Wild Thang!

Here's my card for the S&S Blog's "Wild Thing" challenge....I always forget how much I like this SU set...I also am in need of Father's Day cards so I'll be making a bunch this weekend. Some Marines are a-waitin' and I blasted through the last 1200 this week!

And cardmaker Cindy asked me to take a pic of one of her animal cards she sent in, and enter it for the challenge too—so here's hers!

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Angel of hope

I'm kind of over the Bella craze....but - I still just love this card anyway. Square cards always make me happy, plus there's scallops and ribbon and hardware and bling....just a nice sweet combo! Not to mention finally finding a use for this SU cloud paper :)

Tonight I put almost the last of the finishing touches on the Mother's Day video for OWH and I am so excited!!! I just want to get one bit of help with some wording from a friend at work tomorrow to shorten something. Then I get to post it to YT!

Be sure to sign up for the OWH email list, there'll be a link in the email that goes out on Saturday. Bring kleenex!

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Chillin'

I may not be, but these mice sure are! This image makes me wistful for summer :)

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Polka dots and puppies...happy Chewsday!

Another bit of metal tonight! I was working on a video (stay tuned this weekend, it'll be fun!)...and took a break to make this little card. I wanted to do one with a reasonable amount of metal for the metal challenge....and used this brand-new digi from MelJen! Isn't this the most adorable puppy!

I printed him a few times on one sheet; I colored the head, front paws, and one ear on one, just the nose on another, and the full image for the back portion, and layered them up. And for some reason all these polka dotted papers lept out at me...shades of blue with some brown sorta ties them together, I hope!

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S&S Metal challenge

This is supposed to be a polar bear....he's part of the little set with the penguin and sentiment in yesterday's post. But for some reason, he wanted to be a summery bear...lol! I used a sentiment from another stamp set Dawn gave me for my bday.....thanks again Dawn!

This one's also a lame entry for the metal challenge. I know, I know, brads aren't much when I have tons of metal in my craft room. But when I'm this busy it's hard to wrap my brain around USING all that stuff. So brads it is!

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I think Dawn's cool.

For a number of reasons. For one, she loves Jesus, and that makes her way cool in HIS book too. But she also is a very talented stamper (check out her blog!)...she's got a great family who she just adores and takes great care of. And she's doing a really cool thing in her community for the kids, giving them a great way to have fun and stay out of trouble.

Plus, she likes me :) That's the frosting on the cake!

This card is made with one of the birthday stamps she sent me, and I thought it was perfect to make an OWH card that honors her. So Dawn, my friend....this one's for you!

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Tiptoe through the raindrops

The weather's been crazy here lately. Rain one second, sunshine the next - it can't make up its mind! But...these mice don't seem to mind....I'm not sure I would if I could use a flower for an umbrella!

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S&S Sketch 13

Ok so I learned something about myself. I can't be random.

Sketch 13 was just too wonky for my crazy gotta-be-at-least-sorta-straight style! lol. So I had to switch it up and at least make a grid. It was kinda fun to make a soft grid though. Used epoxy stickers then papers for the rest. New "Free and the Brave" stamp from the dollar rack at Joann's! Pretty sweet for an AnyHero card.

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Paula's stamps!

Paula created some free digis for the bloghop in March....can you believe I'm only now getting to them! Ack! And they are soooo darned cute, I just love them both. Thanks Paula!

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A sketch gone wild

So....do you ever do this: See a sketch....intend to follow it....turn it every which way.....and it ends up looking nothing like it? Here's the doodle in my sketchbook - and yes, it's horizontal.

And here's the card!

Sometimes I just have no idea what's comin' out of this mojo! lol....

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Panda hello

A cute little digi....isn't it! It's from Sliekje.....and it's free!

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Home sweet home

"New home" is a card theme I rarely make....since of course OWH doesn't really need them! But yes, I did make a non-OWH card, as I do once in a long while. Lots of fun popped-up elements...and of course Copic yumminess! The "rock" wall around the fireplace was made with various layers of greys and a little brown, and the stones were created using the blender pen. (Which it's not—a blender—it pushes color AWAY from where it's placed, thus is great for things like stones.)

Stamp set by There She Goes.

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3d challenge

MelJen's DT blog has another challenge up this week....adding 3d elements. Now, can you think of a card I've made without those? lol. I decided to actually create something, though, rather than just adding my whole blog to the challenge :)

The first something I made for this challenge is another ferret card...I totally LOVE this little guy! He's the one at MelJen's that caught my eye first and I haven't stopped loving him. The colors died on the photo, but the pinks are screamin' hot pink! Plenty of bling here too, all different adhesive kinds. Plus a nice black button for a flower center. And the ferret is colored with Copics of course too!

The second is another MelJen image on a card that had some challenges coming together! I started with a sketch that had the image, three little embellies to the left, a square to the right, and the ribbon at the top. But I had color challenges on this one! Eeek with all the patterened paper you'd think I'd have something to easily match.

The grass at the bottom was cut with my new Martha Stewart fringe scissors - first time using them and I love em! I added a scalloped border too, since I haven't perfected the scissors quite yet, so there's a little random mess under there. I had the leftover red rectangle on the right, and decided for a multicolor, multilayer butterfly, and ran each half of the wings through a different embossing folder. Added some puffpaint for the head and body. The whole card ended up cut short to 5 inches raher than 5.5, because that whole middle section messed me up; the sketch had it all the way across the card but turned the other way, and when it ended up wider, I had to turn the card...well, excuses excuses, right? I still think I like how it came out even if I had to arm wrestle it!

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Thank heaven for little girls

I'm amazed that I've kept up with the New Year's Resolution this long. I think that's the secret, it has to be something I really want to do. I think the weight loss type resolutions are always the ones I think i *should* do, but til I really *want* to do them, well....they'll never stick! But I *do* want to stay sane, which is what creativity helps me with....so I'll stick with being creative daily. :)

This card is an image from The Greeting Farm...I recently got to stamp with the insanely talented Sparkle, (can you imagine how lucky I am to be in a monthly stamping group with her talent!?!?) and she brought a few TGFs this last time so we could stamp a few to play with. Ack! I now need a shopping trip to TGF! I love making these little girls with different color hair and skin....I figure some mom or dad will see their own kid reflected in these and snatch up the card! This one also uses the last Sketch from the S&S blog.

This one also is the beginning of what I think is going to be a trend for a while. I have piles and piles of patterned paper that's 1) years old and 2) ugly and 3) driving me nuts taking up real estate! So I'm on a binge to use it up. So on this card, the purple is pretty paper, cut to 4x5.25, mounted to ugly paper (folded and cut to that size). The black cardstock is normal A2 size. So now I'm using the white side of the ugly paper, covering both the ugly sides of it, and getting to use a smaller bit of cardstock and pretty patterned paper. You can't even imagine how many sheets of ugly crap I have here! There will be a lot of these to come :)

These two bonus cards today are from another recent crafting session...I love coloring these little digigirls, the hair is just way fun! I used the same design, just altered colors.

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Challenge Combo

Today I realised I hadn't tried the S&S #12 sketch for the week yet! Ack! Hurry hurry hurry....I always seem to be last in the list. It's a great one, too, and I can totally see using it a ton! I also combined it with the His&Hers Midweek Challenge....this is also a stamped image received in the OWH Facebook Image Swap a while back - thanks for the images, Jeanne!

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PZ Inkadinkado cards

This morning's cards are on their way to Paper Zone as soon as I get done with this blog post...when I was there a few weeks ago and bought these Inkadinkado stamps, the manager asked if I'd do samples with them. (They apparently don't sell well, so their selection of these is pretty limited!) So....I'm finally getting to it. Plus they have a couple hundred cards there for me to pick up for OWH.

This first card is one of my new favorite types...using a piece of 5.5x 4.25 colored cardstock, and using thinner card base paper for the actual folding part. I use nice heavy cardstock on the front, and the card still feels nice while using up a bunch of cheap paper. (The white is heavier than designer paper, but I've made the folded card base out of thin designer paper this way too - see last night's post, the cards in the background were done that way.) This is a way to stretch the expensive colored cardstock further; instead of using it for the whole card base, I get a similar 'frame' to the card but with only a quarter sheet of paper.

This second stamp is one I purchased specifically with the Riley Moose image in mind (2nd card)...but for the store sample, I created the first one without the Riley stamp. (They don't sell them at PZ, so it'll be easier for people to see how to use the stamp without it.) The blue paper is *gasp* hoarded paper...it's not embossed by me, the paper just has these really soft bumps on it. Yummmmy. So I offset the sentiment to let that paper really sing on the card!

Off to PZ...if you want to see these, visit their store in Tacoma! Take your wallet, they're having a 15% off EVERYthing sale!

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Hmmmm.

Not sure what to say, except...it's been a rollercoaster of a day. I think the balance is good. Actually I know it's good. Even with the lows, life's good. But after all that I wanted to go to my happy place. I had pretty much no mojo, but made a few cards for my church. Real simple, but....I'm done for the night. Gnight....

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Happy Birthday Ciara!

Today is Ciara's 10th birthday! Sort of. I think. Well, I didn't know how old she was when I got her; it was something around a year. But since nobody should go without a birthday, I picked April 15th for her, so there'd be something GOOD about tax day :)

This morning she got a little serenade and a couple dog treats - this took a few takes, so she got lots of yummies for breakfast! I can't believe I did a little video before even heading out to the office!?




Tonight I took her for a long walk after work....here she is tuckered out on the way home!

And then tonight, after writing my cards and lighting my candle for Rick (see previous two posts), I made a couple dog birthday cards! This is a CASE of a card someone had sent in a while ago with this dog - I kept meaning to try making some, and Ciara's birthday seemed just the right occasion!

If anyone's interested in a tutorial on this template, let me know, and I'll see what I can do! The ball on the 2nd card was a last minute inspiration - I had goobered when stamping the sentiment, then realised that "many happy returns" needed a dog ball! So I punched 2 circles, stuck them onto the same color paper, and punched that out with the same circle punch. A little distressing, and voilá!

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Rest in peace, Rick

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21 card salute

How are we supposed honor a fallen hero? Is a moment of silence enough? Standing along a highway as a procession passes? Attending a military burial or memorial service?

On Facebook, there's an inspiring fan page commemorating the life of PFC Rick Dewater. It's been a year tomorrow since his life was cut short...has it really been that long? (Please, go leave a message on the fan page here.) There's also an event from 7-8pm Thursday evening, in which we're all to light a candle for Rick, wherever we are.

Here's the video tribute I created for Rick last year...


I couldn't help but wonder...what do our heroes want us to do when they're gone? Do they care if we sit around a candle in silence and mourn? (I'm betting Rick would have preferred a toast and story-telling session...) Most of those I know wouldn't want the world to stop for them. They don't feel like heroes; their humility is stunning to me. Sure, they want to make a difference, and would want to be remembersd...but most I've talked with have said they would want us to go out and support their brothers all the more.

So...on this one year anniversary, I'll have my candle lit. It'll be silent. But I'm going to give Rick my own version of a 21 gun salute. I'm going to write AnyHero notes in each and every one of these cards–21, for his 21 years on this earth—and they'll go into the next 21 boxes of support sent out to the battlefields. Encouragement for others...that's a salute that most any of our heroes would like.

Would you join me? Locals can stop by my house between 7 and 8;  I have a ton of cards to pick from. If you're not local, or just can't make it over, stop where you are, and write a note. It doesn't have to be on a handmade card. A folded piece of paper. Stationery. A storebought card. It's the message, not the conveyance. After you write it, you can send it to any shipper for OWH...or go to AnySoldier.com and pick out a hero to mail it to. Just tell someone you care. Tell them America's behind them. Don't let another day go by without saluting those who stand in harm's way - for you.

If you make a special AnyHero card in Rick's honor, would you leave a link to a photo of it here? The family would, I'm sure, like to see how you were inspired by this ultimate sacrifice.

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Confession

I've been hoarding Peanuts stamped images.

Yep. Even though I post quite a bit of Peanuts here, there are a few I haven't used—because I only have a couple of them! And the "Joe Cool" lettering is one that I don't have many of. Or it is one of which I don't have many. (Sister Norma is looking down from heaven and grimacing.)

So as I've been sitting here on the sofa trying to be still and rest (which is nigh impossible for me), I've been coloring, and going through my image stash and pulling some out. I saw the Joe Cools...and decided that, for the S&S Brown and Blue challenge, these will do just perfectly! I'm going to start trying to do some more masculine cards, I never seem to have enough of those for my boxes for OWH.

Ack! I used TWO! Heaven help me. I have a ginormous stack of Peanuts images left though...I coordinated a swap a long while back, and asked for way too many images...so we all have way too many. Esp because people sent extras for me as hostess. I wonder how long til I use them all?

For those wondering, I'm feeling a little better. I took a long hot bath, and that eased the aches quite a bit. And I made my way to the store and got some oranges, fresh strawberries, and a couple halfgallons of OJ, so I had a huge dose of vitamins. Tomorrow I'll try to get up early and take a hot bath first thing, maybe that'll last me the day and I can survive the office ;)

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