Sketch 160 and some more VCMP

I was too tired last night to continue on with my quest for the proper sandwich for selective embossing and so this morning, I went at it again, with success!  The proper sandwich was NO sandwich.  Who'd a thunk?...  I combined that quest with Things With Wings from Yvonne's Blog.  The griffin stamp is from Renaissance Art Stamps.

For the With Wheels challenge from Linda at Creepin' Along, I already had this Impression Obsession truck stamp colored, so this was a fast card.

To finish up for the moment, here's my take on Sketch 160.  The stamp set is from Unity.  I used mostly chalks on this one.

The caffeine challenge is up next, and for that, I need to go have some of the actual thing!

Virtual Card Making Party!

I finally finished all of last week's challenges and couldn't wait to get started on the Virtual Card Making Party.  I get so inspired by all the blogs and requests for certain types of cards.  I find that I'm so much more creative than if I'm just sitting in my craft area, staring at my stuff.
The first blog on the list is Scrappinintervention.  Chevrons, here we go!

The next stop along the way is Misty's Blog.  She's challenging us to make cards for kids, using animals.
I went with dogs because the dog in this house, has been boofing all morning.  At nothing, I might add.

Next up is a selective embossing project which I've never done before.  I expect my trash can to get a lot of my first attempts....

Well, it seems selective embossing was a bust at my house.  I had a lot of ripped paper and I just couldn't get my sandwich correct with the Sizzix.  Not to let it get the best of me, I finished up with this card.  I cut

a hole out for my stamp instead.  We'll see if my mood improves for another go-round of it tomorrow.

Tuesday's Tutorial and more sketch 159

I'm still playing with Sketch 159......

Tuesday's tutorial was for using spray inks.  I don't have any, but it sparked my memory of my old Blo-Pens.
I was afraid I didn't have them anymore, but I do!  All it took was a few drops of water to get them working again and I had a blast!   I'll be playing with them more, for sure, but I've still got more catching up to do first!

Wednesday's Midweek Throwdown was to make a card using our state flag's colors.  Pennsylvania's flag is mostly navy blue with an emblem in the center, so I used a Navy sticker so I could get the weekly challenges finished and move on to the Virtual Cardmaking Party this weekend.  VCMP's really get me motivated!!!!

OWH Sketch 159 and some catching up

It's been another busy week and I haven't had time to post anything, but I did manage to get caught up with the Our Daily Bread Challenge for February, the Midweek Throwdown and Sketch 159!  The ODBD challenge this month was to make a card with fruit.  I've used this mouse paper before and this is the last piece.  I feel good that I'm using things up!

The Midweek Throwdown was a call for cards for kids.  Those are my very favorite cards to make for OWH, I bet half my monthly box contains them.

And to finish up for today, Sketch 159, slightly tweeked.  I made this card for my nephew's birthday, which is coming up in April.  The glue on the toothpicks/drumsticks isn't quite dry yet.

A Week's Worth

I'm falling behind in my resolution to do all the OWH challenges this year and it's only February.  I've managed to get caught up this weekend.  Tuesday's tutorial was using watercolor markers.  I don't have any, so I used watercolor papers.  They're like the old fashioned watercolors in the metal box, but the pigment is on a piece of paper instead.  I also used the same stamp as in a previous challenge  This time I took Paula's suggestion of putting a sentiment across the lower left.  Good suggestion, Paula!

The midweek throwdown called for a birthday card.  

I enjoyed looking through all the cards from the hop on Saturday.  Here's my critter cards -

And to finish up, or start the new week, depending on how you look at it, here's Sketch 158.  It's a midweek birthday critter!

I hope I don't get this far behind again!

...................I just realized I haven't done the ODBD fruit challenge yet!

Sketch 157 - Operation Write Home

I took a look at the sketch this morning, but didn't print it out.  When I started to make my cards, I was having trouble, because I'm awful at matching 3 different papers.  I ended up with these:  (stamp is Heidi Grace)

I took another look at the sketch and printed it out this time.  That's when I realized I made it harder than it had to be.  That's typical!  For these I used an old SU set - Furnished With Love.

I tried to do something similar with my Cheery Lynn screen door die.  I got this almost a year ago, came right home and cut out a bunch of doors and dogs and then did nothing with them.....sometimes I really annoy myself.....  :-)

Midweek Throwdown and some more Boot Camp

I'm a little late on all of the above.  The Midweek Throwdown was for an Easter card.  I got this stamp from the Outlines booth at the last rubber stamp show in April, 2012.  I've heard they closed up shop.  :-(  

I've been continuing my Boot Camp work and came up with this for analogous.  I guess it could also count for colors based on nature.  I got the stamp at a yard sale.  I have a lot of large stamps that just fill up the whole front of the card and I've become so used to having a lot of "stuff"- mixed patterns of card stock and ribbons and brads etc., that just having one big scene on the card front seems plain.  How sad is that?

For my last trick, I used purple and green as my complimentary colors, and a SU stamp set, from Kim.

OWH Design Boot Camp and some other fun stuff

I snuck a peak at Design Boot Camp and work on Monday and couldn't wait to get home and play in the stamping room.  I had all sorts of ideas in my head, pulled out stamps and stamp pads and cut cardstock.
EVERY STINKING CARD that I started to make got black ink smudges on it.  In fact, EVERYTHING I TOUCHED had black ink on it.  I threw in the towel and made this card with scissors and a fancy piece of paper.   It's my ode to monochromatic.  It's also CAS, which is something I've been trying to work on for some time.  There will be  more odes to the other color schemes once I find where all the black ink is coming from!

Today I was too excited about chalk board art to worry about the rest of boot camp.  Tomorrow is the midweek throwdown, so it looks like I'll have an appointment with analogous on Thursday and complimentary colors on Friday.  Maybe I'll even throw in nature inspired then too. 

But today - chalkboard art was awesome!!!!  You can get smudges all over the place, and IT DOESN'T

MATTER!   I made mine look like an old time hand held chalkboard that someone just did some doodling on.  I cut out the brown paper with my old Coluzzle template and then embossed it with the woodgrain folder.  I didn't have a lot of time this evening, so I'm really anxious for the weekend to come so I can play around with this some more.

Sketch 156 - Operation Write Home

Once again, I'm trying to use the tablet that I got on sale shortly before Christmas.

I don't think these came out quite as well as the first card.

And these started out for the sketch, but didn't end up that way.  I have a lot of cards that turn out like that....

Midweek Throwdown - It's not easy being green....

Use green in a card, they said......  what's the first thing I think of when I hear to use green?   Yup, frogs.
This card is in memory of my pet frog, "Froggie"....I watched him grow from a tadpole into the frog that he was.  He spent his winters in a 60 gallon aquarium where I work, feeding on crickets from the local cricket farm (one of my co-workers had a daughter that worked there) and lived in the little ornamental pond in our yard during the spring, summer and fall.   He was with us for about 3  years.  Then one rainy spring day, he went a-courtin' and we never saw him again.  (Stamp is by Whipper Snapper)

 

I also managed to use the S.U. set from Sunday's challenge to actually make flowers instead of noses.  The set is called Pick A Petal.  Kim says they'll make good turkeys for November too!

Froggie

Operation Write Home - Sketch 155

Today's sketch was a bit of a struggle.  I very much wanted to be more creative and have an image in the background of the oval and something else on top.  Instead, this is what I ended up with.  I used more stamps that Kim gave me last year.  I'm on a quest to try something with all of them.  She gave me so many, it may take the rest of the year...........

This is also a set from Kim, I must admit I wasn't creative enough to figure out what to do with them, but thank goodness for google!  This set turned out to be right up  my alley.......and for those of you who really know me, you'll say, "yup, that's her alright..."

Thanks for peeking in! ~Nancy F.

Operation Write Home - Midweek Throwdown

Sentiment Free - that's the rule for the Midweek Throwdown at Operation Write Home today.  I'd have to say that about 75% of my cards don't have sentiments on them, so this wasn't a problem for me.   I've been wanting to do something different and so I got out some Stampin' Up stamps that came from Kim.  I've never been able to do CAS and I still wouldn't be able to, but I found this card on Pinterest and I totally copied it.

You also might notice how much nicer than usual the photo is.  I paid attention to the tutorial yesterday about how to take better photos.   I didn't build a light box, but I did take out a really big sketch tablet and stand it

up under my daylight lamp.  What an improvement!

~Nancy F.

Operation Write Home - Sketch 154

This is a great sketch for using up those little scraps!  I had these images already stamped and colored, and fortunately, they seemed to fit the sketch, so I feel like I accomplished something today!  The stamps are from Stampin' Up.

Thanks for checking in!  ~Nancy F.

Still Catching Up - Our Daily Bread January Challenge

I'm happy that I've managed to get caught up on this week's challenges, just in time for the weekly sketch coming up tomorrow.  This card is for the Our Daily Bread Challenge.  They donate postage money to Operation Write Home as long as we make enough cards to meet their quota.  I somehow was lucky enough to win last month's challenge and can hardly wait to see what I've won!
Here's my card to help get postage money for January - the challenge was to use dry embossing.  My stamp is from Stampendous.   The yellow paper is really much brighter than the washed out photo shows.

I should add learn to take better photos to my resolutions.....   ~Nancy F.

Operation Write Home - Midweek Throwdown

I'm a little late on the Midweek Throwdown, but work was a real bear this week.  I did get some cards made, but by the time I got home from work, I couldn't stand to even turn on the computer.....
The theme was to make cards with spring flowers.   The first card uses a stamp by Judith.

Above stamp by Hampton Art.

Stamp by The Stamp Doctor

2012 Top Ten - In My Humble Opinion.....

Following are my favorite cards for 2012.  We were supposed to come up with ten, but I guess I had an off year, I could only come up with eight.  :-(
 
I think this one was my favorite Hero Card for the year.  The dog tags were from a sticker set.  I guess I could try to make some of my own....

There were good reviews on my sweaters, so I want everyone to pull out your embossing folders and make some!  They're fun and you can use up all sorts of little embellishments for buttons and scraps for cut outs on pockets or fancy collars.  Get out that ancient crimper and go for it!

This was going to be my Christmas card for 2012, but it turned out to take way too long....nothing like biting off more than you can chew.  Maybe if I would have started them in April.......

And another one of my favorite Hero cards -

This challenge was fun, I enjoyed making something totally out of my ordinary range - I did think there wasn't enough room for our heroes to write home in them, so I sent extra paper along in the envelopes.

This is one of my favorite stamps.  I bought it at a show in April, and I thought it was expensive, but I couldn't leave the booth without having it.

I think this is one of my favorite Halloween cards ever.  There was a lot of ink on my hands when I finished this one!

And triple stamping - I love triple stamping!  I learned this technique from the Giggler girls and friends at our card making party for OWH.  I hope we can do that again!

So that's the best I could do this year, which gives me a good New Year's resolution!  Make more cards!

Have a great New Year, blogger friends!

~Nancy F.