SR Cards

PTI Anniversary-

2012-02-05T15:06:00.000-08:00

This is a card that Robin made for the anniversary. She was inspired by Michelle and her love of the jar stamp set. I love the buttons that she made, using PTI chipboard and the variety of colors in the card. It is such a springy card!!

Hope you enjoy!

Robin

PTI Anniversary-

2012-02-05T14:31:00.000-08:00

This should be the last floral card for the evening! I love how the yellow fence looks on the matstack behind it. This card was inspired by all the floral cards that were seen today. I can't wait for all the excitement that comes with the PTI anniversary!

Hope you enjoy!

Stephanie

PTI Anniversary-

2012-02-05T14:24:00.000-08:00

Although this card is different from Erin's gorgeous card, I decided to use her pastel colors and the PTI ice cream set to create a cute springy card. I remember when this set was first introduced, Nichole showed the set by stamping a phrase on the scoops, which I thought was really cute. I hope you enjoy!

Steph

PTI Anniversary-

2012-02-05T14:14:00.000-08:00

Yet another floral card, inspired by Debbie Olson's card for the PTI 5th year anniversary! I don't have the gardening stamp set that she used, but I loved the idea of making a springy card in the middle of a cold day! I made this card using the PTI anniversary stamp set from last year. I really like the way the poppys look behind the fence.

Hope you enjoy!

Stephanie

PTI Anniversary-

2012-02-05T13:56:00.000-08:00

I made this card this evening with Betsey's cards in mind. I don't often look to very big sentiments, but Robin convinced me to give this new stamp a try and I really like how it looked. Of course, the red, white and blue is for Operation Write Home!

I hope you enjoy!

Stephanie

PTI Anniversary- Floral

2012-02-05T13:51:00.000-08:00

I made this card with Erin's project in mind; I just love how the light colors came together on her floral card!

To make this, I used many different sets including floral fusion and Turning a new leaf. I tried to stay within her color scheme, including pinks and other light hues. I also included the green leaves using momento ink.

I hope you enjoy!

Stephanie

PTI Anniversary- Kraft

2012-02-05T13:48:00.001-08:00

I made this card for the PTI anniversary as well. I took inspiration from Maile's use of craft paper and a sentiment in black- I just love the look of that! I also wanted to use something springy, so I included some PTI cut flowers. Unfortunately, this stamp set does not have a matching die, so I hand cut the flowers. I love how CAS this card is!

Thanks for visiting. Hope you enjoy!

Stephanie

PTI Anniversary

2012-02-05T13:43:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!

Having not made a lot of cards in a while, I decided today would be a good time to get a little crafty. Despite it being fairly cold outside, I wanted to make some springy cards for the PTI anniversary. Therefore, I decided to use one of my favorite floral sets, the PTI anniversary stamp set from last year. I used this set with the fence die and a matching sentiment. I used a few of the springy, floral cards today as inspiration, such as the one from Debbie Olson.

I hope you enjoy!

Stephanie

PTI Anniversary Day 1 (Card #5)

2012-02-05T13:31:00.001-08:00

I made one other card inspired by the colors and theme of Debbie Olson's card. I used the same piece of background paper but a slightly different card. For both cards, I used the stamp set as well as the coordinating dies.

Hope you enjoy!

Stephanie

PTI Anniversary Day 1 (Card #4)

2012-02-05T13:27:00.001-08:00

After making the first set of cards, I decided to use some of the colors from Debbie Olson's card for inspiration. I haven't had a lot of time to play around with the new Rosie Posie stamp set from PTI, but I absolutely love it. I was really inspired by Nichole Heady's use of the set to make background paper, so I attempted to make a piece of decorative paper myself. I love the look of the different flowers and stamps in this set.

I hope you enjoy!

Steph

PTI Anniversary Day 1 (Card #3)

2012-02-05T13:23:00.000-08:00

Here is my final take on Maile's gorgeous card! Although it is hard to see, the pattern continues all the way up the strip (the lightest color did not photograph well).

Hope you enjoy!

PTI Anniversary Day 1 (Card #2)

2012-02-05T13:21:00.000-08:00

Here is another card inspired by the card from Maile. I tried to stay with the color/kraft combination and used the background stamp to create a strip similar to the one on her card.

Hope you enjoy!

PTI Anniversary Day 1 (Card #1)

2012-02-05T13:14:00.000-08:00

Today is the first day of the PTI 5th Anniversary and I decided to make a few cards based on the gorgeous card Maile Belles selected. You can see all of the cards on Nichole's blog.

All of the products in the above card are from PTI unless otherwise noted.

Hope you enjoy!

You float my boat

2011-05-17T16:25:00.000-07:00

Hi!

I made this card a few months back, but never had a chance to post it on the blog. When Nichole Heady introduced the newest set of Tiny Treats stamps, she showed a card using a very similar layout. I have always really liked the tiny treats stamp sets, but I never really knew how to use them successfully on a card. Yet, her card was perfect! Therefore, I immediately CASED her card, using the various tiny treats sets I had at home. This was one of the cards I made. Three sail boats are stamped on small white circles and then colored with Copic Markers. I stamped the blue Mat Stack #4 die cut with versa mark, to add a small pattern to the background. A light blue double ended banner was added behind the circles. A sentiment from Tiny Treats Valentine was added below the boats in PTI's white ink. Finally, a small 'I love you' sentiment was added at the bottom with a little heart. I hope you enjoy!

Train Tracks

2011-05-14T16:20:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

I know I haven't posted any cards in a little while. I just finished up my senior year in college and will be graduating next week. I made this card a few weeks ago, but did not get a chance to post it on the blog. I used PTI's new Train Tracks. I die cut the images, colored them with copics and placed them on the card. On the bottom is a piece of light blue gingham paper from Michael's Craft Store. I added a small happy birthday sentiment to go with the birthday presents on the train. Finally, I stamped the smoke image from the set, which really added that perfect finishing touch. I hope you enjoy!

Have a Great Day

2011-04-27T08:13:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

Just wanted to share a quick card I made a few months back! I created this card soon after we got the PTI Way to Go Kiddo Stamp set. At first I wasn't very sure if we would get a lot of use about some of the images, but it has turned out to be a very fun and useful set to use to make cards for children. I created this card by stamping the various mushroom images in Versamark on green paper. I then cut the small white central focal point using a paper trimmer. I added the embellished edge using one of our edge punches from Fiskars. I stamped the image with the three smaller mushrooms on this white square and colored it with various green Copic markers. I stamped one of the sentiments from the set on the bottom and added two green gems to add a little something extra to the card. At this point, I placed the green piece on the card and was not completely satisfied with the look of the card. Something was missing. I found some rustic twine that we had lying around the house and added a piece on the bottom. Exactly what was missing! I loved how rustic the twine looked with the images of the mushrooms.

I hope you enjoy!

PTI April Blog Hop

2011-04-25T08:03:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! Welcome to the PTI blog hop. This month the theme was to make a masculine card, which was especially fun given that last month's release was all about masculine stamp sets. For this challenge, I decided to use the new Boy Basics Frog stamp set that Nichole introduced. I absolutely love this stamp! It is a larger version of a small stamp that is in the Tiny Treats Valentine stamp set. The set came with a matching lily pad and a fly, as well as two cute matching sentiments. I have to say that for this card I was truly inspired by one of the release projects Nichole Heady made with this adorable stamp set!

To create the background for this card, I stamped the new Boy Basics circles on a piece of green cardstock from Michaels. I used Versa Mark Ink and I really love how it came out. I then punched out a large white circle using a Marvy Punch. I die cut the frog and lilly pad on white paper and colored them in with Copic Markers. I stamped one of the matching sentiments from the set on the bottom of the circle. I then attached the lily pad directly to the white circle. I added the frog with a few pop up dots to give the card some dimension. I then added two small googly eyes to the frog. Finally, I stamped the image of the fly on the white circle. Before adhering the circle to the card front, I die cut a double ended banner die, which is also from PTI. I stamped this is green with the Gingham stamp set. I attached this strip to the card front, and then placed the central image on top.

I hope you enjoy!

PTI Blog Hop!

2011-04-25T07:56:00.001-07:00

Welcome!!

It's that time again!!! PTI is having their April Blog Hop today.

This month's blog hop is dedicated to all the boys and men in our lives! Now's your chance to create Father's Day projects, boy birthday cards and more to build up your stash! Focus on masculine color schemes, fresh pattern combinations, understated embellishments and unique uses of images you may already have in your stash!

This was a great theme for the blog hop, as this past month's release was dedicated to all the men and boys in our lives. Although we got a bunch of new, more masculine stamp sets, the theme this month also pushed us to use our existing stamps in a more masculine way. This is exactly what Robin did with this fabulous card. Instead of coloring her favorite hot air balloons, she chose to paper piece them. I love the way they came out! She also popped the largest one with the thickest pop up dot and the middle one with a slightly thinner adhesive. The smallest balloon was adhered directly to the card. This gave the card an incredible amount of depth and it really looks as if the balloons are simply flying through the sky! I love it!!

Hope you enjoy!

OWH Blog Skip

2011-04-15T20:05:00.000-07:00

Good morning! Welcome to the OWH Sticker Blog Skip!

(If you would like to start at the beginning of the skip, please go to the OWH Stars and Stamps Blog.)

Robin and I make a lot of cards for OWH using stickers, so we thought it would fun to showcase a few of them for everyone to see! In general, we prefer to use Paperhouse stickers, as they are amazingly realistic. Although they can be hard to find, they are worth looking for on your next trip to Michaels or A.C. Moore. We love the dog and cat stickers, as well as the butterflies and shells. In the summer, Robin also makes cards with the Paperhouse popsicles!

First is a fun card that Robin made! I love the fun patterned paper behind the dog stickers on this card. Each sticker is placed on a white square of cardstock. This was then placed on a pink piece of paper, which was placed on a darker pink strip. The paper used to back the stickers is embossed with tiny polka dots. Finally, a sentiment from Amuse Stamps finishes the card.

This next card is similar although the materials used are slightly different. The stickers are once again placed on a white square of cardstock. This was then placed on a square of brown cardstock, which was created using the Marvy punches. The same sentiment was used, although instead of backing it on patterned paper, Robin placed a small strip of Washi Tape across the bottom of the card. The tape not only looks great but is also very easy to move or reposition if necessary.

This card was created in a similar manner to the one above. I really like the butterfly stickers, especially for the spring. Once again, a piece of Washi Tape was placed on the bottom of the card.

In the summer, Robin generally makes cards using these popsicle stickers. These paperhouse stickers are so realistic! They really look like those summer treats we all enjoyed as kids. For this card, and the one below, she placed the stickers on a white square of paper and placed this on a colored piece of cardstock. She placed the squares on an angle to create the look of diamonds. Finally, a matching piece of Washi Tape on the bottom finishes off the card.

While I have always loved dogs, we got a cat when I was younger and we absolutely love her. Therefore, when we found cat stickers from Paperhouse, I immediately fell in love with them. The cats are so cute! I picked this card not only because of the stickers but also because of the awesome background paper used to complement the cats. The colors also go really well with the feline theme of the card. Finally, a thinking of you stamp was used to finish the card.

Finally, I though I would post two slightly different cards from those above. While Robin generally uses animal stickers from Paperhouse, we also really love their flowers. The flowers are larger than the above cats and dogs and once again look quite realistic. They have a wide variety of flowers at the craft store, but these are some of our favorites. The frames are punched with the Martha Stewart 'punch around the corner' double loop set. The paper behind the flowers is metallic paper from AC Crafts. I absolutely love this paper!

I hope this post showed everyone a few different ways to use stickers. If you haven't tried Paperhouse stickers before, I would encourage you to check them out the next time you are at your local craft store. You can also order them online at various stores.

Thanks so much for visiting!

The NEXT STOP on the blog skip is Paula at Handmade by Paula

Here is a list of the blogs participating in the blog skip:

Barb at Paper Therapy Ponderings

Erica at Creative But Messy

Jan at Jan's Gone Stamping

Sherry at Bits of Cheer

Julie at Handmade by Julie

Velda at OldStamper Musings

John at John VM's Cards

Steph and Robin at SR Cards - YOU ARE HERE

Paula at Handmade by Paula

Samantha at Expressions of a Craftaholic

Happy Birthday!

2011-03-23T19:56:00.000-07:00

Hi!

I made this card a few months back after receiving a new birthday set from PTI. I die cut a Mat Stack #3 die in light pink paper. After die cutting the package and bow, I stamped them with the matching stamps. I love the polka dot birthday present that came with this set! I used a cuttle bug embossing folder to create the pattern on the background. The swiss dot impression folder creates such a fun background! I then used the double banner die from PTI to create the small white strip on the card. I stamped the sentiment from the matching birthday set in the same color purple (grape jelly momento ink). I finished the card with two light pink pearls.

Hope you enjoy!

Just a note...

2011-03-20T05:00:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

Just thought I would post a quick card this morning! Robin made this card and I love how 'springy' it turned out! To make this card, Robin covered a white card base with a fun piece of patterned paper. I think the paper is one of the sheets from Scraptasia's going out of business sale! She then picked two matching colors of solid paper and punched out two layered circles using our Marvy punches. A sentiment stamped in black completes the card. Hope everyone is enjoying the spring weather!

Hope you enjoy!

Hi There

2011-03-14T17:03:00.000-07:00

Good Afternoon-

I got the idea for this card after perusing Maile Bell's blog. I absolutely LOVE her work: she has such a CAS style! She often uses bold colors in a very modern way. In fact, if I ever feel as if I am running low on creativity, I tend to hop on over to either Maile's blog or Nichole Heady's blog. I can always count on both to inspire me!

For this card, I started with a piece of raspberry fizz PTI cardstock. I punched 6 white circles and stamped them with a small butterfly from PTI's Butterfly Dreams. I tried to alter the position of the butterflies on each circle. I used the Polka Dot Basic stamp set with VersaMark ink to create the polka dot background on the pink cardstock. I also used a small scallop edge punch to create the border. I attached the white circles to the pink base. The sentiment comes from a HeroArts stamp set. Finally, a few small pearls were used to accent the center of three of the butterflies. I hope you enjoy!

Pawsing... to say hi!

2011-03-10T04:53:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!

Another older card today! We are still making plenty of new cards everyday but I thought I would share another card I found while looking through some old pictures. The next post will definitely have some new cards (we got a big order from PTI for the Feb. release - so there is soooo much to put up on the blog!) Anyway, this is a VERY old card that I made. It was certainly before we had discovered PTI or even Stampin' Up. I don't even think we had our Marvy Punches yet! The stamp comes from Michael's. I colored the stamp with pencils and backed it on two different brown rectangles. This was mounted on a small piece of yellow paper from a MatStack collection. Finally, a typed sentiment finishes off the card. I think it would be a great challenge to make another card with this stamp given all of the other materials we now have! The puppy is just so cute! Hope you enjoy!

Something Old

2011-03-06T04:44:00.000-08:00

Good Morning-

Sometimes I find myself sifting through photos of old cards we have made in the past two years. Its so funny how inspired you can be from your own work. iphoto stores the card photos in the order in which they were updated. I admit that we have come a long way; those early cards were made with very few materials and very basic techniques.

This is one of those old cards that I found. I believe I made this card last spring. I have always loved the combination of brown and pink. I really like how the geometric shapes pull this card together. Each circle has some type of embellishment. The upper right corner has a punched Martha Stewart butterfly. Finally, a sentiment from Hero arts finishes off the card. I hope you enjoy!

Spring Greetings!

2011-03-02T10:13:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!

Here is a very CAS card today!! I have always wanted to purchase the PTI "Take 3 Spring" stamp set just for the adorable bunny images. Robin was unsure if we would use it very often, so we initially held off. I have to say, having had this set now for over three months, that I really love it! Especially during the cold, snowy winter, making springy cards with bunnies has been a lot of fun. I made this card by stamping the take 3 bunny images onto 3 die cut squares. One thing I really love about this stamp set is the attention to detail in each image. The stitching around the squares really makes the card look quite elegant. I attached the three squares to a strip of PTI Kraft paper. Hope you enjoy!

Cookies!

2011-02-28T10:05:00.000-08:00

Every once and while Robin and I talk about the variety of cards that we send to OWH. We try to make sure that each and every box has a nice variety, from 'Happy Birthday' cards to 'thinking of you' or whatever is appropriate for the upcoming holidays. Yet, given the fact that we use mostly PTI stamps, we find that a lot of our cards are more geared to adults. Its not that these cards can't be sent to children but rather that they are just quite sophisticated. Recently we purchased a PTI stamp set designed for kids in an effort to try to make more cards for children.

I made this card using the Marvy punches that we have. I stamped the image of cookie monster in blue and added a half of an oval for the mouth and two circles for eyes. The cookie was actually made the same way- a large tan circle was embellished with smaller brown circles to look like chocolate chips. A scalloped circle was used to make it look like the cookie had been partially eaten. Finally, I stamped a sentiment from the Hero Arts Monster set. While I love the more sophisticated cards that we make, I do hope to make more cards for children in the future. Hopefully the new PTI stamp set designed for kids will inspire me to do so!

Enjoy!

PTI Blog Hop

2011-02-25T12:34:00.001-08:00

Hi!

Today is the 25th, which means that it is a PTI BlogHop. The theme this month was to use any card with a scallop. Luckily, I bought my first scallop die from PTI this month, and it arrived just in time for me to make a fun card for the hop. I made this card using a new Floral Fusion stamp set at PTI, which I LOVE! I didn't realize how much use we would get out of this stamp and its small matching die. The sentiment also comes from this set. I know I will continue to use this set to make fun, springy cards in the future. Thanks for stopping by.

If you would like more information about the PTI blog hop, please visit: Nichole's site.

Happy Birthday!

2011-02-25T09:32:00.000-08:00

Just thought I would post a quick card that I made a few weeks ago! To make this card, I used the new present dies that are part of the Make a Wish set from PTI. I cut out both pieces and stamped them in Momento Ink. I love the color combination- rose bud, bahama blue and grape jelly. I taped the cut bow onto the die cut present and then attached them to the background. The textured back was made using an Argyle impression folder. I never realized that a white background on a white card looks really sophisticated. It is something I learned from Nichole Heady and I really love the look. Finally, a small sentiment from Stampin' Up finished the card.

Hope you enjoy

Happy Birthday!

2011-02-22T08:00:00.000-08:00

Good morning!

I am on my way to class but I thought I would drop in and show a fun Birthday card that Robin made for Operation Write Home. This card used the Framed Stamp Set from PTI, which I have used on so many cards! I love how professional it is. I used to attempt to draw the lines by hand, but this stamp makes it so clean and simple. Robin then used the star dies from PTI to die cut three different stars. She filled in the gap in the frame with a small 'celebrate'. Finally, she added a fun sentiment from a birthday set from PTI. This has to be one of my favorite birthday sentiments. I really like the script and the size of it in general. I also like the fact that she used red, white, and blue for the stars on this card. Its a great combination!

Hope you have a great day!

Make It Monday #2 Card

2011-02-20T12:18:00.000-08:00

Good afternoon!

Just thought I would post a quick card for the Make it Monday Challenge over at PTI. I haven't had much time recently, but I really wanted to give this challenge a try. We have had vellum in the house for the longest time, but we rarely, if ever, use it. I guess I had some type of phobia of smudging the ink after stamping on it. Yet, the amazingly talented Nichole Heady showed how easy it is to create a sentiment strip with vellum. Therefore, I decided to give it one more try. Miraculously, it worked! I love the look of this card. The die is a new Geo Die that Robin found on the Operation Write Home website. It took a little time to get used to it, but I really love the final product. With the chilly weather today, this card is a nice reminder of the springy temperatures soon to come.

Let it SNOW!

2011-02-17T13:00:00.000-08:00

Good morning!

This has to be one of my favorite cards that I made this winter! I don't remember where the idea came from for this card, but I really like how it turned out. I started by stamping the Framed stamp from PTI in black ink on white card stock. I stamped three little snowmen from the Jar Fillers for winter in the middle of the Frame. I took a sentiment from this same set and added it to the opening in the frame. Using basic markers, I colored the snowmen's hat and scarf. I also added some orange for the carrot nose :) I then masked off the frame to add the snowflakes. The snowflakes came from a separate PTI set called Peace Be Still. I stamped them in two different colors of blue around the frame. Finally, I added a colored pearl to the hat on each snowman. I love how the scarf, hat and pom pom all match on each one. They look so cute!

Hope you enjoy!

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T08:00:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

Just thought I would pop in and show you a card that I made for Valentine's day. This card used the Framed set from PTI. I first stamped the frame on a white card base. I then took PTI's Heart Prints stamp set and stamped three small hearts. Recently PTI introduced dies to cut out the hearts that coordinate with this set! I love having the die!! It makes everything look so professional and it makes it easy for us to make multiple cards for OWH at one time. I stamped the three smaller hearts in different colors on the die cut shapes. I then added these with pop up dots to the center of the frame. I stamped the sentiment XOXO from the Heart Prints stamp set, which luckily fit perfectly into the opening in the frame. Finally, I added a small puffy heart sticker that we had left from Valentine's Day cards last year. I really like these little stickers and I hope to be able to get more in the future.

Hope everyone has a fabulous day today!

Make it Monday: Challenge #1

2011-02-08T17:37:00.001-08:00

There is a new challenge every monday at PTI! I think this challenge with the video will be really inspiring each week. This week the challenge was to make a card with multiple sentiments of the same type. I made a few similar cards for this challenge- some with birthday cards and the rest were thank you notes. I really like this technique and I am sure I will use it in the future. Hope you enjoy!

If you want to check out the challenge, visit this link!

PTI Anniversary Day 5

2011-02-07T13:00:00.000-08:00

Good Morning!

One of my favorite stamp sets from PTI has got to be Dot Spot. I love the geometric images from this set and I think they look wonderful stamped in different colors. In the past I have always used Dot Spot on a horizontal card, but I decided to try something new this time! I stamped the medium and one of the smaller circles from the set vertically down the card. I also really like this color combination (Raspberry Fizz, plum pudding and Hawaiian Shores) I used the smallest image from the set to add a little bit more to the card. The sentiment comes from Hero Arts. Robin and I use a lot of sentiments like 'thinking of you' or 'Hi There'. These sentiments can really be used for anything, which makes them perfect for OWH. As a final touch, I added some pink rhinestones and purple pearls to the interior of the circles. This really made them pop off the page and I love the final card.

Hope you enjoy!

PTI Anniversary Day 2

2011-02-06T13:11:00.001-08:00

PTI Anniversary Day 2, card #9

2011-02-06T13:10:00.000-08:00

PTI Anniversary Day 2, card #8

2011-02-06T13:08:00.001-08:00

PTI Anniversary Day 2, card #7

2011-02-06T13:07:00.005-08:00

PTI Anniversary Day 2, card #6

2011-02-06T13:06:00.001-08:00

PTI Anniversary Day 2, card #5

2011-02-06T13:02:00.001-08:00

PTI Anniversary Day 2, card #4

2011-02-06T13:00:00.001-08:00

PTI Anniversary Day 2, card #3

2011-02-06T12:57:00.001-08:00

PTI Anniversary Day 2, card #2

2011-02-06T12:55:00.000-08:00

PTI Anniversary Day 2, card #1

2011-02-06T12:52:00.001-08:00

PTI is having their 4th anniversary! If you hop over to Nichole's blog you can see the free tags that she has available. I had a lot of fun playing with these tags and I think you will too!

Thank You

2011-02-01T13:00:00.000-08:00

Looking back over the cards we have made for Operation Write Home, I have to say that Robin and I have become much more sophisticated in our card making. Perhaps this is because PTI offers very CAS and sophisticated products or perhaps our technique has just improved. I think this card is a fabulous example of this. I got the idea for this card from Nichole Heady, the head of PTI. I absolutely love her style! She is really an inspiration.

I LOVE the look of the white embossed background on this card. I think its wonderfully subtle and sophisticated. It is something I never would have thought of trying, but Nichole showed how professional it can make a card look. I ran an impression folder (argyle) through the Cuttlebug and then attached it to a white card base. I then used the new gorgeous Mat Stack 1 stamp set. The sentiment is stamped on a die cut double banner, which is also from PTI :) As a final touch, I added a Scarlet Jewel button to each side of the sentiment. I really think is an elegant card. For me, it proves that often in card making, less is more!

Enjoy!

PTI Bloghop

2011-01-25T09:43:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone!

PTI Blog Hop Challenge

"With the new year comes a clean slate along with many resolutions. This month's blog hop challenge involves you challenging yourself to use a Papertrey stamp set that has yet to see ink or even one that might be collecting a little dust! Go through your stash and see what little used treasure it might hold."

For this challenge, Robin and I went through our stamp sets to see which sets have never been inked. I was not surprised when we found that all of our PTI sets have been stamped, at least once. We love our PTI sets and we use them a lot! When they come in the mail we are usually so excited that we put them together almost immediately and use them very soon after to make new, and different cards.

Yet, for this challenge, I decided to use a stamp that has never seen ink from a set that we use a lot. Robin uses the Round and Round anniversary set very often. We love stamping the round images and adding rhinestones to embellish them. Yet, there was a large flourish in the stamp set that had never been inked. I never really knew what to do with this stamp; I always looked at it when perusing the set, but never tried it. Well, for this challenge I decided to ink it up! I really like how this card came together. I stamped the new image in pink onto a die cut Mat Stack 1. I then added the butterfly stamp from the same anniversary set. I also cut out white strips and stamped them with the border stamp from the coordinating Mat Stack 1 stamp set. I added a sweet sentiment from the Round and Round anniversary set and placed three small pearls underneath it. I placed all of this on a matching purple background. Overall, I am quite happy with how the card looks. I hope to use this fun flourish stamp that coordinates with all of the circles in the Round and Round anniversary set more often!

Thanks for stopping by!

Ladybugs

2011-01-18T12:00:00.000-08:00

I vividly remember the moment I received the dreaded e-mail about our lovely local stamp store Scraptasia. The first thing I noticed was the subject on my phone- "Sad News from Scraptasia" I knew right then and there that this amazing store would be closing its doors. The e-mail detailed the store's closing, and the sale to empty the store before closing. On their final day, Scraptasia had a grab bag, where people could stuff a shopping bag with any goodies left in the store for $20.00. After dropping my grandmother off at the airport, Robin and I rushed over to pick up supplies and say our goodbyes. While I always loved the stamps in Scraptasia, Robin seemed to love the various patterned papers. She stocked up on a wide variety of patterned and solid papers this final Saturday morning. As sad as the store's closing was, I do feel good that we are using the products we got for a good cause!

Robin made this card. I really love the patterned paper she used, which came from the sale at Scraptasia. The colors on this paper are fabulous- so bright and cheery! I also really like the way she matched the colors in the patterned paper with the circles around the sentiment. With all of this cold weather and snow, its fun to use light colors and think about spring.

Enjoy!

Thank You

2011-01-14T16:30:00.000-08:00

The other day Robin mentioned that we have not made many 'Thank you' cards for Operation Write Home recently. I am always interested in making new and different cards so I decided to try to make some new Thank you notes. I took the Framed set from Papertrey Ink and stamped it in black ink on white card stock. I then took an older PTI set, All About You, and stamped the large 'YOU' in various colors. To get this look, I masked the frame using post-it notes. I then added a small 'thank' stamp from the same set in black. Finally, I added a small Thank you sentiment under the frame with a coordinating small blue flower. I really like how this card turned out! I think I will make some more using different colors.

Thanks for looking. I hope you have a great day!

Warm winter wishes!

2011-01-12T11:00:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!

Just thought I would post a card today for all those experiencing a serious dose of "winter weather." NYC is freezing and we are supposed to get a significant amount of snow fall by the end of the day. We're stuck in the house, doing some work and making some cards of course. I never thought we would use the jar stamp set from PTI but it turns out that we actually use it quite a lot. Around Christmas, PTI came out with a winter addition to the Jar Fillers Stamp set. One of the stamps is a handle, that turns the jar into a mug. Topped with some fluffy marshmallows, the hot cocoa looks good enough to drink! I added a small jar label to the mug stamped in black on Kraft paper. A small strip of brown accent paper finishes the card. I also really love the sentiment that goes with the hot cocoa- 'warm winter wishes'. Definitely a perfect sentiment for today!

Hope everyone is staying warm and enjoying the winter weather!

Halloween in January???

2011-01-11T16:06:00.000-08:00

I know what you are thinking... Halloween is long gone! All of the Halloween supplies should be tucked away in the cabinet, not to be removed until next fall. Well, we took a trip to San Francisco last summer and came home with a stamp set that made it possible to use monsters all year long. Robin will tell you that I have always had a thing for monsters, especially those with only one eye! Therefore, as soon as we walked into a stamp store in SF and saw the Hero Arts Monster Fun stamp set, I knew it was coming home with us. The stamp set has adorable monsters!! Robin makes many cards with it, coloring them in and adding one of the fun matching sentiments from the set. We also add a googly eyes to finish up the card!

For this card I wanted to use a slightly different monster. Looking back over the year, perhaps one of the best punches we bought was the owl punch from Stampin' Up. Sure, we make a bunch of cards with cute owls sitting on branches. Yet, I was interested in doing something else with this punch. After searching the net, I saw some cards where people turned the owl into various monsters. Paired with a sentiment from the Hero Arts Monster Fun set, the handmade monsters were perfect! Although making these cards is fairly time consuming, it is definitely worth it! You can really be creative and make a monster out of any color or shape of punched paper. I hope you enjoy the card!

Banners

2011-01-11T15:54:00.001-08:00

Hi everyone!

I haven't posted in a long time! I was really busy with school and final exams and therefore did not have much time to blog. I am on school break now and thought I would post a few cards. While I haven't posted in a while, we have been making roughly 280 cards every other week. A few months ago we got this Banner Builder Set from Papertrey Ink. Although Robin was unsure if we would get enough use out of it, I have been using it a lot and I have come to really like all the different options. This stamp set comes with three different shaped banners and each individual banner has a different pattern. The set also comes with two strings from which to hang the banners.

For this card, I stamped the vertical string twice. I added the triangular banners in three different colors. I really like the polka dot one! I then added some clouds from the PTI Up Up and Away stamp set. Finally, a sentiment from Up Up and Away finishes the card. We don't often make one layer cards, but I had fun experimenting with it. I think its a really 'springy' and cheery card! I hope you enjoy!

PTI Blog Hop

2010-10-25T17:04:00.000-07:00

Hi-

Just a quick post for tonight, as I have physics hw to do! I made this card for the PTI Blog Hop. I have to say that I was really excited by the theme this month, which was to create a holiday card that is not specifically Christmas. It is so great to see people making Hanukkah and other holiday cards!

I hope you enjoy!

Eyeballs!

2010-08-29T14:29:00.000-07:00

This card was made by using the new Friendship Jars from PTI. When we first saw them we didn't think we would get a lot of use out of them. Yet this past month, they introduced the fall fillers (halloween and autumn) and we simply could not resist. Having had the set for only a week, I can honestly say that we LOVE it. The jar is just so cute.

For this card, I cut and stamped the jar image on a piece of Kraft PTI cardstock. The new dies from PTI make it very easy to cut out the jar image. I then punched a bunch of white circles using a SU punch. The eyeball comes from the fall filler addition to the Friendship Jar PTI set. I then die-cut the jar label and stamped the matching sentiment! Don't you just love the eyeballs for Halloween?? The jar is sitting on a piece of the new Halloween paper from PTI. I added a small strip of black cardstock to the bottom and attached a sentiment from the Teeny Tiny Sentiments stamp set from SU. Hope you enjoy!

I don't normally enter my cards into online challenges, but I thought it would be fun to start. This card works well for Ted's Halloween challenge. If any one is interested, you should really check out his great blog!

Falling for you!

2010-08-29T14:19:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

I thought I would share some cards made using our newest stamps from PTI. We got a bunch of Halloween sets as well as a fun fall/autumn set.

I have to say that I absolutely love the fall. Halloween is definitely one of my favorite holidays so I really enjoy making these cards for OWH. Its hard to believe that the deadline for Halloween is so close.

This first card was made from a set called Falling Leaves. The set comes with a tree and various leaves. It also has an adorable acorn and a small apple. I used different shades of red, yellow and orange ink to stamp the leaves. I then added the brown acorns. The entire image was cut out and backed with an orange/red piece of cardstock. Finally, I stamped the sentiment on the bottom with a matching acorn. It is a very clean and simple card. Hope you enjoy!

Christmas In July #2

2010-07-24T05:20:00.000-07:00

Hey!

Here is another Christmas card that we made for OWH. This adorable santa comes from the Holiday Button Bits set from PTI. Anyone who has seen some of our cards knows that we absolutely LOVE buttons. After using the Everyday Button Bits set so much, we decided it would be great to have a button set for the holidays. I stamped this santa twice, so that I could cut out the head and its beard to mount on top of the red button. I colored his body using a Copic Marker. Using a foam dimensional sticker, I then attached the colored head piece on top of the stamped body. This made the santa look really 3D. The button is a Pure Poppy button from PTI. I stamped the background using A Little Argyle also from PTI. I punched the santa using Marvy circle punches and then backed it with a red scalloped circle. To add a final touch, I used flocking powder on his beard and on the trim of his suit. This added a nice fluffy look to the final product. I hope you enjoy!

Christmas in July

2010-07-24T05:04:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone!

I have to apologize for not posting in a while on the blog. I am taking a summer course in Organic Chemistry and have had very little extra time.

Its July which means Christmas and Halloween cards for OWH! I have to say that these are some of my favorite cards to make and I love this time of year. Sometimes it is hard to find supplies for Christmas cards in the middle of July, but we have been pretty lucky and are using some old supplies from last year.

We recently ordered a few Christmas sets from PTI so I thought I would share one of these. This first card was made with our new Peaceful Poinsettia stamp set from PTI. I stamped the large flower in red using Momento Ink. I then used an olive green ink for the leaves. The sentiment also comes with this set and it is one of my favorites! I am sure you will see me using it a lot. I backed the image with Bazzil red cardstock and a piece of green and white striped paper. To finish it off, I added three tiny gold pearls to the center of the flower. I hope you enjoy!

I decided to enter this card into Jill's First Annual Christmas in July challenge!

OWH Blog Hop

2010-05-28T18:40:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the OWH BLOGHOP!!!

If you want to start at the beginning and see all the great cards, please go to Operation Write Home's Blog: www.owhstarsandstamps.org

For this blog hop, the instructions were to make a red, white and blue missing you card. Our first stamp set from Papertrey Ink is our absolute favorite! I don't think a week goes by when we don't use it. Therefore, when I read the instructions for this bloghop, I thought the set would be perfect for the bloghop card. This card was made with the Everyday Button Bits stamp set. The vintage buttons for the hot air balloons are also from Papertrey. Finally, the sentiment comes from AMUSE stamps. The red paper behind the sentiment was punched with the Stampin' Up window punch.

The Operation Write Home Blog is an amazing resource for new card makers! It has great tips and tutorials on there. We always visit the blog to learn about new projects and products. In fact, we learned about PTI from the blog!

I hope our cards can bring a smile to someone hearing from their family members overseas! I feel like it is the least we can do to help these amazing heros and their families.

Thanks for stopping by! Please leave a comment and let me know what you think of the card!

The next stop on the bloghop is : http://shelleyscreations.blogspot.com/

Some bunny loves you

2010-05-16T15:33:00.000-07:00

Hi-

I just though I would post a similar card to the one below. For this card, I also used the Tiny Treats: Valentine set from Papertrey Ink. I really like the bunny image- the little heart tail is so sweet. I stamped the border in a light pink and the bunny with the sentiment in black. I put the bunny in the frame on a piece of maroon Bazzill swiss dot paper. I then finished the card off with a strip of pink paper and two small pink buttons. Instead of coloring the entire bunny, I decided just to make the inside of the ears pink and the heart tail red.

You're a great catch!

2010-05-16T14:08:00.000-07:00

Good Evening! I have to start off by apologizing for not updating the blog in a while. I have been inundated with school work. Thankfully, last Tuesday was my last final exam!!! We spent Tuesday and Wednesday cleaning out the dorm. When I finally had some free time, I decided to use all of our new stamp sets. In the past few months, Robin and I have discovered the amazing stamps from Papertrey Ink. Every month they come out with new stamps and I have to admit that we are totally addicted. We are currently waiting for even more stamps that we ordered Friday night, but I decided that I should ink up some of the other PTI stamps that we have. This stamp is from a fantastic set called Tiny Treats: Valentine. It comes with the larger frame and various small images with matching sentiments. The images include a small bunny, a frog, a dog etc. and all of them have a small heart. I really love that all of the images and sentiments fit perfectly in the border stamp. Furthermore, it is great that this image coordinates with the Marvy Punches.

For this card, I decided to use the fish image and the sentiment, "you're a great catch". I stamped the border in a light blue and the fish and sentiment in black. I then colored the image with Copic makers. After punching out the entire stamped image, I mounted it on a large piece of navy swiss dot paper from Bazzill. I then added a strip of light blue paper. To finish it off, I attached two small blue buttons.

I hope you enjoy!

Purrfect!

2010-04-03T03:54:00.001-07:00

The midweek challenge on Operation Write Home's blog this week was a Free For All- create a card using any of our favorite past challenges or sketches! Although I normally like the fact that the sketches and challenges provide some direction, I thought this would be fun for a change. I really don't have a favorite challenge, but I loved looking through all of the gorgeous cards people created for the "Four Legged Friends" theme. There is something about a cute animal that brings a smile to almost anyone's face.

Robin made this card and when I saw it, I thought it would be perfect for the blog this week. Recently we have been using a lot of stickers from Paper House Productions. The stickers are awesome- they are images of either animals, flowers, shells etc. and they are incredibly realistic. A few months back, we posted a card using the sea shell stickers. For this card, Robin used the small kitten stickers from Paper House. She put each sticker on a 1 inch white square created by a Clever Lever Punch. The cats are then sitting on a chocolate chip brown square and all of this is on some matching green and brown paper. All of the matching papers are from Stampin' Up. Finally, the sentiment came from the Stampin' Up 'Pun Fun' stamp set. She punched it out using the two Stampin' up sentiment punches and backed it with the matching chocolate chip paper.

We have made many versions of this card, using cats, dogs and even butterflies. If you have not used these stickers before, you should really check them out! They are a lot of fun to use on cards for our heros. Hope you like the card!

OWH Sketch # 9

2010-03-23T06:05:00.000-07:00

Good Morning! After my midterm yesterday, I decided that I needed a break and so I made a few cards for Operation Write Home. One of the cards I made was for Sketch #9 on the operation write home blog. I really liked the sketch this week, as it was unlike anything I have previously done on a card. The owl came from the Inchie 'Heart Full of Love' set. Robin stamped up a bunch of these owls and we have had them around the house for a while. I thought it would be fun to use one for this challenge, although I was worried it might look too much like a Valentine's Day Card! I hope someone will use it as a general 'love you' or 'miss you' card to send home. I colored the hearts and the envelope in the stamp with various Copic markers. I punched out the pink background plain square as well as the red scalloped square using the Clever Lever Punches. Recently we have been using an old DCWV adhesive border paper pack. This paper pack has long, thin strips of patterned paper that are absolutely gorgeous! I love the various patterns, such as the floral piece that I used on the card. To dress it up a little, I used a Stampin' Up border punch to create the loops on the bottom. The sentiment is one of my favorite 'miss you' stamps and it comes from Amuse. Although the card looked nice as it was, I thought it needed something else. I decided to add three small red buttons from Papertrey Ink. I hope you enjoy it!

Spring Break Blog Hop

2010-03-19T11:56:00.001-07:00

Welcome to my stop on the bloghop! This is the first time we are participating in a bloghop so I'm quite excited! If you want to start at the beginning and see all the wonderful cards, please go to Operation Write Home's Blog: http://www.owhstarsandstamps.org/.

The instructions for the card were quite broad, although it had to be something springy. We have ordered a lot of new Stampin' Up products in the past month or so, so I thought it would be fun to use them on this blog for everyone to see. The tree stamp on this card comes from the 'Seasons of Friendship' stamp set from Stampin' Up. For those of you not familiar with the set, it comes with a tree, a flower, leaves, a bird and a sentiment. It's a really awesome stamp set! I used chocolate chip brown ink to stamp the tree directly onto the white card. I then placed a piece of patterned green paper on the bottom. The paper comes from a Sizzix paper pack that we bought years ago. It has been sitting in the drawer for a while, but I thought the green paper with leaves on it was perfect for this card! I used a green marker to ink up the leaves and stamped them right onto the branches. I then used pink chalk ink for the flowers and stamped them on a scrap of white paper. Using a very small pair of scissors, I cut each one out and attached it to the card using pop up dots. This gave the tree a nice 3D look. Next, I used a small piece of chocolate chip ribbon on the bottom of the card. Finally, the sentiment comes from the 'Teeny Tiny Wishes' stamp set also from Stampin' Up. I punched it out using the window punch and then the larger punch to create the green background for the sentiment. I hope you enjoy!

Although we are fairly new to Operation Write Home, I have to say that my favorite thing so far has been the Sunday sketch challenges on the new blog. I also love the tutorials on there! They really inspire us to try new techniques and different products. We have been making cards for a long time, and always had them lying around the house. Robin found out about Operation Write Home this past summer and it seemed like the perfect way to use our cards. We went from only making a few cards around the holidays to mailing out a box of over 150 cards every other week. I just hope our cards can bring a smile to someone serving our country and to their families when they receive the cards.

As I mentioned above, Robin and I are fairly new at making cards and stamping so please leave us a comment! We would love to hear what you think about our cards! Thanks!

Hop on over to http://thepaperspa.blogspot.com to see more beautiful cards! The cards on her blog are simple yet gorgeous so you should really check them out!

Get Whale Soon

2010-03-12T17:31:00.000-08:00

Good Evening. This card was created for the Operation Write Home sketch challenge #7 as well as the Moxie Fab World: Picking Up the Pieces Challenge. I thought it would be fun to do something with the new Stampin' Up set that we received last week. The last two weeks for me have been full of exams and papers, so I have not had a moment to even try out the new supplies that came. Yet, after handing in my last paper and hw assignment today, I officially started my Spring break. This break I hope to make a lot of cards and hopefully I will post frequently for everyone to see them.

One of the stamp sets that we bought one was the Stampin' Up Pun Fun set. Anyone who has been reading this blog knows that I absolutely love cute stamps with matching sayings! This set was just awesome and I couldn't wait to use it. The blue paper strips on the card came from a variety of scraps we had around the house. A few of them came from an old Sizzix paper pad, which has some really pretty papers. Others were from a DCWV paper pack. After reading the post about paper piecing, I decided to give it a try. I stamped the whale on a piece of blue and white patterned paper from the Sizzix paper pad. I had never tried this before but I absolutely loved it! I stamped the whale on the patterned paper and on a piece of white cardstock. I cut out the whale from the blue paper and attached it to the image on the white paper. I then punched this out using the Clever Lever square punch and backed it with a larger scalloped square. Finally, the ribbon on the bottom came from an Operation Write Home prize from December. The navy seemed to go really well with the other hues of blue on the card. I hope you enjoy!

Sketch #6

2010-03-02T18:59:00.000-08:00

We made these cards for the new sketch on the Operation Write Home blog. The sketch had four equal sized rectangles covering the card with a small square in the middle. We were very intrigued by this sketch. Although it seemed relatively simple, Robin and I had a lot of trouble coming up with an idea for this sketch. We talked quite a bit about what would look best for the sketch, but we couldn't decide on one design. Therefore, we both made two cards and thought we would see which looked best. To our surprise, all four looked great! Therefore, we decided to do something new and post two cards in one post. We will post the other two tomorrow.

Robin made this first card, and it is one of my favorites. The card is made with four rectangles from the Martha Stewart Valentines paper pack. We really like this paper, as it is double sided and each sheet seems to match perfectly with the rest. These two patterned papers are the pink and red polka dot papers from the set. Last week, after a very difficult exam in school, we received an awesome package in the mail from Papertray Ink. After reading the Operation Write Home blog entry about buttons, we learned about a stamp set from Papertray Ink that is meant to incorporate buttons into the design. Anyone who has been reading this blog knows that we love buttons, so this stamp set was perfect for us. The set is known as 'Everyday button bits' and comes with everything from hot air balloons to flowers. For this card, robin used the cherry stamp. The stamp just has the stems and leaves, and the cherries are left blank. We found a few nice red buttons around the house and used those for the cherries. Finally, we stamped the 'you're so sweet' sentiment that came with the set. The cherries and the sentiment were punched out using a scalloped square Clever Lever punch.

Next, I made this card with a floral pattern and a matching solid paper. I was really interested in doing something 'springy' so I thought the paper would be perfect. The floral paper came from the grab bag that we won around Thanksgiving of last year from a local scrapbooking store. I am not sure who made the floral paper, but the solid blue comes from Bazzil. The paper has a really nice sheen to it. I then stamped the sentiment which came from the Hero Arts Thinking of You' stamp set. I punched it out using an oval Clever Lever Punch and then punched out a darker pink scalloped oval to go behind it. Finally, I punched out a butterfly using the Martha Stewart 3 in 1 Butterfly stamp/punch. I tried to pick up the darker blue color in the floral paper.

Bugs and Kisses

2010-02-24T13:59:00.000-08:00

Good Evening! This is a card Robin made for a sketch challenge on Operation Write Home's blog. The sketch had three rectangles in the middle of the card and the sentiment on the bottom. Recently, Robin and I purchased some stamps from Stampin' Up, which was our first time really using their products. Although I was a little skeptical at first, I have to say that I love their stuff. While I prefer clear stamps, all of the stamps we purchased from Stampin' Up were wood.

Anyone who has been following this blog probably knows that we love stamps that come with cute sayings! This card was made with the Bugs and Kisses stamp set, which comes with sayings such as 'bugs and kisses' and 'wishing you worm wishes on your bug day'. The kit also came with a wide variety of bugs or insects! We used Tombo markers as ink to stamp the bugs on white cardstock. The paper is 'To the Nines Speciality Paper' which also came from Stampin' up. Robin absolutely loves the paper and loves the fact that everything from them matches. Who knew you could find matching patterned paper, ink and ribbon in the same place!

Stash Challenge

2010-02-18T19:45:00.001-08:00

This week the new Operation Write Home blog had a "Stash Challenge" where the instructions were to use buttons and at least two patterned papers. Robin made this card and we thought it would be perfect for the challenge. The card is a solid baby pink Anna Griffin card from one of her card making sets. Robin used a postage stamp punch to cut out the little squares on the card. The patterned papers came from the same Anna Griffin set. Finally, she attached three white buttons onto the squares. A white ribbon was put on the bottom with two small hearts punched form the matching paper. The sentiment is a 'miss you' stamp from Amuse Stamps. While we have had some trouble attaching buttons, over time we have learned that Glue Dots work the best. The card is really fun and perfect for the soldiers to send home!

We have made many different versions of this card. The possibilities are really endless! We have used white/off white cards with different blue papers and even some green papers. On each, we put different buttons and a different sentiment. Although the ribbon is not necessary, it does add a nice touch to the final card. We thought this challenge was quite fun, as we LOVE to use buttons on our cards and frequently use patterned paper. I hope you enjoy!

Sunflower

2010-02-15T14:37:00.000-08:00

Good Evening! I thought I would post this card as I fell in love with it when Robin made it last week. She had showed me the card with the sunflower alone, which was quite pretty. Yet, when she added that giant yellow button, the card became absolutely gorgeous. I have to say that we have always loved buttons, but rarely used them on our cards. In the past few weeks, we have been trying to incorporate more buttons into our work. At first we had trouble getting them to stick, but we learned that a glue dot is the perfect adhesive!

Some of the first card sets and paper that we purchased were from Anna Griffin. A friend of ours always loved her stuff and I have to say that she got us hooked. At first I thought that perhaps the colors were too muted or the patterns were too delicate. Yet, over time I have come to love her products- the cards we make with her paper are always quite sophisticated and stunning.

Robin made this card using a 12x12 piece of cardstock from Anna Griffin. The paper was tan with a brown floral pattern. She cut out the sunflower using the small square Clever Lever Punch. Then she carefully lined up the squares and attached them to a matching piece of brown cardstock. A few weeks ago we purchased a bag of random buttons at Michael's Craft Store. Robin used one of these buttons, a large yellow button with two small holes in the center of the sunflower. This button was probably a little less than an inch in diameter. I think it looks amazing on this card. Finally, the sentiment comes from Pebbles Inc. and is one of their 'thinking of you' rub-offs. The card is quite simple, yet very elegant. I hope you enjoy!

Heat It Up

2010-02-13T16:20:00.000-08:00

For the past few weeks, Robin and I have been talking about trying to do some heat embossing. We bought a heat gun about a year ago and tried it soon after but the results were unfortunately disastrous. The stamping and powder application went smoothly but we had a lot of trouble with the heating process. The powder melted nicely and we saw that 'wave' of melting that we were told to look for. Unfortunately, the paper around the stamped image turned brown and the card smelled like burnt paper. After this we decided that perhaps embossing was not for us. Yet, about a week ago something changed. We were watching some card making videos online and saw someone emboss a background stamp. I watched this and was determined to try again. Robin went out a few days later and bought some embossing powder. Yet, the bad memories of our past experience kept us from trying it again. The embossing powder just sat on our kitchen table.

This all changed last Wednesday. The special post on Operation Write Home's new blog was a tutorial about embossing- just what we needed! The timing was just too perfect. After my statistics exam Thursday morning, Robin and I decided to tackle our fears and try this once again. We cleared the table, and set up all of the materials we needed. Robin bought all types of embossing powders- some opaque and some translucent so we wanted to try each one.

The animal stamps for this card come from the Stampin' Up 'Wild About You' stamp set. I stamped each image on colored paper using a clear Versa Mark ink pad. We liked the opaque white powder the best, so I used it for this card. After we had stamped everything, we plugged in the heat gun. To our surprise, the heating process went incredibly smoothly. The powder melted nicely and the finished images were gorgeous.

I punched out the stamped animals using the Clever Lever circle punch. I then used the larger scalloped circle for the center image. The circles were mounted on a piece of embossed paper that we made in the Cuttlebug. I used 3D pop dots to attach the circles so that they were not flat on the card. Next, I placed a piece of pink ribbon on the bottom of the card. Finally, I stamped the sentiment from the same stamp set on navy paper. Feeling confident about the embossing process, I decided to emboss the sentiment as well. I hope you enjoy!

Stars and Stripes

2010-02-13T16:03:00.000-08:00

We made this card for sketch#3 on Operation Write Home's new blog. It was really simple to make yet we thought it would be perfect for the heroes. The background of the card is a blue piece of paper with small white stars. This piece of paper was quite interesting, as it started off on one edge as light blue and gradually got darker and darker. Recently, Robin purchased two Clever Lever star punches so I though I would use them on the card. The larger stars are punched out of navy paper and the smaller ones are punched out of white. The white stars were attached to the navy stars with 3D pop dots so they stick up. I used a small heart button in the middle of the card. I really wanted to get some red onto the card so this seemed like a great way to do so. Finally, I stamped the sentiment on a piece of white card stock and punched it out using a circle Clever Lever Punch. I used a navy pen to do some faux stitching around the white strip on the bottom as well as the circle. I am not very good with the stitching, but with each card the lines seem to get straighter! Hope you enjoy!

Wild About You

2010-02-06T17:55:00.000-08:00

I have always loved animal stamps. A few months back I saw some cards on the internet that used the 'Wild About You' stamp set from Stampin' Up. I was totally hooked on it and desperately tried to scour the internet to find a set for myself. Unfortunately, the set had been retired and it was incredibly hard to find. Luckily, I found a set on Ebay and it arrived a few days later. To my delight, the set came with an elephant, giraffe, lion, alligator, penguin and the adorable saying 'Wild About You'. There were also a few extras such as a flower. As soon as the set arrived I went a little crazy and made a bunch of animal cards.

I made this card using the elephant stamp from the Stampin' Up 'Wild About You' set. I stamped the elephant using Colorbox Red ink and stamped the ear separately with a pink water based marker. I then cut out the ear and attached it with a pop up dot to the elephant so it was raised. Using a small pair of scissors, I was able to cut out the elephant. I then took a strip of red Bazzil paper and attached it to the bottom of the card. Last year I bought a small (orange) Clever Lever circle punch for a school project in which I had to create my family tree. I never really thought I would use this small punch again, but it was perfect for this card. I used it to punch out dark and light pink circles and arranged them on the bottom and side of the card. I found some white buttons to attach to the bottom and some smaller circles (from a whole puncher) for the side of the card. I thought it would be fun to use the flower stamp that came with the set so I used markers once again to stamp it directly on the white card. Next, I attached the red elephant to the white card so that the trunk was right over the flower. It really looks like the elephant is carrying the flower! Finally, I used the same pink marker to stamp the sentiment on the bottom of the card. To add a little bit of extra embellishment, I used a white gel pen to stitch along the bottom strip of red paper and attached two small 3D heart stickers on the top.

OWH Challenge #2

2010-02-03T13:34:00.000-08:00

Hello! I decided to make some cards this afternoon so I thought I would also post on the blog. I made this card for the Operation Write Home Sketch Challenge #2. The sketch had a 2 inch strip down the left hand side of the card with a square in the middle that measured 2.5 x3.5. Finally, the sketch included a ribbon on the top.

Although we have had this stamp for a while, I thought it would be fun to use it for this challenge. Unfortunately, I do not remember who made the stamp. I used colored pencils to color in the birds and blue Pebbles Inc. chalk for the sky. The chalk gives it a very delicate look which is nice for the sky. I then mounted the the stamp on Bazzil red and pearlized yellow paper. Around Thanksgiving, Robin and I won a prize at a local Scrapboking store that included a bunch of different papers. One of the sheets in the grab-bag was a piece of yellow and red check paper from Sassafras. The pattern is known as 'Daisy Dots'. I used this paper as the 2 inch strip for the background. I then used a piece of beige ribbon to top off the design. The sentiment is from A Muse Artstamps. I used the same red paper that I used for the bird stamp to back the sentiment. Finally, I used glossy accents 3D liquid to add some dimension to the birds. Although it may be hard to see, the glossy accents makes it so that they are 3D which is really cool. I hope you enjoy the card!

Lions and Tigers and Bears Oh my!

2010-01-30T18:57:00.000-08:00

Good evening! I finished my work tonight and decided to make some cards. There was a challenge on the Operation Write Home website this week to make a card using a template that they provided. The template had a 3x3 square in the middle with a 1 inch strip down the side. I decided to use the new Sei Zoo Pals paper pack that I got last weekend to make this card. First, I cut a 3x3 square out of the lion paper. I then cut out two more lions to pop them up. I initially raised the whole lion off of the paper and then popped the mane/face again so that the overall lion is layered on the card and appears to be 3D. A strip of green paper from the same pack was used on the edge and is 1 inch wide. Finally, the sentiment comes from the Stampin' Up 'Wild About You' Stamp set. Since I do not have an orange ink-pad, I used a marker to stamp the sentiment. I then punched it out using the Clever Lever oval punch and backed it with a yellow/orange paper. Finally, I placed a green ribbon on the bottom to embellish the card a little bit more. I hope you enjoy!

Seashells

2010-01-27T13:25:00.000-08:00

Good afternoon! I just finished doing some reading for one of my classes so I thought it would be a nice break to post a card on the blog. Robin has been stuck home all this week because of workmen in the apartment. While she doesn't exactly enjoy having to stay in the house all day, she did get a chance to make some amazing cards! I can't wait to go home and see them. As soon as we get them photographed we will post them on the blog.

It was pretty cold in New York today- I think the weather channel said it felt like 26 degrees when I left for class this morning. Walking back to my room, all I could think about was vacationing in a warmer climate. Therefore, when I went to pick a card for the post today, I thought this would be a great one. For all of you in the northeast, I hope this generates some warm thoughts of sunny days and sandy beaches.

Robin created this card when we returned from our trip to Florida. She used the Clever Lever punches to create three dark brown squares. Although it may be hard to see, the brown paper actually has a really nice sheen to it. She then punched out three white squares that were slightly smaller. The shells are these beautiful stickers from Paper House Productions. They are incredibly realistic which is what drew us to them in the first place. I believe we bought them at Michael's Craft Store, although I have seen them in many stores recently. We have them in shells, butterflies, popsicles, and roses. They are slightly translucent so it is best to place them on white or light paper. The sentiment is a black rub off from Pebbles Inc. There is something very elegant about this card, with its clean lines and simple layout. Recently, Robin and I have been trying to make cards that are appropriate for both men and women. I think this card fits the bill perfectly!

Hummingbird

2010-01-25T17:40:00.000-08:00

Good evening! First of all, I want to apologize for not posting anything since last week! When I started this blog I made a decision that no matter what was going on in my life I would continue to update at least every couple of days. Yet, with the stress and confusion that always comes with the first week of a new semester at school, I did exactly what I promised myself I would not do: put the blog on the back burner.

It is the beginning of the second week of classes and things still feel quite foreign. Usually the semester starts off quite lightly, yet this past weekend I had a fair amount of work. Luckily, Sunday afternoon I did get an hour or so to make a few cards, which was incredibly relaxing. I am hoping that as the semester progresses, I can use the blog as a way to spend 10 or 15 minutes a couple days per week away from the stress of school. Therefore, I am as determined as ever to keep this going!

Before school started I selected some cards that I wanted to display on the blog. If you have read some of the previous posts, you probably will not be surprised that I chose this card. The hummingbird stamp is quite delicate and perfect for coloring. It comes from the Inkadinkado Inchies- Butterflies and Birds stamp set. I colored the bird and flowers with various Copic markers. I then used Pebbles light blue chalk to color the border of the stamp. The chalk makes it easy to add a little bit of color without it being too dark. I think it looks like the sky which is a nice touch for a stamp of a bird. The blue and green squares were created using the Clever Lever punches. The stamp was then placed on a piece of purple and white paper from a Mat Stacks set. I actually designed this card with the back (solid purple) paper in mind. I had just received my first set of Core'dinations paper and wanted to try to make a card with it. The papers we got were all solid colors and had a little bit of texture to them. The cool thing is that when you tear them, the inner core comes through. The piece I selected for this card was dark purple on the outside with a light purple core. I thought the colors went nicely with the purple flowers in the stamped image. Using a paper cutter, I created a strip of the dark purple paper that was slightly wider than I wanted it to be. Tearing the edges of the strip exposed the lighter color. I had trouble tearing the paper evenly, so that the lighter purple was even all around. The sentiment was printed on my computer and then backed with the same Core'dinations purple paper. Despite the fact that I had some trouble with the new paper, the final product came out quite nicely!

Pawsing... to say hi

2010-01-19T05:30:00.000-08:00

School starts again today. I enjoy school but I will definitely miss my wonderful break! It was quite cold out during my vacation, so Robin and I spent many days inside making cards for Operation Write Home. It was incredibly relaxing and enjoyable. We also had a chance to bake! Anyway, I thought I would post a card before my first class this morning. Although this card is very simple, I have always loved it.

Unfortunately, I am not sure who makes the dog stamp that was used on the card. I do remember that we purchased the it from Michael's Craft Store. I colored the dog using colored pencils. It was stamped on white cardstock and then mounted on a light brown and dark brown piece of paper. Finally, the image was then placed on a yellow check strip of paper from Mat Stacks. The sentiment was printed from the computer and then mounted on the same dark brown paper. As I said above, this is a really simple card. Yet, I think it is the perfect variation on the classic 'thinking of you' or 'Hi' note. Robin and I sent many cards like this to Operation Write Home. I hope some little kid will enjoy getting this card from a parent or family member overseas.

Cupcakes

2010-01-18T05:17:00.000-08:00

Good morning! Every time Robin and I talk about what cards to post next, this birthday card comes up as a must. So, I decided to post it this morning. I have to say that Robin and I make a lot of birthday cards. We figure that the soldiers often need birthday cards and there is always someone we know who is celebrating a special day. Therefore, on a recent trip to Michael's Craft Store, when we saw the new Martha Stewart Cupcake stamp and punch combination, we had to buy it. While Martha Stewart Crafts has always made a basic cupcake punch, this new tool comes with three clear stamps as well as a punch. Therefore, you can stamp your image on cardstock and then punch it out using the punch. The first stamp is just the bottom of the cupcake, the second is just the top decorated with sprinkles. Finally, the last stamp is the combination- the entire cupcake which has the bottom wrapper and the sprinkled top.

For this card, I chose to use the stamp that only has the bottom wrapper, as I wanted to use brightly colored papers to make the tops. When I made this card, we only had darker ink pads and I did not want to stamp the top of the cupcake in black or navy blue etc. Therefore, the first thing I did was stamp the bottom wrapper using Archival Jet Black ink on a white piece of cardstock. I then punched it out using the punch portion of the tool. Next, I selected various colors of Bazzil Paper. As you can see from the card, I used different pinks/reds/coral. I chose some that were regular matte paper and others that had a gorgeous sheen to them. Finally, the top cupcake came from a random piece of patterned paper that happened to look like sprinkles. After I picked the papers I wanted, I stamped each one out with the punch. I then trimmed the colored pieces to the size I wanted and attached them with tape to a bottom. Once the cupcakes had been assembled, I attached 6 to each card. Next, I used the Stampendous 'Hey There Cupcake' Clear Stamp set to put sprinkles on the bottom 5 cupcakes. I used A Recollection's small pearl on the top cupcake for a cherry. Finally, I used the same cupcake stamp set to put the sentiment on the bottom of the card.

Although this card does have many steps, each one is quite easy thanks to the new Martha Stewart Stamp and Punch tool. This punch comes in other shapes including a butterfly, bird, snowflake, flower and a leaf. They are quite easy to use and alleviate the difficult task of cutting out stamped images.

Hey There Cupcake

2010-01-16T05:34:00.000-08:00

As I have mentioned before, I really like to work with small stamps. The cupcake in the card above is one of those smaller stamps that I work with frequently. It comes form the Stampendous 'Hey There Cupcake' Clear Stamp set. While there are many "cupcake" stamp sets on the market, I really like this one because there are so many different ways it can be used. Instead of a regular stamp set that comes with pre-formed cupcakes, this set includes six different cupcake tops and six different bottoms, which can be mixed and matched to your liking. It also comes with adorable toppings for your cupcakes, such as a cherry, sprinkles or candles. Finally, the set includes sentiments that can be put together to form a phrase. I really like how small the sentiments are; as you can see from the card above they are very delicate and not overwhelming.

For this card, I chose a cupcake top and bottom that I liked. I stamped both on white paper and then proceeded to color them. The bottom was colored with different shades of brown colored pencils. The top was colored using Pebbles Inc. chalk. I find that these chalks give you a really nice, almost fluffy look, which was perfect for the cupcake. The cupcake was mounted on a purple scalloped square and then placed on a lavender and white strip of paper from one of our Die Cuts With a View Mat Stacks. Finally, the sentiment was stamped with an Archival Ink Pad in Jet Black. It was mounted on the same papers as the cupcake. Both pieces were then placed on a purple card. Although it is a lot of purple, I really like the finished product.

Happy Tape

2010-01-15T19:10:00.000-08:00

This past December, Martha Stewart Magazine featured a write up about a type of Japanese Masking Tape made from washi paper. Unlike regular masking tape, the rolls come in vibrant colors and geometric patterns that really add a lot to any craft project. As Martha Stewart mentioned in her article, the tape is really easy to tear and reposition. The tape can be purchased from happytape.com and comes either as a single roll or in gorgeous color combination packages.

Our first order of Happy Tape arrived mid December. We purchased a pink and white stripe as well as a white and pink polka dot tape, as we had already started to make Valentine's Day cards. I have to say that I loved the tape almost immediately. They are really easy to use and add a great deal of color to a card. While we make a lot of cards, Robin and I are still fairly new to this. I have to say that I often make mistakes on my cards. Perhaps this is why I love this tape so much. It is just so easy to pull the piece up and reposition it. So if the tape is not perfectly straight or perhaps would look better a few inches up, it is not a problem. Just pick it up, and move it.

While I fell in love with the tape almost immediately, Robin was much more skeptical. She liked what the tape looked like on the finished cards, but was hesitant about using it. Yet, in the past few days, she has discovered how easy this product is to use. In fact she begged me to write a post about it- "tell them how wonderful the tape is" she exclaimed. Now both she and I love to use the tape to embellish our cards.

Robin made this card yesterday. She used her favorite tools, the Clever Lever Punches, to create the diamond. The different blue papers go incredibly well with each other and the white button is the perfect finish. Finally, she embellished the card using a dark blue strip of Happy Tape. The 'Miss you' sentiment is a small Amuse Art Stamp.

In the same article mentioned above, Martha Stewart also suggested using the tape to embellish wrapping paper. It comes in so many different colors and patterns that the possibilities for its use are endless. Enjoy!

Love Bug

2010-01-15T18:38:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day is coming up soon so I thought I would share one of the cards we recently made. When surfing the Internet the other day, I read that The Greeting Card Association estimated that 1 billion Valentine cards are sent every year world wide. It is thought to be the second most popular card sending holiday, right after Christmas. Therefore, when Operation Write Home announced that they were starting to collect Valentine's Day cards, Robin and I immediately started. We bought all different red and pink papers, new stamps and embellishments.

On a recent trip to A.C. Moore I purchased these ladybug 3D stickers from Jolee's Boutique. They were different shades of pink and red, perfect for Valentine's day. I also loved the small jewel eyes and the wire antennae that protruded from their small, delicate heads. When I got home from the store, I decided to design some Valentine's day cards based on these ladybug stickers. The ladybug was mounted on a Clever Lever (blue) scalloped circle. I used a pearl pink paper for this, which really seemed to work well with the colors in the sticker. The whole thing is then mounted on a white circle created from the Extra Giga Clever Lever punch. A small piece of white ribbon was used on the bottom to add a little texture to the card. Finally, the sentiment comes from the Inkadinkado - Heartful of Love clear stamp set.

Robin and I have made many Valentine's Day cards over the past 6 weeks or so for Operation Write Home and I hope to share them with everyone soon.

Merry Christmas

2010-01-14T16:24:00.001-08:00

Even though the holidays are over, I thought it would be fun to put up some of the Christmas cards that we made this season. Over the summer, we purchased a Die Cuts with a View Ultimate Scrapbook Kit for Christmas. It came with wonderful holiday papers, stickers, chipboard, ribbon, quotes and tons of embellishments. We used this kit to make the majority of our holiday cards, although we often supplemented it with stickers and embellishments from a local craft store.

This card was made using the white and red stripe paper from the DCWV kit. A strip of dark green Bazzil Paper was added and embellished with two santa hat 3D stickers. These stickers were one of my favorite embellishments this past holiday season. They were very soft and had the perfect fluffy white trim and pom pom. The gold corners and strip on the bottom are from a metallic sticker set found in many kits from Ecstasy Crafts. In the years past, Robin and I did not make that many Christmas cards. Yet, this past season we made a couple hundred holiday cards, all of which were mailed to the soldiers over seas. It was a lot of fun!

Punches

2010-01-13T20:22:00.001-08:00

While we have acquired many new card making tools over the past year or so, I would say that our favorite find has to be the Clever Lever punches. We have found that some of the older punches, with the button that must be pushed down, are quite hard to use. They require a lot of pressure and often get jammed. Because of this, we frequently shied away from punches. Yet, the Clever Lever punches have changed everything. What started with one or two smaller punches has turned into a major collection of varying sizes and colors. The fact that the punches are color coded by size has made card making quite effortless.

While I have used these punches quite a bit, Robin is actually the one who has become so amazing at using them. She carefully layers the various squares or circles to create gorgeous cards, such as the one above. On many of her cards, she starts with one of the smaller (1 inch) punches and makes her way up to the largest one. It creates a really nice layered look. The key to these cards seems to be the color choice for the paper, as they must work together yet be different enough that each one can be seen individually. On this particular card, the layers were made using various papers, including some from a new Martha Stewart Crafts valentine's day paper pack. A flower sticker from the Martha Stewart Collection was placed in the middle. The sentiment comes from the Hero Arts Stamp set- Thinking of you.

Up until a few weeks ago, Robin and I thought that the Purple Giga Punch was the largest one in the line. Yet while away on vacation, we discovered that there is actually a larger punch, known as the Extra Giga Craft Punch. These punches are light green/aqua. I have to say that when Robin first saw this huge green punch, her eyes lit up as if she had discovered something truly amazing. We have not been able to find these large green punches in NYC but luckily my Grandma has been able to get them in FL and is willing to ship them up north. I was so excited when a package arrived from her- Robin looked at it and exclaimed- our punch arrived! So Grandma if you are reading this- Thank you so much! We love the punch! I am sure you will see us use these punches more and more in the future.

Wild About You

2010-01-13T15:00:00.000-08:00

A week or so ago I learned about a stamp set that included the phrase "Wild about you". Many of the cards for the soldiers are ultimately sent to children in their families. Therefore, I thought it would be fun to make some cards that were geared toward young children. For this card, I used the A lligator stamp from Amuse Stamps. I stamped the image twice on white paper. I colored the first one in with a light green marker. On the second image, I only colored in the legs with a darker green. I then proceeded to cut them out. This was not the easiest task, as the legs were quite small. Once I cut them out, I used a small pop up dot to attach the cut out legs to the original stamped image. This gave the card some dimension and almost made it look like the alligator was walking off the card. The stamp was backed with a piece of textured green paper. Finally, the sentiment was placed below. While this is a really simple card, I hope that it will brighten the day of a young child.

Today I received a few new animal stamps which I hope to use with the 'Wild about you' phrase. We got an elephant, giraffe, lion and penguin. Hopefully I will get to make some cards with the new stamps shortly and will post them.

Inchie Crazy

2010-01-13T05:46:00.000-08:00

Most people who know me well know that I love small things. I prefer donut holes to larger donuts, sliders over regular burgers etc. So it should be no surprise that I absolutely fell in love with Inchie stamps when I first learned about them this past summer. I remember that Robin actually found these wonderful stamps on-line very late one night. Before leaving for work the next morning, she woke me up, and said that I should check them out- she had a feeling that I was going to LOVE them. And I did. I spent most of that day searching the internet, trying to find out where to buy the tiles and stamps and how best to use them on greeting cards.

This was the start of my obsession with Inchie stamps. I’m sure you will see many cards on this website using an Inchie stamp or tile in the future. I made this card before purchasing any official Inchie stamps or products. Therefore, I used the yellow, one inch Clever Lever punch to create four white squares. To start, I taped the white squares down to my table using removable double-sided tape so that they would not move when I stamped them. I used my favorite ink pad- the Archival Ink Pad Jet Black to stamp the image of the sunflower over the white squares. I then colored the image using Copic markers. Finally, the squares were mounted on solid brown paper and then on a paper with a gorgeous gold stripe. The gold sentiment at the bottom came from Ecstacy Crafts.

While this is not the typical Inchie card that we make, at the time, I did not own any stamps that would fit within the one inch white tiles, so I had to compromise. Today, I seek out different Inchie stamps, especially the Itty Bitty’s from Lockhart Stamp Company. These stamps are just too cute! I am sure we will post some cards made with traditional Inchie stamps in the future, so keep your eyes out for them. I hope you are inspired by this awesome technique as much as I was when I first saw it many months ago.

Flower Pot

2010-01-12T17:56:00.001-08:00

On a recent trip to Pompano Beach, FL, Robin and I learned how to emboss using the Cuttlebug machine. We originally thought that embossing required an embossing tool and a light box, yet we learned how simple and quick the process can be using the Cuttlebug. Initially, we bought the 'happy birthday' and 'thank you' folders. Within a week, we purchased two more. One of my favorites is the Spots and Dots, which I used for the above card. As soon as we arrived in FL, Robin and I looked up stamp and scrapbooking stores. We found a wonderful store quite near where we were staying. Living in NYC, we don't have a lot of access to typical stamp and craft stores. Therefore, we were like two young kids in a candy store!

I have always loved the stamps from Lockhart Stamp Company but they are very hard to find anywhere near our home. I originally learned about the company because of their Inchie stamps.

This card was created using a Lockhart flower pot stamp and then colored using a combination of colored pencils and Copic markers. The centers of the flowers are micro beads from the Martha Stewart Collection at Michael's Craft Stores. It is mounted on a yellow Clever Lever Circle followed by their blue scalloped circle. Finally, the sentiment came from the Hero Arts Thinking of You stamp set. Often, when I get a good idea, I try to make multiple cards using the same layout. For this, I varied the color of the background paper and the color of the flowers. Although the coloring and beading was a lot of work, the final product was lovely. I hope the soldiers enjoy these cards.

Have a Sweet Day

2010-01-12T17:44:00.000-08:00

Hi- Our first post- so exciting!

This is a card that we just finished after a recent trip to Michael's Craft Store. The cupcakes are Recollection stickers, which are wonderful. They are placed on squares made using two different Clever Lever punches. We printed the saying from our computer and backed it using the same purple check paper that is behind the cupcakes. Enjoy!