The Last of the December Challenges

I got a chance to play in the craft room all day today, and finished the last two challenges at Scraptastic.

I always love Susan Stringfellow's sketches, but for some reason I had a hard time finding just the right photo to use with it. I settled on a shot taken last week at our community winter festival and used the Colorblind kit and a couple snowflake dies to scrap it. We invited our kids and granddaughter to come up and although she enjoyed the rides and the food, she spent the most time playing in the snow. My Northern family is astonished that anyone would actually MAKE snow to play in!

The last challenge was to use a delicious palette of neutrals and pinks. I loved these colors so much that I actually treated myself to the Just Breathe add on as well as the main kit, something I never do. However, instead of digging into the kit, I stamped a background in khaki on white and stamped some hearts and a sentiment. I did use the twine and candy dots from the kit and add-on to embellish the card.

I can't believe the year is nearly over. It's been a good one. Looking forward to the New Year!!

Happy New Year!

More Scraptastic Challenges

I already did the "use gold" challenge which was the first Scraptastic challenge this month. There was no "Mr. Linky" gadget on the challenge post, so hopefully my contribution and that of other girls who posted on Facebook or their blogs will be counted.

Just finished the second challenge. Now that was an ordeal that should have been simple! I could either mask and stamp, or do some paper weaving. I chose the former because I had seen this beautiful card by Jennifer McGuire in which she masked off a center strip, then stamped in white and overstamped in color, but offset a bit. I didn't care for my first try at all. I didn't like the paisley/flower shapes I chose, the color-on-white stamping didn't show up much and my white line was off a tad:

Next I stamped some flowers and leaves on white cardstock. All was well until I peeled off the washi tape and it peeled off some paper with it! What?!

Last try, same flowers, but this time I removed some of the sticky from the washi tape by patting it on my clothes. Tape removed smoothly, sentiment stamped cleanly, black lines in place and it was going SO well until I managed to smudge the darn thing along the edge. So I pretty much had to ink the edges, which I hadn't intended to do and would have looked much better without. Then I managed a faint fingerprint along the middle somewhere (where DOES this stuff come from? I've washed my hands half a dozen times in this process!) so a few candy dots came to the rescue. Not overly pleased with the results but I do like the technique and the flowers themselves were kind of pretty. I would definitely try this again.

On to the next challenge, which is a nice sketch by Susan Stringfellow, and then the final challenge which is a delicious color palette of pinks and neutrals.

Snow cards

This week's Wednesday challenge at Simon Says Stamp is to create a card with a snow theme: I've been using snow a lot on the few Christmas cards I send out. What is this South Floridian's fascination with snow, you may ask...? Maybe I have fond memories of growing up in Chicago, admiring that first blanket of white, building a snowman, having a snowball fight, ice skating at the park, and being pulled by Daddy on a sled to the library. I was too young to have to shovel the darn stuff or pay the heating bill, so all my snow memories are happy ones. Anyway, I made a few cards with snowflakes or snow:

This next one has a gift card holder inside -- a little envelope I carefully made to the right size with paper matching the front mat, only to find out that the gift cards are sold neatly bound up in the cardboard that gives all the info about using it. Fortunately the whole thing is card size, so I am just  ignoring the special envelope and enclosing the whole gift card thingy.

December? Already?

Where has the year gone? I can't believe we've been in our townhouse for over a year now! We've learned our way around much of our new neighborhood and have met lots of nice people.

I wanted to participate in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge this week, which is to make your own background for a card. I just recently bought a stencil and modeling paste from SSS and this is my first effort to use it for a background. Those pretty snowflakes are dies from SSS too -- I love them!

That card also qualifies for the Scraptastic December challenge to use gold on a card or layout. I also made a second card for that challenge, with a gold-embossed sentiment backed by a scalloped gold label:

Looking forward to what other scrappy challenges December may bring!

I've been meaning to get back to creating cards for the challenge at Operation Write Home sponsored by Our Daily Bread Design, and had a chance to make a card for this month's theme -- a masculine card. This nice company with an attractive lineup of products supports OWH by paying shipping on up to two boxes of cards to our troops; and they select a random prize winner to boot! I recently got a couple of Tim Holtz stencils and am having fun learning to use them:

November projects

I used last year's November Scraptastic kit and Susan Stringfellow's latest sketch for the third Scraptastic challenge. Gardening starts in earnest in October here in South Florida and our community garden is looking beautiful just now. I popped by last weekend and took some photos to scrapbook.

My 5 Minutes of Fame

I love making cards for Operation Write Home. This wonderful organization is the brainstorm of Sandy Alnock and is staffed by herself and a number of amazing volunteers. Hundreds of crafters from around the country make handmade cards with blank interiors and send them to OWH headquarters where they are collected, sorted, and shipped to soldiers and sailors serving overseas so that they can write home. It's a huge undertaking.

I've been making cards for Operation Write Home for a couple years now. Sometimes I send 15 or 20 cards, sometimes I save them up and send a big box, like I did in September. I'm primarily a scrapbooker, but cardmaking is a natural extension of that and I have a lot of fun trying new techniques and using up supplies. It's a win-win for everyone!

You could have knocked me over with a feather when I was asked last month if I would like to be OWH's Cardmaker of the Week. I was honored to be asked! The cards they featured are not necessarily the same ones I would have picked out of the box as my favorites, but I'm so glad someone liked them. That's the fun thing -- I make a broad assortment of styles and colors and types (birthday, miss you, love, plain, etc) -- and there's something for everyone.

And so today, ta da...my 5 minutes of fame!

http://operationwritehome.org/featured-friday-cardmaker-adele-h-jupiter-fl/

More October Challenges

I loved the family LO by Brittany, and did something along those lines using Scraptastic's October "Never Tear Us Apart" kit for my own take on the challenge to use a large photo. Jack had set up the camera on the tripod and used the timer to allow him time to be part of the picture so we could have a family photo.

Next up, Melanie's challenge was to fussy cut some patterned paper. I used the camera paper from the same kit, and fussy cut one of the cameras as an embellishment.

There's still a sketch challenge that I hope to get done as I love Susan's sketches, and there should be one last challenge on Thursday. So much fun working on these!

11/3/13 I did get a chance to finish the sketch challenge at my crop yesterday. Love Susan Stringfellow's sketches!

October's Shaping Up Great!

October has already brought really good stuff and it's only the 6th!

Best of all: Our son, Paul, accepted a job about half an hour North of us, after living in the Atlanta area for the last 8 years or so. He'll work at the Atlanta area branch until his youngest finishes the school year, and then the company wants him down here at the main office. We are so excited!

We had a fence installed around the side yard and Muffin is the happiest pup in the world to have a place to run and run and, oh yeah, chase those squirrels up a tree. Next we need to do a little landscaping.

I was chosen to be the Cardmaker of the Week on the Stars and Stripes (Operation Write Home) blog in November. More on that later.

And I found out I was the random winner of a gift certificate to the Scraptastic store for my August challenge entry. Yippee! Can't wait to spend it!

I'm looking forward to a weekend crop mid-month (never been to one and don't know what to expect) and then my sister and brother-in-law are coming for a 4-day visit.

The first October challenge is posted at Scraptastic, which is to use Danni's card as inspiration for a project of my own. What first caught my eye about her card was the frame, with a die cut popped up on it, as well as the stitching. I traced the frame that just came in my new October kit, inked and embossed it. and popped it up with inked stars from an older kit. My sewing machine was actually up since I just finished making a set of place mats, so I did a little zig-zagging on the frame. Shoulda used a heavier thread as it hardly shows. The patterned paper is from my stash; I'm still slugging away at making cards from my oldest products and I'm gaining on it!

Looking forward to the next challenge!

August was a great month!

First, I only participated in one of the August challenges at Scraptastic Club, but I love this sketch by Susan Stringfellow and my entry was a snap to put together:

Our niece, Michelle, got married this month and we made it up for the festivities. She was a lovely bride and although traveling is a pain anymore, we're both glad we went. I laughed myself silly with my sisters -- I think I had a sore throat for two days just from laughter! The mother of the bride was so busy I hardly saw her, but I did get at least one photo with one sister.

The really neat thing that happened to me in August was that I was the recipient of not one, not two, but three totally unexpected random acts of kindness from my scrappy friends! Jackie had an extra seat in an online class and asked if I wanted it -- yes, please! I learned some cool new tricks that I want to try, especially a journal covered in embossed and inked tape.

Then Veronica sent me a package of scrapping goodies for no other reason than I happened to be the first person to post a comment on her new blog. I can't wait to dive into this great stuff -- just look at those craft die cuts! And tags and brads and buttons, oh my!

Then right on the heels of that, and also out of a clear blue sky, Kim sent me a package of scrapping goodness:

which I've already used to make this birthday card:

and these Christmas cards for Operation Write Home:

I am always blown away by the kindness of others, especially when it's so unexpected...and from friends I only know by chatting with them in the Scraptastic Forum! They're awesome!

As for me, I just celebrated my 66th birthday. I'm trying to connect with an elementary school to do some tutoring or otherwise work with young children. And I've started working in the community garden. I like that they use organic methods and I'm learning a lot. The growing season doesn't begin here until October, so lately we've been planting seeds, pulling weeds and turning under cover crops.

On to see what September brings!

Stamps and dies and inks, oh my!

I have a couple new dies, some new inks and stamps, and I've been having the best time in my little craft closet experimenting with them.

This one was done for a Summer Fruits challenge at Simon Says Stamp. I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder and a Cricut cut from the Preserves cart.

Living things were the Monday card challenge at Scraptastic, and I've been on a butterfly kick lately. So these birds and butterflies were my contribution there:

And I've also been playing with a daisy die and a window die, as well as some new Hero Arts Notebook Essentials stamps and Hero Arts shadow inks (love the soft colors. I'm pretty sure I need all of them LOL!). 

Most of these will be on their way to Operation Write Home soon. I'm working on filling a flat rate box and I'm close to 200 cards now. I love making cards for OWH -- I get to have all the fun and our deployed soldiers get a blank card to write home on. Win-win!

May Challenges and a card request

I blinked and May is moving right along. As it turns out, I was the lucky random winner (#4) for April, and I won a $20 gift certificate to the Scraptastic store! I also won a $5 certificate in one of the card challenges, so I'm having a really good month! I'm now working on May's challenges:

This challenge was to use a sketch, and I created a card. The background is scored, the stripes are stamped, and the center was cut out so that the sentiment shows beneath the popped up swatch.

I'm going to send this card to a young lady I've never met named Maddy. I just read about her in a blog I follow, and learned that she is fighting leukemia for the second time. Her wonderful attitude and strong spirit leave me in awe! Apparently when she was ill the first time, people all over sent her cards and words of encouragement, which meant a lot to her, so the family is asking for more cards! You can read her story here. Or just make a nice card and send her a few words of encouragement at:

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Maddy Justice-Patient
262 Danny Thomas Place
Attention Mail Stop 108
Memphis, TN 38105

5/23/13. This week's challenge was Opposites Attract. I've been meaning to try a stamping technique with light-on-dark and then dark-on-light and I stamped this clock for a card. THEN I re-read the parameters and realized a layout was called for. If this card doesn't qualify, no problem, at least I tried something new! And who knows, I still have over a week to see what else I come up with.

April Challenges

I love participating in the challenges at Scraptastic Club. There are card challenges in the Forum every Monday, and a new challenge on the blog every Thursday. The first April blog challenge is to create a birthday card and send it to someone. What could be easier for me, since I'm always making cards!? This one is for our son, to be mailed out in the next couple days:

He likes plaid, and I've been saving this last scrap for him!

Next challenge was to create a project using numbers. I made several variations of this card:

There is also an "anything goes" challenge on Simon Says Stamp this week. I like to try new things, and this background was my first attempt at letterpress: ink up the raised side of an embossing folder before running the paper through my Cuttlebug. At first I didn't like it because the ink was splotchy, then I decided I did like the look -- sort of distressed -- and I thought it was a great background for some brightly colored banners using the Folded Banner die from Simon Says. They have quite a collection of little dies that are pretty inexpensive, and I've been using this one over and over for cards. My next issue was using a three-line stamp on three different banners, but post-it notes came to the rescue to mask all but the line I wanted.

Off to work on some more challenges!

The last Thursday challenge for April at Scraptastic was a great sketch from Jana Eubank. I followed the sketch pretty faithfully and I have to say, this is a rare layout for me -- one I'm actually pleased with when it's done! Did I mention I loooove this sketch?!

There's one more challenge I missed, using paint on a project, but I'm not sure if I'm going to get to it, mainly because I only have a vague idea of what I want to do. I still have a few days to let that idea roll around in my head.

Look What I Won!

Toward the end of January Hero Arts had a fun blog hop to introduce their new stamps. There were great ideas on every blog and I left comments for everyone. And guess who was one of three winners!!?? Me!!!

Hero Arts Blog Hop Winners

I've been anticipating my prize ever since and hoping to see it each day. Today FedEx delivered this awesome prize to my door:

I love Hero Arts stamps for their quality, and I love this selection! I've seen some really cool things done with the background stamp, and I've been wanting some large sentiments. Three of the ink cubes are in colors I don't have; and that ice cream cone is begging to be paper-pieced. You can bet some of these will be showing up in cards for Operation Write Home as well as for the family.

Thank you Hero Arts! It's fun to be a winner!

ATC's

I'm new to making ATC's, but they are such fun little pieces to design and make. I just bought a cute stamp set from Simon Says Stamps and thought it would be perfect for a few ATC's to trade at an upcoming crop:

The background is dry embossed and touched with white ink. Copper wire strung between two brads makes a closet pole. I paper pieced one dress, and stamped the included little flower on the skirt of the other. A tiny touch of Stickles on the belt and flower centers dressed up the outfits. And isn't that tiny hangar stamp the cutest thing? This set should make fun cards for my friends too -- there are several fun "hang" sentiments.

January Challenges, Part 2

It's so good to have a little time to scrap, and a place to do it! I'm still working on arranging my little scrap closet to get max use out of each shelf, but it's coming along. Meanwhile, I'm having so much fun participating in the challenges at Scraptastic Club. This challenge is simply to use a favorite photo and at least 7 lines of journaling.

I may tinker with this some more. I'm not happy that the photo doesn't show up better; nor do the journaling strips. 

In addition to the Thursday challenges, Danni has started offering a little weekly prize for her card challenges, which were already fun. I plan to take part in those too. It's the challenges that give me a focus and a deadline, and I love that as much as I love seeing what others create.

I did a card for Scraptastic's color challenge. I chose the other kit this month, so had to scrounge through my stash to find the right colors. 

In the meantime, I liked the colors in the other kit so much that I ordered it to come with my February kit. Glad I did too because it is now sold out.

Danni's card tutorials/challenges are always fun. Last Monday's was a recipe challenge to use 3 labels, 2 patterned papers, 3 arrows and two hearts. Her example was a longer format, so the elements may be a little squished on an A2, but I had fun even though I forgot to post my photo before the deadline. Oops! 

Speaking of cards, I got a tax receipt from Operation Write Home for 92 cards! This was a down year for me and I barely had time to make any, so I was astonished at the total. I hope to do better this year. It's a great way to use up paper and materials, and I am more creative in making cards than I am in layouts. Not as big a commitment, ya know?

Just up today, another fun challenge at Scraptastic. We were talking on the Forum about stuff we have but don't use, one of which was old magazine articles. The challenge was to pick one and do the project. I chose some softly inked flowers in an article in the current Cardmaker magazine:

And here's what I did with it:

Challenge #4 was to use six or more paper strips on a page. The grandkids were really squished on air mattresses in the office when they were here at Christmas, and I took a photo to document the tight squeeze. For the LO, I felt rather smug cutting off the little margins of all the papers in my "The Story Begins" kit, and mixing them with washi tape.

Last challenge for January was to use Heather's fun sketch. When the kids were visiting at Christmas from Atlanta, we spent a couple hours at the beach. Lauren wasn't feeling well and stayed home in bed with a bowl of oatmeal, but it's a nice photo of Paul, Angela, PJ and Ashlyn. Here's the sketch and my take on it:

Ha! I believe I actually managed to participate in all 5 Thursday challenges as well as all of the card challenges this month. It's a great way to get projects done! On to February...