Happy Monday with a Later Gator!

Hello! The past weekend flew by...that happens a lot lately! I spent some fun and productive time shopping with my sister and Paige to help get Paige off to a great start in her own place in Manhattan! Wahooo! Then I participated in my very first scrapbook yard sale as a seller instead of a buyer! Great to spend some time with Fabre and move some of my neglected supplies to someone who may use them more! And I only spent $10 buying new stamps! I made some $ and I cleared out some supplies from my overstock stash so I am very happy with the experience!

This week's sketch at OWH is by Jan! I love her cards and I also love her soaps! She makes the most luxurious soaps- I feel very pampered every day for a few minutes; the scents are fabulous and I love how my skin feels! She has a pretty extensive selection of soap-check it out and visit her blog for her cards too! 
http://jans-gonestampin.blogspot.com/

I made my card with awesome stamps by Paper Smooches-purchased with a gift card I won from Sybrina at the VCMP! Thanks Sybrina- I love PS and it was fun to pick out the stamps!

I tried to make this card more gender neutral so it can be sent to anyone! I had to add some googley eyes for a bit of fun!

And I know you have been just waiting to see another of Kelly's cards....she made 4 versions of this Inky Antics snowman- so very cute and I love her patterned papers together! And look how is he is tossing the snowball sentiment....and her coloring-- my photography does not do it justice! Fabre- don't be sad- we will all be together in November to create! Just around the corner! LOL

And while you are checking out some cards- head over to drunkenstampers.wordpress.com for this week's challenge- dies! There are a lot of inspiring entries this week! 

And are you almost ready??? This weekend is World Card Making Day! Wahooo! Operation Write Home is having a bloghop-- this one will be huge-- with lots of participants sharing cards. 

Have a wonderful week and get ready to craft on!

Thanks for stopping by,

Diane

Lawn Fawn Winter Sparrows Chirping on OWH Sketch #191

Happy Sunday! We have a wonderful new sketch today at OWH, the Patriots won, I enjoyed a fabulous breakfast out with my BFF, I purchased some farm fresh apples and veggies, the sun is shining and I used Lawn Fawn stamps,dies and paper on my card today! Overall- a very nice day!

Today's sketch is brought to us by Kaylee who creates great cards and posts at 104cards.blogspot.com.

                                    

I really like the sketch- you can use scraps but I used Lawn Fawn Peace, Joy and Love 6x6 paper pad and the winter sparrows stamp and die sets. So stinkin cute! And super easy using the dies with the stamps. I have no clue what color winter sparrows should be-but I wanted them blue so I pulled out my trusty Copics in 3 different shades of blue. Do you see the other blue birds in the patterned paper on the banner? The gems are from Basic Grey. 

My pal Kelly and I are getting back into a card making groove-it was hard to get together during the summer-but we are back!  You have to wait to see Kelly's cards but here is one of mine! 

This little elf is by darcie heater designs- I purchased the stamps and 'tin pin' embellishments (heads) last year at my LSS Absolutely Everything and made a few cards. I was thrilled to find more in my box of Christmas stamps and papers. The head may be a bit too bumpy-- I am going to send it to Sandy at OWH and hopefully it will be ok.  If not- I hope she can use as a hero card-which can be big, bumpy and odd shapes since the hero cards are packed on the top of the box! The stamp can also be used without the tin head so I plan to color some more. And I am going to change the sentiment- I am not loving this one!
Thanks for stopping by and please remember to keep our troops in your prayers and do not forget to craft on!
Take care,
Diane

Another Rainy Day in :London!

It is Saturday- do you know what that means?
Another Drunken Stampers challenge! Yeah baby- our place this week is LONDON! Or we can use red,white and blue- so I did both! 

When I think of London I think of rain, the Olympics, Big Ben, rain, the royal family, rain, castles, double-decker buses, history, cool telephone booths, rain... so I pulled out some older stamps! The London postage stamp is by Hero Arts and my umbrella gal is from The Greeting Farm; she was colored with Copics. I paper pieced her clothing and the umbrella. The brad buttons were white and I used a red Copic to make them match her skirt. I made the postage stamp frame longer by the way I placed my cutting pads on my Big Kick.
You have to go to Drunken Stampers and see what the rest of the Tropical Hooters team came up with for this challenge- be ready to laugh out loud! Go-what are you waiting for???

Have a wonderful weekend and craft on,
Diane

OWH Sketch #190

Hello- wow, has this week flown by! I just realized that I never posted the winner of my blog candy from the VCMP! The winner is Nancy Y! I contacted Nancy and have mailed the package but I forgot to post it! I was quite the blog slacker this week!

This week's OWH sketch is based on a card made by Carol L:
                      

                      

Carol makes fabulous cards- visit her blog at 
ourlittleinspirations.blogspot.com. I love her patriotic thank you card- great sentiment!

My card is a digital image by Mo Manning. The red papers are glittery- I wish it photographed better. I left the sentiment off so it can be used for any occasion this winter. Colored with- of course- Copics. I learned to color (for papercrafting) with colored pencils- and have some wonderful Derwent pencils. I am thinking I just may pull them out and give them a try again- no matter the medium- I enjoy coloring- so very relaxing!

I also made a few other cards...a couple of hero cards and some more cards made with the cutie 'meoples' - from CC Designs, I cannot resist coloring this little angel! All very simple, nothing fancy- but I am happy with my creations this week.

I hope you check out all the fun birthday activities going on over at OperationWriteHome.org   You are sure to be inspired and motivated to support this organization and our troops. This time of year the shipping costs skyrocket as we send lots of holiday cards so that our military members can send cards home to all of their friends and family...so if anyone wants to donate to help with shipping costs- let me know or go to OWH and you will see a donate tab. I know lots of  people are starting to think of holiday donations so I would be thrilled if you made a donation to OWH and our very deserving men and women who keep us safe and free!
Craft on!
Diane

Playing OWH Catch-up

Welcome! Today I have a few cards to share!
This past Wednesday-instead of the mid week thrown- OWH and   Unity had a great Blog Hop-  inspiring stamps to make wonderful hero cards!

The tutorial this week was a VCMP recap-I learned lots of new things from the hop!
  http://operationwritehome.org/tutorial-vcmp-review/
 I was inspired by lots of cards at the VCMP and it would be too hard to pick my favorites! Along with the fact that I totally blew the first challenge- I  missed that the card should be a winter or Christmas card...I figured I would try again- plus- I like this sketch!
 So- this card is my do-over! LOL 

The monthly challenge for ODBD was posted yesterday.
http://operationwritehome.org/our-daily-bread-designs-september-challenge/
 ODBD not only gives gift cards to 2 of the card-makers each month, if we create and post 50 cards or more- they pay for the shipping for 2 boxes of cards to our troops! How cool is that?
Our challenge- make a card with wheels!

And today's sketch:
                      
                                  

I will be drawing the winner of my VCMP candy later tonite!

Craft on!

Thanks for visiting,

Diane

Drunken Stampers- Button, Button- Who has the Button?

Looks like a lot of us have the button and plenty to spare!
This week's Drunken Stamper challenge is to use....yup... buttons!
I am sorry I cannot add the graphic for the challenge- Yahoo is being a PIA- and I cannot copy the fun lady to introduce the challenge topic! Boo hoo!
Well- here is my card:

The buttons I had in my stash; the tree trunk is made of square buttons that were ivory and I used a brown copic to color them. I used glossy accents to glue all the buttons to a paper base.

The papers are all Authentique. The clear gems are brads- also from my stash and the red gems were clear flat back stones that I colored with a red copic marker. The banner dies are from LifeStyle Crafts  and the circle dies are Spellbinders.

Please play along with the Drunken Stampers- we all get so excited to see your creations! 

And did you hear....

http://wermemorykeepers.wordpress.com/2013/09/05/great-news-we-r-memory-keepers-purchased-lifestyle-crafts/comment-page-4/#comment-12129

Have a great week and always make time to craft on!

Thanks for stopping by,

Diane

And the Party Continues!

Hello! The OWH VCMP  has been so much fun...the final challenges were posted yesterday. Marlene got the day started with our Sunday sketch- based on a card by Seongsook.
                               

I used papers from a few Christmas 6x6 pads and my image is from Peachy Keen! Love this Santa!

Next challenge: This one almost stumped me.....then I stopped thinking so hard and just had fun! Sybrina K wanted us to make cards for kids....playing tic tac toe to decide what goes on the card!
http://scrappingwithpurpose.blogspot.com/2013/09/owh-vcmp-cards-4-kids.html
                          
I went right down the center row- I stamped and colored the Paper Smooches cow and used a sentiment that came with the set....super easy and fun once I stopped stressing-lol! All the papers are DCWV. I love their glitter paper because it does not rub off so it is perfect for OWH! I mounted the cow on an Action Wobble-let's face it- what kid does not like movement! I remember the simple thrill of spinning on a stool at the donut shop as a kid...it drove my father crazy! 
(LOL I forgot to insert my image of this card...only realized when I went to post it at Sybrina's link! I guess I am tired or old..or both!) 

Next up- Marilyn challenged us to make a fall card. I made my card based on sketch #179. My papers are scraps from other projects-yeah me!- and the sweet little gnome boy is a digital image-and I have no idea who made him-boo me! I regret that I did not save some of my digital images indicating the artist or the store!
http://marilynscards.blogspot.com/2013/09/labor-day-weekend-vcmp.html
                         

Thia challenged us to create a bee card with a bee sentiment. 

http://bluemooncreation.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-un-bee-lievable-challenge-owh-labor.html?m=1

The Stamps of Life stamps  to the rescue-used for the image and the sentiment. I put the bee on an Action Wobble too! Bees very rarely are still...always buzzing around! I used an embossing folder by ProvoCraft to mimic honeycomb!

And our final challenge for the weekend:

Donna inspired us to make a card using the negative of a die or a punch! Loving this! 

http://indianainking.blogspot.com/2013/09/owh-vcmp-play-along.html

This angel is a digital stamp and I know this is from CC Designs- the Meoples line and I am pretty sure the artist is one of my favorites- Amy Young.

I embossed pink cardstock and then cut a circle with a Spellbinders die, then I made a ring from DCWV glitter paper from that circle die and the next size up. I colored the sweetie with Copics and the wings with a Sakura clear star pen. Whenever I use glittery pens-I always use a Sakura clear glaze pen over the glitter- the shimmer shows thru but the glitter is sealed in! I adhered her underneath the circle opening and stamped my sentiment on an EK Success punch. Signo white stitching....and my challenges are complete! 

I have really enjoyed looking at a lot of the cards that have been made for our troops! I am impressed with the talent and creativity and love how everyone is so generous and shares their talent! OWH supporters ROCK!! (like always being on an Action Wobble! lol)

OWH is celebrating their birthday all month long! I am looking forward to more fun and inspiration....it would be great to have some cake and ice cream...some balloons, banners, music...I love parties!

Craft on and thanks for stopping to visit!

Diane

OH MY! What a Wonderful VCMP at OWH

Wow- great party over at OWH this weekend!

I did not have a lot of time to play yesterday- but I was able to make some cards late last nite- I had such fun with the challenges!
I love to see all the challenges as they get me thinking, trying new techniques and exercising the creative side of my brain!
I never posted my Midweek Throwdown- I think I delayed it due to my sadness about Jan stepping down from hosting! I loved her challenges and she was a joy to deal with! I am excited that her soap business is taking off  and I hope she still shares her card making talents with us! Her last challenge-Thank You cards. I have a lot of embossing folders and I want to use them more often...this came together very quickly!

Now onto the VCMP!

http://operationwritehome.org/labor-day-weekend-vcmp-master-thread-2/

Nancy started us off with a great sketch. I was a little frightened- I am horrible on aligning a lot of little pieces but Nancy gave us some tips and it was so easy I made 3 verisions of her sketch! The first was very clean and crisp- I see this as a masculine card! (I used my centering ruler to start the center square!)

I decided to make a more feminine card and ended up with 2!

           

My challenge was next- I cannot wait to check out all the cards...I saw a few and I am thrilled that so many people played along!

Seongsook then challenged us to make a Triple Die Cutting card.
It was fun to make a card without any stamping at all! I had a sheet of penguin die cuts from several years ago and never could figure out how to use them...it was sitting on my table with some of my other winter and Christmas papers....it was meant to be! LOL

Then Annette- celebrating her 29th wedding anniversary-fabulous- challenged us to make a love card with sketch #29-- very clever! I like how she thinks!  I tried to make another more masculine card and I like it! The colors are off- the base is kraft!

And my last card, created with tired eyes, was inspired by Donna, who made a card with a Masking Tape Stamping Technique. I hopped on over to Splitcoast Stampers and checked out a tutorial by Beate Johns. I love how she explains with words and pictures and then a video- I do so much better with a video when learning something new! I had painters tape, distress inks and glossy paper-the only thing I needed was to get over my dislike of messy techniques! LOL  It was not bad at all- I think a bolder silhouette stamp would have been more effective- and a larger sentiment- but I enjoyed this and will definitely try it again!

I am now re-energized and hope to have time to participate in the challenges posted today!
Thanks for stopping by!
ooops- almost forgot- craft on!
Diane