!, and were colored with Stampin' Up! markers. 
