OWH Sketch #177

Sketch # 177 from OWH

Operation Write Home has a new sketch challenge each Sunday. I really like this one and wanted to see what I could do with it. The challenge for me isn't following the sketch, it is deciding what to put in that little white square. I wanted to make a love card so I started with a big heart. This is a stamp I've had quite a while. It is from Hero Arts. I love the stitched look. I stamped it 3 times shifting and rotating it a little to give it a bolder look. I wanted to stamp my greeting in the center but didn't have a sentiment that fit. The "I love you" sentiment from my Hero Arts stamp set Year Round Sentiments is on one line. I knew if I cut it apart it would fit but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Especially since the "I" would be so small.  So I inked each word separately and I used my Fiskars stamp press to help me line it up while I inked and stamped each word one at a time.

If you want to check out Sketch #177 and take the challenge, or just see what the other cardmakers created click here! They also have a sponsor this week, so if you do join in on the fun, you just migh win something. Check it out!

Thanks for stopping by.

Tim's 12 tags of 2013 - June...

I love my Distress Markers and I love seeing what people are doing with them. Tim Holtz has a series he does that is called 12 tags of 2013. As usual, he has an excellent post this month. It is filled with great techniques for using his distress markers. He even uses distress inks and stains. Tim always has loads of details and photos to make recreating his techniques amazingly simple. It you'd like to see him work his magic click here.

 After seeing Tim's post I decided it's time I got busy myself. I had a wonderful time lost in the world of creating. Between checking the directions on Tim's blog, trying the techniques and starting over a few times using different stamps, I lost track of time.

I followed along but used different colors and stamps. The Butterfly stamp I used is available in the CMS146 Mini Blueprints 2 set. The quote is from Tim's CMS mini classics 062 and the quotes on the background of my tag are from various Tim Holtz stamp sets. All of his stamps are from Stampers Anonymous.

I did dress my finished tag up a little. I added some Idea-logy pieces and used some Distress Paints on the ARTFUL token and the spinner, the chain tassel is attached with a brad and the ribbon is altered with distress paints and stains. I've seen these techniques on Tim's blog before and enjoyed trying them out. The hardest thing was waiting for the paint to dry on the metal.

Little Yellow Bicycle Poppy

To Thank our Heros - my first Any Hero Cards

I met with some of my friends at my local Archiver's to scrap. They scrapped, I worked on cards for OWH. I'm overdue for sending in cards. I was working with my scrap papers and decided I wanted to get something new to work with. When I saw the "Poppy" line from Little Yellow Bicycle I fell in Love. The colors are bright, cheerful and summery. The flowers, butterflies and embellishments are adorable. I started with 2 pieces of double sided paper, a pack of journaling cards and a sheet of washi tape. I also picked up some of Ranger's Adirondack Red Pepper embossing powder. The color is perfect for this paper line.

I had 5 stamp sets with me. Tim Holtz's Way With Words from Stampers Anonymous, my OWH Hero Arts sets (CL583 Right At Home,  CL582 Year Round Sentiments and CL584 All The Time) and WTG Godspeed by My Favorite Things.

The artwork on the paper inspired most of my cards. It is double sided, so I was able to get quite a few cards with different looks. I used a few punches, a few pieces of card stock and orange vellum. The popped up Poppies were cut from the pattern paper.

This final card was inspired by a card Lin at Sending Hugs made using Washi tape to create the background. You can see her card here. This is the reason I bought the package of LYB Poppy washi tape. I wanted to try this technique out. The flower is from the pack of journal cards. The orange is varnished so I stamped the clock face with StaysOn. Since the flower is irregular in shape I used a watercolor to fill in the outside circle on the clock, then went over it with Versamark and clear embossing powder to even out the inner circle.The hear in the center is embossed with the Red Pepper embossing powder from Range. I made these cards and the ones from Jane E's sketch and still have a little pattern paper left over.

OWH-Thinking of Jane

Using OWH Sketch 175 inspired by Jane E

Jane E's sketch 175

Recently OWH had a post to honor Jane E who was recently deceased. She sounds like a wonderful, generous woman who enjoyed making cards for Operation Write Home to send to our troops. I wanted to create a card using her sketch. I love her clean and simple design and I followed it closely. Here is the link to her sketch and here is a link about her that showcases more of her beautiful cards.  I was very touched by their post honoring Jane. It was very inspiring to read about Jane and her dedication.

The paper I used is by Little Yellow Bicycle and the sentiment is by Hero Arts from a OWH stamp set.

In case you aren't familiar with them,  Operation Write Home is a great non-profit organization who send handmade cards to our troops overseas.