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.

Stars and Stamps Sketch Challenge # 97

These are for the weekly card sketch challenge at Stars and Stamps. Yesterday I posted a Red Shimmer card and the other cards I had put together but not finished. I finished the other shimmer cards the same way I did the first one but wanted to do something different for the pink cards.

Notice the white panel?

Originally I thought I would stamp an image to color where the white panel was but the balance was off. I quickly realized that while the white panel worked for the shimmer cards, it was not working with these bold pastels.  I decided to replace it with another panel of pink dotted paper to balance the one in the lower right corner. The paper is from a Anna Griffin Margot Carkstock pack that I have had for some time. I used Vintage Photo direct to paper lightly on the edges of each rectangle and the front of the card. The white scallop oval is a McGill punch and the stamp is Autumn Leaves AL3381 "Between The Lines". I use Archival Jet Black ink from Ranger. I colored the image with Staedtler Watercolor pencils and a Dove Blender. The edges of the scallop are inked with Vintage Photo Distress Inks and my blending tool.

Stars and Stamps Sketch Challenge # 97

So now I have a total of 16 cards I have made for Operation Write Home. 12 of these are Love theme. I have until December 10th to send in Love theme cards for the Archway + OWH Special Mission. They will match up to 5000 Love theme cards with packs of cookies to send to our Troops. So if you hadn't already heard about this mission, now you know why I have been making Love cards when everyone else is making Christmas cards. I'm going to go ahead and send these off to Operation Write Home for the Archway Cookies promotion.

Sending Love

Ranger's Seafoam White Embossing Powder and Hero Arts CG145 Reversed Flowers and Leaves

This is for the weekly card sketch challenge at Stars and Stamps. I like the simplicity. I put together 7 card  quickly using the sketch and I learned something. Do my stamping before I put my cards together. I thought since they were in panels I could just cut out all my panels and put them together quickly and then do my stamping and coloring. Unfortunately when I started stamping I started running into problems. Only this card is completed and I basically had to take it apart fix the areas that didn't stamp well and put it back together on a new base.

Stars and Stamps Sketch Challenge # 97

For this version of the card, I used Ruby Red shimmer paper for the base then cut the panels from shimmer paper in Gold and Silver and stamped them with the Hero Arts CG145 Reversed Flowers and Leaves background stamp using VersaMark ink and embossed with Ranger's Seafoam White embossing powder. I then stamped "sending LOVE your way" and the hearts with the blue ink from the  Archival Brillance Peacock ink pad from Tsukineko on Iced White paper.  The stamps are from Hero Arts. The background stamp is CG145 Reversed Flowers and Leaves, the message and a heart from Trees, Birds and messages CL 182, more hearts from Share Laughter CL 151 & one tiny heart from Sending Happy CL 305. I love how you can mix and match the Hero Art sets.

More to do!

Three of the other cards are with shimmer paper in the same colors but different combinations and 3 are pink with Yellow, Orange and Pink paper with a dot pattern. I'll probably do the all the shimmer cards like this but may do something different with the pastels. I hope to finish the up tomorrow and ship them off to Operation Write Home. I don't want to miss the Archway Cookies deadline.

Stars and Stamps Challenge 96

Sending Happy Thoughts

Even though I didn't finish this card last night, it was a fun and quick card to work on. The reason is that I started with a sketch and used a stamped image I had in my stash that I had already water colored.

This beautiful stamp is from Anna Griffin's 2005 Rose Collection 580156 by All Night Media. I love the fine delicate lines and found it perfect for water colors pencils and a aqua brush. I sometimes will stamp images and take them with me to crops when I don't have a particular project I'm working on. That way I can still join my friends and have something to work on. When I saw the sketch this week I pulled out my image and picked some papers to go with it and did a little cut, paste and layering. The "sending happy thoughts" is a Hero Arts cling stamp that came in a special little set that I had received at a special crop at Archiver's a few years ago. I just carefully cut the lines of sentiment on the stamp apart so I could space them out in a line and stamp them. I used VersaMark and Zing White embossing powder, then tore the paper to make the little strips. The pattern paper is Sweet Threads from Basic Grey. I've used a little Broken China Distress inks to blend the edges of the card and tone down the bright green of the base card.

The sketch is from this weeks Operation Write Home Stars and Stamps sketch challenge.  I have a tendency to closely follow sketches. I probably need to loosen up a little bit. But that is the thing about sketches. It's up to you. You can either follow them closely, use them as a starting point and deviate madly or anything in between. Now that my card is finished I'll post it to the challenge page and check out what the other participants have done. If you want to play along with me click here for the details.

I'm pleased with how my card turned out and it will go in my collection to send to Operation Write Home. They will send my cards along with many others to our troops serving far away from home so our troops will have handmade cards to use when writing home to their friends and family. If you want to know more check out their website at:  http://operationwritehome.org/

Stars and Stamps Weekly Sketch Challenge

This is the sketch for Stars and Stamps which has a weekly challenge to help inspire those who want to make cards for Operation Write Home. I've been working on a card but it's late and I have to be at work early tomorrow so you'll have to check back tomorrow evening to see what I come up with. If you want to play along with me click here for the details.

The link for Operation Write Home is here.

Share Laughter

This card is for a Sketch Challenge 95 at Stars and Stamps. They are the blog for Operation Write Home. The sketch was designed by Peggy.

I used Iced Spruce and Evergreen Bough Distress Inks, smashing the ink pad side by side on a craft sheet, and misting with water until the ink beads up and swiping white water color paper through the ink. You can let it dry or heat set, then swipe some more until you get the effect you want.

Peggy's Sketch

If you've never watch Tim Holtz's really quick but technique packed video on Distress Inks you can check it out here.

The vellum flowers are pre-cut from Fiskars. Share Laughter is Gold Embossed. The stamp is from a Hero Arts set of the same name, CL151. The ribbon has little specks of gold woven in.