The shim I use in my ATG's

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...

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

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.

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 made 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

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 ....

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

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

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

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

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