Make a wish...

Looking thru my future Operation Write Home box last night, it seemed to be lacking in the birthday department.  I made ten of these... five for OWH and five for me.  I used a stamp set by Stampin' Up that I've had for over a year... ouch!

 

As a New Year's Resolution, I decided to make up monthly envelopes with a list of goals for the month.  The objective was that each month, I'd use either what was IN the envelope, what was suggested ON the envelope, or both.  I only made up envelopes thru June as I was afraid I might go looking for something I KNEW I had but had forgotten had been delegated to an envelope.  I'm off to a good start, don't you think?

 

NON-blizzard Cards...

SO, we were going to have the storm of a lifetime starting Monday evening thru the day on Tuesday.  I was ready!  I was going to craft ALL day, power permitting.  However comma, we didn't get anywhere near the impact forecasters SAID we were going to get.  When I woke on Tuesday morning, I'd say we were lucky if there was 6 inches, let alone the 24 they predicted.  Now, my New England comrades DID get hit hard, and pretty DAMN hard to boot!

 



 The pad of paper I was planning to use was a 6" x 6" pad by My Mind's Eye, in their Lime Twist series, called "Fly a Kite".  My goal was to finish it up...

 

 I'm not sure I like this one but it'll probably grow on me.  I had these pre-cut strips from a previous card, see HERE and I wanted to use them up...

 

 I made six of these.  Most will go to Operation Write Home.  By the time they get to the field, it'll be Spring!  It was very fun working on these while it was snowing outside... :)

 

And this was CASEing Raeanna who was following OWH Sketch #212.  LOVE this layout... :)

 

So, I did succeed in finishing up the pad.  YAY!  And, I crafted all day with just an hour break to shovel a walkway to the car and clean it off.  My New England comrades are STILL digging out... :(



Coffee anyone?

I received ten of these cups in a swap.  I think they are from a Stampin' Up set but I'm not sure.  Anyway, I wasn't sure what to do with them until I came across something similar on Pinterest and decided to CASE it.  The sentiment is from a set called "Café Mocha" made by TPC Studio.  I was very pleased with the result.  I can think of a couple people who'd LOVE this card. Can you? :)

The first five...

For three consecutive years, I was given a challenge by a fellow crafter to join her in making five Christmas cards each month for Operation Write Home.  This year, she hasn't extended that challenge.  I'm assuming it is because the need for cards has diminished for OWH and she isn't doing it again.  But that's OKAY fellow crafters because I am extending that challenge to YOU... only it'll be a little different.

The CHALLENGE, should you chose to accept it, is to make five Christmas cards a month for your personal stash, another organization OR Operation Write Home.

 There are two reasons why I have loved doing this...

1. I would have a stash to send to OWH for both the early call in July and last call in October.
2. This gave me an opportunity to "try out" several different designs before choosing which one would be our own personal Christmas card.

For me personally, the second reason is the main reason I do this.  When I married the Ernman in 2013, we decided we would start sending Christmas cards out as a couple.  Both of us had stopped doing it years before.  
 

Having something to send to Operation Write Home is just an added bonus... 
 

SO, who's with me?

Smile...

 

A relatively quick card and very fun to make.  I made eight, five for Operation Write Home and three for me.  I had a weekend of just crafting with friends and when the weekend was over, I had completed a total of thirty cards.  Very productive!  NOW, I need some sleep... :)

Happy New Year!!

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!  2015?!!  Holy "where's the time going" Batman?!!

I call this card my "process" card.  Here are all the steps I took to get this end result...

1. On white paper, I heat embossed "Happy New Year!" with silver ink and clear powder
2. Using Tim Holtz Distress inks Black Soot and Faded Jeans, I distress the background going darker in the left hand corner and light over the sentiment and bottom.
3. I covered the sentiment and created "snow" by flicking Gesso mixed with water off a paintbrush onto the black and blue distressed paper... p.s. I got more on the floor than is on the card. :)
4. Die-cut Taylored Expressions Neighborhood Border from Navy Blue paper
5. Cut yellows and reds and attach to backs to create "lights" and a door.
6. Attach die-cut to card leaving a half inch at bottom.
7. Attach three punched miniture stars and add Glossy Accents to them. 
8. Attach five miniture bling.

I was very, very pleased with the final result and had alot of fun creating it...

 

Here we go into another year of cardmaking. My fifth to be exact.  I'm looking forward to trying new things, taking more classes and forging more friendships thru my love of letter writing AND cardmaking.  So, let's BRING it... :)

My Top 14 Cards of 2014...

When I was contemplating what cards to include in this post, I didn't think I had done anything of significance UNTIL I went thru all the Blog posts.  Holy cow!!  I did some interesting cards this year!  Here's my top 14...



This HAS to be #1.  It was SOOOO out of my box (pun intended).  My birthday card to the Ernman...

And this one was one of the Ernman's favorite.  We made this together for his son Christopher's 14th birthday...

I LOVED this card... simple and yet very striking.  I made this design in several different color combos and loved every one.

I colored this dog with Copics which I got a little better with in 2014...

I discovered Mixed Media in 2014.  Thanks Susan, you troublemaker!  This one is on the page of an old book...

This one, I used deli-paper.  Fell IN LOVE with that...

Then I learned how to make flowers from the deli-paper monoprints.  OMG!! New passion!



I liked this for it's simplicity...

And who doesn't love inchies...

The Ernman's Valentine... :)

Going thru all the posts, I discovered I had made this OWH Sketch # 218 several times.  I'm picking this one because it is masculine and not my forté...

In October, I ended up in the hospital having an emergency appendectomy.  My friend Sherry asked some card makers to send me Get Well cards.  They did and I was overwhelmed!  This card was made as a thank you and sent to each of those eighteen card makers...

I just loved how this turned out.  A print I had colored back in January that migrated next to a Scrappy background I had made the previous year.  They SOOOOO belonged together...

 And finally, one of our personal Christmas cards and the Ernman's favorite.  I have participated three years in a row in a challenge to make five Christmas cards a month.  A benefit to this is it gives me a healthy supply to send to Operation Write Home in October.  Another benefit is it gives me an opportunity to "test" a few designs and see what will be our own personal Christmas card for the coming season...

So, HAPPY NEW YEAR friends!  We are off and running...