I Miss Trixie

Trixie

I miss Trixie. Trixie was very loving. She was really very smart, but if she didn't want to do something she acted like she didn't understand you, or didn't hear you or even completely ignore you. My daughter said she acted more like a cat than a dog. She was best buds with Betsy who we lost a year ago. Trixie and Betsy would take turns sitting beside me on the couch at night while I read or watched TV. We loved Trixie for 15 years. She passed away last Wednesday night as I comforted her.

My daughter wrote a wonderful memorandum for her. You can read Valerie's post here.

OWH Scketch Challenge 104

Sketch 104 along with inside of card

I was inspired by this week's Challenge sketch for OWH  Their mid week throw down was a color challenge to make a black and white card with a splash of color. I decided to combine the two. I've used another one of the OWH set by Hero Arts. CL583 "Right at Home". It's a sweet set with great sentiments, a house, a kite, a cloud and even a little picket fence along with a couple of little hearts. I also used one of the little outline hearts from CL 582 "Year Round Sentiments".

The black and white pattern paper was from the KI Memories value pack I used on last week's cards.

First I colored in the hearts with my red Zig Millennium pen and then I used glossy accents to add shine and dimension to them. On the inside of the card I also stamped another image in the lower left corner. The "You are my Home" adds a nice touch when you open the card. The little heart in the center of the O is part of the stamp. I stamped the image once in black and then once separately just coloring the heart with the red pen and then cut it out and glued it in place.

Now that my card is complete I'll upload a picture to the challenge page. A new sketch is posted each Sunday. Here is a copy of sketch 104. Here's the link to the sketch. If you are really up for a challenge they have a pdf file you can download that has their first 100 sketches. They also have a checklist and you can check off when you complete each sketch. Be forewarned that the list has boxes for 160 checkmarks. It's the OWH
 Sketch 
Challenge 
Checklist
 for 
2012. Here's the link to the sketch collection page.

A quick note. If you've been thinking about sending some cards to OWH now would be a great time. I just saw this message from Sandy on the Stars and Stamps blog:

"Through November and December, there was a small drop in cards, which was expected, and totally fine - but usually things start to pick up up more in January when the holidays wear off. Not so this year! I checked just this morning and we're at 9,633 cards as of today...which is a fraction of what normally would be coming in - to compare, last January saw 39,665 cards!"

You can see the whole message here.

More cards for the box to go out on Monday!

I was excited to received my free little Operation Write Home stamp in the mail today. I'll use it to stamp the back of my cards with the OWH logo. Since I don't work tomorrow I plan on making some more cards. Then I'll be heading to the post office on Monday to send off all my cards. Every card sent in helps!

Operation Write Home and Hero Arts

Sketch Challenge 103 for Operation Write Home

OWH Sketch # 103

Here is my entry for Operation Write Home Sketch Challenge # 103. I wanted to make some more cards for Operation Write Home with one of the stamp sets Hero Arts designed for them. I had actually won the stamps during the Veteran's Day blog hop but Hero Arts couldn't send them to me until they were released.  Now that I have them I hope to put them to good use.

When I saw the two stripes on the OWH sketch for this week, I knew I wanted to try the chevron border technique I had seen on Jennifer McGuire's blog a while back. She made a beautiful card with a chevron border running horizontally across the bottom of her card. She also has a video showing how she made it You can check it out here.

I really enjoy working from the sketches at OWH. They are simple and a great way to use your left over scrap paper. The paper you see here is from a KI Memories scrapbook value kit I have had for some time.  To check out the OWH challenge go here.

The Hero Arts Stamp set is CL582 Year Round Sentiments. Not only does it have "I thank my lucky stars for you" it has other great sentiments like "Hello Handsome" and "You're so Special to me" along with some classics such at "Happy Birthday", "I love you", "I miss you", "Thinking of you" and more along with hearts and of course Stars. It is a great set if you are looking for a good year round sentiment set. Guess that's where they got the title from.

In case you didn't know, Hero Arts has been having a blog hop each day this week. Yes, it started on Monday. If you want to see some beautiful card and leave comments for chances to win go here for the first day. Winners will be announced on the Hero Arts blog Monday January 16.