Midweek Throwdown Any Hero Cards

 

This week we were challenged to make any hero cards with a note inside of them.  Here's a whole set I made.

 

 

Our Daily Bread Design Challenge for July 2013

  Our Daily Bread Designs make a shipping donation to Operation Write Home every month based on the number of cards in the InLinkz (only one entry per person!) – ODBD will sponsor one large box of cards for every 25 cards linked to the challenge post, with a maximum of 2 boxes per month.

The July challenge is Stitching…it can be real stitching or faux stitching.  Here is a patchwork heart card I created to help meet the challenge.  It features pop-up stacked stitched hearts on the inside as well.

Midweek Throwdown Cards 4 Kids

This image is courtesy of Dustin Pike.

Our Daily Bread Designs April Challenge

First of all, I want to say that I was thrilled to be chosen as a winner in the "Our Daily Bread March Challenge".  I've been told by Operation Writes Home that I've won a $25 gift certificate to the Our Daily Bread web site.  When the confusion and dust settles on their side, and I receive my certificate, I am looking forward to getting a Scor Buddy.  I've been looking at them at Michael's for quite some time.  They are supposed to be great at not only helping to fold card bases better, but can be used in the actual design of a card.  It will definitely add some new dimension to my card making!  Here's the Our Daily Bread Designs web site. 

The challenge for April 2013 is "Things that Fly".  I immediately thought of butterflies.  Well, maybe not immediately, but the little gnats that have been flying around here this spring would not be as beautiful or exciting.  Neither would the mosquitos, which seem to be out early this year.  

The butterfly was colored with Prismacolor pencils, then blended with baby powder scented baby oil.  The background was made by rubbing pastel colored chalk placed on a hand-scalloped piece of cardstock onto a white piece of cardstock, then set with hairspray.  The butterfly was mounted with my version of dimensional tape, which is tiny pieces of recycled shipping box, with ATG tape on both sides.  The silver accents on the butterfly wings is simply 3D glitter fabric paint, which when dry, releases absolutely no glitter.  It allows me to have a little bit of glitter look without endangering our deployed Heroes.  

I made four of these cards, to be used as Any Hero cards.  There seems to be a shortage of Any Hero cards right now, so I encourage my readers to check out the Operation Write Home web page regarding Any Hero mail, and see if you can send in a letter or two to support those who support us daily.  http://operationwritehome.org/anyhero/ 

Our Daily Bread Challenge for March 2013

Sometimes the challenges are extra challenging for me because of my limited cropping equipment.  I don't have one of those fancy cutters, so when the challenge calls to use a scallop on my card, I either have to think a bit out of the (Cricut) box or pass.  I decided to give it a go with my trusty craft scissors.  Using craft scissors is frowned upon by some people, but I'm not one of them.  :-)

The flag stickers were provided by Trader Joe's market.  If you visit them at the right time they will give the stickers away at the cash register, and if you say what you are going to use them for, they will probably give you extra.  I made the scallops by first cutting out the appropriate sized circles with a circle cutter, then carefully cutting around the edge of the circle with my craft scissors.  The slightly off part of the circle where my cutting started and ended was conveniently covered by a gold ribbon.

Our Daily Bread goes Fruity

The Our Daily Bread Challenge for February 2013 is fruit.  I search through all my digis, and wasn't able to come up with much.  Fruit is just not one of those subjects that ends up on my cards very often.  After my extensive search, I did manage to locate a cupcake with a cherry on top.  The image is by Elizabeth Dulemba.  You can find her wonderful collection of images here  http://dulemba.com/index_ColoringPages.html,  I used Prismacolor pencils with baby oil to color the image, and metallic gel pens to color the sprinkles.

Midweek Throwdown Color Challenge

The December 19th throwdown challenged OWH card makers to make cards using the colors red, white & blue for our heroes to send home to their family and friends.  You can see the challenge here:  http://operationwritehome.org/midweek-throwdown-color-challenge-5/ 

Yesterday the world didn't end, as promised by the Mayans, but my ATG gun did meet its maker, so I decided to post something red, white and blue that was already in my box.  

Solid colored cardstock and a patriotic heart which I pre-colored using Microsoft Paint make this an All American card that I hope a hero will enjoy sending home.

 

 

December 2012 Our Daily Bread Challenge

My participation in Operation Write Home's various challenges has been lacking, but what has been lacking even more is my creative juices since I went back to work at the beginning of November.  It is as if working in special education preschool sucks the life right out of my "MOJO".  I don't know if it is because I use it all up at work or because I come home physically exhausted.  To solve this dilemma, I have set up various challenges for myself which arrive periodically via email, using www.memotome.com.  If you are not familiar with this web site, you're in for a treat.  For FREE they will send you email reminders for anything.  You decide how often they should come, the date and the time, etc.  Anyway, once per month it is now set up to remind me to participate in the Our Daily Bread challenge. This challenge is important because if we reach a certain number of cards, Our Daily Bread will donate the cost of postage to ship one box of Operation Write Home's cards to our deployed heroes, up to two per month.

Anyway, this month's challenge was easy for me.  We were challenged to make a card using flowers.  You can see the challenge here, as well as other entries:  http://operationwritehome.org/odbd-december-challenge/  There is glitter on the card, which is normally forbidden, but the glitter I use is in the form of Tulip Fabric Paint, which does not rub off at all.  I like this particular "believe" stamp.  One could take it as a religious meaning, but my take on it is that it reminds me of the scene in the movie "Polar Express", and is more of an expression of hope.

July "Our Daily Bread" Challenge - Think Cool

Each Month "Our Daily Bread" sponsors Operation Write Home for the shipping costs of up to two priority mail boxes.  These boxes containing blank greeting cards are sent to deployed service members all over the world.  For every 25 cards posted to the challenge site, the organization will cover the cost of one box.  I like to participate in the challenges when I can.

This month, with all of the heat waves and wild fires, the challenge is to think "Cool".  We are supposed to use cool colors and think cool thoughts while creating our entry, which in turn will become part of our donation to Operation Write Home.

A friend of mine from high school, Deena Oshins Newell has a son, Michael Oshins, who loves to create snowman comics. www.snowmencomic.blogspot.com I had admired his work for quite a while before approaching him with the idea of using his work on my Operation Write Home cards.  When I asked for permission, he didn't hesitate to get involved.  His comics on my cards provides some comic relief to  the service members and their families as they keep in touch during their trying times.

Anyway, here's my entry into July's "Our Daily Bread" challenge, using cool colors and Michael's creation.  The tag on top is what I put on the back of each card I create using his work.

Under the definition of life sucks...

It must be surgery season. A couple of weeks ago my sister in-law in Washington had knee surgery. A couple of days ago my husband's uncle in Arizona had back surgery. Next Tuesday my sister, who lives about 25 minutes away, is having foot surgery. Normally, I would want to be there to help her recover, but unfortunately I will be having shoulder surgery three days after my sister's surgery.

Laura and I have agreed on two things regarding this:
1) Life sucks because we are not going to be able to help each other through our expected to be long recuperations.
2) As soon as both of us are somewhat mobile and can travel a bit, we will meet up for lunch somewhere and let other people wait on us. Let's hope we can do this by Memorial Day.

I wanted to do something to let my sister know I was thinking of her, so I sent her a card a few days ago. I had to wait until she received it before posting.

Good luck, Laura!

Stars & Stamps - Thinking of You - Challenge

This week Operation write Home's Stars & Stamps challenge is to make Thinking of You cards for our heroes to send home to their family and friends! I made this card to meet the challenge. The digi was colored in Prisma pencil, and blended with sweet baby powdered scented baby oil. The paper is from an old scrap donated by the Crop Soup meetup group.

ODBD April Challenge

Our Daily Bread designs will sponsor postage costs for up to two boxes of greeting cards for deployed service members if enough people enter their monthly challenge via Operation Write Home. This month's challenge is to make a card with an animal on it.

It takes me forever to make cards with my "shredded wheat" of a shoulder, but fortunately I already had a digi colored, and am proud to be able to participate in this challenge.

A Challenge upon a Challenge

When I started physical therapy for a rotor cuff injury, my physical therapist told me I should give up making cards for now because it physically hurt me to use the paper cutter, punches, ATG gun, etc. It was hard to do because I've been "addicted" to making cards for Operation Write Home for a couple of years now. Due to a recent fall, details of which I won't go into here, my shoulder worsened, and I ended up with a new orthopedist who told me "You've got to start moving that shoulder". What I heard him say, in the style of Charlie Brown's teacher was "Making cards would be excellent moving that shoulder therapy." It hurts. Sometimes more than at other times, depending on what I am doing. It can take several trips to the crafting table, followed by ice, to get a card done, but I am learning some tricks to make the process easier, such as standing when I use the paper cutter and large punches.

In an effort to do my daily Card Therapy and to help OWH receive some free shipping, I decided to play along with the Our Daily Bread challenge: http://www.owhstarsandstamps.org/2012/03/march-odbd-challenge.html

It may not be the best card I've made, but a challenge upon a challenge is a challenge!

Sparkle & Shine in the new year

What a poor little neglected blog this turned out to be! Hopefully I will do a little better in 2012, but no promises. I tend to say it all in my little blurbs I post on Facebook.

With the withdrawal from Iraq, we have been told that Operation Write Home doesn't need as many of our cards as it used to, but until all the deployed service members are home, there will be a need for our cards. That's good, because the number of cards I made in the past year was substantially lower than the year before. I go through periods of time when I am feeling very creative, then others when I don't have a creative bone in my body. With the need for fewer cards, I no longer need to feel the obligation to force it during my non-creative periods.

With the end of 2011 and beginning of 2012 I've been feeling the need to sparkle and shine. I've once again brought out my beloved little bottle of 3 dimensional glitter paint I bought at Walmart a couple of years ago. This paint is one of the only "legal" ways to apply glitter to my OWH cards, as I can rub and rub the dried paint, and nothing flakes off.

My last card of 2011 was a sunburst pattern, accentuated with flowers that have glittery centers. The flowers give it a youthful appearance, while the bursts of color represent hope. 2011 was not a bad year. Luckily, we both managed to maintain employed, although I did have to take a number of furlough days. We said goodbye to some beloved pets, but we were also able to take on a couple of new ones, giving them the opportunity to flourish and grow.

In my first card of 2012 I've got birthday on the brain, as all three of my brother in-laws have December birthdays. I had some scraps of paper to use up, and loved the idea of wrapping up some birthday candles in a bright red ribbon. So, a happy belated birthday to Eric Splaver, Mark Stiefel and John Thacker, as well as my sister, Laura Silverman-Splaver.

Ardith T's Stars & Stamps Challenge

I love a good challenge when it comes to making cards. It forces me to think out of my own little box, and perhaps use some of the products I've had sitting around, but didn't know what to do with. There seems to be a little controversy as to what makes a good challenge. For me, IMHO, I don't like being told that I must own this and I must buy that in order to participate. I'd rather find inspiration in the subject matter at hand, whether it be love, spring fling, warm and fuzzy or whatever. I also like challenges where I am asked to CASE (copy and share everything, I think...) the work of other card members. Today's OWH birthday bash challenge was to find inspiration in the work of Ardith T's cards, posted here: http://www.owhstarsandstamps.org/2011/09/birthday-bash-2011-day-2-case-ardeth-t.html

Be sure to check out Ardith's beautiful work. It is definitely inspiring, and CASEing her helps me to become a better card maker. In the end, it's all for the troops, but making me a better artist will make the troops and their loved ones enjoy my own work even more.

One Special Card Per Week

I've been making cards for Operation Write Home www.operationwritehome.org for about 1 1/2 years now. When I started, I didn't know what the heck I was doing. I had never made cards before, and I had only agreed because I was asked to do it by a friend who had greatly benefited from what they do, both while she was deployed to Iraq, and when she got back and was involved in a horrific 20 car pileup while driving across country. The learning curve was pretty high. I had to learn about various tools, using special papers, layout, etc. I'm not an artist, but I kept telling myself that I could improve on my skill set, and I have.

I follow a blog where the writer started a challenge for herself called "52 letters per year". Every week she writes a letter to somebody. The fun in it is the recipient is not expecting the letter. With email so readily available, people don't "snail mail" much anymore, so it is a very pleasant surprise to receive something other than bills and advertisements in the mail box. I like that idea. I've decided to give it a try myself, with a slight change. I have to make the card before I write the letter.

I actually made and wrote up two cards for my first week, but I only took a picture of one of them. The first one was for my husband's cousin Camie, who has just undergone some major surgery. I figured she could use a bit of cheer as she starts her long recuperation. I also sent a card to my friend Marianne. Marianne was my secretary when I worked at a law firm back in the early 80's. Despite our age differences, we quickly developed a strong friendship which did not end when the firm lost its major client, and I was laid off. Her elderly husband has been going down hill for quite awhile, and is not expected to live much longer. They've always been such a nice couple, and I feel very sad for both of them. Her card arrived just on time, as she was in a terrible car accident Monday, and definitely needed cheer.

Not all the people I send cards to will be in such a state of health or mind. You never know who could be next. All I know is that sending these handmade bits of cheer has made me feel good, and it's nice to share my newly acquired talent of card making with people I actually know. Who is next? I haven't decided yet...but I have lots of ideas.

The Book Nerd

I've had several people suggest that I start a blog. I've always resisted. However, as of today I'm playing with a full deck with two marvelous jokers on the side, so it's as good a time as ever to give it a shot.

Because we are having a family gathering today to celebrate some out of town & mostly out of the country family members visiting the area, Steve and Ian took me out for a wonderful birthday celebration last week. I had been upset about missing my beloved Tom Hank's latest movie, "Larry Crowne", in favor of the most boring summer movie, "Cars 2". "Cars 2" is the type of movie where you keep asking yourself "how could a movie that looks so good, be so bad!!!!" Anyway, "Larry Crowne" moved on quickly, but Steve managed to find it playing at a cheap theater in Pasadena. Neither of the guys told me where we were going, so when we headed out toward the area I was completely left in the dark. Pasadena is not a hangout for me. I was thrilled when I found out what they were up to. First we saw the movie, which was wonderful. Afterward, they set me loose in a local bookstore and told me to get anything I wanted. Being a library fanatic, I ended up with a "Book Nerd" t-shirt and a couple of buttons suitable for wearing to work. We ended our trip at a Mexican restaurant for a full round of cheese enchiladas. Mmmmm!

Today also marks another occasion, aside from my birthday. It is the last day of summer break. I was expecting to go back to school August 15th, but to my surprise I was called in early to attend faculty and department meetings, and no doubt I will be running around like a crazy person afterward, helping various friends get their rooms set up. A couple of rooms went through asbestos abatement over the summer, and some teachers were told at the last minute that they have to change rooms. I'm not looking forward to starting the school year a day early, but I am looking forward to seeing some old friends I haven't seen all summer.

Anyway, this blog is being started on a lark. I'm sure it will contain funny stories about things that happen at school, family stories and outings, and lots of Operation Write Home cards. I'll rant and rave on stupid things in the news. I'll post great recipes. It will be eclectic. Be brave, and follow along...if you dare.