OWH - Sketch 143

I found this cute paper in my stash and tried to make the sentiment look like it was in a cloud.  Not sure if that was very successful......

I am also in need of some hero cards, and thought this would be a good way to use some of my red,white and blue ribbon.  I would have tried to do some more cards for the sketch, but I ended up spending most of my morning working on my own Christmas cards.  

Unfortunately, this image turned into a tedious project, so it's looking like only one of my relatives is going to be getting this card.......everyone else will get something a little less involved......shhhhhhh....don't tell them!

~Nancy F.

Sketch 142 and a nice day!

Sketch 142 was one of those I had to really think about first.   It took me awhile to come up with something.  This is NOT how they looked in my head....  When I stamp, I always do at least 3 of an image, so now you can tell how many attempts went into the trash by how many cards get posted.  lol

I wasn't really thrilled with how these came out, so I started digging through my drawer of stamped stuff and found an image leftover from a few weeks ago.  I could make Halloween cards forever.

The next card is from a stamp I bought in April at a show, it's by Rubbernecker.   I love their stuff.  I stamped it multiple times in a row and embossed with white embossing powder.  When I went outside to take the photos for the post, I realized that it had become a warm and beautiful day and decided it was as good a time as any to pull up the rest of the wilted flowers that got hit by Friday night's frost.

Thanks for checking in!  ~Nancy F.

OWH - Sketch 141 and some others

I hope everyone was productive for World Card Making Day!
Here are my results from Sketch 141.

I had these images pre-colored, but the light shading didn't really show up on the photos.

I'm trying really hard not to use Christmas stamps because I know I'll never get a box
filled in time to send to Caro, so I'm sticking with just winter stuff.

Nothing finishes out a blog post like monkeys..............

~Nancy F.

OWH - Sketch 139

It's a beautiful fall day here in the Lehigh Valley area of Penna.  I'll putter around the garden a little while I wait for some friends to come over.  We'll be making cards for Operation Write Home, of course!

Here's what Sketch 139 inspired me to do.  This is what popped into my head immediately when I saw the sketch.  Isn't it strange how that happens?  Or is it just me...................lol!
~Nancy F.

OWH Midweek Throwdown

Since I'm home from work and waiting for the DirecTV repairman (he was scheduled for noon and it's almost 3), I've got plenty of time to make a card for the midweek throwdown.  I stole this sketch from Pam, I really like it.

I liked it so much, I made a second.  I'll be writing in these and sending them off in my next box to Caro.

~Nancy F.

Labor Day - Bonus Sketch

Day Two - VCMP!!!!

Sketch #136 starts off day two of the Virtual Card Making Party for Operation Write Home.  I made these two cards for my neighbor, who is constantly fattening me up with her baked goods.

Challenge No. 7 was for Christmas cards - one for a child and one for a hero.

For No. 8, Cherie asked for a sports theme.  I only found a swimming stamp and then I remembered a set of sports stickers that I found on sale at Big Lots last year.

My next challenge was to use a neglected tool.  This was funny, because it was also discussed on another blog that I follow, Stampin' With The Oldies.  I chose my trusty old crimper.  When I first got it, I couldn't put it down.

For our last challenge, we were asked to make a card that represents the state we live in.   This card doesn't really represent my state, but it's all I could come up with.

Aftermath of two day virtual card making................
Looks like day three will be the big cleanup.

Labor Day - OWH Virtual Cardmaking Party - Woo hoo!

The first challenge is from Our Daily Bread designs, who regularly donates postage money to Operation Write Home.  I have been wanting to try the triple stamp technique ever since Cherie and her friends showed it to me at the big OWH card making bash last week.  I used Kim's Stampin' Up fall leaves stamps and I love how these turned out.  I'll be making more and this technique is really fun!

The second challenge is a recipe - image, patterned paper and words.  Easy peasy!  The stamp is from Snake Oil Sam and I stamped it multiple times, then cut out of few and put them on pop dots.  I made a bunch of these kits for last week but ended up bringing them home.  The other Cardaholics and I are planning on getting together in a few weeks to finish putting together all our kits that were left over and hopefully that will take care of coloring in Pennsylvania on the OWH Birthday party map. 

Third challenge!  Snowflakes but  no Christmas!  Did I mention how much I love doing these blog hops just because I am constantly reminded of stuff I have that I don't use?  This is one of those stamps.  I wish I had remembered to write the company on the back, but I didn't.

The fourth challenge turned out to be triple stamping, and I thought, woo hoo, I get a little break.  Well, I went outside to sit on the porch and read a magazine.  I glanced up and noticed a huge spider web attached to one of my hanging plants and a porch post, and the rest is history.  I used a spellbinders die set and had to fussy cut the silver layer myself.  The worst part of this project was that I decided to heat emboss the silver spider web and it was tough to pick up the pieces without messing up the image.

I really wrastled with the fifth challenge!  I reckon it's coz I couldn't find any horse or western rubber anywhere in my corrall!  I got me some swell Dustin Pike digis awhile back and so here ya go, pardners!

And that's it for me for the night!  Thanks for looking in!
~Nancy F.

Operation Write Home - Sketch 135 ......and some other stuff.......

Here's my take on Sketch 135 - I used papers I bought at Big Lots, some spellbinders dies and a Martha Stewart stamp.  I know these aren't appropriate to send to Caro, but I needed to play with my Halloween stuff!

This has been a really great weekend.  The Lehigh Valley Cardaholics held a card making party on Saturday and 14 people attended!  It turned out great, in spite of us not really knowing what we were doing as far as planning.  There were travelers from Gilbertsville and Spring City, Pa. and other parts unknown and we're so happy they decided to make the trip!  (if anyone is in witness protection or wants their photo pulled off the blog - let me know...)

Any guesses on how many cards are in those boxes?  Did you say 755? 

Not to mention these Any Hero cards....  I'll be consolidating the two smaller boxes into one larger one and mailing it all off to Caro tomorrow.  All tucked and sorted too!

There were some questions about some of the "stuff" yesterday and as I put things away this morning, I found some answers.

And here's a link to Picture Show stamps, which is the company that I just couldn't get off the tip of my tongue.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/pictureshow

Many, many, many, many, many thanks to everyone who helped make yesterday a success!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
~Nancy F.

Sketch 134 - Operation Write Home

Maybe one day, I'll have enough extra hours to play along with other sketch challenges at other sites, because I've been so inspired by others who are able to do that.  But for now, I'll have to just stick with the one that's the most important to me, Operation Write Home - and this week is Sketch 134.  I recently got some new little paper tablets by My Mind's Eye and they seemed perfect for the task.  I already had the stamped images colored and paper pieced, so it didn't take very long to make the first card and after that, well, I was on a roll.  I have at least 3 more images ready and they'll be made into cards by the end of the day.

Thanks for looking in!  ~Nancy F.

A Brain Cramp, Camp Snoopy, CASEing Kim and Sketch 133

So....  I had a complete brain cramp on making card kits for the OWH card making party coming up at the end of this month.  Mojo - completely gone!   I decided to play with Halloween stuff and came up with these totally inappropriate cards.

 Alas, still no mojo for card kits..... Then my neighbor told me a story about her friend who took a group of kids to Dorney Park, our local amusement park, and threw up after riding the kiddie roller coaster in the Camp Snoopy part of the park.  That gave me an idea for a card for her to send ....

 But that still isn't helping with the kits.  Neither did what I came up with for Sketch 133.

I couldn't care less about football, but the stickers were cute, so I'm going to try to use them up.
My last ditch effort for a card kit came from a CASEing Kim at http://stampingwiththeoldies.blogspot.com -Thanks, Kim!  Now I know what to do next time I have a brain freeze. 

That's my day in a nutshell.  Let's hope the upcoming week goes a lot better!  Thanks for stopping by!
~Nancy F.

Operation Write Home - Sketch 132

It's almost too sticky and hot to think in these parts and I mostly just felt like being a slug.  But I did manage to get myself out of the gravitational pull on the couch and make this card for Sketch 132.  I'm not thrilled with it, but at least I managed to actually do SOMETHING today.

Maybe I should have been with someone who could help my being!  lol
Nancy F.

Our Daily Bread Designs - August Challenge

Our Daily Bread Designs is hosting a challenge of masculine cards during the month of August.  For each 25 cards, they will pay the postage for one box of cards to be shipped to our heroes.  Awesome!  Here's my masculine card.  I just finished up making kits of these for our Operation Write Home card making party near the end of August and we'd love to have help from anyone near Fogelsville, Pa.!

~Nancy F.

OWH Sketch Challenge 131...and some kits...

We had two tramps plus one working on card kits for the big OWH event in Fogelsville, Pa. on Aug. 25th!  Talk about excitement!  lol
I skipped the kit making for the day (wore myself out a bit) and decided just to play around with today's sketch and see what I came up with.  My regular monthly box of cards to mail to Caro is really lacking and I feel so guilty!

 

Joanne has really been putting in a lot of overtime on her card kits......she's got a ton of them done!

I think it will be fun to see who grabs what kit.  What I like the best is that our kits are so different from each other.  Thanks for looking!   ~Nancy F.

OWH Sketch Challenge #129

It feels good to get back in the groove with the weekly challenges.  I love how this card came out.  I plan to make several to use at the upcoming card making party for Operation Write Home in August.  And now, my blogger friends, I need some help with ideas for card kits for the party.  So far, I've come up with a few.  These are the easier ones.

I added a few more parts to these:

And then I thought I'd throw in some of these for people who like getting their fingers full of glue.

I need thoughts of how easy/hard to make the kits, how much "stuff" to have around for those who want to do their own thing and how do you figure out how many kits to have when you don't really have a firm head count?  Thanks for looking, and for reading this far....and for any suggestions you might have.  ~Nancy F.

OWH Sketch Challenge #128

The blog has been stagnant for a little while.  We've been in the midst of planning a card making day and have been preoccupied with making kits for the event. 

I sort of feel like I cheated on this one, but I just had to tear myself away from making kits before I went crazy......ooops, too late.

Our Daily Bread Challenge For OWH Postage Again!

This months challenge is to think “cool.”  And how awesome that Our Daily Bread will pay the postage for a box of cards to be shipped to our heroes!  I hope this card helps put us over the 25 cards we need to win the challenge.