airbornewife's stamping spot

OWH Sketch Challenge #105 ~ 92nd Birthday for Grandma

2012-01-25T22:08:00.004-07:00

I made this card for my husband's grandmother who is turning 92 this upcoming weekend.

I used the layout for the Operation Write Home Sketch Challenge #105 for this card.

Here is the sketch.

All the paper used on this card is from Stampin' UP!

I used Nestabilities dies for the circles, scallop circle and tag

The "92" are cut out using my Cricut Expression and the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge

The ribbon is from May Arts.. the other side of that pretty green is pink

The sentiment is from a Stampin' UP! Birthday set ~ can't remember name

White brads are some I picked up at some craft store

and of course there are dimensionals used on it!! ha ha

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Sening you lots of hugs... some quick cards.

2012-01-25T11:17:00.003-07:00

I made a set of six of these cards about two weeks ago.. I used some of my all-time favorite ribbon on the cards ~ Stampin' UP! Riding Hood Red Taffeta ribbon.. ahhhhh.. love it!

The sentiment is from Hero Arts.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

OWH Color Challenge ~ Set of Garden Collage cards

2012-01-21T15:52:00.004-07:00

Years ago I sold my Stampin' UP! Garden Collage stamp set and have regretted it ever since. When we were in Albuquerque, NM recently I was browsing through eBay and found a great deal on it and another set.. so I snatched it up. It arrived this week and this morning I set out to make some cards using the OWH Color Challenge. I made all the cards the same.. except I colored the butterfly on each one a different color.

Pink

Blue

YellowPurpleOrangeAqua BlueRed
Here they all are again... I am so happy with how they turned out. Where the sentiment is was a bow on the first card I made.. I didn't like the looks of the bow so I took it off and added the sentiment to it and each of the others as well.

Supplies:

card stock: White, Black

ink: Memento black, assorted markers

accessories: Stampin' UP! black ribbon, large oval punch, label punch, Brads, Hole Punch and Dimensionals

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

God Is My Salvation............

2012-01-02T20:13:00.002-07:00

I decided to make another card using the sketch challenge posted on the OWH website.. This one is way different than the first two I made.. As soon as I seen this paper.. I reached for one of my Our Daily Bread Designs stamp set and got busy.

Supplies:

card stock: Mahogany brown from XpedX, Stampin' UP! More Mustard, White
papers: K&Company Que Sera Sera
inks: Memento brown, Distress Iink
acces: Nestabilities circle/scallop circle, Butterfly die, brads, mat pack, paper piercer, White ribbon, bigkick, sponge and dimensionals

Here is the sketch layout from the OWH site:

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

OWH Sketch #102 Challenge.. Together and From The Heart cards

2012-01-02T17:55:00.004-07:00

I made these two cards last night using some stamps that are in a set by Hero Arts called Together. They were in a big lot of stuff I recently purchased.

These were pretty quick to put together.

Here is the sketch from the OWH site:

Supplies used:

card stock: Stampin' UP! Riding Hood Red, Crumb Cake (kraft)
paper: Basic Grey Blush paper pack
stamps: Hero Arts Together
inks: Distress inks
acces: Riding Hood Red Taffeta Ribbon, Pearls and Dimensionals

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

The shim I use in my ATG's

2011-12-31T17:26:00.005-07:00

I was asked by a fellow stamper about the "shim" I use in my ATG's. It's just a piece of paper that is thicker than card stock.. unless you have some super sturdy card stock, that too would work. I actually use the paper out of the Stampin' UP! dimensionals package, but you can use anything really.

This is two ATG's.. the on on the left I have a shim on.. the one on the right I don't.. see how the tape goes off the edge of the roller.. that was driving me nuts. I had read about it somewhere where someone had just cut a circle and placed it over the roll of tape.. and it worked.. I doubted it at first, but it really works.

I cut a circle the size of the roll of tape and then had to trim one side in just a little bit so I could get the 1" circle punch in on it so I could punch a circle out in the middle of it.

I then slip it over the top of the lip on the side where the tape goes:

There is nothing fancy about this, but it keeps my tape where I want it on the roller. When the shim gets tape icky on it.. don't toss it out, it's even better that way.. you just push it down on the roll so it kinda clings to the roll, keeping it from warping up.

UPDATE: not sure why I didn't remember this.. but when I first wanted to make a shim, I wanted to use one of the pieces from a roll of Stampin' UP! ribbon. But at the time I had no empty rolls.. last night as I was finishing up another roll of my beloved Riding Hood Red Taffeta Ribbon (20 rolls will be here this week).. I remembered.. these are perfect to use. You would remove the plastic pieces of course.. I kept them in this half so it didn't get lost on my desk.. and it fits right in your ATG. see pic. below:

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

10 Favorite OWH cards during 2011...

2011-12-31T06:30:00.004-07:00

When I read that OWH was going to do a little "linky blog hop" kinda thing where bloggers can post their 10 favorite OWH cards for 2011.. I thought, "I can do that".... except when I scrolled through blog posts I realized it wasn't going to be easy. I had sent in more than 1200 cards to OWH... so I got way more way than 10 and had to cut it down.. here are the ten I ended up with from my list.. and a little about each one:

Happy Mother's Day ~ Easel Card

I made a bunch of these cards. I had bought so many rolls of these Damask stickers and thought I'd never use them up.. well I ended up using an entire roll with all of these type cards (plus some regular cards as well).. now to unpack some more rolls that are buried in the garage so I can make some more for this upcoming Mother's Day.
ORIGINAL POST FOR THIS CARD

Greetings From Texas

We moved to Texas back in July.. and I couldn't buy up fast enough, all the cool Texas themed stamps at a local stamp store. These were my favorite cards that I made using the big TEXAS stamp.... these were all "Hero Mail" cards with notes inside from wives here at USASMA.. I thought someone from Texas, receiving one of these cards would so enjoy getting a greeting from their home state so I made a bunch of these.
ORIGINAL POST FOR THIS CARD

Thinking of You... cards that were for a Canine Challenge

I don't have any "canine" stamps, but found this digi on the OWH site: DOGGIE IN WAGON DIGI (*NOTE: this isn't a direct link to the digi.. it's like the fifth one down on the page.. I thought I would link to the page with all the digis in case there were others you might want to see/save/use.)...... and thought I'd use it on my cards for that challenge. When I made this card I thought of a mom or dad that was deployed sending it home to their son or daughter.. to let them know that they were thinking about them... missing them and loving them.
ORIGINAL POST FOR THIS CARD

Have a Great Day

I had picked up a stamp set that had the bicycle and sentiment stamp in it.. came home and had seen a card that I really liked the layout on and thought that I'd use the layout to make some cards. Midways through making these cards (I made 20) I ran out of the ribbon and had to take a trip around town trying to find some.. I didn't find an exact match, but one that was close enough.. I had to finish the cards and didn't think they'd look right without the ribbon.
ORIGINAL POST FOR THIS CARD
ANOTHER POST ABOUT THIS CARD
AND YET ANOTHER!

Dad

When I started to make some cards for Father's Day.. I either read or had heard Sandy say that if you could put "DAD" on the cards instead of "Father's Day" that the cards could be used anytime.. so I dug through my stamps and found this "DAD" one that was in a set that I was gifted by B. Johns. I made a bunch of these.. make that a whole bunch and really enjoyed myself making them.. knowing that a Dad somewhere around the world would be receiving the card from their son or daughter.. bearing a greeting for Father's Day or just to tell them how much they love and appreciate all their support.
ORIGINAL POST FOR THIS CARD

Thank You For Your Dedicated Service and Sacrifice

*I had a commenter ask about this Eagle image.. it is a stamp from StampersBest... use code: airbornewife to save 10%

There really is no other kind of card that I so enjoying making than cards for Heroes. I always wonder what the person receiving a card will think when they get it.. will they know just how much they are appreciated for all that they do? will they know that we at home support them with all our being? ... just thoughts I have.. then I smile and think that they too will be smiling when they get it because they will know the love from home that comes with it. God Bless Our Military and God Bless the United States of America.
ORIGINAL POST FOR THIS CARD... AND SOME OTHER HERO CARDS I MADE AROUND THE SAME TIME

Holiday Cheer ~ Snowmen cards

I made a bunch of these "tent topper" cards.. but had to keep my list to 10 so I opted to just show these.. I signed up for a Christmas Card Challenge on SCS and I said my goal for each month would be 10 Christmas cards.. I am so proud of myself for keeping my goal for every month this year.. and even making more than my goal during some months. I had lots and lots of Christmas cards that I sent in to OWH.... I had a handful of onesies that I had made that I sent out to family.. however I had no cards for friends and my mojo for making Christmas cards had left and just couldn't find it's way back for some reason.. try as I may, it just wouldn't come back. I'm going to need to find some mojo next month.. because the challenge starts all over again.. I think that this year I'll make 10 for OWH and keep then 2-3 more and keep those for family/friends for next year... but knowing me, I'd send them all to OWH.. cause that's just how I am... ha ha.
ORIGINAL POST FOR THIS CARD AND SOME SNOWGLOBE TENT TOPPER CHRISTMAS CARDS I MADE AS WELL

Thinking of You ~ Butterfly card

Thinking of you, Miss you and Love you cards are always needed by OWH.. and after making my favorite Hero cards.. making these kinds are my second favorite. This is a card I made that I had cased from a card I seen in a stamping magazine. I had just bought the H.A. stamp set and wanted to get it inked up.. the butterflies in it are beautiful. I hope that this card brought a smile to whoever received it.
ORIGINAL POST FOR THIS CARD

Thank you Hero... you make America proud.

another one of my favorite cards... I could make Red, White and Blue cards all day long. This card uses a digi that can be found on the OWH website THANK YOU HERO ... *NOTE: it's the third digi down on that page.. I thought I'd link to the page with all in case there are others you'd like to see/save/use. The star paper is some I picked up many years ago at a H.L. store.
ORIGINAL POST FOR THIS CARD

Layered and Watercolored.. and more layers bird card

I saved this one for last.. because there was so many pictures I had posted on the original post for this card and thought I'd put it at the end. I really liked making this card.. this image is from a Stampin' UP! stamp set Serene Spring which is one of my favorites. This card I made for a challenge that I think was to do layers upon layers on your card.. this is what I came up with. I almost kept it because I was so fond of it.. but sent it in to OWH instead.
ORIGINAL POST FOR THIS CARD

Okay.. that's it.. Thanks for sticking with me through this post. The next blog in the hop is GRAMMASROOM

If you'd like to see all the other blogs involved in the "hop".. go to the OWH Stars & Stamps blog.. have fun and enjoy..

Happy New Year to you all!!

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Thank You For Everything You Do! card

2011-12-29T16:16:00.002-07:00

I recently purchased a big lot of Hero Arts stamps from someone and I thought I'd get to inking them up.. the "Thank You" stamp was one of the stamps that I got.

Thank you Dixie for all that you have done and continue to do for Operation Write Home.. you are truly appreciated.

Supplies used:
stamp: Hero Arts Everything You Do
card stock: Stampin' UP! More Mustard, Cajun Craze. Mahogany and Cream from Xpedx. Pattern Paper from Scenic Route Paper Co.
ink: Memento brown
accessories: Stampin' UP! small and large star punches, star bling from M's and Dimensionals

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

A few cards I made last night.. and today.

2011-12-23T16:14:00.003-07:00

I placed a big order of Stampin' UP! goodies last week.. everything was off the Clearance Rack.. I got LOTS of rolls of ribbon, a few punches and a pack of holiday DSP.. as a freebie I got a pack of some DSP that is a Sale-A-Bration item.. it was free and I didn't want to pass up a freebie!

I still have yet to make some Christmas cards.. I know.. bad me.. but I did manage to make one last night.. and a Mom card, which I didn't really like after finishing it.. which was early morning, so I went to bed. I had cut all the papers/layers to make six cards.. so I thought I'd change things and am going to make the Mom cards using the longwise layout instead of the upright version.

It snowed here in Texas today.. this is the second time in the last month. I didn't think we would be getting snow out in this neck of the woods.. in fact when the movers were unpacking our stuff, they asked me what this big plastic yellow thing was with a handle on it.. I told them it was a snow plow.. they giggled telling me that I wouldn't be needing that out here.. guess whose laughing now! ha ha.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Paper Pieced/Punched SANTA CLAUS card

2011-12-21T11:52:00.003-07:00

A long time ago I had seen this Santa Claus card on Cindy Lawrence's blog.. and then I seen another Santa Claus card yesterday that reminded me of it so I thought I'd make one/some myself.

It's really not that hard.. and below photos is "how to" make this cutie.

I have Blush Blossom Stampin' UP! card stock, but they aren't the "textured" that was used in the original so I headed to HL to get some. The great thing was that the papers were on sale 40% off so I was happy to be able to get some rather cheaply.

For the white piece of card stock used for Santa's beard.. since I wanted it to fill the card from one side to the other.. I took a piece of card stock that was 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" and I embossed both ends of it.. then cut it in half up to the edges .. then I cut it down to size at 4 1/4".. do it a tad bigger than you can cut any excess off after you attach it. Then I flipped it over and measured up 3" from the bottom and put a mark on each side, then measured up 1" and put two more marks.. you can take a bowl/plate.. something curved.. I used my Color Wheel from Stampin' UP! and I lined it up with the notches on each side and lightly drew the curved line, moved it up to the next set of notches and did the same.. then I cut it out.. .. now here is where I can't remember if I cut the mustache from that same piece or if I drew/cut a curved line on the other piece.. I say this because I used the shorter piece the first time and didn't like that my white piece went from one side of the card to the other so I think I might've used the mustache from that piece and redrew/cut my other pieces from the other piece.. sorry for any confusion.

To do the mustache.. on the curved piece that you will have after cutting the last 1" piece.. I measured to the center and then lightly drew a line up the middle.. then coming in a little bit on each side I drew a curved line from to the center on each side.. leaving about a 1/2" part in the middle.

For the textured flesh color paper, I cut a piece about 3" and after laying the white piece on the card, I slid it under it and then put the upper curved piece for his hat on top of that to make sure it was covered.. slide it down some more if you need to.

I removed the two white pieces, marked a line at the top and bottom on the card base so I knew where to adhere it. I adhered the flesh piece down, then put the beard part on and then the hat. For the eyes, tongue and nose.

I punched out two black circles for the eyes, one for the mouth and then one oval for the nose. Draw white lines on your black circles for the eyes and after sponging chalk on the tongue and around the nose piece you can draw white lines on the nose as well. My gel pen wasn't working too great last night and after pulling out four more, I gave up and left it as it was.

For the tongue I put a dab of Tombow Mono Multi glue on the upper part of the tongue and laid the mustache on it to glue together.. I sat it aside to dry.

After it is dry, I put dimensionals on the back of the mustache and on the back of the nose I put dimensionals on the bottom using one layer and for the upper part of the nose I put them on double.. the nose will partly sit on the mustache and on the face so I needed to layers to make it sit right.

I glued the eyes on the face and put some pink chalk on it for his cheeks. I then punched out some branch pieces (3) and then took a red button and criss crossed some twine in it and put about four glue dots on the back of it.. I used glue dots to put the branch pieces down and put the button on top of them and that was it.. all done!

Supplies used on this card are:

card stock: Stampin' UP! Cherry Cobbler, White, Garden Green, and the textured card stock is from HL

ink: white gel pen, light pink chalk.. I used some pearly stuff on mine around the edges of the nose, the tongue and for his cheeks

accessories: CB swirls embossing folder, MS branch punch (you could use a holly punch if you have one), a MM button, some twine, a 1/2" circle punch and an oval punch (I used the medium Stampin' UP! oval punch).. and of course not card is complete without some Dimensionals!!

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

... Christmas Blessings w/Santa Claus ....

2011-12-19T01:59:00.003-07:00

Yippee!!! I found my Santa Claus Collage stamp.. I am SO very happy. I thought it was buried in the garage in a box. Earlier tonight I had read a post on SCS where someone was looking for something.. I happened to have that something and that item had been gifted to me along with a bunch of others items, and I went looking for the item before I had posted that they could have it for free.. while looking for them I came upon my stamp.. oh so very happy.. wait, I already said that didn't I.

Earlier today.. for several hours.. I scoured through some blogs I like.. way back in those blogs and I scribbled down sketches/layouts that were used on some cards. I do this quite often and have pages and pages with sketches on them. I did this on maybe 6 or 7 pages today.. the sketch I used happened to be on the sheet with the OWH Sketch #100 on it, so when I went to find me a layout to use my Santa Claus stamp on.. I seen one on the same sheet. I did have ribbon to the left of the stamped layer and didn't not like it, so I took it off. See the layout to the left of the card?? that's the one I used.

Supplies used on this card:

card stock: Crumb Cake (kraft), black, Cherry Cobbler and White
stamps: Delta Santa Claus Collage, Hero Arts sentiment
ink: Sepia and black
accessories: Bigkick, Pick a Petal Stampin' UP! embossing folder, hole punch, white brads, border punch, dimensionals

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Case an OWH~Hero Arts Blog Hop Card

2011-12-18T22:45:00.004-07:00

Operation Write Home recently had a Blog Hop.... and then there was a challenge to C.A.S.E (Copy And Share Everything) one of the cards featured on one of the blog hop blogs.. I chose this wonderful card by Barb.. I was excited to see her card because just a week or so ago I was trying to use some heart doilies on cards and it just wasn't working out for me and I set them all aside, if they weren't tossed in the recycle bin.

Supplies used on this card:
stamps: Hero Arts~OWH Round the Clock
ink: red and black
card stock: white, Riding Hood Red, Marina Mist
accessories: white heart doily, Real Red ribbon, SU button, Red/White bakers twine, circle punches, hole punch, white brads, paper piercer, mat pack, dimensionals
thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

OWH Sketch Challenge #100 ~ You Are My Home

2011-12-18T21:05:00.003-07:00

What a fun sketch challenge this is this week on the OWH Stars & Stamp Blog. I turned the sketch longwise for my card. I used one of the new Hero Arts ~ OWH stamp sets: Right At Home.

This is what my top layers looked like before I went to put it all together.. I had to take apart the top square and cut it down because I mis-measured and had it too big to fit on the card.. after fixing that and putting it all together.. I realized I hadn't colored in the sky blue. The clouds were cut out using a die and cut from white felt. I was trying to hurry and finish so that my family and I could head over to Freedom Crossing to enjoy a yummy cold dessert at Dairy Queen/Orange Julius.

Here is the OWH Stars & Stamps Sketch Challenge #100:

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

more Miss You and Thank You card sets complete

2011-12-18T17:10:00.002-07:00

I sat down with my new OWH Sketch 100 in hand to make some cards.. and then I see the pile of already stamped/embossed, layers cut out for another set of 10 Miss You and Thank You cards. All I needed to do to complete them is to punch/stamp the sentiment, put the brads in them and put them together.. so I decided to finish them up first.

These are like the ones I made a few days ago.. just different colors is all.
thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Quick way to show how I punch ends of card stock to look like ribbon ends

2011-12-18T10:41:00.004-07:00

A friend of mine asked about something I mentioned in my last post about "punching" the ends of paper to look like ribbon.. she asked me "punch the ends? you have a punch that makes that ribbon-look-alike cut".. (thanks for asking Faith).. so I thought I'd show this really easy way to do it.

I apologize for the not to great photos.. I had just woke up and was trying to see with eyes that weren't all working yet.. but I think you'll get the idea.

I use my retired Stampin' UP! Photo Corners Punch You could quite possible use a square punch and use one of the corners as well.. look at your punches and see what you have already.. you might have something that will work if you don't have this particular punch.

I slide the strip of card stock I want to punch inside the punch.. you don't even have to put it in as far as I did.. but I wanted you to see the card stock.. then punch. You would do this if you were wanting a single layer strip.. like I did after I stamped the sentiment for these HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARDS I then punched the strips and adhered them to the card fronts.

If you are wanting two layers... I would usually have the white on top and the black as the back layer, these were scraps I had laying on my desk, so I used them for demonstration purposes. Put both ends of the pieces you want to punch, together. Insert them into the punch and punch... NOTE: you could draw a line on the back of your card stock to represent the middle.. that way when you put it into the punch you could line that line up with that point that you see at the end of the strips. you won't be punching that out.. because you don't push your paper in that far.

Here is what the double punched strip looks like.. I had a blue strip laying on my desk and thought I'd show it too.. it's a much thinner strip, but you can punch it as well.

This is how your two pieces will layer on each other when you are done punching them.

If you want to get points at both ends of the strip.. you would trim down your bottom layer to the amount you wish to have showing as the back layer..

You would then slide both ends down together and put them in the punch again on that end, and punch.

Then your two pieces would layer together with the same amount showing around the edges.
hope that helps.. have a super day ahead.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Happy Birthday cards for OWH

2011-12-17T23:32:00.003-07:00

Sometime in this past week I cut a bunch of card stock for card bases, some layers and what not and they were laying on my desk in piles.. so I decided to start with these five and all I had to do to finish them was to stamp a sentiment, punch the end, attach it to the patterned piece, put two brads in the upper left corner and put some dimensionals on the back.. waalaa.. they are done! Now if only I could make some Christmas cards that fast.. ha ha!

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Miss You and Thank You ~ Card sets

2011-12-15T23:57:00.003-07:00

I seen a challenge on the Hero Arts blog and one of the challenges is to make sets of cards to give as gifts.

I cut/stamped everything to make 20 cards.. but only finished 10 tonight.. I had to head to bed, so I'll finish the others tomorrow.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

I thank my lucky stars for you! Patriotic card

2011-12-13T23:17:00.002-07:00

I started this card earlier today.. before I had a ton of stuff to day and finally got to finish it up late tonight. I used a new Hero Arts ~ Operation Write Home stamp set "Year Round Sentiment. The paper is from a paper stack I got a while back at Hobbly Lobby. The punches are all by Stampin' UP! as is the Night of Navy, Riding Hood Red and Confetti White card stock. The ink is Night of Navy and a red that I cannot remember who makes it
thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

.... need some hugs? card for OWH

2011-12-13T11:12:00.003-07:00

Last night before I started cutting stuff to make this card and others.. I took a piece of 8.5" x 11" Night of Navy card stock and laid it on my ScorPal looking to cut it.. I was like "have I love my mind?".. ha ha

On this card I used one of the new Hero Arts/Operation Write Home sets XO's.

I stamped the heart in Versamark and stamped it all over the pattern paper, then using what I thought was white embossing powder.. wasn't.. it was clear.. I heat set embossed it. I stamped the sentiment, heart, but those out.. and put the card together.. oh, and I used some brads too.. love brads, but not as much as Dimensionals!!!

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Missing you.... You are my home card for OWH

2011-12-12T20:23:00.002-07:00

I thought I'd play around some more with my new Hero Arts sets. On this card I used two stamps from the Right At Home set.. it is one of the Operation Write Home sets.

Supplies used:
pattern paper from Echo Park Paper Co. Life is Good
card stock: Stampin' UP! Garden Green, Barely Banana, Early Espresso and Vanilla
inks: Memento Brown
accessories: Heart punches, circle punch, and dimensionals

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

"New" Hero Arts goodies in the house... including OWH ones!!!

2011-12-11T00:15:00.006-07:00

This morning my husband and I got up early (6 am) and went over to the Ft. Bliss Cemetary to lay wreaths on the graves ~ Wreaths Across America brought a shipment of wreaths in today and they needed volunteers to unload/put the wreaths on the graves that a family member, friend or business had sponsored.... this picture is looking down at a small area of the cemetary from 601. This was taken with my cell phone while in a moving vehicle so it's not the greatest:

Today was the debut for the new Hero Arts catalog and a stamp store here in town was a part of the Debut Party. I ended up with four stamp sets ~ including three that are Operation Write Home ones.. how cool is that??? another set and then a background stamp. I found a distress ink that I didn't have and I got some linen thread.

Here are four of the cards I made this evening...........

This card uses one of the special Operation Write Home sets called Right At Home:

For this card I used some papers I think are from Jelly Bean (sp?) and then cut out the circles using Nestabilities dies and embossed the circle and the the other piece of paper with the Seeing Spots embossing folder. I stamped/colored/cut out the house and the cloud. I used post it notes while stamping the sentiment because it's one line above the other.. so I put a post it note on the one side while inking the other, removed the post it note and stamped.. then put a post it not on the other line and inked the other, removed that post it note and put a clean one on and then stamped.. that way none of the ink got on the paper while I was stamping each line.

This card uses another of the special Operation Write Home sets called All The Time:

For this card I inked the clocks in Versamark and stamped on a piece of white card stock (bigger than what I had planned on using, that way I can cut out parts of it to use).. then used clear embossing powder and a heat gun to heat set the embossing powder. I then used three different Distress Inks for the blue coloring and then took some water and splotched it on with my fingers. I was too impatient to wait for it to dry so I used the heat gun on it. I layered the blue piece on some white and then Night of Navy card stock. Stamped the sentiment on white layering it on Night of Navy, pointing the ends with a Stampin' UP! corner pieces punch.. can't remember the name of it.. the whole panel is on Dimensionals.

This card uses another of the special Operation Write Home sets called Year Round Sentiment:

For this card I found this adorable heart paper in my paper stash.. it's from Bo Bunny ~ A Gift of Love. I layered it on a white piece of card stock that I used a border punch along the bottom edge. The white circle is cut using a Nestabilities die, I adhered it on and then run the ribbon around the whole thing and then adhered that onto a red card base. The heart was stamped, cut out and then I inked some of the same red ink around the edges of it and put it on the card using Dimensionals.

This card uses a really cool background stamp called Zig Zag.. the sentiment is from Year Round Sentiment:

For this card I took four different Distress Inks and smeared them onto a Craft Sheet. I then spritzed them with water and proceeded to ink up my background stamp, moving it ever so slightly to pick up some ink. I then stamped it onto a white piece of card stock. I sponged on some Distress Inks in the same colors that I used to smear on the craft sheet. It's layered onto an Early Espresso layer and a Old Olive card base that is sponged with ink as well. I stamped the sentiment, punched out the shapes and the piece that goes across the card and sponged ink on all of them. Added the brown twill ribbon that I sponged dark brown ink on. I put two brads in the upper left corner. The sentiment layer is put on using Dimensionals.

I made another card using the set with the big XO's.. I put some crystal effects on the letters and I didn't want to move it while it was drying. UPDATE... last night I had tossed some papers on my desk while walking out of the room.. the lights were off.. I hadn't realized that the card was there so it's a hot mess.. and now in the recycle bin.. oh well. I'll try again.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Carnival digi.. Happy Birthday card

2011-12-09T23:15:00.002-07:00

I got all inky tonight.. a few days ago I had read a post on SCS about a website with FREE Vintage Digi Stamps.. how cool is that. FREE VINTAGE DIGI STAMPS
That link isn't to the digi that I used on this card, but to the site itself.. because by golly you gotta check them all out.

I seen this Carival digi posted today and I saved and printed some out. I used a whole bunch of Tim Holtz Distress Inks on this baby.. my fingers are all inky as is the grid paper on my desk.. I showed my husband what the image looked like that I had printed out (I had printed out 4).. and then said.. this is what how it ended up when I was done with it.. he looked at it and said "WOW!!".. I guess that means he liked it.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Hero Arts "Happy Birthday" bicycle card

2011-12-09T21:14:00.004-07:00

When I got done going through the Hero Arts Blop Hop today I went back to their site, than their blog and was cruising around. I seen a thing about a December contest and clicked on it: DECEMBER CARD SETS & A SKETCH CHALLENGE

I made this one birthday card.

My sentiment was too long so I snipped it between words and put them on a block to stamp it.

Supplies used:
stamp sets: Hero Arts Joy Ride and Essential Messages
card stock: Slate, Neenah Classic Crest Smooth Cover, GP White, Black
ink: black
accessories: Seeing Spots embossing folder, Bigkick, 1 3/8" and 1 1/2" Circle Punches, 1/16" hole punch, black brads, and Dimensionals

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Trying hard to make some cards...

2011-12-06T16:36:00.004-07:00

I have been trying hard to make some cards.. I am torn between making some "love" cards and some "Christmas" cards. Operation Write Home is collecting Love and Valentine's Day cards for an Archway promotion to send cards to deployed military... yet when I try to make something along those lines, I keep making something that I end up tossing in the trash can because I do not like it at all. I need to make some Christmas cards to send out to family and friends.. all the hundreds of cards I have made this year was all sent to Operation Write Home.

Here are a few cards I made this past week.. one I spent a while on only to smear some ink on it.. I was none to happy with myself after doing that.

The Christmas card I made today... it was fun to make and super easy.

This is the one that got ink smeared on it.. on the left side heart panel.. it was darker and I tried using a white poster paint pen to cover it, but it's still there.

After I had stamped the "adore" stamp on the white panel.. I decided to stamp the "I" to the left of it and then stamped the word "YOU" and cut the letters out to put on the card.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

OWH Sketch Challenge #96.. Faith, Hope and Love

2011-11-21T22:10:00.003-07:00

There is a favorite song of mine that is sung by Alan Jackson, "Where Were You When The World Stopped Turning":

.. the line where he says "Faith, Hope and Love are a few things are some good things he gave us.. and the greatest is love".. ahhh.. I so love that song and the words because they have so much meaning.

When I set out to make a card using the layout for the new OWH Sketch Challenge this week.. I flipped open a Scaponizer and it had two Unity Kits of the Month in it.. I seen the words "Faith, Hope and Love" and I knew I wanted to use the words on the three strips on the layout.. the other image is in the kit as well. I already had the Cherry Cobbler card stock pulled out.. and wanted to use green, but thought it might look funny with red and green on a "Love" card.. so I put it back and grabbed some pink.
Here is the layout for Sketch Challenge #96:

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

An Anniversary card.. in Dallas Cowboys colors

2011-11-16T16:32:00.004-07:00

When I took my daughter to the clinic the other day to get her wrist checked I ran into a lady who is a member of a spouses club here on post that I also belong to. She asked me how much I charged for my cards and I told her that I usually never sell them.. I send them away to deployed military. She asked me if I could make an anniversary card for her. It is for her husband who is in Afghanistan.. it is for their 11th anniversary.. how could I say no. Here is the card I finished a little bit ago.. she said roses were fine.. she just wanted Dallas Cowboys colors because her husband is a huge fan. What do you think of it?
For this card I used:
card stock: Stampin' UP! White, Night of Navy, Brushed Silver, Watercolor Paper
stamp set: Stampin' UP! Fifth Avenue Floral
inks: Versamark, black, Night of Navy, Night of Navy Reinker
acces: Clear embossing powder, heat gun, Nestabilities leaves die, Bigkick, Stampin' UP! embossing folder (rose and textured), Stampin' UP! Night of Navy ribbon, silver brads, hole punch, water brush and dimensionals

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

OWH Challenge... Cards with no sentiments on the front

2011-11-16T05:00:00.003-07:00

The Challenge this week on the OWH Stars & Stamps blog is Any Occasion~No Sentiment.

This was quite challenging for me.. to make cards with no sentiments on the fronts.
These are the two cards that I made without sentiments..........

There is no stamping on this card.. I just used pattern paper. The birds were cut from that paper as well. Super easy card.

This card uses pattern paper as well.. and the flowers on the paper matched some Groovy Guava Stampin' UP! card stock that is stashed away in my paper folders.. so I had to pull it out to use it.. I paired it up with some Old Olive paper and some ribbon that matches the GG as well.

After making the cards using no sentiments.. I thought I'd add some sentiments to see how they'd look... and here are the same two cards with sentiments added....

I stamped "love you" using a stamp from an old Stampin' UP! stamp set, then I punched it out and glued it over the top of the red heart that was below the birds.

I added a "many thanks" sentiment to this one.. I think that it would be a fun card to receive from someone expressing their gratitude.

Have fun... I would love to see what others come up with.

Sorry for the short post.. I had a Fine Needle Aspiration Biopsy today (Tuesday) on my Thyroid. I had one last year and everything was fine.. however today my neck is sore and stiff.. pain meds aren't helping and thank goodness I was given a tube of Lidocaine cream to put on my throat this morning before the test to numb it, so my husband put some on it for me tonight.. it's a little better, but boy does it hurt.. and to top it off I got a really pretty bruise right on my neck. I will add details tomorrow.. I am off to bed to get some rest.

**This morning I feel much better.. I got lots of rest and my neck, while still sore where the bruise is, not nothing like it was last night. So thankful to feel better today.. nothing is planned for today, no appointments.. so I am going to have a do nothing day!! {{HUGS}}

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

OWH Sketch Challenge #93... Christmas Cardinal card

2011-10-30T18:54:00.004-06:00

I thought I was done making Christmas cards for this year.. and than realized that I had none for our family to send out and our Adopting Soldiers group is thinking about sending out cards/gift packs for Christmas to all the children of USASMA that serve in the military.

I sent out hundreds of cards a week and a half ago to OWH.. nearly 500 cards in all. I was two cards short (If I got my count right.. there were 498 cards between the two boxes).. but I couldn't get another card in either of the boxes if I wanted to.. they were packed.

I seen the sketch challenge on the OWH Stars & Stamps blog this morning and printed it off.. tonight I thought I would make something. I hadn't all week long since I have been keeping my foot elevated and icing it off and on.. but tonight I was bound to make something.

I used the Cardinal and Holly digi that I got from Beccy's Place

This is a pretty simple card.. nothing fancy.. I just wanted to make something. I cut out enough stuff to make a bunch.

Here is the sketch layout:

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Sorry for the lack of posting.... had foot surgery.

2011-10-27T16:23:00.003-06:00

This week has been a busy one.. I have spent most of my time each day at the hospital. Monday it was 9:45 until 1:30, Tuesday was 9:50 until 3:45 and yesterday I had surgery and was there from 5:50 until 6pm... I had cut my heel back in May on a small piece of plastic.. I got three stitches at the time. When I got my stitches out a week later a knot developed and never went away.. until August it was so big that I could only wear flip flops. Yesterday the doctor got in there and found a fiberous mass was under the skin. She thinks it was a suture left in that stuff just grew around.. it went to Pathology so we'll know soon enough. My foot is all bandaged up, I have crutches and feel pretty good.

I did some stamping today.. on tiles that I am taking to the Enlisted Spouses Club meeting tonight. The group is going to sell the tiles as coasters at a Super Sign UP that is going on on Saturday. Here are the tiles I stamped today.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Overflowing with love.. KnK Designs Fundraiser for OWH & Sketch Challenge

2011-10-23T21:57:00.003-06:00

Hello friends! Today is another special day because it is Day 7 of a benefit for Operation Write Home!! For those of you who aren't familiar with Operation Write Home, they are a non-profit group that collects handmade cards (over a million, so far!!) to send to our soldiers deployed overseas.

Some of them are Any Hero cards that we write in to say "thanks for serving!", but most of the cards are left blank so the soldiers can send them back to their families and friends stateside. It's a fantastic organization!! But, in order to send the thousands of cards that will go out during the holidays, they could really use some extra funds for shipping, and that is where two digi designers would like to help.

Katlyn, of KnK Designs has teamed up with Deedee Anderson to offer 7 digi sets that are perfect for your OWH cards - or any cards, for that matter! All of the proceeds for these sets (minus the paypal fees, of course!) will be donated to OWH. Every bit of it! You can buy the sets separately or in a bundle - Go check out KnK Designs for all the details!!

Here is the Sketch Challenge Layout I used for this card... I totally flipped it over and made the one layer a bit larger to accomodate my image.

For this card I used:
card stock: Stampin' UP! Cherry Cobbler. GP White, Michaels Black, My Mind's Eye pattern paper
stamps: KnK Designs digi stamps
accessories: Martha Stewart border edge, Stampin' UP! Real Red Ribbon, and DIMENSIONALS!!!

note: My husband was sitting in the chair at my desk yesterday and we were chatting.. he picked up a border punch and started punching along a white piece of card stock.. I thought I'd use it on my card today.. thank you hubby.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Operation Write Home Fundraiser BLOG HOP!!!!

2011-10-21T19:58:00.008-06:00

Welcome to our Operation Write Home Fund Raiser blog hop! If you’ve arrived at my blog from GINNIE'S BLOG you’re on the right track.
If not and you’d like to start at the beginning your can start here. We started on JAN'S BLOG

I thought I would share all the cards I've made this week using some adorable digis from K 'n K Designs the digis are part of a fundraiser to help raise funds to cover the shipping costs for Operation Write Home... if you aren't interested in the digis.. but would like to make a donation to Operation Write Home go here to donate you can click on the PAYPAL link on the right side.

Here are the cards I made this week:

K 'n K Designs has wonderful prize packages for 2 lucky winners!Your comment will enter you into the prize drawing and the winners will be announced Monday, October 24th! So be sure to leave a comment on each blog so you have a chance to win!

The next stop on our hop is BRENDA U.'s BLOG

Thanks for stopping by.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

"Overflowing with love" card.. using KnK digi for OWH Fundraiser

2011-10-21T00:00:00.001-06:00

note: I am currently taking a break from Facebook. Thank you to all who have sent me emails, text messages and phone calls asking about me.. I am truly humbled by all your love and kindness. I just wanted to take a little break to spend more time with my family.

Hello friends! Today is another special day because it is Day 5 of a benefit for Operation Write Home!! For those of you who aren't familiar with Operation Write Home, they are a non-profit group that collects handmade cards (over a million, so far!!) to send to our soldiers deployed overseas.

Some of them are Any Hero cards that we write in to say "thanks for serving!", but most of the cards are left blank so the soldiers can send them back to their families and friends stateside. It's a fantastic organization!! But, in order to send the thousands of cards that will go out during the holidays, they could really use some extra funds for shipping, and that is where two digi designers would like to help.

Katlyn, of KnK Designs has teamed up with Deedee Anderson to offer 7 digi sets that are perfect for your OWH cards - or any cards, for that matter! All of the proceeds for these sets (minus the paypal fees, of course!) will be donated to OWH. Every bit of it! You can buy the sets separately or in a bundle - Go check out KnK Designs for all the details!!

For this card I used:

card stock: White, Stampin' UP! Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, Marina Mist

paper: The Scenic Route

ink: laserjet printer, asst. copic markers

acces: Stampin' UP! Real Red ribbon, Seeing Spots Embossing Folder, Bigkick, and Dimensionals!!!

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

"Thanks"... Eagle digi card ~ Fundraiser for OWH

2011-10-20T00:00:00.004-06:00

**... this card is currently on it's way to a deployed soldier who is a daughter to a USASMA student.. I am chairing a group called Adopting Soldiers and we packed care packages today to send out.. and this card went in one of the boxes... Hooah!

note: I am currently taking a break from Facebook. Thank you to all who have sent me emails, text messages and phone calls asking about me.. I am truly humbled by all your love and kindness. I just wanted to take a little break to spend more time with my family.. me and my husband both turned off our FB pages.

Hello friends! Today is another special day because it is Day 4 of a benefit for Operation Write Home!! For those of you who aren't familiar with Operation Write Home, they are a non-profit group that collects handmade cards (over a million, so far!!) to send to our soldiers deployed overseas.

For this card I used a layout from this week's SCS Sketch Challenge #355:

On this card I used:
card stock: white, Hobby Lobby pattern paper, Stampin' UP! Cherry Cobbler and Night of Navy
ink: laserjet printer, asst. copic markers
accessories: hole punch, silver brads, Stampin' UP! oval punches and Dimensionals!!!
stamps: digi stamps from KnK Designs

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Overflowing with love... OWH Fundraiser by KnK Designs

2011-10-19T00:01:00.001-06:00

Hello friends! Today is another special day because it is Day 3 of a benefit for Operation Write Home!! For those of you who aren't familiar with Operation Write Home, they are a non-profit group that collects handmade cards (over a million, so far!!) to send to our soldiers deployed overseas.

For this card I used:
card stock: Stampin' UP! Real Red. Black, White, Glitter Red
inks: HP Laserjet printer, asst. copic markers
accesories: black brads, hole punch and Dimensionals!!!

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!

God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Holy Presents Santa digi Card... Merry & Bright

2011-10-18T18:57:00.004-06:00

Even though for the moment I have shut off my Facebook page.. I am still enjoying reading through the posts on the Operation Write Home FB page. This morning I seen a post for a FREE digi... I saved it/printed it off and this afternoon I made this card. I was going to color in the image, but didn't like how it was going.. so I thought I'd color in a small area and punch it out.. highlightning the coloring.. didn't like that either, so I opted for the non-colored in version and I do like this one.. my husband even said he liked it as well.

Check out the KWED blog for this digi.

For this card I used:

Card stock: STampin' UP! Marina Mist, Old Olive, Riding Hood Red. White
Pattern paper: The Scenic Route
Accessories: Stampin' UP! Real Red ribbon, Circle Punches, hole punch, red brads
Stamps: Merry & Bright from a ret. Stampin' UP! All Year Cheer set
Digi: KWED Holy Presents Santa
and DIMENSIONALS!!!!

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

"Overflowing with love"... OWH Fundraiser ~ Sketch Challenge

2011-10-18T00:01:00.001-06:00

Hello friends! Today is another special day because it is day 2 of a benefit for Operation Write Home!! For those of you who aren't familiar with Operation Write Home, they are a non-profit group that collects handmade cards (over a million, so far!!) to send to our soldiers deployed overseas.

For this card I used a layout for a Sketch Challenge over on the Fetch-A-Sketch Blog

Here is the sketch:

For this card I used Stampin' UP! card stock Cherry Cobbler, some My Mind's Eye pattern paper, white card stock. Laserjet to print off digi, digi from KnK Designs, asst. Copic markers, Nestabilities Dies, Stampin' UP! Ribbon, Corner Chomper, small heart punch, Stampin' UP! oval punch and Dimensionals!!!

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

"Proud to be an American"... fundraiser for OWH.. KnK Designs digi

2011-10-17T09:42:00.005-06:00

Hello friends! Today is a special, special day because it kicks off a benefit for Operation Write Home!! For those of you who aren't familiar with Operation Write Home, they are a non-profit group that collects handmade cards (over a million, so far!!) to send to our soldiers deployed overseas.

For this card I used:

Card stock: Stampin' UP! Brillant Blue, Real Red, Brushed Gold. GP White

pattern paper from Yankee Doodle paper pack

Accesories: Stampin' UP! small star, black brads, wide real red ribbon, white ribbon, HL stars embossing folder and Dimensionals!!!

Digi image: KnK Designs

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

17 ... "LOVE" ... cards for OWH

2011-10-12T21:28:00.004-06:00

I made all these cards last night... I wanted to make some love cards.. they didn't end up the way that I thought they would when I started cutting everything.. I have two stacks of 16 each of pieces to layer together.. they were supposed to sit on top of the top note die piece.. but I thought they were too big.. so they are set aside for another day.

*Gail asked how I did the notches on the circle on this card.. this is what I did>>> I took a circle punch out, attached a thin strip of paper so I could hold onto it and put it inside a scallop circle punch.. it punched the notches out and left the outside flat.

These are pretty easy cards.. the time consumer is tying the ribbon.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

......... I miss you..... love card for OWH

2011-10-09T21:44:00.004-06:00

I happened upon a blog earlier today and liked some of the layouts used on the cards that I drew a bunch of them on some scratch paper. This is one of the layouts. I used the flower stamp from the new Sizzix/Hero Arts and the sentiment is from a Unity Stamp Co. stamp.

I used brown card stock from XpedX, cream from a print shop back in N.C., Riding Hood Red and some My Mind's Eye pattern paper. Red Distress Ink and a Garden Green markers. Ribbon is Riding Hood Red stripped wide ribbon and Riding Hood Red TAffeta ribbon (love it!!), Scallop circle punch, circle punches, hole punch, brads and DIMENSIONALS

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

some more cards for the OWH Sketch Challenge #90

2011-10-09T12:30:00.004-06:00

I thought I'd make some more cards using the OWH Sketch Challenge for this week.

For this card I used a digital download image from Stampin' UP! of the motorcycle.. such a cool image. I used Going Gray card stock, some black and some Brushed Silver.. the image was printed on white card stock. I used black ink for the sentiment which is from a Hero Arts set. The embossing folder is Tim Holtz Cracked.

For this card I used a Hero Arts scene stamp and a sentiment.. I thought I'd make it a Birthday card for someone who has a birthday in the wintertime. Stampin' UP! Always Artichoke, a cream from XpedX and pattern paper from My Mind's Eye. Green Distress ink.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

OWH Sketch Challenge #90.. cards

2011-10-09T05:01:00.001-06:00

Today I have some cards to share that I made a while back in anticipation for today's sketch on the Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps blog... I love making cards using a sketch layout. I stayed true to the sketch on these card samples.

This card uses some stamps from both Stampin' UP! and Unity, Stampin' UP! card stock, some pattern paper that I have no recollection as to where I got it, and some brads.

This card uses a sentiment from a Stampin' UP! set.. some Stampin' UP! card stock, some pattern paper from a paper stack, circle punch outs and brads.

This card uses a sentiment from a $1.00 stamp set, a white card base using card stock from XpedX, Stampin' UP! red card stock, a Cuttlebug embossing folder, I think the heart paper is from My Mind's Eye, Red Glitter paper, heart punch and white brads.

Here is sketch #90 layout:
Operation Write Home is a wonderful organization that sends handmade cards to deployed military all around the world... If you haven't visited their homepage.. please do so.. OPERATION WRITE HOME

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

........ Thinking of you... deer card

2011-10-08T22:23:00.002-06:00

My hubby just made me a yummy Strawberry Daiquiri and I just finished this card.. it's a good night.

For this card I used:
stamps: Hero Arts sentiment set, Stampin' UP! Lovely as a Tree
card stock: brown from XpedX, Stampin' UP! Sahara Sand and Cajun Craze
ink: Distress ink brown and green
acces: brads, hole punch, wood embossing folder, sponge, bigkick, oval Nestabilities, Memory Box deer and DIMENSIONALS!!!

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

just finished 22 more "THANK YOU" embossed cards

2011-10-07T23:36:00.002-06:00

I just finished 22 more of these cards.. so I have a total of 24.. they were so easy to make. I did change the ink color on the greenery right after I started on them.. the Old Olive ink wasn't inking to my liking.. so I changed to a Distress Ink (upper left corner, second one in) and I thought it was too dark, so I used some Distress Ink Crushed Olive and it worked fine.

Midways through the embossing process I noticed that there was an ink smudge on the cards in the same place on nearly every one (upper left corner, down a little).. I was not too happy with myself at that time because before I started the stamping I told myself to cut that stamp down, but didn't.. oh well. If they were perfect, I supposed they'd be from Hallmark.. I do hope that they like them just the same.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

ready to make 22 "THANK YOU" cards

2011-10-07T22:12:00.002-06:00

I made another of the "Thank You" cards... like the one in a previous post.. but I inked the greenery in Old Olive.. trying to find a quicker way to make a bunch of cards.. it looks great, so I cut everything to make 22 of them. I am off to get to stamping and embossing here in a few minutes.. just wanted to take a little break first.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

....... embossed THANK YOU card

2011-10-07T21:27:00.002-06:00

For this card I used another of the Sizzix/Hero Arts sets that I got today. This set included a large stamp and an embossing folder. The Thank you sentiment is from another Hero Arts stamp set.

I inked the greenery stamp with a bunch of different Distress Inks and then stamped it onto some card stock.. layered that onto a piece of Stampin' UP! Old Olive card stock and then onto some gorgeous brown card stock I got at XpedX.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

"Thinking of You".... some new goodies I got today.

2011-10-07T19:59:00.005-06:00

My hubby was off today for a Post Training Holiday and we went over the mountain to a store I recently found that has lots of awesome stamping stuff. I got two of the New Sizzix/Hero Arts Embossing and Die Cut sets.. you get a stamp set and an embossing folder.. or you get a stamp set and a set of dies.. I used the dies/stamp set for this card. I also got in a Stampin' UP! order today that when my hubby picked it up asked if it was full of rocks because it was so heavy... nothing but card stock, punches, ribbon, grid paper, some embossing folders, one stamp set (freebie) and 10 packs of DIMENSIONALS!!!!!

For this card I used:
Stampin' UP! Supplies: Pumpkin Pie and Garden Green card stock, Pumpkin Pie Ribbon, Lattice Embossing Folder, Dimensionals
Stamp Set/Dies: Floral
Inks: Distress Inks
Hole Punch, White Brads, Bigkick

I used Sketch #353 from SCS for this card:

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

... hope your christmas is snow much fun! card

2011-10-04T22:36:00.005-06:00

Recently I won some May Arts ribbon from a OWH Challenge and wanted to use some tonight. I love the color brown and this ribbon has brown, red, black and cream in it.. yummy! I thought I'd pull out my Stampin' UP! Snow Much Fun stamp set to use it on this card. Some other things I used on this card is a Tim Holtz embossing folder, Stampin' UP! punch, sponge, distress ink, memento black ink, copic markers, the May Arts ribbon... and DIMENSIONALS!!!

I used Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps Sketch Challenge #14 layout for this card:

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

"BRIGHT!!!" .............. love ..... cards for OWH.

2011-10-03T21:38:00.003-06:00

I read on the OWH Facebook page earlier tonight that Dixie is in need of some "love" and "miss you" cards.. .. so I made 6 of these "bright!!! yowza!!" LOVE cards..

I used Riding Hood Red and I think it's Summer Sum from Stampin' UP!, GP white, My Mind's Eye pattern paper. Stampin' UP! Oval punches. Stamps from Unity July 2009 KOTM, brads, hole punch, small heart punch, and of course.. DIMENSIONALS!!!

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

~ You Are My Sunshine ~

2011-10-03T17:52:00.003-06:00

I recently purchased some Unity KOTM's from an awesome SCS'er.. and thought I'd put some ink to some of the stamps. The pattern papers are all My Mind's Eye. Card stock: White is GP, brown is from XpedX. Memento black ink and some distress ink. Stamps: July 09' KOTM.

For this card I used a sketch from a while back on SCS ~ here is the sketch layout:

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

OWH Sketch #89 Challenge: Thank you very much

2011-10-03T15:41:00.004-06:00

I made this card last night.. the first time I cut pieces for the centerpiece, stamped and put together.. only to look at the measurements to see that I made it too big.. tossed that piece aside and started over. Now.. just now looking at the sketch layout below I notice that the stripes going across aren't supposed to go all the way across.. so much for getting it right.. haha.. I do like the way my card turned out and hope to make some more.

For this card I used: Serengeti stamp set (ret.) and the sentiment is from a Stampin' UP! set, can't remember the name.
Card stock: cream and slate from XpedX, black from Michael's.
ink: Memento black
Punches: Stampin' UP!
brads, hole punch, and of course.. DIMENSIONALS!!!!

Here is the sketch layout that I used for this card:

I made a second card.. not using the layout, but the same colors and a stamp from the same stamp set.

For this card I used: Serengeti stamp set (ret.) and Well Scripted (ret)
Card stock: cream and slate from XpedX, black from Michael's.
ink: Memento black
Punches: Stampin' UP!
ribbon, brads, hole punch, and of course.. DIMENSIONALS!!!!

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Blog Candy Winner is...............

2011-10-03T07:26:00.003-06:00

The Blog Candy Giveaway winner is... Lori B. I am sending an email out to you this morning.

Congratulations. Thank you to all who put their name in for the giveaway.. I wish I had enough to give something to everybody.

have a great day ~ Pam

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Welcome OWH Blog Hoppers ~ Christmas Cards and more...

2011-10-01T00:59:00.003-06:00

**be sure and see note at end of posting**

Welcome Operation Write Home ~ World Cardmaking Day Blog Hoppers!!!

"Christmas Blessings"

For my first card I used a Sizzix embossing folder and embossed the white top layer. I layered it on a layer of Always Artichoke and then a card base in Cherry Cobbler (both from Stampin' UP!).. then I pulled out some Poinsettia flowers and leaves that I believe my mom bought for me some time ago.. finally getting around to using them.. in fact when I seen the embossing folder in Hobby Lobby the other day, I knew right away what I wanted to do for a card using these flowers. I put three gold brads in each one. The "Christmas Blessings" sentiment is from a Hero Arts Christmas set. I used Dimensionals on this card.. what would a card be without dimensionals??

"wishing you many magical moments"

For this card I wanted to use up some My Mind's Eye Christmas paper that I bought the other day.. in fact I made 8 of these cards.. all the same. The card base is made from some vanilla card stock/cover that I got at XpedX last month. I layered the My Mind's Eye paper on some Ruby Red card stock (from Stampin' UP!), for the top panel I used more of the paper I used for the card base.. stamped a sentiment from a Stampin' UP! Festive Favorites stamp set in Garden Green ink.. layered on it a piece of Ruby Red with a polka dot paper from My Mind's Eye as well.. then I stamped the tree tag onto more of the vanilla paper, colored it in and punched it out.. layered it on another punched out piece... to finish it off I tied some ribbon on it that I believe is from May Arts.. I got it at the neatest little stamp/scrapbook store located in Dover, TN..... the layers are of course put on with Dimensionals!!!!

NOTE:::: be sure to hop over to my last
post for a BLOG CANDY GIVEAWAY!!! Lots of stamps, paper, ribbon, etc.... lots of stuff!!!

If you have a few dollars to spare.. or five.. ten or even twenty.. please consider making a donation to a very worthy cause.. Operation Write Home is all encompassed by Volunteers. If you have a little to spare.. Operation Write Home could use it to pay for postage on packages headed to our deployed military members this holiday season... thank you so much.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

World Cardmaking Day ~ Blog Candy Giveaway!!!

2011-09-30T23:21:00.009-06:00

I am participating in the Operation Write Home Blog Hop this weekend... and thought I'd have some Blog Candy to giveaway. I will draw a winner on Sunday night and post it on Monday Morning.

This is for U.S. participants only..

NOTE: if you do not have a blog.. Leave a comment....please make sure I can contact you via email. You can spell it out.. spacing like @ gmail dot com something like that.. if your name is drawn, I want to be able to get ahold of you to let you know and get your package mailed out to you.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

OWH Challenge Sweet Treats ... "Hi Cupcake!" card

2011-09-26T21:50:00.004-06:00

There is a challenge this week on the Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps site that is called Sweet Treats.. you are to make a card with a "Sweet Treats" theme... so I grabbed the Hero Arts Cupcakes stamp set that I have and set out to make a card.. this is what I ended up with.

For this card I used: Stampin' UP! card stock, GP white card stock, Memento Black Ink, Asst. Brads, Paper Piercer, Stampin' UP! Oval Punches, Stampin' UP! Crushed Curry ribbon, Blue Button, Embroidery Floss, Bigkick, Embossing Folder, Copic Markers and DIMENSIONALS!!!!

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!

God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

... the other 10 Have a Great Day cards are now complete

2011-09-26T20:48:00.002-06:00

I went to Michael's and JoAnn's today with no luck in finding the brown/white checkered ribbon.. I had to get home to attend a PTA meeting, that wasn't to happen... so when Steve got home I was telling him about it and he told me to go on over to Hobby Lobby.. I said I didn't want to drive there and he offered to drive me.. I couldn't resist that now could I.

They had some, not the same.. but it would work and now all my cards are complete.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

10 cards completed and then... OOPS!!

2011-09-25T22:11:00.002-06:00

I ran out of the brown checkered ribbon... utt ohhh!! Hopefully I can find some tomorrow at a local craft store so I can finish up the other 10 cards.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

getting ready to make 20 of the "Have a Great Day" cards...

2011-09-25T20:23:00.003-06:00

I have everything cut, except the ribbon, and I am ready to make 20 of the Have a Great day cards like the one I made a couple of days ago.

See the item in the lower right hand corner of the picture??? those are my favorite thing in my whole stamping room.. I go through hundreds of these things.. I can go through a whole package in one day.. when I order them, I order them in lots of 10 or more.. I so love them.. okay, love story over.. I need to get busy putting some cards together.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

OWH Birthday Bash: Gelatins "Fall Card"

2011-09-25T19:05:00.003-06:00

One of the Birthday Bash Challenges on the OWH Stars & Stamps site is one hosted by Gelatins. Here is the link to the post on the OWH site: GELATINS CHALLENGE. The challenge is to use the sketch layout provided and make a "Fall" themed card.. here is mine:
For this card I used: stamps from Stampin' UP! On Gossamer Wings (retired). Card stock brown base is card stock from XpedX, some with cream colored card stock. Orange from Stampin' UP!, Pattern paper from K&Co. fall pattern paper stack. Leaf die is from Nestabilities, Ebroidery floss, button from Stampin' UP!, markers to color in image. Stampin' UP! scallop border punch, Stampin' UP! brown ribbon and Very Vanilla ribbon too... and DIMENSIONALS!!!

here is the layout:

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

OWH Sketch Challenge #88 ~ You are in our thoughts and prayers

2011-09-25T13:22:00.003-06:00

I made this card using the sketch challenge layout #88 on the Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps site.

This card will be going to a wounded warrior... he is the son of a family who is also here for the Academy. As I understand, he was injured by an IED in Afghanistan. He is recovering at a hospital here in TX and his mom posted an address to send cards to him.. so this is going to him.

For this card I used:
stamps: Hero Arts With Sympathy
card stock: Night of Navy, Cherry Cobbler both from Stampin' UP!
cream paper from a print shop back in N.C., pattern paper from a paper stack from Hobby Lobby.
accessories: Stars embossing folder from Hobby Lobby, Bigkick, Hole Punch, Red Brads, Stampin' UP! small star punch and DIMENSIONALS!!!

Here is the sketch:

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

OWH Challenge: Case Charlsie S. "Thinking of You..."

2011-09-24T19:35:00.003-06:00

One of the Birthday Bash Challenges on the OWH Stars & Stamps site is to Case Charlsie S.

I turned layout on the card I cased upright. I used a new stamp set I got today from Hero Arts.

For this card I used: Brown card stock for card base and cream layer is from XpedX, pattern paper is from a paper stack from K&Company, stamped layer is from a print shop back in N.C. Stamp set is from Hero Arts ~ With Sympathy. Nestabilities Dies, Stampin' UP! Very Vanilla Ribbon (there is only about 6" left of the stuff... insert sad face here), Stampin' UP! button. Embroidery floss. Ink is Stampin' UP! More Mustard and Momento Brown

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

.......* PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN *.......

2011-09-24T17:14:00.002-06:00

My card started out using a sketch layout for a challenge I seen on a blog.. however midways
through I realized that the card was supposed to be a "fall" themed card.. so I scratched that
and changed things around and this is what I ended up with.

We went to Hobby Lobby today and Steve seen a paper stack with Patriotic Papers in it.. I picked it up and flipped through it.. ohhhing and aahhhhhing.. he said to get it, so I did.. when we got home he told me that if I had put it down he was going to buy it for me anyways.. what a sweetie. I used some of the star paper from the stack on this card.

For this card I used: stamp sets from Stampin' UP!: Liberty for All and Free & the Brave. White card stock for card base is from XpedX, Stampin' UP! Cherry Cobbler, Night of Navy and Crumb Cake (kraft), GP white card stock. Memento brown ink and Versamark. Stampin' UP! Crumb Cake (kraft) seam binding. Hole Punch, red brads. Nestabilities die, Stampin' UP! Star punches. Red, white and blue rhinestone bling from a friend.. and DIMENSIONALS!!!!

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Have a Great Day ~ new stamp set.. had to make a card

2011-09-23T22:55:00.002-06:00

I got a new Hero Arts stamp set the other day and tonight wanted to use the set, but didn't know where I had put it.. it was in the bag with some socks I bought to donate to the Veterans Affairs.. once found, I had to ink it up.

I made this quick card.. I will make some more tomorrow.. but I need to head to bed sometime soon... we are getting up early and heading to the range to heat up some brass.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

more Hero Mail and some Love you much cards..

2011-09-23T22:44:00.003-06:00

Last night I made a bunch more Hero Mail cards.. same as the ones before.. I so enjoy making these kinds of cards and could really do this every day... but unfortunately I cannot write inside each one, so I have to make others.

for these cards I used: (top) Stampin' UP! Godspeed (ret.) stamp set, memento black ink, more mustard ink, ribbon die, bigshot, embossed top layer and white card stock for card base are from XpedX, black card stock and Dimensionals.

Tonight I made all these "Love You Much" cards.. Love cards are always needed by OWH.

For this card I used: Stampin' UP! Cherry Cobbler card stock. Black card stock, White GP card stock. Heidi Swapp Damask Sticker, Heart Punches, Stampin' UP! Well Scripted sentiment, Dimensionals

For this card I used: some pink Stampin' UP! card stock, GP white card stock, black card stock, Stampin' UP! punches. Stampn' UP! Well Scripted stamp set, Ribbon, Heidi Swapp Damask sticker, Dimensionals.

For this card I used: Stampin' UP! Real Red card stock, GP white card stock, black card stock, Heart punches, Stampin' UP! Well Scripted stamp set, Real Red ribbon, Dimensionals.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

today I have made 48 Hero Mail cards ~ WOW!!! ~

2011-09-21T23:38:00.004-06:00

I just finished a bunch more and my total for the day is 48.. holy smokes!

I'd stay up all night making cards.... but I have a housing meeting at 10 to learn about how they are going to start tracking electricity in housing and either charge you if you go over your allotted allowance or get a refund.. I'll learn all the gibberish about it tomorrow.. tonight I'm having fun making cards for Heroes.

NOTE: the other cards I made today are in a previous post.

for these cards I used: StampersBest Bald Eagle, Stampin' UP! Service & Sacrifice sentiment, white card base card stock and embossed top layer from XpedX, black, gold and white. Memento Black ink. Dimensionals

For these cards I used: (top) Stampin' UP! Courage & Honor, Sassy Sayings. Memento black ink, red card stock for base and white embossed layer are from XpedX, Brillant Blue, white, red brads, hole punch. (bottom) StampersBest Bald Eagle, Stampin' UP! Service & Sacrifice sentiment, Stampin' UP! punches. Red for card base and embossed top layer are from XpedX, Memento Black ink. Red, white and blue rhinestone bling is from my friend Faith.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Working on more OWH & OQC cards... for Heroes

2011-09-21T17:02:00.003-06:00

I just whipped up these 15 cards... they went together rather easy since I already had the main images stamped from last night or the night before.. I am trying hard to make as many cards as I can to take to the two FRG meetings that I am attending tomorrow afternoon/evening. I am also going to take a stack of the white inserts that I have.. that way if I run out of cards, I can have the inserts with handwritten notes and I just need to make the cards for them... easy as pie, right?
Black card base, embossed white layer from XpedX, Stampin' UP! punches, Eagle from Eric Dull Broken Road Creative Studios, Sentiment Stampin' UP! Service & Sacrifice stamp set, Sepia and Black ink, Dimensionals.
StampersBest soldier stamp, sentiment Stampin' UP! Wonderful Words, memento black ink, embossed white layer from XpedX, black card base.
StampersBest Bald Eagle Stamp, Sentiment from Stampin' UP! Service & Sacrifice stamp set, Memento Black ink, Stampin' UP! punches, red card base and white embossed layer both from XpedX, Red/white/blue rhinestone bling sent to me from Faith.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

OWH Sketch Challenge #87 card

2011-09-20T16:49:00.002-06:00

I made this card a couple of days ago for the OWH Sketch Challenge .. here is my card.

here is the layout I used:

I used a large stamp that I have in my stash, along with some pattern paper from K&Co. Brown card stock from xpedx, cream paper from print shop in NC and Cajun Craze. Black ink, Linen thread and a brad.
thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

You make my heart flutter... Love card

2011-09-20T16:42:00.003-06:00

One of the postings I seen on the OWH Stars & Stamps site was to make a "miss or love" you card and post it on the Inspired Stamps blog.. I cannot find the posting on their site now about it, but if/when I do find it, I'll add it here.

I made this card last week, but forgot about it.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

.... some Hero Mail cards I have been working on

2011-09-20T16:27:00.004-06:00

Yesterday in the mail I received the most beautiful card from a stamping friend of mine (thanks Faith).. and inside the card was two packs of Red, White and Blue "Bling"... I had already planned on making Hero Mail cards last night, so the bling would be a perfect addition to the cards.

The embossed white topper are from a box of 250 that I got when I went to xPedx that day a while back and got all the deals on the envelopes and card stock.. they are perfect to stamp on and layer onto a card base.

Here are all the cards that I made:

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

OWH Missouri State digi Christmas and For You cards

2011-09-19T14:01:00.004-06:00

I love making cards to send to Operation Write Home. Sandy has been putting out some state digi stamps and last week my name was drawn and I got to bump up the next release of a state digi and I picked the great state of Missouri.. yeah!!!

When Sandy emailed it to me, she mentioned trying to incorporate it into a Christmas card.. so I gave it a try and this is the card I came up with.

Then I went back to the digi last night and make another card, this is that card:

here is a link to the posting with the Missouri State Digis posted on the OWH site.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

single layer... 'LOVE YOU MUCH" cards for OWH

2011-09-16T20:55:00.003-06:00

I thought I would make some more "love" themed cards to send to Operation Write Home.

I have this Cuttlebug embossing folder and it was so easy to emboss the fronts of the cards, then attach this scalloped circle layer with a sentiment from a retired Stampin' UP! stamp set called Well Scripted. The white bases are made from some super sturdy card stock that I bought a week or so at a store here locally called xPedx.. that place is awesome.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

COURAGE... set of five cards for our military

2011-09-16T18:27:00.007-06:00

I'm a big behind on some recent challenges on Opertion Write Home Stars & Stamps and I thought I'd get caught up.. at least tackling one of the challenges. I actually started on these last night, but at midnight I went to bed and thought I'd finish them up today.
For the Sketch Challenge this week you were asked to create a Hero Mail card using the sketch layout.

I created five cards.. for all branches of military... here is the group:

here is the sketch layout:

... and each of the cards:

For these cards I used:

stamps: Unity in America by Unity Stamp Company
card stock: Stampin' UP! Night of Navy and Cherry Cobbler. Cream paper I got at a print shop in NC. Pattern paper that doesn't have any name on it.
ink: Memento Black Ink
Punches: Stampin' UP! small star, Circle Punches

misc: Stampin' UP! mat pack, paper piercer, gold brads
and of course... DIMENSIONALS!!!

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

OWH VCMP Pick One Challenge ~~~ I picked #3

2011-09-12T14:18:00.003-06:00

For this challenge you were to pick a number hosted by Julie.. that would be the sketch challenge that you would use for your card... anybody who knows me, knows the number 3 is my favorite number.. representing my all-time favorite NASCAR drive ever.. Mr. Dale Earnhardt.

Here is my card that I just finished... I actually made two to add to the pile of Christmas cards that will be heading to Operation Write Home.
For this card I used the adorable new Stampin' UP! Stitched Stockings stamp set and coordinating punch. Night of Navy, Going Gray card stock, white card stock, retired Stampin' UP! Designer Series Paper. Embossing folder. Stampin' UP! Oval punches, Circle punches. Bigkick and............ Dimensionals!!!!

Here is the sketch:

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

With Sympathy....... soaring Eagle card

2011-09-11T22:25:00.004-06:00

One of the challenges on the OWH Site this weekend was to make a card with a Nature theme to it. I made a card somewhat like this in the past and I thought it would be a good choice for a sympathy card. I made it extra large (5x7) for people to sign their condolences inside.

This card is for a USASMA family whose daughter died suddenly this past weekend. Please keep this family in your thoughts and prayers at this time.

blessings.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

set of 6.. Hip-hip-horray! it's your special day! kids birthday cards

2011-09-11T16:51:00.005-06:00

All weekend long OWH is having a VCMP ~ Virtual Card Making Party!!!

These cards are for Challenge #1 Garanimals.. cards with animals on them:

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Just whipped up six of these "Thank you for serving our country" cards

2011-09-08T21:53:00.004-06:00

I made some of these a while back.. and was wanting to make some cards rather quickly.. so I whipped up six more.. I would've made more, but only had one 12 x 12 sheet left of this wonderful Stampin' UP! Designer Series Paper.

card stock: Early Espresso, Cajun Craze, Cream, Stampin' UP! DSP

ink: Memento brown

stamps: I was gifted from an ebay seller when I bought something else.. they sell this set (I cannot directly link it.. but you can search on ebay for the same sentiment on the stamp followed by acrylic stamp)

hole punch, brads, .. no dimensionals on these.. I brought them to the table and then forgot they were there and used the ATG on the sentiment pieces.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Happy Thanksgiving ~ fall cards

2011-09-07T17:37:00.002-06:00

I used the beautiful brown paper that I was gifted today for the bases and layers on this card.. and the ones that I will be making later after taking Jackson to his friend's house.. Taylor is already there. They are friends from school in North Carolina.

I have everything cut.. I just need to stamp and punch out the rest of the pieces and these will go together lickety split.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Great deal on envelopes today... yeah!

2011-09-07T17:16:00.005-06:00

Today I went to a place here in El Paso called XPedX... it was awesome. Last week when I went to the Kwik Kopy and the lady cut all the card inserts for me:

When I was there I asked about envelopes and the lady wrote down the address and phone number of this place XpedX... I need to go back and thank her for telling me about it.

When I walked in I seen a bunch of boxes of envelopes on a markdown table, but they were just a tad smaller than what I was looking for. We walked all around and seen some beautiful paper.. ahhh.. such a pretty Mahogany paper. Then we found a section with reams of paper marked down. I picked up one that was only $5.00 and while looking at the others a lady who worked there came over and I asked her about envelopes, etc.. she took me to the boxes of the envelopes.. in a section I missed.. ha ha.. and then I asked about the ones on the table. They were regularly $16.95 a box marked down to $6.95, the lady said I could have them for $5.00 each.. wowzers. I just have to cut my cards to be 4" x 5 1/4".. 1/4" smaller on both sides.. I can do that. I got six boxes for less than two boxes of the ones I went there for. I also got a box of embossed layers for $5.00 and a ream of really heavy card stock/cover for white card bases.. the lady took 15% off of it for military discount, it was the only regularly priced item I had:

then............. the lady was putting the boxes of envelopes and ream of paper into a box.. she pulled a whole bunch of assorted card stock/cover from under the counter and put a whole bunch in my box.. like 5-6" thick of stuff.. I was overwhelmed by her generosity.

I think that the brown paper that was in the bunch she gave me was the beautiful brown I seen when walking the store... I pulled out some and made a card and cut everything to make some more.. I'll post them next.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

more... Ho! Ho! Ho! Santa Christmas cards

2011-09-07T13:24:00.001-06:00

I just finished up this batch of Christmas cards.. there is a 9th Santa Claus floating around somewhere on my desk.. not sure where he went to.. so I couldn't make the 9th card.

I have some more images that I colored yesterday that I can get put onto some cards.

We are off to a place just south of I-10 that sells envelopes and lots of other stuff.. the lady at Kwick Kopy who cut the card inserts for me last week told me about it.. so we are going to go check it out.. hopefully I can get a good deal on some envelopes.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Ho! Ho! Ho! Santa Christmas card

2011-09-07T12:06:00.004-06:00

.......... a long time ago I printed off this adorable Santa Claus image from the Dustin Pike blog.. he has lots of freebies and they are so adorable. When I went to get the link to his blog, where it says "he is available here" it doesn't have the file there.. but you can click on the image and save it as jpg.. that is how I have it saved on my computer.

I had a whole sheet of these printed off and yesterday while watching the NASCAR race, I colored in the whole sheet and some other images that I have printed off as well.. I have a whole stack of things to color so I was having a blast doing so.

For this card I used:

stamps: $1.00 clear stamp set

card stock: Stampin' UP! Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green

GP white, black, and some American Crafts pattern paper

Ink: printer, copic markers, black ink

accessories: hole punch, red brads, circle punches, Tim Holtz retro circles embossing folder, bigkick, and Dimensionals

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Merry Christmas Ya'll! ~ Patriotic Texas ornaments cards

2011-09-05T22:57:00.003-06:00

After I finished the last Texas themed Christmas cards.. I decided to find a different sketch and didn't find one I liked.. so I just kinda winged it and ended up with this. I made 9 of these babies and they'll all go in the box (if they can fit~ 300+ in the box and still lots more to fit in) to head to Dixie for Operation Write home and then off to deployed military around the world.. Hooah!!

For these cards I used:

stamps: Deadbeat Designs

card stock: Stampin' UP! Riding Hood Red, Brillant Blue. WeRMemoryKeepers Yankee Doodle pattern paper, GP white card stock, watercolor paper

ribbon: Stampin' UP!

Nestabilities die, circle punch, dimensionals

ink: Memento black, assorted Copic Markers

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

OWH Birthday Bash: Free Digi ~ Thank You card

2011-09-05T13:46:00.003-06:00

Be sure to hop over to the Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps site to get some FREE digis.. they are featuring the state flower of Illinois. There is a Thank you and a Miss you digi... OWH STARS & STAMPS SITE.

Here is my card using the free digi.

For this card I used:
card stock: Stampin' UP! Almost Amethyst and Lavender Lace. GP white, Basic Grey pattern paper from the Euphoria stack.

ink: copic markers, Distress inks, printer

accessories: Bigkick, Spellbinders, Cuttlebug Seeing Spots embossing folder, hole punch, brads, sponge and Dimensionals

Card stock:

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

SCS Sketch #348 ~ Texas themed Christmas card

2011-09-04T21:48:00.004-06:00

I used the sketch layout on SCS this week for this card.

Merry Christmas Ya'll ! Texas style.

For this card I used:

Stampin' UP! card stock in the colors of Riding Hood Red, Brillant Blue
GP white card stock
WeRMemoryKeepers Yankee Doodle paper from paper stack
Cuttlebug Stars embossing folder
Dimensionals
Spellbinders, Circle Punch
Stampin' UP! Red Taffeta Ribbon
Cropadile, Stampin' UP! Eyelets
Copic Markers, Memento Black Ink

This is the SCS sketch that I used for this card:

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

OWH Sketch #85 ~ Yankee Doodles patriotic card

2011-09-04T14:28:00.002-06:00

This card was super quick and super easy.. I just pulled some papers from a big paper pack from WeRMemory Keepers called Yankee Doodles. I used the sketch from Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps site for this week. The card base is Stampin' UP! Real Red card stock.

Here is the sketch:

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Thank you for your service... OWH card for Heroes

2011-09-04T14:22:00.002-06:00

I got an order in from Stamper's Best and received as a freebie.. this stamp of soldiers walking arm in arm.. like a Band of Brothers. I ordered the special Operation Write Home stamp set and the sentiment stamp was in it.. I thought it would be a nice sentiment to include on a Hero Mail card.

Cardstock is Stampin' UP! More Mustard and Basic Black, and GP white cardstock.

Embossing folder: Cuttlebug Stars

Black brads, hole punch, dimensionals, bigkick

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

OWH Birthday Bash Challenge: Casing Ardeth card #2 Thinking of you

2011-09-04T00:55:00.002-06:00

This is another card I cased from Ardeth T. Here is the link to the OWH Birthday Bash Challenge.

I cased the fifth card posted on the post.

For this card I used: Stampin' UP! Basic Black, some grey cover I got from a print shop in N.C., GP White card stock. Black brads, hole punch, Bigkick, Diamond Plate Embossing Folder, Sponge Dauber, Memento Black Ink, Circle Punches, Dimensionals Stamps: Motorcycle from Stampers Best and a sentiment from a Hero Arts set.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

OWH Birthday Bash Challenge: Honor Eagle card

2011-09-03T23:50:00.003-06:00

The challenge for this card.. that is posted on the OWH Stars & Stamps site is to case a cardmaker ~ Ardeth T. from Glendale, AZ.

I cased the third card on the post... I drew the sketches to the others she did and am going to try and get them cased tomorrow.

For this card I used: Stampin' UP! Basic Black, More Mustard card stock, GP white card stock, Memento Black ink, Circle Punches, EK Success border punch. Stamps: Unity, Unity in America and Bald Eagle from Stampers Best.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

OWH Birthday Bash 2011: use eyelets JUST SAYING HELLO CARD

2011-09-03T22:47:00.002-06:00

OWH is having a Birthday Bash this month and they are having some challenges. This challenge is to use eyelets. I had started this card last night and tonight when I sat down and seen it.. I knew right away I would use a large eyelet as a tire swing and then added the sentiment... I really like how it turned out.

I got some new dies a week or so ago at a local stamp store and wanted to put them to use. The dies are from Memory Box and are called: Twiggy Tree and Leafy Canopy.

I used a sentiment from a Hero Arts set.. it's out of it's original packaging so I don't know the name of it.

Stampin' UP! Early Espresso and Certainly Celery card base and layer, GP White and the pattern paper I think is from My Mind's Eye. I used a micro pen to draw the line from the eyelet to the tree branch.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

look at this spread..... getting ready to get all these cards ready for mailing.

2011-09-01T21:49:00.003-06:00

I pulled out all the cards that I need to get ready for mailing to send to Operation Write Home. I have a dining room table full.

I laid them all out last night... then tonight I went to the PX to buy some address labels to print off the info onto the labels to affix to the backs of my cards.. I got a deal because they had the spot for the $4.55 packs loaded with $8.95 packs.. when I asked if they had any of the $4.55 ones, the lady said that I could get the $8.95 at the $4.55 price because it was their fault that they were in the wrong place.. well alrighty then.. so I got three packs.

I printed off all the labels and am now working on getting them attached to the cards.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

~ Thinking of you ~ butterfly card

2011-08-30T22:48:00.003-06:00

I seen a card in a magazine last night at Michael's and I really wanted to buy the magazine because I really liked the sketches in it and the card samples.. however they won't let you use a coupon. I left there and headed to JoAnn's.. mainly because I was looking for some ribbon.. but at JoAnn's I noticed that the magazines weren't signed as if they were on sale.. and they had the same magazine. I had the lady scan it and it wasn't on sale.. score!

Tonight I wanted to make that card.. and pulled out my Sizzix Tim Holtz Rosette die.. and there is a love hate relationship I have with that thing.. more in the hate column because that thing perforates the lines to much that it tears the paper.. grrrrrrr.. I tossed it aside and decided to use a new die I got the other day from Memory Box called Woven Circle. I cut it in half so that it spread out in the box I had cut for all my stuff to go on.

The card stock I used is all Stampin' UP!.. Early Espresso and Cream Confetti.

The pattern paper is from Dream Street Papers

The stamp sets are Hero Arts Antique Engravings and a sentiment set that is out of the package so I don't know the name of it anymore.

The rhinestone brads are Stampin' UP!

The distress tool I used is from Stampin' UP!

I used a punch from Stampin' UP! that has corner pieces on it.. I use it to cut the sentiment piece at the ends.

The inks are Memento Black ink and Copic markers

and my favorite thing on the whole card... is the Stampin' UP! Dimensionals.. ha ha.. they are my fav!

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

... just finished 8 more "You're ONE in a Million" cards

2011-08-30T21:25:00.002-06:00

I thought I had printed off two sheets of these digis.. but I guess I only did one.. I made 8 more of the cards and am so happy with the way they turned out.. and gosh were they so easy to do.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

You're ONE in a Million ... thank you card for OWH

2011-08-30T20:35:00.003-06:00

Earlier today I was reading a tutorial on the OWH site and happened to click on the blog of Paula S. at Handmade by Paula (link goes to post where the FREE digi is)... and was cruising through her blog and found this awesome free digi. I saved and printed some off right then.. I sat down a little bit ago to stamp and seen the sheet of these digis I printed off and thought I'd use them to make some cards.. this is just the first one, I am going to make some more after loading this.

I already had a stack of Night of Navy card bases cut and scored.. I also had a stack of blue (can't remember the name of it) already cut.. I went to emboss them and my hubby came in and helped me finish them up.

I already had the parts from the Top Note Bigz die leftover from another card project (the snowmen cards I made a week or so ago).. so my card is mostly made from stuff I already had cut.. just sitting there waiting for me to use.

Taylor thought she'd fancy up my card and used the website PICNIK... I liked how it looked, so I thought I'd post it too.. she say's that it's called the Final Space Launch... pretty neat huh?

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

~Season's Greetings~ Christmas cards

2011-08-28T21:40:00.003-06:00

I got this new stamp from Memory Box the other day and thought I'd use it tonight. I made these two cards and messed up on both of them when using a dauber and the black to go around the outside edge.. grrrrr. I do not like when that happens.

I really wish I had some black baker's twine to put on these cards, but I didn't.. maybe I'll find some tomorrow, I'm hoping to find some vanilla or white satin ribbon.

I cut a bunch of card stock to make some more of these.. so hopefully I don't mess them up too.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

another 14 ~* Seize the Cupcake *~ birthday cards

2011-08-28T20:30:00.003-06:00

After making the last card I posted.. I decided to make 14 more.. I did them just a tad different.. in the coloring of the cupcakes is all.. plus I didn't cut out an extra layer for the flowers. I think they turned out cute and hope that they are enjoyed.

These will go in the box headed to Operation Write Home

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

~* Seize the Cupcake *~ birthday card

2011-08-28T16:47:00.004-06:00

I happened upon a blog this morning by Darlene and read through the entire thing.. I seen this card posted on her blog and had to case it.. such a fun card. Someone gave me this Hero Arts stamp set and I have used it in the past for cards for Operation Write home.. and I am going to make some more of these cards as well to send to OWH.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

OWH Sketch #84 ~ Thinking of you makes me SMILE ~

2011-08-28T15:42:00.002-06:00

I seen the new sketch posted on the Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps site this morning. When I sat down to stamp, I wasn't sure what I was going to use.. I remembered some new goodies I got the other day at a local stamp store here in El Paso and decided to use one of the stamps I got.. and this is what my finished card looks like.

I used this sketch layout for the card:

For This card I used:

card stock: Stampin' UP! Shimmery White, Perfect Plum and Pale Plum

stamps: Memory Box "thinking of you makes me smile", Hero Arts "Dogwood"

Embossing Folder: Tim Holtz Flourish

Copic Markers, Memento Black ink

ribbon: seam binding I got at the local stamp store, I think it's from May Arts

Spellbinders Dies for sentiment

Bigkick and of course... Dimensionals from Stampin' UP! ..... my Favorite!!!

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Distressed ~* TEXAS *~ hero mail card for OWH

2011-08-28T00:05:00.002-06:00

Earlier today while I was supposed to be getting ready to go to a birthday party.. I was stamping.

When I left the house this card had a card stock vellum overlay with the embossed Texas in the middle of it and in the corners were stars punched out ... I didn't like it.

When we got home after the party.. I decided to take that top layer off.. cut the Texas out from the middle and layer it on dimensionals.. I put the brads back in the corners.. now I like it.

I will write a note inside for a Hero that I will send to Operation Write Home.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Quick & Easy "Hero Mail" cards

2011-08-26T18:12:00.004-06:00

When I went to put these cards together today using what I punched and cut out last night.. I realized I needed red stars instead of blue ones.. and then instead of a brad in the center of the stars, I used some more of the star bling that I got at Michael's a couple of weeks ago.

I seen a card that Roxie on SCS had made that I really liked and so I cased it for these.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

Getting ready to make some "HERO MAIL" cards

2011-08-25T22:27:00.003-06:00

I made some cards the other day... but didn't take any pictures of them and I haven't felt too good the last few days and haven't stamped at all. Today was a busy day with three meetings to attend.. but tonight I thought I'd get some card stock and pattern papers cut, stars punched and so I am ready to put together nearly a dozen cards to send to Operation Write Home as Hero Mail.

I have red card stock card bases cut already as well.. so when I'm done with these.. I'll start on them.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

10 "Greetings from TEXAS" hero cards for OWH

2011-08-18T23:54:00.003-06:00

Today I went into the garage and went digging through some boxes. I marked boxes very well, so I didn't have to go through all the boxes, I just needed to find the ones I wanted. I was looking for some Army/Airborne/Engineer stamps and the first box marked "stamp sets" they happened to be in.. yeah!!!

After dinner I cut out 30 Texas shapes and shadows using my Cricut set to 1 1/2".

I changed these cards some from the one the other night.. made the card base More Mustard because I had only three sheets of Cajun Craze left... cut out the Texas shapes using Crumb Cake card stock and layered them onto black card stock.

I used some stars I got at Michael's this past week.. and I sponged every layer.

These will have notes written inside each one for a Hero that is deployed, I will then send them to Operation Write Home.

Here's my messy grid paper after all that sponging... you should see my fingers.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

~* GREETINGS FROM..... TEXAS *~

2011-08-16T00:09:00.003-06:00

Yesterday when we got done at the Outlet Mall.. my sweet hubby drove me to a little stamp store here in El Paso called The Stamp Act. I picked up these two Texas stamps from Deadbeat Designs and thought I'd use them on a card tonight... er, I mean morning since it's after midnight.. ha ha.

I seen a card that Polly and her friend had just finished ~ it was representing the Texas Longhorns.. the thing that I really liked about it was how she did her TEXAS word stamp.. randomly punching out holes on it.. then layering it on black.. so that's what I did on a tag. I stamped the shape of Texas stamp with Versamark onto Cajun Craze and then cut it out.. stuck that on onto some black card stock and then cut it out. I used a star brad from the Stylized Silver Hodgepodge Hardware set I have from Stampin' UP!

The sentiment: Greetings from... I typed on the computer and printed it off on Very Vanilla and sponged around on it and the tag too.

thanks for looking ~

have a great airborne day!
God Bless All Our Military.. each and every one of them

airbornewife's stamping spot

OWH Sketch Challenge #105 ~ 92nd Birthday for Grandma

Sening you lots of hugs... some quick cards.

OWH Color Challenge ~ Set of Garden Collage cards

God Is My Salvation............

OWH Sketch #102 Challenge.. Together and From The Heart cards

The shim I use in my ATG's

10 Favorite OWH cards during 2011...

Thank You For Everything You Do! card

A few cards I made last night.. and today.

Paper Pieced/Punched SANTA CLAUS card

... Christmas Blessings w/Santa Claus ....

Case an OWH~Hero Arts Blog Hop Card

OWH Sketch Challenge #100 ~ You Are My Home

more Miss You and Thank You card sets complete

Quick way to show how I punch ends of card stock to look like ribbon ends

Happy Birthday cards for OWH

Miss You and Thank You ~ Card sets

I thank my lucky stars for you! Patriotic card

.... need some hugs? card for OWH

Missing you.... You are my home card for OWH

"New" Hero Arts goodies in the house... including OWH ones!!!

Carnival digi.. Happy Birthday card

Hero Arts "Happy Birthday" bicycle card

Trying hard to make some cards...

OWH Sketch Challenge #96.. Faith, Hope and Love

An Anniversary card.. in Dallas Cowboys colors

OWH Challenge... Cards with no sentiments on the front

OWH Sketch Challenge #93... Christmas Cardinal card

Sorry for the lack of posting.... had foot surgery.

Overflowing with love.. KnK Designs Fundraiser for OWH & Sketch Challenge

Operation Write Home Fundraiser BLOG HOP!!!!

"Overflowing with love" card.. using KnK digi for OWH Fundraiser

"Thanks"... Eagle digi card ~ Fundraiser for OWH

Overflowing with love... OWH Fundraiser by KnK Designs

Holy Presents Santa digi Card... Merry & Bright

"Overflowing with love"... OWH Fundraiser ~ Sketch Challenge

"Proud to be an American"... fundraiser for OWH.. KnK Designs digi

17 ... "LOVE" ... cards for OWH

......... I miss you..... love card for OWH

some more cards for the OWH Sketch Challenge #90

OWH Sketch Challenge #90.. cards

........ Thinking of you... deer card

just finished 22 more "THANK YOU" embossed cards

ready to make 22 "THANK YOU" cards

....... embossed THANK YOU card

"Thinking of You".... some new goodies I got today.

... hope your christmas is snow much fun! card

"BRIGHT!!!" .............. love ..... cards for OWH.

~ You Are My Sunshine ~

OWH Sketch #89 Challenge: Thank you very much

Blog Candy Winner is...............

Welcome OWH Blog Hoppers ~ Christmas Cards and more...

World Cardmaking Day ~ Blog Candy Giveaway!!!

OWH Challenge Sweet Treats ... "Hi Cupcake!" card

... the other 10 Have a Great Day cards are now complete

10 cards completed and then... OOPS!!

getting ready to make 20 of the "Have a Great Day" cards...

OWH Birthday Bash: Gelatins "Fall Card"

OWH Sketch Challenge #88 ~ You are in our thoughts and prayers

OWH Challenge: Case Charlsie S. "Thinking of You..."

.......* PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN *.......

Have a Great Day ~ new stamp set.. had to make a card

more Hero Mail and some Love you much cards..

today I have made 48 Hero Mail cards ~~~ WOW!!! ~~~

Working on more OWH & OQC cards... for Heroes

OWH Sketch Challenge #87 card

You make my heart flutter... Love card

.... some Hero Mail cards I have been working on

OWH Missouri State digi Christmas and For You cards

single layer... 'LOVE YOU MUCH" cards for OWH

COURAGE... set of five cards for our military

OWH VCMP Pick One Challenge ~~~ I picked #3

With Sympathy....... soaring Eagle card

set of 6.. Hip-hip-horray! it's your special day! kids birthday cards

Just whipped up six of these "Thank you for serving our country" cards

Happy Thanksgiving ~ fall cards

Great deal on envelopes today... yeah!

more... Ho! Ho! Ho! Santa Christmas cards

Ho! Ho! Ho! Santa Christmas card

today I have made 48 Hero Mail cards ~ WOW!!! ~

~Season's Greetings~ Christmas cards