Sunday, July 24, 2011

Sketch Challenge #79 - Operation Write Home

I had been wanting to use this image for awhile and decided on making some backgrounds with a brayer and then stamping over that.  I liked it, so I did 3 more.  The stamp is by Prickley Pear.  The paper is from the DCWV Once Upon A Time small stack.  Sorry for the lousy photography.  I usually take my photos outdoors but today I didn't get done stampin' until after dark!

~ Nancy F.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

A Sailor and OWH Sketch 78

She's a Sailor!  Audrey, I'm so proud of you!  And this proud aunt made her newly minted Sailor a card using, of course, the Operation Write Home sketch #78.  Audrey's already been shipped off to Goose Creek, SC for Nuke School, so it'll be quite a while before I get to see her, but just as soon as she calls with a snail mail address, I'll be sending this one to her.  And since she doesn't have any internet yet, it'll still be a surprise... ~Nancy F.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Circles and Fame

Joanne gets published!  Go on over to the Stars and Stamps Blog at Operation Write Home for a sampling of Joanne's circle cards!
http://www.owhstarsandstamps.org/
Then join in the fun of creating a card for Sketch Challenge #77! 

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Christmas In July

Today I'll be doing some work on Christmas cards, in the hopes that it helps to cool me off.  It's a bit sticky here in these parts, and I thought with the monsoon of a thunderstorm last night that it might cool off a bit this morning, but..........no dice!  So, without delay, here is my first Christmas card in July.  And believe it or not,
I did have a request for this!  Enjoy.   :-)     ~Nancy F.

Monday, July 4, 2011

Day Three - Happyy 4th of July!!!!

I've got a picnic to go to today, so I'm not sure how far I'll get with all the challenges, but I'm going to give it my best shot.  This is my bear card for Challenge #13, Linda wanted a bear and/or heart.  I've got both!

The next Challenge was called Color Me Crazy.  I whipped out one of my "ugly papers".  I may have cheated a little bit here, I noticed when I went to post that the main idea was to color the image an off color.  Oh well, there's always time to make another card and do it right the next time...................... 
Onto #15!  - Play on words!  It's getting hot here in these parts, I needed something to make me think cool....



And for #16, Ciara ordered a dog card.  So did Ozzy, who lives here with me....In fact, he said he'd lick my eyelids in the middle of the night if I went for a cat stamp......
So, that's it for me for awhile.  I find that I'm starting to cut corners because I'm rushing, and that's the time to stop, because then the cards suffer.   I also need to make a peanut butter pie and some snickerdoodles for the picnic today and my car needs washing!  Thanks for looking!  ~Nancy F.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Day Two - OWH 4th of July Cardmaking Party

Starting off the day with Challenge #9 - use two images, one sentiment and a piece of designer paper.
 For Challenge 10, Sandy gave us a doozy.  Two cards.  Like I'm not tired already!  lol  I was planning on going easy on myself and just putting a santa hat and an Easter bonnet on a gargoyle, but then I found this cute little tree stamp and realized it wouldn't be too hard to make a spring and a fall card with it.
Next was #11, a pinwheel card.  This was easy and I'm not really happy with my card, it needs more textures on the blue and the green, but I was started to burn out and I took the easy way out.  I think I might call a do-over on this one at a later time.
Onto the next challenge - food!  And, yes, it was dinnertime too.  This paper is from a DCWV stack called Farmer's Market.   I feel really bad that I'm not getting around to all the other blogs to look at everybody else's hard work, but who has time, with all this card making????

OWH Sketch #76

I had to use a sticker on this week's sketch challenge because my brain is half-fried from the rush of yesterday's cards.  My work space is a total wreck, I'm wondering if I'll have time to spiff it up a little for all of today's card making.   ~Nancy F.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Virtual Cardmaking Party - Operation Write Home

I love this stuff!  Everyone has such great ideas and comes up with such interesting challenges.  The parties and blog hops always make me dredge up some old item or technique that's been buried for a long time.  Today I started with Challenge #1 - use camouflage.  And so I cheated.  I already had both of these cards in pieces, waiting for assembly. And I knew I had used the last of my camouflage paper on them, so I glued them together.   I needed the head start because the local Cardaholics group was meeting this afternoon and I lost some good cardmaking time, putting things together to take to that.

The second challenge was to make a card with a fishbowl.  Well, alas, I have no fishbowl.  BUT - there's always a way around it.  I have a snow globe stamp!  So.......  I decided my fish would just have to be swimming in a snow globe.  I first thought of using some old transparencies to stamp on, then decided to pull out my Twinkling H2O paints.  I bought them years ago, along with some special paper that the same vendor talked me into.  I had a blast with them. I embossed a strip of brown to look like a table, cut the edge off a paper doily and used a background paper that reminded me of wallpaper.  I also tested out some new type of liquid pearls for the bubbles in the water.....wish I would have made two of them right from the start.....but isn't that always the way it goes?  Then it was off to my meeting.
Well, the meeting didn't go as planned, especially since I turned out to be the only one who showed up....  :-(
But this just gives me more time for the rest of the challenges.  :-)
The third card was a color challenge called Tie A Yellow Ribbon.  I used a cute tree stamp by Judith and the first tablet that I grabbed had the peach butterfly paper in it, so I didn't have to look very far to find my materials this time. 
Next time, I'll use a smaller tree, the pretty butterfly paper barely shows.....
Challenge #4 was from my "neighbor," Carol, down Rt. 100, in Gilbertsville.  It's called Freedom.
The next challenge is making me nervous.  Vintage Distressed.   I had a rough time coming up with something for this one.  I don't know if it's really very vintage, but it did get distressed.
#6.  Howling at the moon.  Awesome idea.  I thought, how easy is this?  I'll just go into my Halloween stuff and do a spooky house with a moon.  So I did.  And it went into the trash........ This is the second effort.
The final challenge for Saturday was #7.  Subway Summer.  I had never heard of subway style.  But this one was easy.  And it was fun reminiscing too.  I'll end up mailing this one to a friend I grew up with.
Last but not least, challenge #8.  I just bought this stamp, and as soon as you see it, you'll know why I immediately knew that was what I would use the minute I saw the inspiration photo.
Finally!  Done with Saturday's challenges!  Moving on to Sunday!  (I'm really enjoying this, can you tell?) 
~Nancy F.