Year End Top Ten - My favs from 2011

~Nancy F.

Thank You, Dixie!

This card is for Dixie, who spent the first two years of her retirement packing boxes and boxes and boxes and boxes of cards for Operation Write Home.  I always enjoyed coming up with one slightly inappropriate card for my box and she seemed to enjoy my twisted humor.  It's now time for her to get back to making cards!  Thank you again, Dixie!

This stamp is made by DRS Designs and the paper is from Memory Makers' Travel pack.  The stitching and Pa. Dutch "thank you" are rub ons from the Dollar Tree.  I kept the card simple because the Pa. Dutch are sometimes called the plain folk.  ~Nancy F.

OWH Sketch Challenge #101

I must admit, pennants always made me a little nervous, but I decided to try it anyway.  I used such busy paper on the bottom half of the card, so I decided to omit the sentiment piece.
Pennant cards still make me nervous.....   ~Nancy F.

Merry Christmas to all our blogger friends!

Drumroll, please! Sketch 100 on the Stars and Stripes Blog!!!

Congrats to OWH for this milestone!  I know I look forward to getting up Sunday morning and checking out the challenge and sometimes, I even manage to get a card to two made.  I used a part of a new nestie set to cut out the Snoopy.  They're shaped sort of like a cigar band, I trimmed off the sides, the bottom and part of the top.  I guess I should say, I barely used part of a new set of nesties!

I'm also excellent at crooked photography.....lol...  ~ Nancy F.

Operation Write Home - Sunday Sketch #98

Thank goodness for the Sunday Sketches, coz it's the only way I find my mojo!  No dogs this week-- I went with frogs instead.  Sorry, Buster! 

And I'm still running behind in my own Christmas cards.....  I know, I know, I made cards with the Grant Wood snowmen last year too, but I just can't stop.  They're my all time favorite.

Thanks for looking!   ~Nancy F.

OWH Sketch #97

It's almost a crime to be inside making cards today....55 degrees!  It's gorgeous out there, so I'm in a hurry today.  After looking at some of the other cards for today's challenge, I realize that I made this sketch a lot more complicated than it really is.  I think tonight I'll spend a little time at it again, and see what I can do, without feeling like  I have to match up a bunch of different papers.   The first card I may give to my boss.  He's retiring on Thursday.

Thanks for looking!   ~Nancy F.

OWH - Sunday Sketch #96

I wasn't sure what to do with the sketch this week, so I started out by browsing through my notebooks of unmounteds and came across this set, which I rarely get to use, judging by the lack of ink stains on them....
'Bout time, don't you think?

And, not wanting to stop at just one card, I found this bike stamp from Close To My Heart..  The sentiment is an unmounted that I bought at a show but I don't remember what booth!  It's made out of a bright purple rubber. It would be so easy to identify, if only I'd have written something down......

Thanks for looking!  ~Nancy F.

OWH - Sunday Sketch 94

I'm a day late on my post.....grrrr... I'm not liking this time change.....I don't have a good place to take photos, so I use white paper and take my camera outside.  Well, that doesn't work very well when it's getting dark so early......more grrrr......  I was going for the manly card and ended up using stickers instead of stamping.  I'm really losing my mojo right now, I've got 3 birthday cards to make and my own Thanksgiving and Christmas cards and I think I'm just feeling a little overwhelmed.  So here's my take on Sketch 94.  ~Nancy F.

And here's take two.

OWH - Sunday Sketch 93

I'm just going to totally ignore the weather, because I have wonderful neighbors and by late last night, they had totally plowed my driveway.  They know I love them and I constantly try to fatten them up with shoo fly pies or brownies.  Whenever it snows, I run a personal baking marathon....lol.
I don't know about anyone else, but I had trouble getting started with Sketch 93.  I just don't like crooked stuff!!  It gives me the willies.  I have about 20 various papers cut to the proper sizes, just taunting me on my work table.  Number 1 turned out ok and I think it's my favorite.  At first, I thought it was going to be a little bit too busy.  

Number 2 is using up some cute robot papers that came in a kit.  I had no intention of putting that gear where it is, but I had it all glued up, and dropped it......whoops!!!  Had to make it work where it landed.....

With Number 3, I tried to use some really pretty paper, and just let that speak for iteself.

And my last attempt is going to be a birthday card for my bro-in-law, who was the conductor of the Macungie Band for 25 years.  He can't be bothered with blogging, so he'll never see this.

So, I'm pretty sure Sketch 93 has helped me get over my crooked problem!    ~Nancy F.

OWH - Sketch 92 - For a Hero

It's been a rough weekend.  Roofing and lots of driving were involved, both of which I'm not really a big fan....
but it was impossible to rest until I had made a card for Sketch 92.  This one's for the Heroes!   ~ Nancy F.

Sketch #91 - Operation Write Home

I really look forward to the weekly sketches on the Stars and Stamps Blog.  I try to make a card or two every day, often squeezing in the cutting, stamping and coloring after work and the gluing in the morning before I leave for the day.  Sometimes by the weekend, I just feel like I don't have any brain matter left to think.  The sketches really help!!! 

This paper was perfect for this job.  I've proud to say I've been hoarding it for quite awhile.  It's from a Tim Coffey K&Co. designs tablet.  (All the papers in that tablet are too pretty to cover up with anything else.)   ~Nancy F.

Sort Of Sketch 90 and Sandy's Rant

In the beginning, I was only planning on making something nice for OWH's Sunday Sketch #90.  Then I listened to Sandy's rant for this week................well.................then I couldn't stop myself.   Sometimes when you get inspiration, you just have to run with it.  So.......I ran......  ~Nancy F.

( I didn't post on the OWH Sketch 90 page, because I thought I changed the sketch a little bit too much.)

World Cardmaking Day

Saturday, October 1st, was World Cardmaking Day and that's exactly what I did.  I made cards.  All day.  And I still only got about 20 of them done.  Operation Write Home had a wonderful blog hop to get me inspired and I started out trying to make multiples of each style, hoping to get a good number of really nice cards in my box to mail at the end of the month, but as time went on and I got more and more involved in the blogs, the cardmaking slowed and then before I knew it, I was down to only making one of a kind.  All in all, it was a great day and I still felt like I had accomplished a lot.  The first two examples were inspired from Sandy.  She's ALWAYS an inspiration.

The "Grant Wood" snowmen were already stamped, leftovers from my last year's cards to my family and friends.  I'm not so sure a lot of them understood what it was all about,  American Gothic was one of my very favorite paintings even when I was in elementary school.  Here's hoping the Heroes will understand......

Usually my cards contain stamped images, but for this hop, I was learning a lot about making really nice cards without using stamps.   There are still a lot of blogs to hop to, and I don't want to leave any of them out, but I'm sure it'll take a least a week for me to finish it all up.  Something to look forward to!   ~Nancy F.

It finally stopped raining and OWH Sketch 88

I thought this was a great sketch!  I'm sort of mentally pooped this weekend, and this sketch gave me the opportunity to use some easy stamps and put together some great cards without having to spend an hour with markers.  I used the smallest size in the Safari stack from DCWV for these two.  I thought the card in the background seemed a little dull with just the plain brown backing.  I like it a lot better with the Sizzix embossing folder and a light sanding.

I almost forgot I had this cute stamp, but I think it worked out well for this sketch and I plan on making a few more of these for my own personal use.   The papers are from the Hippie Chic stack, also DCWV.

~ Nancy F.

I was ignoring him again, so he showed me how he can ignore me too......

Operation Write Home - Sketch #87

When I first saw this sketch, I thought it would be a good way to use some papers that I've been saving, just because they're pretty and I thought they needed to be showcased and not covered by stamps or other embellishments.  Then the next thing I knew, I was making this card.....go figure.  It's from a pack of kiddie papers, which I really don't have much use for.   I thought it looked bare on the right side.......

 Since I was not satisfied with the first card, I decided to dig into my stash of pre-stamped pieces.  I found this gifted stamp of a  truck from a Stampin' Up set that I'm dying to own.  I was a lot happier with the way this card turned out than my first attempt.  This card is much more "me".

And....there goes another weekend!  That sure was fast!    ~Nancy F.

Digi Doodle Shop

Check out this card I made for Operation Write Home with a digi stamp from the Digi Doodle Shop!  Here's their link
http://digidoodleshop.com/store/
They've got such cute stuff!  Thanks Digi Doodle for sponsoring this challenge in honor of Operation Write Home's Birthday Bash! ~Nancy F.

Ciara's 9-1-1 Challenge

Hi Ciara!  These are for you!

Love, your pal, Ozzy.

Operation Write Home Birthday Bash!

Happy Birthday, Operation Write Home!  I'm a little slow this weekend, but here I go with the challenges!

#1 - Garanimals - easy one, coz my favorite thing to make is cards for kids. For this one, I used round and oval nestabilities and an embossing folder.

#2 - Celebrating Nature - I finally used up these pretty stickers!

#3 - Unique Christmas - I think purple is pretty unique.  Plus, I got to use up some of this paper.

#7 - Non-Traditional Valentine - This one's for Dixie!

I'm still feverishly working away at the challenges.  The day isn't over yet!
~Nancy F.

Card Labor Day

Cardmaking is a labor of love for us.  We had a great day, it's been awhile since we were able to get together.  I find that I can get a lot more accomplished when someone is working along side of me.   I can't vouch for Joanne, but she did get 4 cards finished, which is pretty darn good for her.   She becomes obsessed with perfection and placement.  It's worth it.

Joanne's been working on her holiday collection, plus she had a momentary lapse of sanity and told a friend she'd make them a bunch of Christmas cards this year.....  Better her, than me.  I barely have time to get my own done.

 The above are for one of the challenges at Operation Write Home.  It was to use eyelets.  Now my only problem is that I can't figure out how or where I'm supposed to enter them in the contest. 

This is my fancy tool that I made all by myself (lol) in order to be able to use this ever extremely uber cute set of stamps from Stampin' Up. 

I just love how these cards turned out.  I can't believe I let the stamp set sit, unused, on a shelf for at least 6 months, just because I wasn't sure how to line up the pieces.   I hope everyone had a nice Labor Day.  Ours was pretty wet.     ~Nancy F.

Irene and Sketch 84

Irene is just finishing up in my area with high winds and so I thought I'd better get the jump on her and post this before I lose power...again....  I used paper from Cloud 9, Martha Stewart and Hampton Arts stamps, a Sizzix button die and a Basic Grey brad.  It's my contribution to the new holiday, proclaimed by Sandy at Operation Write Home, Hall-NO-Ween.  I was wondering what to do with all my witches and ghosts and spiders, oh my!
I also need to rant a little about Irene, who managed to cause some water damage in my craft room.  Waaaa!!!
Luckily some of the water fell right into my trays for embossing, some went on the rug (and I blamed poor Ozzy at first....) and a lot got soaked up by a stack of old pin-feed paper that I use for scrap.  She did make a direct hit on 6 any hero cards, of which only one I can save some parts.....  :-( 

I told her I didn't do it!!!!!