Verve Visual With Gratitude

It's time for a new Midweek Throwdown challenge on the Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps blog, today's challenge is in honor of one of our retiring shippers, Dixie!  The challenge is to make Thank You cards for our heroes to send home to their family and friends.

Dixie has passed on her duties as an Operation Write Home Shipper to Caro after serving for two years - and we wanted to do something special in her honor to say THANKS for all her hard work and dedication!   I hope you'll have time to play along in our fun challenge this week.

Today's card was made with a Verve Visual acrylic stamp set, embossing powder, Spellbinders dies a Stampin' Up! Canvas background stamp and a scrap of black and white digital paper and beautiful organdy ribbon.  I love making bows with organdy ribbon!  I really like the way my card turned out except for the dots of black embossing powder in all the places I didn't want it.  Now I remember why I like black pigment ink and clear embossing powder, lol!  That's what I get for using so many digital images anymore, I'm out of practice with my heat embossing technique.  

Have a blessed day a & thanks for visiting my blog today -

Challenges:

Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps - Thank You 
Cooking It Up With Katie - Anything Goes 
Crafty Creations - Gratitude 
My Mum's Craft Shop - Anything Goes 
The Paper Shelter - A Tied Bow

Stretch & Bubbles Once There Was A Snowman

I have a fun card to share today using Stretch & Bubbles "Once There Was A Snowman" digital image that's actually for our Seems A Little Sketchy challenge #3.  

I sized this cute digital image to fit the focal point of sketch #3 and then cropped a snowflake out and added it back into the image to make it wider.  That might be too much information but... that's what I did (:  The image is colored with Copic markers pictured below:

You might be wondering where I used the E49, I "enhanced" the three brown Dew Drops before adding them to my card.  The patterned papers are made by Basic Grey from the Eskimo Kisses collection.  The other papers are Nut Brown, Copic X Press It & Neenah Kraft card stocks and the snowflake is a die made by Die-namics.  I also used Papertrey Ink's envelope liner die, it's a nice way to use up some of those left over scraps of designer paper.

I hope you are enjoying this holiday season and have some creative time so you can join in our sketch challenge at Seems A Little Sketchy!  Our design team has more wonderful sketch samples on our challenge blog, see you there (:

Thanks for visiting my blog today - 

Challenges:

Seems A Little Sketchy - Sketch #3

Merry Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas from sunny Arizona!

I don't have a card to post today as I'm spending time with our family but I do have a couple of family photos.

My oldest son stopped by the other day wanting some pictures of his brother and sister with him so I was happy to do that.  I'd love to have those myself!  As you can see Maxine needed to be in the photo too.

And when we were done it was time to play!

Merry Christmas!

Accordion File Purse

I have a gift item to share with you today.

The holidays are here and we all need a little something for special people in our lives.  

I've been holding this one back for awhile now, it was a birthday gift for a friend of mine.  I stuffed it with cards I've made and didn't want her to possibly see it early and ruin the surprise.

I've had another one of these accordion file purses on my desk forever.  It's been waiting to be "re-made", I originally wanted it to be large enough to fit A2 sized cards so I could fill it and give it as a gift.  The first one I made using Maria Bell's tutorial isn't big enough to hold A2 cards but it is perfect to hold my printed digital images that need to be colored. 

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas with your family tomorrow and thanks for visiting my blog!

Challenges:
Cooking It Up With Katie - Anything Goes

Christmas 1912

I have some fun cards to share with you today.  We were watching Antique Road Show the other night on T.V. and there was a man who had a binder full of post cards from the early 1900's that was appraised at $5000.00.  They were in pristine condition and just beautiful.  That sparked a thought in my mind and I got up and went down the hall to retrieve the box of cards my Grandfather had saved... 

1 cent post cards were very popular in the early 1900's.  This is a Christmas postcard received by my grandmother Estella Fisher Hunnicutt in 1912.  I scanned these and have the back too.

I believe she was born in 1903, so she would have been 9 years old when she received this card.  She died in 1933 from a brain aneurism when my Dad was 6 years old.

I'm not sure of the date on this one, some are easier to see the dates than others.  Scanning them actually made a lot of the post mark dates easier to read.

My cards are not in pristine condition, but I think they're a real family treasure and very inspiring to me as a card maker.

This one in person is a lot more interesting, it's a hologram and changes and sparkles when you tilt it this way and that.  The date on the bottom front is 1908.  

I have an old dress shirt box full of my Grandmother's post cards, I'll share more later.  There are some wonderful Valentine's and other occasions cards. 

Have a blessed day!

Lily Boo's Boy Story 5

We have a new Midweek Throwdown challenge at Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps today and our theme is BIRTHDAY CARDS!  

I used a Lily Boo Designs digital image for my card, it's already been shipped to Operation Write Home so I don't have any Copic marker colors to list.  My guess at the cardstock colors are Via Vellum Leaf Green, Stampin' Up! Brilliant Blue, Basic Black and Neenah Solar White.  

With just a few days until Christmas my blog post is quick, lots to do, lots to do!

I hope you have time for our Birthday Cards challenge at Operation Write Home Stars & Stripes, 

have a great day!

Challenges:

Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps - Birthday Cards

The Clip Art Fairy Cool Valentine Cats

I have one more fun Valentine using The Clip Art Fairy's pre - colored "Cool Valentine Cats" today.  The deadline to have our Valentine's to our Operation Write Home shippers is December 31st.

I used Operation Write Home's Sunday Sketch #82 as inspiration for my card layout.

God Bless You in this busy busy holiday season -

D.J. Inkers Seasons Greetings

I have a Christmas card to share today, I mass produced 80 of these recently for our church.  

Here's a trip through part of the process.

The image is pre-colored from D.J. Inkers that comes in the set "Season's Greetings".

As a card maker one can't have too much help with a mass production project.  Inky the cat is doing her part, she's in charge of quality control.  Quite honestly her all time favorite thing to do with my cards is find the envelopes and lick the glue off of them (:

Thanks for visiting my blog today!

Challenges:

Crafty Boots - Christmas
Weekly Christmas Card Challenge - Christmas Non Traditional Colors
Dream Valley Challenges - Christmas
Gingerloft - Christmas

Copic Marker Maintenance

Do your Copic markers look like this?  Ewwwww...

I thought I'd take a little time today to delve into maintaining our Copic makers.  

Have you ever been coloring and noticed a fleck of something on your image and wiped it away only to have a (usually red for me) nasty smudge on your work?  Can you see the wet and dried ink above the nibs and in the caps of my makers?  Those little bits of dried ink can fall off on what you're working on and create ugly smudges when you try to wipe them away. 

That's where maintenance comes in:

What you see here is a box of Copic marker refills, the refill needles, 91% Isopropyl Alcohol, Copic blending solution, used cotton balls, a couple of small containers to hold cleaning solutions and a taken apart Copic BG72 marker.  

I use the alcohol on cotton balls to clean my Copic marker barrels and caps.  I also have a clogged marker nib every once in awhile and I use the alcohol to soak the nib in to see if I can get it unclogged before I replace the nib.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.  The 91% alcohol is much cheaper than the Copic blending solution so I use it first and have had great success with it for cleaning.  

This picture is just a closer view of soaking a clogged marker nib.  It never truly came clean so I replaced it with a new one.  

I hope my blog post today was helpful to you, thanks for visiting my blog!

Hero Arts Operation Write Home Blog Skip

Welcome to our Operation Write Home Hero Arts blog skip, if you've arrived here from Yolanda's blog you're on the right track.  If not and you'd like to start at the beginning click here to be directed to the Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps blog.

My card uses one of the newest OWH/Hero Arts sets.  This set stayed on my desk for awhile and I kept looking at it and seeing patterned paper so I gave into the urge to ink up the entire set in it's packaging and stamp it on a sheet of Kraft cardstock.  I thought Operation Write Home's sketch #99 from this last Sunday would be the perfect way to use my "background". 

Be sure to leave comments because...
OWH is giving away one of each of the Hero Arts stamp sets, and the 3 winners will be picked from all comments on all the blogs in the skip - the more blogs you comment on, the more entries you have! Winners will be drawn Sunday night.

 Your next stop in our skip is Julie at 

"Handmade by Julie".

Thanks for visiting my blog today!

Challenges:

Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps - Sketch #99

Notes From Home

What a totally busy time of year! 

My blog post today is personal, I don't have a card to share but I did get a photo of my husband and kids decorating the Christmas tree last night.  

I've been avoiding doing this blog post but want a place for our friends and family to check in and keep up to date if they'd like.  

We received news Thursday December 8^th at my husband Rick's doctors appointment, about his prostate biopsy from 21/2 weeks ago. The results were positive for prostate cancer, the good news is it is contained to the prostate right now so it appears to be in the early stage. We have an appointment with an oncologist in Lake Havasu City (35 miles away) the 29th of December and then a follow up with his urologist after the first of the year on Jan. 5th, we'll need to make decisions about his treatment at that time. We came home with the book 100 Questions & Answers About Prostate Cancer from the doctor’s office, it has lots of information, questions and answers about prostate cancer, treatments, expectations, etc.

We've both finished the book and have talked a little about treatment options.  He's narrowed it down to having his prostate removed or radiation therapy where radioactive seeds are implanted in the prostate to kill the cancer.  We'll talk with an oncologist next and be more informed of our options locally then I'm sure.

Please keep our family in your prayers.

Thanks for visiting my blog today.

The Clip Art Fairy Cool Valentine Cats

It might seem a bit odd ten days before Christmas to be making Valentine cards but that's what our newest challenge calls for at Operation Write Home Stars and Stamps for our Midweek Throwdown challenge!  The deadline to get our Valentine's to our shippers is December 31st.

I used Operation Write Home's sketch challenge #96 for my layout and a Papertrey Ink acrylic stamp set for sentiments along with a little Basic Grey paper to go with my Neenah Red Pepper Linen and Basic Black.  

My second card uses another image from the  Cool Valentine Cats clip art set, I thought I'd set this one aside for my husband.

I hope you'll join our Midweek Throwdown challenge at Operation Write Home Stars and Stamps this week!  

Thanks for visiting my blog today -

Challenges:

Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps - Valentine's

Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps - Sketch #96

A Day For Daisies Angels Resting

My card is for our Stamps R Us "Angels" challenge that starts today!  The last challenge of the year for us, our team is taking a very short break to celebrate Christmas with our families so this challenge will last three weeks, ending the evening of Januray 1, 2012.  One lucky card maker will win a fabulous prize package from Tammy at A Day For Daisies!  

I used our sponsor A Day For Daisies Angels Resting digital image and colored with Copic markers pictured below:

My sketch layout is Splitcoast Stampers sketch challenge #296.  The cranberry colored panel is made using Copic R89, Colorless Blender and an acrylic stamp.  The card stock colors I used are Basic Black, Copic X Press It, Discount Cardstock's Royal Blue & Neenah Kraft.  I added Stickles Ice to the wings and used a couple different Cuttlebug embossing folders.

I hope you'll have some crafting time and will join in our challenge at Stamps R Us!

Thanks for visiting my blog today -

Challenges:

Stamps R Us - Angels

Delicious Doodles Poppy

I'd like to introduce you to Poppy today, she's a digital image from Delicious Doodles our sponsor for our second sketch challenge at Seems A Little Sketchy.

She's colored with Copic markers and the patterned papers I used are from Basic Grey Offbeat and Basic Grey Jovial as well as Copic X Press It, Basic Black and Color Mates Mist cardstock.

I had a little trouble with my BG72 Copic marker while coloring this image.  Wouldn't you know it was the last thing I was coloring too.  I think I got something on the marker tip that clogged it because I couldn't get it to blend.  I decided to keep the image and move forward use it on my card.  

I hope you'll stop by our Seems A Little Sketchy challenge blog to see all the fabulous sample cards our design team has made using various Delicious Doodles digital images and be inspired to play along!

Thanks for visiting my blog today -

Challenges:
Cooking It Up With Katie - Anything Goes

 

Copic Making Backgrounds/Papers

I took some time today to play with a new (to me) technique I've wanted to try.  I watched a video recently on how to do a bleaching technique with Copic Blending Solution, stamps, markers, air brush, etc.

The card above is my finished product, the Spellbinders Labels 14 is where I used this technique.  Instead of pulling out my air brush I used BG13 & BG15 markers.  I was in a hurry, I needed to clean up and fix dinner for my family.  It's a little streaked but I like the overall effect.

Here's a picture of the right way to do the technique.  Air brush with your markers BG13, BG18, BG72 onto a sheet of card stock.  Spritz your stamp with Copic Colorless Blender and stamp on the air brushed card stock.  I held my stamp down longer than I would have if I were using ink.  Be sure to clean off your stamp after each time you use it for a clean impression.  

One of the reasons I brought out my air brush system today is I was working on finishing my card and couldn't find a matching button to go on the tag I'd made.  Do you ever have that happen?  I used a small piece of foam tape to hold my button down to the paper I air brush on and sprayed it with several coats of BG13 and let it dry.  This works so much nicer than using a marker to color the button and dries much quicker too.  Another thing I tried today was using the BG13 marker to outline the edge of the Spellbinders tag, I went over it several times to make it darker.  I like the way it looks and think I'll try to remember to do this more often.

The stamps I used are actually rubber and acrylic stamps.  The dragon fly is by Stampendous, the flourish is by Kaiser Craft & the sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.  The dragon fly is colored with Copic markers BG13, BG15, BG18, BG23, V15, V17, T5, T3.  My layout was to accommodate the largest Spellbinders Labels 14 die, I also used a Spellbinders Oval and tag die.  The white panel is embossed with a Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder and I added straight lines in the center with my Scor-Pal.  

I hope you enjoyed my mini tutorial and are maybe inspired to try this Copic technique yourself.

We also have a new challenge starting today at Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps, our theme is "Create A Background".  I hope you'll join in and play along in our challenge there.

One last thing today-  I want to THANK YOU for visiting my blog.  I started my blog in May 2007 just for fun and am thrilled at how many visitors I have each day.  I'm getting close to 100,000 visitors and wrote my 1000th blog post yesterday.  So... thanks for visiting and leaving encouraging comments, it means a lot to me.

Challenges:

Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps - Create A Background

Grace Assembly of God Pastor's Note Cards

Would you believe this is my 1000th blog post!  I can hardly believe it myself,  I started my blog in May 2007 and had no idea I'd still be blogging  in 2011 almost 2012.  I'm also getting closer and closer to 100,00 visitors, pretty exciting stuff!

It's a busy time of year at our house and I bet it is at yours too!  I've been working on some note cards for our Pastor recently and have these two designs to share today.

I've made welcome booklets and note cards for our church for a few years now using the church logo.  It's fun to take a sample of art work like the logo and make something paper craft related with it.

My blog posting this month may not be as regular as usual, we have lots of different family things going on.  Band and Choral concerts, Christmas plays etc.  Not to worry I'm still here behind the scenes, I'm planning to enjoy the holiday season with our family and I hope you will too.  

Thanks for visiting my blog today -

Lil Inker Designs Holly Jolly Tree

Would you look at that?!  No coloring...

I just noticed that as I saw my card on my computer screen, that's very unusual & I like it!

This is the first card I've made using this new die and stamp set from Lil Inkers.  I used scraps of some Basic Grey paper that was in the pile beside my cutter, it was a 12 X 12 sheet and the right color.  My layout is Operation Write Home's sketch challenge #96.  I haven't had my Stampin' Up! Word Window punch out for a long time.  I also used a Cuttlebug embossing folder with Christmas ornaments on it, three Dew Drops, Memento Coco ink and the cardstock colors are Nut Brown, Stampin' Up! Garden Green and Cream Linen.  What a fun sketch for this image/die!

I suppose I should add this sketch is from November 20, 2011.  I can't keep up with all the sketches and challenges that pique my interest, but I always enjoy the inspiration they bring. 

Thanks for visiting my blog today -

Challenges:

Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps - Sketch #96
Crafty Boots - Anything Goes
Polly Craft - Christmas Fun
Ginger Loft - Christmas
Cooking It Up With Katie - Anything Goes
Bling It On - Christmas
Christmas Cards All Year Round - Anything Goes
Rainbow Lady's Challenge - Christmas
Catch The Bug - Anything Goes

Notes From Home

My blog post today is more on a personal note instead of craft related.  I was on my way to bed the other night and thought I'd share my discovery with you...

As I walked into our dark bedroom I could hear snoring...  my husband was still out in our living room watching t.v.

I quietly slipped out of the room and got my camera...

Oh Maxine you are so busted, lol.  

She was happily sleeping on my husbands pillow, after all it is almost 11:00 PM - past her bedtime.

Thanks for visiting my blog today -

Clear Dollar Stamps Snowman Cheer

I have a winter themed birthday card to share with you today!

I used the Clear Dollar Stamps pre-colored digital stamp set Snowman Cheer and the gingham digital paper is from their Violets digital stamp set.  I simply re colored it to match my snowman.  

My layout is from the sketch pictured below:

It was a quick, cute, fun card to put together!

Thanks for visiting my blog today -

Challenges:
Kaboodle Doodle - Bundle Up for Winter
Birthday Sundaes - Birthday Card
By The Cute & Girly - Let It Snow
4 Crafty Chicks - Birthday

Dover Publications Free Clip Art Angel

I'm behind again on Christmas cards, each year I usually make Christmas cards for our church and I've barely started working on the samples, yikes!  

I went looking around the internet for suitable colored clip art to purchase or for free for this project and found this beautiful Angel at Dover Publications.  She's printed using my HP OfficeJet 6000 and matted on Stampin' Up! Brilliant Blue, the next panel is Stampin' Up! Gable Green and the base is the same Mohawk Bright White she's printed on.  I added a Cheery Lynn Designs button with a little crochet thread for a bow.  I'm not totally happy with the embossed card front, I want full coverage and I didn't get it.  With a little more practice I'm sure I can achieve that.  

My layout is Operation Write Home Sketch challenge #82.

Do you have your Christmas cards ready yet?  

Thanks for visiting my blog today!

Challenges:
Craft Your Passion - Tis The Season
Crafty Boots - Anything Goes
Heart Song Inspirations - Banners and/or Buttons
Lolipop Crafts - B is For...  Buttons (:
2 Sisters - Holiday