OWH Midweek Throw Down- winter cards

The challenge this week at OWH is to make a winter themed card for our troops to send home. I am praying for a mild winter this year...I can deal with the cold and some snow-- but I hope that we do not get any big snowstorms!  Winter scenes on cards--totally fulfills my need for the change of seasons! 

I have seen the idea to stamp on plastic or acetate to use as glass in a window on several blogs recently- so I thought I would give it a try!  

Supplies:
paper- no clue!
stamp; penguin- Mama Elephant- a new company with really sweet images!
stamp- snowflakes- Hero Arts (very old!) stamped with white Staz-on on plastic from the packaging of a recent cricut cartridge
window die- Memory Box
gems- Queen and Co
sentiment- made on my computer
foam dimensionals-Stampin' Up
ribbon- Joann

Here is a sample of the monsters I made for a 3 year old birthday celebration!  A picture of the birthday girl was glues to the belly of each monster and magnets were put on the back. (Each guest could take home a monster!) They were about 6 inches tall and I made 8 of each design.  I also made 6 larger monsters for wall decorations. They came together quickly with the Mini Monsters Cricut cartridge.

Have a great rest of the week!
Take care,
Diane

Blue without you

Here is the new sketch from OWH:



And here is my card:

supplies:
MFT stamps using memento tuxedo black and of course....copics
Core'dinations paper (pink and blue)
MME moments 6x6 paper pad (patterned paper)
ribbon- my stash
Tags- Cricut TBBM
The star was colored with Sakura gelly roll clear star pen for shine and sparkle but then I covered it with Sakura clear glaze pen- to make sure the tiny glimmer does not rub off! My photography skills do not show the shine!

I have been on a roll with My Favorite Things stamps...they are fun to color and paper piece. I have lots of other companies stamps-- really- I do! My goal for the next week will be to post a card or 2 NOT using MFT!

Thanksgiving was a wonderful day with family-hope everyone had a fabulous time as well! It was so great to spend time with my fantastic girls home from college....so sad for them to leave today, but Christmas is only weeks away and they will be home for a longer break. And Tessa.... I am so happy you finally got to experience Putnam Pantry!

Take care,
Diane

OWH midweek throwdown color challenge

Happy Thanksgiving!
This week at OWH we are challenged to make cards for our troops using silver and turquoise!

I wanted a quick card to make in between the holiday preparations so I did not color an image this time. My only use of a copic...to color the gems! The silver paper in person has a woven texture and has more of a mat shine rather than glossy. I used crystal accents to adhere the silver elements to the embossed paper.

For a quick card- I am happy with the results...I imagine this being sent to a son or grandson by one of our military members! Remember to include our troops-past and present- in our gratitudes today (and everyday!)

Supplies:
Recollections paper 6x6 pad-Jolly Holiday
silver paper-American Crafts Christmas Foil 12x12 pad
star embossing folder-The Paper Studio
Stamps- Paper Smooches
EK Success border and label punches
stars- spellbinders
gems- Queen and Company
B05 copic
black paper-stash!
I used staz-on black ink- memento smudged on the silver paper.

Have a great day,
Diane

Thanksgiving week....

...is the perfect time to say thank you to all of you who have viewed and commented on my cards! Sharing my cards on this blog was initially a bit intimidating;  but you have all been so kind and welcoming to me! Your comments are so very much appreciated! {And to my darling niece Tessa- you can comment on my blog,too- you do not have to send an email! LOL. Hope you can come create with me soon and we can post some of YOUR cards!}
Take care, Diane

OWH Sketch 147

Here is the sketch for this week.


This week was harder for me than last week- I struggled with using patterned paper- and then decided that solid cardstock would work better for the small pieces of paper at the top of the sketch. I made this card while watching the Patriots score touchdown after touchdown!   Stamped image-My Favorite Things, stamped with memento tuxedo black and colored with copics. The sentiment is from Paper Smooches.

Here is the card I tried with the pattern paper- I think there is just too much going on....no place to rest your eye. I like all of the papers- (jillibean soup) but not all in one card! The sentiment and tiny heart stamp - both from Stampin Up.

I also worked on party decorations for a family friend's 3rd birthday party next Saturday-using the Mini Monsters Cricut cartridge...I will post some pictures later this week! 

Take care,
Diane

A fun and easy sketch was posted today on the OWH blog. I already had the image (from MFT) colored-so it was a quick card to put together!  The main papers are from the Festivus pad by Recollections.  I paper pieced his clothes a few weeks ago so I do not know what company made those papers! The rhinestone snowflakes have been in my stash for a long time! The sentiment was made on my computer with Wendy medium font.

In honor of Veterans Day, here is a card with my favorite image of all time- a great digital stamp by Mo Manning http://digitalpenciltoo.blogspot.com/. I love this little boy and his boots!  Maurie Manning creates great images of kids- so fun to color!

I purchased a military digital kit online and printed a 2x3inch image of the camo print, then I fed the paper back in my printer and printed the army boy image over the camo paper.  I cut out his uniform and adhered it to another printed image that I had colored with my copics.
I am not sure who makes the pattern paper or the sentiment!  I used spellbinder dies to cut the main image and the mat.  I will really try to do better and keep track of my supplies! (and I just figured out how to get rid of the date on my photos, smack dab in the middle of the sentiment...I have a new camera!)

Thanks to all of our military folks who have sacrificed so much for our great country!

Life has been very busy, but I decided to finally start my blog so I could share some of my cards!  I enjoy looking at blogs for inspiration and ways to color or use some of my stamps. Well, it is time I joined the rest of the cardmakers out there and share some of my creations!   I am hoping that spending a few minutes each week and posting my creations will help keep me focused on making cards and scrapbooking.

Last week at Whispering Pines was a great scrapping event- lot of laughs, great food and friends and lots of paper! It was great to scrapbook again.  At home, making cards  is my preference since I can stamp, color or assemble when I have a small amount of free time. Scrapbooking is more time consuming, but I do love to put together pages!

I recently enrolled in Jennifer Mcguire and Kristina Warner's Holiday Card Workshop- they have great classes!  I love that I can watch the video whenever I want, and can re-watch forever!  This is the 2nd online class that I joined with these talented ladies as the instructors- and each series is chock full of ideas, inspiration and techniques. They have great guest designers too!  I hope to have time to use some of the new ideas in the coming weeks!

I make the majority of my cards to send to our deployed troops. I send some of my cards to Operation Write Home.  OWH is a great group of people and the sharing of ideas is overwhelming! Three shippers collect cards from all over the states and sort and pack them to go to some of the larger units; most boxes contain 360 cards!

I also send cards to smaller units, along with some of card creating gal pals! It is a blast to get together and create;  it is fabulous when we hear from some of our contacts via email or cards! My 11 year old niece also makes cards for our military- she is a joy to papercraft with!

Photographing my cards...not an easy task! I hope to improve on this skill but in the meantime, I hope my photos are clear enough!

Here is a card I recently made. I saw this technique on a few blogs.  It is quicker and easier than you would imagine! 

*Just cut 3 pieces of white paper, my largest is 5 x 3 1/4 inches, the other layers are 1/4 inch and 1/2 in smaller. I use copic X-press it blending paper or  Crafters Companion ultra Smooth Premium White Cardstock when I plan to use copics.
*Adhere the 3 layers with removable adhesive then stamp your images.
*Remove each layer and color- I used my beloved copics! I also used a clear glaze gelly roll pen by Sakura on the birds colored pink and green. the pen gives a clear shine but dries much faster than crystal glaze...and it is so easy to apply! I purchased the pen at Michaels- there is also a 10 pack with colored glaze-fun!
*Mat each layer, then assemble together.

I really like this look!

I liked it so much, I made it again with a different color scheme!

Thanks for checking out my blog!

Diane