About Me

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These are a few of my favorite things (not in order of importance): Creating beautiful things from paper or fabric; Loving puppy dogs (and cats, and other furry critters); Being part of the Eagan Hills Alliance Church family; Enjoying my grandchildren; Relaxing with my husband - especially someplace with dramatic nature (like the North Shore of Lake Superior); Being appreciated by folks where I work.

Oct 7, 2012

Last of the WCD Challenges

I got a very late start on the World Card Making Day challenges, and had lots of interruptions.  I swear I made one more card, but I can't find it!  Went through the whole mess on my desk, and it's not there - but I can picture it in my mind.  Frustrating and NOT my best card making day.  

Anyway, there were a couple of challenges that were to use Pink, and Penny Black had some sketch challenges.  These are both with the first sketch. 365 Cards Day 219 was a color scheme challenge (green, blue, purple, and orange).  So, here are the cards.



One Layer Sketch Challenge (Flop!)



Paper Smoochies has a challenge for World Card Making Day - I just realized there were three options, not three requirements!  I tried twice to make a single layer card using the sketch they had, and included some pink on it.  HOW do you make a single layer card and still follow a sketch with multiple layers?  That was my problem, and I'm not happy with either of the efforts I made. 

First I tried using three different background stamps, and masking the areas that weren't to be done by the particular stamp.

  Then I tried using different stamps to create the 'layers', but . . .   I tried distressing both cards to make them "blend" more, but that didn't work.  It was more distressing for me than the cards!!  LOL!!

Oct 6, 2012

Card "kits" for OWH Birthday Party


To celebrate Operation Write Home's birthday last month, Sandy Allnock had asked card-makers all over the country to have OWH card-making parties. I designed a dozen or maybe different cards, and made kits for easy assembly. From 12 to 15 kits per design.  That's a lot of bits and pieces!  I planned to host a party for a couple of hours at work, using my vacation leave.  

However, working in government has it's drawbacks.  Management at my work site wasn't supportive.  The concept may have been too "political" for the setting.  Anyway, since co-workers couldn't be allowed a few minutes to make a card, or write an Any Hero letter, I was left with about 170 cards to assemble.  Here are a few of the ones that got completed this week.





Miss You (U) on a Spattered Background

This card combines requirements for Day 216 of 365 Cards - a spattered background - with the second Viva la Verve sketch of October.  I spent the day with my friend Kelly, in her WONDERFUL studio.  She's a fiber artist, but pitched in to make spattered backgrounds for "miss you" cards that I'll give to Operation Write Home.  She used some thin ink (can't remember what she called it) and some dye she had handy.  Kelly also provided the vertical strip of painted paper, and had the alphabet stamps to make the greeting.

Mojo Monday Sketch #261 & a Color Scheme Challlenge


This card combines requirements for the Society of Stampaholics October challenge - color scheme of camel, amethyst, and charcoal - with the Mojo Monday sketch for the week #261.  Not colors I'd have thought to put together, but not bad.  The photo washes out the color of the camel paper, but if you look in the lower left you get an idea of the actual color.  Not sure why only one corner of the paper didn't wash-out in the lighting!

The sketch called for a wider ribbon than I had, so I put two strips of ribbon side-by-side.  The charcoal mat on the sentiment and the vertical strip add some depth.  The "circles" are Nestabilities Blossom dies (largest and then two smaller ones).  The verticle strip is from Gina K Designs, the Parisian Garden patterned paper pack.  I added three small gems at the bottom corner to give a sense of "grounding", otherwise it felt like the whole focal area was about to float off the left side of the card.  The gems were clear, but I colored them with Copic markers.