Top Ten of Twenty Eleven!

What fun it was to stroll through my own blog to pick out my ten favorite cards of 2011! I hope everyone else is enjoying their trop down memory lane - and getting to see the 'cream of the crop' from all the OWHers!!

This first card was a nobrainer. I love love love this puffer fish by Imaginisce! Til I trolled through my blog I totally forgot I was going to go find it and buy it - this one had been donated to me by a friend.

This is my kitten digi, and it was a Christmas card....I just love how the kitten came out :) And I've been enjoying fancy fold cards, so this was a blast to make.

Something about this Snoopy card just made it soar onto my top ten list. The Jillibean and October Afternoon papers are some of my faves, and the layout came out so different than my usual - I was using up bits and pieces and they came out great.

Another coloring project, and with one of my digis...it was a blast distressing the heck out of it to achieve this vintage look....

What year would be complete without a fun Sparkle Creations stamp! This one also used some shiny paper that had been hoarded til I made this card.

This next card was for the May Arts happy accident challenge that I entered. Didn't win, but oh what fun to play with all the ribbon!

This card sports some Hero Arts stars---not from the OWH sets, but this was the thank-you card I sent to the CEO after the July CHA show.

This card had a fun layout, and a darling fundraiser image by KnK designs. Patterned papers by Moxie.

And you know some of my faves were going to sport the new OWH/Hero Arts stamps, didn't you? This one also has my new favorite Basic Grey on it too :)

And oddly - a CAS card made my top ten! All the product donated for the cruise and CHA inspired me to really get out of my normal box lately. This card was the result of some fun playtime with distress stains....and I went and bought myself some since the bunch that were donated got packed up for the cruise. I think you'll be seeing me playing with a little more Ranger :)

So that's my list.....hope something you liked made it onto mine!

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Eleventh hour!

Today you get a really simple card...and at the 11th hour! I can't stop the daily posting now...I've made it through three years now of daily posts, so I'm not about to give up on the streak :) This has a RAKd image on it that I had colored up a long while back - and I still have a few of the candy-striped twisties that I used for these cards.

It had to be an easy card - I had a crazy busy (but successful!) day! I finally finished packing up 10 boxes (huuuuge ones!) full of goodies for the cruise, and hauled them to UPS. I'm mailing them way early so we can go ground, and there's plenty of time to put up with snowstorms if they crop up along the way. Fortunately the hotel isn't charging me a storage fee :)

I also took down the Christmas decorations - which really were only the tree and the outside lights. I had no space to decorate anywhere! But all that came down....and I could finally vacuum in a major way with all that out of the house. You know how it goes, get cleaning one thing, and that leads to another, and another....lol!

The CHA kits are done, too...now it's a matter of getting the project sheets done. We'll offer instructions and sketches to the retailers, so that'll be lots of work to put those together. But the construction of the kits is done, and that makes a huge difference! I feel under a little control now :) The photos are taken, and I finished the color correction/cropping today, and now it's on to those project sheets.

Be sure to come back tomorrow - we're doing an impromptu bloghop, showing off our top ten cards of 2011....I hope you'll like what I picked out to share!

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A totally useless card

I did it. I made a card that isn't for sending, it's not even really for keeping. It's just....it just is. No hero would have any occasion to send this, and I'm doubting I'd send it to anyone - it's kind of a doofy "Live Laugh Love" dumb sentiment, but it's funny with this image - which just happens to depict me, on the right, with my clipboard in my purse. lol! I had this image sent to me a long long time ago....and someone else pointed me to this free digi. And I just felt like doing something completely silly...so I did. There ya have it.

The one redeeming feature: this card has my new Basic Grey paper on it. LOVE.

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Thank you Dixie!

This week's challenge was scheduled back when we thought the shipper transition would be happening over the course of a month....instead, Caro was chompin' at the bit, so we made the switch earlier. But....my thanks still go out to Dixie for her 2 years as a shipper - not only did she rock the east coast shipping duties, but she served as my listening ear when I was ready to pull my hair out...and she's always ready to receive a crazy text message to remember what she left behind :) She's still going to be around (not going to let her go that easy!!)....and am I ever glad of that!

My card uses the postman from Stampers Best - I stamped his bag twice so I could fill it with teensy punched HEARTS! Because Dixie just loves 'em, ya know! :) :) :) The hearts are from the insides of a border punch, that's why they're so teensy. The paper is by Echo Park, both sides of a sheet. (It's Christmas paper, but whatever. It has flowers on it!) The scalloped border is by Sizzix.

Thanks again so much, Dixie....you made my life easier in so many ways. You're awesome from the org's point of view....but from mine personally as well. :) Big big hugs....thank  you!

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Valentine two-fer

And the two-fer is for a hero with two kidlets! One card fits both :) Image is from Mo's Digital Pencil, papers by Pinecone Press.

And a little update on my CHA kits....I'm so close to done that I'm now getting AR! lol. That's what happens when I finish things early. I had a few kits I'd prepped with non-donated papers....with hopes that the companies would come through as promised with paper. Well, a couple didn't...and I've just got a thing about not promoting them at the show if they didn't follow through. So, uh, I'm recutting paper for a couple of em! Yep. I'm nuts that way. I'll still make up the kits myself and send them to our heroes, so there won't be a paper waste. But I want to use only products by companies that do support OWH - and if those others come by our booth, I can tell 'em they could have been part of it all :) :) :) 

However, aside from those couple kits that I'm redoing, I am DONE!!! With kits at least. Went over our 1000 goal, yeah baby! Now on to project sheets - we'll be offering a pdf download to our retail partners....so you may see a make and take or a class at your LSS with an OWH design, you never know! So I need to get them all photographed and instructions and sketches written up. 

YAY for being ahead of where I thought I would be by today! Hooah!!

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Kraftin Kimmie

I'm making a birthday card - NOT because I need any, that's what I seem to have most of lately. But coz it was Jesus' birthday! I know, I know this isn't for Him, but ya know. Gotta do it. Image by Kraftin Kimmie, papers by Basic Grey. :)

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Merry Christmas!

I hope you're all having a blessed Christmas! And I also hope you're celebrating the real reason for the season. I know it's not PC, but...there ya have it :)

As my gift for you, I have a bunch of Christmas cards to share! Yes, I did a lot of last minute cards that I forgot about; I had put a secondary list on page 2 of my card list, and that was for hand delivery. And oops! Ran out of cards for them! So here you go....2 days worth of mojo!

These first three use Graphic 45 paper, nested layered nesties, a sentiment I made myself, and 2 images from Mo's Digital Pencil. What FUN they are to color.

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 And here we have a couple Eat Cake Graphic stamps - both have sentiments I came up with myself. The first one is a sentiment I've thought about for a while - and with the person this is going to, it needed to be a bit less secular, but she knows Ciara and loves dogs, so I figure she'll like the image! It also let me use that darling Basic Grey button with the fabric poof thing - since it was hand delivered, it could get all sorts of thick. I also added flocking by Stampendous on the beard and the trim of his suit; it works just like flowersoft - put on some glue and sprinkle on the flocking.

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 Another Eat Cake image, and it also sports some of the flocking on the snow.

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So with that, I wish you a very merry Christmas - and a creative new year!!

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Sketch 100--and Merry Christmas Eve!

Can you believe we've made it to 100 sketches on the S&S blog, wahOOO! This card has paper by Pinecone Press (except the light pink behind the girl - that's from Hero Arts). Image by The Greeting Farm. Sentiment by SRM stickers. And of course it's one more Valentine for my box!


So stoked that vacation time has begun....no work days til 2012! I know it's only a week but it feels like longer when ya say 2012 :) I have a to-do list ten miles long....and yesterday I got my first big checklist item finished: the supplies for the cruise are boxed and ready to roll! Aside from 2 companies still sending donations, that is, and a couple last minute things I'll be adding in....and I'm sure I'll have a 'final' box to ship at the last minute, knowing me. "What if we don't have this? It could be a disaster!" Ha! That's why my suitcases are always overloaded :)

And...a report on the CHA kits: 648 are done and in the living room pile, and more than that if some that a volunteer is finishing up get counted. Plus there are 4 designs I have completed but not yet kitted. I'm getting so close to 1000, wahoo! Hoping to finish all that up this week so January can be spent on all the computer stuff that I need to do - both in prep for both trips, as well as the annual report for OWH.

So....a merry Christmas it is! Not that my list needed to dwindle for it to feel merry, but less pressure of the 'list' makes it a lot easier to focus on the real reason for the season. I pray that all of you have a blessed Christmas celebration - with your churches, your families, and your friends. And your four-legged buddies, too!

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One final Christmas card....

....at least I think it's the last! Mine finally went postal this week, and I have a few more I hope to still send - they'll be late, but ya know. That's life eh! Image here is by The Greeting Farm - I used a white pen to make the polkadots on her outfit and halo. Papers by....oh I think these were October Afternoon. That's usually a good guess around here :)

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Look out! Flying penguins!

This is an image given to me by someone, and he's just so fun. Seeing a penguin fly - on skis - would be a hoot :) Papers by October Afternoon, sentiment by SRM stickers.

A little story about yesterday at PT.....Todd was working on my foot, doing the usual stuff, but looking really frustrated. He gave me back the completed FMLA papers, and put Jan 31 as an end date. I asked if he thought I would be all better by then - and he said he just didn't know what more good he could do if we don't have an impact on the pain by then. I started feeling really hopeless again.

So I started praying. To keep from crying! And I begged God to give him an idea. Some memory from a college textbook, or a lecture he had heard. Something unconventional, opposite thinking, a crazy idea just to try something new. And....shortly he went and got some long flat cushion things.

He set them on the floor, with my orthotic on top of one - and told me to stand on it with one foot (the bad one). I did, still felt the same. Put it on a different one - somewhat different feeling, a little less pain. Then found one with NO pain....it was the craziest thing, because since the pain is on the outside of my foot, he's been doing things to get my weight to shift back to the inside. Normal thinking. Well, this pitched my foot back harder to the outside. There's a shim stuck to the bottom of my orthotic now, and it feels pretty good; I feel a little where the shoe rubs against it, but it's not pressing nearly as hard as it was. So weird since my foot is angled so far out now!

We have no idea why it worked....or if it'll stay working. We thought the cortisone would do more than a week's worth of pain relief. But - on Friday we'll re-cast for new orthotics with the new angle to them, and we'll see if that works. I asked if it was a solution that'll just 'mask' the real pain - and his thinking is that if we can make it so that 95% of the time, while wearing orthotics, this gives me relief, then the nerve that's causing the problem will just calm itself down. Enough that walking around occasionally barefoot wouldn't irritate it, since it's not been fussy for the rest of my day. He gave me an extra piece of the foam stuff so I can play with making a 'shim' for my right foot too - who knows, maybe that'll solve that pain too. (Same surgery over a dozen years ago left me with constant phantom pain in that foot.) So....pray that it works - on both feet - and that this just resolves it all. I am soooooo done with foot pain, I mean that in all earnestness!

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InStyle

The little image from InStyle on this card is named Sandy - howsaboutthat! So of course every year I have to make a card with her :)  Papers are by October Afternoon.

It's getting closer and closer to Christmas - are you ready yet? Done shopping, baking, wrapping?

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Be MINE!

Yes, MINE I say! lol. I was using up bits on this one, including letters - I had enough for "mine" but not "be". So it reads a little like an ORDER for Valentines Day!

 The background is made from strips of 2sided paper from Imaginisce, flipped alternately and inked, and the ribbon is from May Arts - and stamped with a little heart from the OWH Right at Home set!

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Happy accident

Hey gang! Today I have a bit of a crazy bit of leftovers to share. I was punching a bunch of hearts with my Tonic punch, and had a pile of swirls left from the middle.

So...I made a little heart wreath out of them! I glued them on another punched heart with Glossy Accents, and added a little gold pearl pen. The top section is popped kraft-on-kraft-on-kraft. (I think I've done enough CAS lately, I had to start adding!)

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More scraps

Okeydokey, I played with my blog format again...easier? I thought I'd like the other way, but I think that just didn't function like I had hoped. So I'm kinda back to a really simple format. I applied the same to S&S too, we'll see if that helps increase comments again; other than the HA posts with candy, comments slowed down with the new format, so hopefully the more traditional format will make it easier. I did like the way the former S&S dropdown menus worked, but maybe I can find a widget that'll add that back into the template, but for now - at least it's cleaned up :)

And now.....another card made with scraps! Love using them up....there were a ton of these hearts when I got done, so I hope you don't get bored seeing them :) The large neutral paper is BG, and I see some Cosmo Cricket, October Afternoon, and Jillibean in there too.

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Challenge on S&S

I hope lots of folks play along with the extra challenge posted on S&S today....we have a few more stamp sets to give away, so go make a card and enter! This is one of the sample cards...

It's been a productive day at my house...I spent all morning cleaning - I've been so busy I haven't been keeping up with a thing lately! So just getting things straightened up made me feel more under control. (Does that do the same for anyone else?)

All afternoon I worked on kits kits kits and more kits with Dotti - we got four done, so that's nearly 100 more kits prepped for CHA. We're slowly working up to the total we need! :) Theresa's been a huge help too - I'm going to look at my list tonight and see what our count is right now, but I know we're well past halfway. Wahoo!

But I think I'm taking the night off - Ciara's snuggled up with me and we're watching cheesy Christmas movies :)

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Happy Hour Blog Skip

Hey everyone - I'm so excited we're having a Happy Hour Skip today! If you started here, you'll want to go to the top of the skip (mini blog hop) to see everything and find out about the amazing prizes :) Hero Arts stamps, ya know!

My card share is a couple cards, and all really CAS - you know how I struggle with CAS! I started with heavyduty card bases - that stuff from Walmart doesn't cut it when you go CAS on a card. This has a slight linen texture to it so it's even more awesome.

Then I created my own background papers using the Ranger Distress Stains - they're daubers that contain the distress inks, but in less concentration than the reinker bottles. I used this video as a start on them....GREAT explanation of the differences in the inks from Tim. And I made a whole bunch of backgrounds.



Then I took the Right at Home set (CL583) and its darling little kite, and decided on making that a focus. I trimmed the background papers straight, then stamped the kite on the backgrounds, just off the corner, and colored the 'ties' white with an Inkssentials white pen from Ranger too. Then I stamped the kites separately, and popped just the kite diamond. Layered all the pieces, and done! Click on a photo to enlarge it and you can see the cool stuff these inks do on paper.

The last one, the brown one, was at first not going to be part of this set. Not much like any sky we'd see around here! But....I did start thinking that it could certainly look like a sandstorm sky that our heroes may have seen, so I used it anyway. It at least makes it a pretty masculine card. And of course the last one needed a pop of color, so that kite is colored with my Copics.

So tell me, which one do you like best? Leave a comment - be sure you comment on all the blogs so you can have more chances to WIN!

Your next stop on the hop is our friend Barb - you're going to want to see what she makes with those clocks!

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Sketch 94

I went back and picked up Sketch 94 from S&S...with more of my scrappy hearts!

Tonight's OWHtv is gonna be a blast - you need to tune in live! I'll be giving away OWH/HA stamps throughout the show to some lucky winners :)

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MWT: Valentines!

Jan picked Valentines for this week's Midweek Throwdown - and I wanted to play with the house stamp from the new Hero Arts Right at Home set (CL583) again. This is so much fun to color, lots of open space! On this one I kept the darker colors on the edges, and didn't worry about a light source - since it was a green house I wasn't headed for 'reality' anyhow :)

I've also got some other way fun products on here I've been wanting to share...the paper is from Hero Arts. Yep! You didn't know they had paper did you? They do! They're tone-on-tone papers, they match the Hero Arts inks, and are printed on SUPER thick nice quality paper...they donated some for us to use for CHA, and I just love them! I think this card might be a kit, but simplified a tidge.

Some other fun things - the border at the bottom? Tonic! It's a single punch that fits into their border punch system so you can make a row of them. I love this one! The ribbon's by Bazzill, sentiment was a digi from KnK last Valentines Day I think.

And last but not least - the fluff on that little heart? Stampendous' Fun Flock!! I glued it on with the Flower Soft High Tack PVA Glue - and it stays pretty darned well!

Hope you play along with the challenge - because you could win a STAMP SET! Woohoo!!

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Be mine

Last week I had my own minimarathon to use up a bunch of pieces of paper on my desk - I was overrun! These weren't teeny pieces but were hanging around taunting me that they're almost the last of this My Minds Eye paper - so I had to shut them up and use them. Image by the Stamping Bazaar.

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Secret Santa

My stamp group had our secret santa gift exchange this weekend...this card with an image by Kraftin Kimmie is what I gave to Suzanne with her gift....

Hope you have a FAB week!!!

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Greetings from the north pole

Oh what a productive day I had yesterday! It was our usual stamp club day, with the unusual exception that we met at Scrap That!, a LSS near here. I didn't even know about them til this past summer when they hosted an OWH party - and now I am a regular customer :)

I made a bunch of Christmas gifts, which I obviously won't be sharing til after they're delivered and opened...but I also finally jammed on making some more of my own Christmas cards - I actually did 20 of one design (eeeeeeeeeeep!) which nearly drove me over the edge. However I was determined to keep my promise to myself; when I bought a motherlode of May Arts Christmas ribbon, I committed that I'd USE it all this year. No holdovers. There's no space for that around here! So I kept going on these til this deLISH 2 sided ribbon was gone! I used papers from Authentique and October Afternoon on these.

The striped pole is a product I purchased at Impress a few weeks ago - basically big twist-ties! The store's sample was a simple version with just the sign and snow (FlowerSoft). But you know me, I can't go too simple, so had to go over the top with adding a little more to it. :)

I still have some reindeer ribbon left with the same use-it-up commitment, so stay tuned. Hoping to get all my holiday cards done this week and mailed out! Woohoo!

One more thing to share today - I got to make a sketch for S&S! Can't remember the last time that I did :) We're using the new stamp sets, and I pulled out the Right at Home set (CL583) which has become a go-to set for me. Maybe because the cloud and kite are the doodles I sent to Hero Arts along with the presentation of the concepts...heehee. Here I used new Basic Grey papers I picked up at my LSS - on Small Business Saturday no less :) The kites are colored with Copics, and I used the blender pen to "erase" the patterns into each one. The sentiment is also from the stamp set - I just cut it into parts. (The stamped image not the stamp!) The butterfly is from a Studio Calico kit, made by Sassafrass. Ribbon by May Arts.

Have a fabulous week!

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The 12 Days of Christmas

The girls over at the Crafty Contagion blog (my monthly stamping group!) are hosting a special little post today....we divvied up the 12 days of Christmas and made cards inspired by them! And of course since I was the dummy who came up with the idea, I took two (there are 10 of us)...and also let them pick the hard ones for me. And hard they were!

First are the seven swans a-swimming. I did find a swan digi here - I scoured my stamp collection and had nada! Yay for digis! Colored it with just a wash of blues..then used my nesties, some matching nestie bling, paper by K&Co, ribbon by May Arts, and punched some butterflies. Since Valentines Day is on the way (and today's the last day for the Archway challenge cards!) this'll totally serve some guy well - his lady will feel pretty special. And hopefully there's no weird menage-a-trois that will be recalled by 3 swans on this card. LOL.

And to get that idea out of your head, here's my second card. This was for eleven pipers piping - that was tough! I have a lot of stamps but nobody playing a piccolo or anything. So I went for the pipe instead, and my mind traveled back to art history class: "Ceci n'est pas un pipe." Well, mine IS a pipe. I drew it myself and colored it with Copics. It was hard to design this one! I'm thinking a card with a pipe is going to go home to a dad or grandpa, so wanted to keep it really really masculine. Plain cardstock (with just a wee tidge of texture) made it work! The strips are an inch each, and the bottoms are made with a 1-inch circle punch. I'm expecting some major flak for going the pipe route, by the way. Bring it on! I think it's pretty funny.

If you want to see all the other days of the song, check out the Crafty Contagion blog!

PS I'm out all day with my crafty gals - and we're having our Christmas party this evening. I won't be home to check the mail til really late, so will be able to announce sometime on Sunday if we made it to 5000 for the Archway challenge!

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Hero Arts bloghop!

My personal blog isn't in the hop, but S&S is - so go see!!!! Talk about high caliber, our lil blog in a big hop like theirs....wahoo! I actually made this card twice - this is the first, and though I liked it....

 I think this came out a lot cleaner!

Details on my card: House, fence, and sentiment are from the new Hero Arts sets. And yes, I was a doofus and did cut out every bit of that fence on the first one! The house is colored with Copics. The layout is from one of Mojo Monday's sketches....been going to theirs quite often lately! Papers are, I believe, October Afternoon....It's got Graphic 45 papers, May Arts ribbon....and is much more masculine too.

This was one of my early designs when I first got the stamp sets, and I went wild and took 2 hours on one card. Ever since, I've been designing kits like a mad woman for CHA, and have had to go more simple than my usual. Eeep! Just wait til I'm released from kitland, this blog's gonna be on fire with crazy stored up mojo!

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We R - kissy kissy!

Another for the Archway Challenge...pant pant! The last of this We R paper is now gone...sigh! But it went to a great cause :)

I've got a bunch more valentines done, and will be sharing them over the next week or two - and a few on the show. I'm doing LOTS of using up scraps! I'm determined to clean out this pile of rubble that's taking over my desk :) Watch the show tonight for some scrap-usin' tips!

PS A heads up - I've decided to take off the week before Christmas and the week after Christmas from the show and vlog....hope that's ok with everyone :)

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A little more love...let's plug away til Dec 10!

Getting nervous we might not make the goal by December 10th....so I'm back at makin' love cards! This one's all Basic Grey - paper, and all those lovely flower & circles mmmmm! Let's go ladies, more valentines, more love!

Even if we don't hit the 5000 goal, we can still take valentines til Dec 31, so keep going! :)

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Imaginisce Christmas paper!

I saw this paper when I was on my shopping adventure on Small Biz Saturday...and just loved it. Softer colors than normal for Christmas - and I like 'em! I used some stickers from SRM for the sentiments. And - you guessed it. May Arts. Yeah, I'm just a nut for ribbon.

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A little Pink Gem birdie

I'm never sure if a bird like this is supposed to be a red bird, or what kind he is. LOL. Gotta get out my Audubon books maybe! But....it's a pretty simple card with a free digi from Pink Gem Designs, with a bunch of layers of October Afternoon yummy papers.

One day I'll get around to writing in some of these cards, too, but I'm trying to wait til I have most of them made; in the past when I did them in a couple rounds of mailing, I sent some people two cards because I forgot I'd mailed theirs a week before. D'oh!

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Butterflies, butterflies, butterflies

I've been elbow-deep in kits today, no time to make a full card (sad!)....but I did find this one that I don't believe I shared yet! Uses lots of yummies from one of my Studio Calico kits. I just adore the butterflies. Have a great week, everyone!

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Get Sentimental!

In my "I gotta craft now and do it fast coz my to-do list is insane" world, I like challenges like this - using a sentiment as the image on a card! As much as I like to color, I totally miss my Copics right now - I'm using already colored images from my stash lately so I can just quickly get cards put together! Ack! But...this feels legit since I got to pick the stamp and ink it up rather than pulling from my stash at least :) Plus I stamped a Happy Valentines Day sentiment on the inside :)

The stamp is by Inkadinkado. And the cool paper? In my Studio Calico kit of course! So much yummy stuff shows up in that. I haven't used much of last month's yet though, and this month's is on the way - yikes, they're gonna be backing up on me soon! I seriously need to get past all the kit-making and back to normal crafting. Only 700 more kits to go......wheee!

Be sure YOU go enter the ODBD challenge too - and link up all your friends! If we reach 50 players, then ODBD will sponsor the shipping for two boxes to our heroes! Cool huh?

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