Confetti Birthday Card

I saw this cute post about adding confetti in a pocket of vellum for a festive birthday card.  Here is my take on it.  The first card was for the Operation Write Home Challenge #143.

Black and White Thinking of You card.

     Here is a black and white Thinking of You card I made using Operation Write Home sketch #80  and a Handmade by Paula Sentiment.  The colors of the sentiment guided my choice in papers.
     The black paper is a little narrower than the sketch because it was my only piece of black, but it still works here.  It is dry embossed with the Sizzix diamonds pattern and the felt heart was from a package I picked up at JoAnns last Valentine's day.  I think it might have been by Darice.

Doodle Pantry Holly Stag kit

     I purchased this Holly Stag kit from Doodle Pantry.  The two matching print papers come with the kit as do several sentiments, all of which I used.  I had fun using several Operation Write Home sketches to design these cards.  I have more paper leftover so I may continue on with the cards, using additional sketches until I find one that is perfection. 
     I tried paper piercing some of the images and sentiments and I added glitter to the holly berries and sections of the antlers.  The glitter on the antlers really brought the images to life.

Birthday Fishes

     Finally, a nice man card using an image and sentiment from Doodle Pantry.  I have my old standby of cars which I typically use for manly cards, but now I have a second option.  I created three different versions of this card before deciding that my favorite version is the last one. 
     The sketches used were from Operation Write Home and the last sketch called for a square image to be used instead of the circle.  When I replaced the square on the sketch with the circle I had already punched out, I was very pleased.  I may try this again with a square instead of a circle for my image though.

Some other cards I made recently

Here are some other cards I made recently.  This last card has a glitter filled 3D "button" that says "I Love You."

Birthday cards for my daughter's Sweet Sixteenth birthday

I created the following cards for my daughter's 16th birthday.  She loves neon colors and dogs and cats.  The first image is the card I gave her, and the 2nd image is the card she received from her younger sister. 

Clean and simple LOVE cards

   

 I fell in love with this flocked hummingbird/paris purple paper and had to have it.  I was afraid to cut into it for the longest time, but I finally bit the bullet and was able to find three beautiful card fronts living within the 12 x 12 inch paper.  After mounting the images to card fronts I realized I needed to keep these cards clean and simple so I found this beautiful LOVE stamp and CAREFULLY positioned the image using my stamp-a-majig.  (I am famous for getting things crooked even with the stamp-a-majig and was afraid I would ruin these gorgeous cards.)
     Voila - I succeeded.  I am so pleased with how these turned out.  Clean and simple and beautiful.

Girl Graduation cards for 2013

     Yes I have started making graduation cards for 2013.  My daughter needed about 12 cards last year and she's going to need many again this year. Not all of her friends are girls so I need some guy ones too. 
     The digital image is from Bugaboo and was colored with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers.  I couldn't get the exact shade of green used at our high school because I don't have the full set of markers. (It should be dark green, but not this forest green that I have).  I raised the image with dimensional stickers and added a sentiment behind her.  I rounded the 2 bottom corners of the card and added on length of white corrugated cardstock to each card.  Then I added a strip of green with white polka dot designer paper from my dollar store to two of the cards, and a strip of coordinating green corrugated cardstock ruffled in the opposite direction to the third card.  2 green self-adhesive gemstones complete the card.
     One of these days I will figure out how to make black hair that looks nice, but the markers cover the details in the hair and it looks so one dimensional unless you add grey. Then the hair looks grey-yuk.  So for now, no black hair. Just blonde, light brown and dark brown.
     The double sided background paper is a few years old and was from a pack of licensed Girl Scout Paper I found at either Michael's or JoAnn's a while back.  There is nothing specifically Girl Scout oriented on this side of the paper so it works great for graduation.
     Now, if only I can get my daughter to list her friends that are graduating so I know which hair colors to use and how many guy graduation cards I need to make.  Also, what am I going to do when I run out of the background paper?

Cherry Blossom Birthday Cards

     I've had these cute little kimono dressed girl digital images from Angelique Kramer from the Netherlands for quite sometime.  You will find the cutest children and cat digital images on Angelique's Sliekje's Digi Stamps blog.  I finally found the perfect cherry blossom background paper to go with it when I was at Michaels this weekend. 
     I used my Spectrum Noir Alcohol ink markers to color them (unfortunately I don't have all the colors and could only do Caucasian skin tone).  I used one of the sketches from Operation Write Home and I found coordinating pink and turquoise papers.  I heat embossed a background pattern on one of the squares using versamark for a tone on tone effect.  I made a mistake and used versamark ink on multiple images before embossing.  It dried a little before embossing which made an incomplete image in some areas.  I learned from my mistake though and did it correctly when I heat embossed the white sentiment.  I then raised the girl image using dimensional stickers and added a single self-adhesive pearl accent to the lower right corner to complete the card.
     I finally feel I have done the image justice.

Halloween Card 2012

     I'm not into sending Halloween cards, but my MIL loves cards and lives in a nursing home, so I really like to have a card for each holiday for her.  She lives nearby but I like to mail them to her so she has something special to open in the mail.
     I had this card base ready to go for a fall leaf image I was going to use, but then I forgot why I had the base ready.  I decided to use it for my Jack-O-Lantern instead.  It needed a little bling and I just couldn't figure out what to do.  A full ribbon seemed too much, and a bow overpowered the image.  I decided to do three ribbon tails under the image, but having more than just the points showing used up too much card so I ended up with just the little triangle ends of the ribbons showing. 
     The digital image is from Beccy Muir and is raised with dimensional stickers.  (Beccy is a very talented Australian artist and card maker and I highly recommend that you go through her blog for inspiration).  I colored the image with my Spectrum Noir alcohol markers and used a little of the lightest gray for a shadow around the pumpkin. 
     It is difficult to tell because of the busy background, but there is a second backgound paper applied to the base card under the bottom of the image.  It is an orange print and has a third piece of paper (green corrugated paper strip) applied down the middle.  I then rounded the two bottom corners of the card.

Gift card holders

Today I am making these gift card holders.  I need Christmas and Birthday ones.  They are so handy for those last minute - run to the store - pick up a gift card - do I just throw it in a card? - moments.  The pattern for it is from Gina K Designs and she has a video for it.  I've seen plenty of gift card holder patterns but this is my favorite.  It just seems upscale.  Now I can dig into my stash at the last minute and have something to actually present as a gift besides my cards.

Operation Write Home card donation

I've been busy making cards for a current Operation Write Home challenge.  They asked for half of the donation to be Holiday (Christmas primarily) and the other half to be mixed.  The donation address I am sending my cards to primarily needed the other cards to be love you, missing you, etc.  I have 62 cards total, not including 7 Any Hero cards which are cards meant for the Heros to read, not for them to send home.  These cards will be sent oversees for our fine service men and women from all branches of the military to  write home to their loved ones.  They apparently are quite taken with the quality of the cards and the extreme variety that come through, and they typically find several cards that remind them of particular people they would like to write to.

 
  I am learning a few things about lining up sentiments, (mine usually go on off center, but I was tired of cutting them out and gluing them on separately).  My sentiment on the top card (Joy) is straight, but I still need to figure out how to stamp the image centered on the card.  I had to stamp it separately, then cut it out and apply it to a different card base.

I'm not sure how often I can donate because the envelopes are kind of expensive, and the shipping charges will be hard for me, however, it is a cause I am deeply connected to.  I end up making WAY more cards then I could ever use and even if I just donate once yearly, I will be helping.

I thoroughly enjoy the Operation Write Home blogs.  I watch the videos posted by Sandy Allnock the President of the group.  She is so funny.  She occasionally gives me ideas that will improve my designs.  I downloaded 25 pages of card sketches with exact measurements of paper strips which have helped speed me up.  I'm sure there is more I can learn from this wonderful website.