Blog Hop! Yaaaaaaaay!

Hello OWH Blog Hoppers. . . WELCOME to SCRAP HAPPENS! Hooray!
IF YOU ARE JUST GETTING STARTED... START HERE!!!

I am hoping that today will bring a lot of my fellow card-makers from the Operation Write Home blog hop! Thanks so much for stopping by! I have prepared something special for the blog-hoppers - a tutorial for making a really special hero card! The tutorial includes the measurements for making the working parts of the card - and so anyone could use this template to make a card for any occasion! I hope that it inspires some of you to try a new technique and make this super fun, interactive card. I rated the difficulty of this project to be four stars - don't be intimidated - once you get the cutting part done - the rest is super easy. You can embelish your card any way that you like and use this card to showcase a very special embelishment, photo, or anything that you like.

I have been making cards for Operation Write Home for about a year now and I am super proud to be a tiny part of this awesome group of people who make cards for our heroes! If you haven't checked out Operation Write Home - now is the time! I make cards for our heroes because I am all about the warm fuzzies in life. I love to help other people feel good. Can you imagine being a family member of a deployed hero? A piece of mail from your loved one would be a very wonderful thing I am sure. To recieve a beautiful hand made card that has traveled around the world and back would be so cool! I can't think of anyone more deserving of hand made cards than our deployed heroes and their families!

Another one of my favorite parts about Blog Hops is the offering of. . . BLOG CANDY!! Hooray! I am offering a neat gift for someone who visits my blog this weekend. All you have to do is follow these simple rules.

• You must be a participant in the Blog Hop 3/20/10 to enter.
  


• Leave me a message or reply to this post.
  


• I will choose a random winner from the list of responders!
  


• The winner will recieve a package from me that includes some really fun things for making hero cards! This package will include some patriotic papers and embelishments that I have put together, kind of like a card kit. I know that you will have fun with it!
  


• I am also restricting this offer to participants who live in the continental USA for shipping purposes.
  

Now then, Here is your video tutorial, and happy blog hopping to you!

If you are joining in on the blog hop - you probably just visited *Karen's* Dreaming and Creating!

The next blog on your stop is *Kajikit* ! Kajikit always has such awesome stuff! Hop on and check it out!!! Thank you so much for stopping by!

Stamp Swap and Challenge *8*

First, a wee bit of mousey love. :) There now, doesn't that make everything better???

Stars and Stamps always has such fun challenges and things going on. I wish that I had more time to follow along! I also got a really awesome envelope in the mail this week - I participated in a Stamp Swap - I sent in 10 stamped images and got 10 other random stamps back! It was super fun to see what other people sent in, and I got some really fun images to work with too.

Killing two flies in one, so to speak, here is my cards for Sketch Challenge #8 and also some other cards that I made with my Stamp Swap stamps. I haven't had time to finish them all and I will be working on an extra special project later today - so I will be posting more at a later date. The blog hop is coming!!! I can't wait - I do have a crop with Express the Moment all day on Saturday and I won't be able to check out the blog hopping until Sunday, but I am working really hard on something really fun for the hop.

Anyway. . . Sketch Challenge #8! Here is the sketch.

nd here are a few cards that I did (sort of) following the sketch. Please note that I did my diagonal line the oposite direction. I did not do this intentionally, but you know around here, Scrap Happens!!! Lol. . . I think that they turned out to be fun just the same.

These ones were done on a 4.25 x 5.5 (A-2) base - I also used my Cuttlebug and Spellbinders to cut the scallop circles and the little tags. I picked up a ton of that gossamer ribbon at the craft store a few weeks ago and I have been using it on EVERYTHING.


I loved this little row of birthday cake stamps and I had some leftover birthday paper and embellies by Imaginisce to go with it. Lucky me!

This little cow stamp totally cracks me up - I love this card but it's one of those that I look at and keep thinking - it's not finished - it's not finished - you know what I mean? I am having card block. I need to add a sentiment to this card but I don't know how or where? At any rate, those little cows sure are fun. :)

Thank you ladies that participated in the stamp swap! The ones shown here today were sent to me by Erika Polley, Sandy Allnock, Christine Carnago and Ms. R. Walsh. The whole swap was set up by Jeanne Brunner - awesome fun guys, I think that we should do this again. :)

That's all for today, and now I am off to finish my blog hop project. . . . I CAN'T WAIT to show you guys what I have in store. :)

March CDC!

I was lucky enough to host the March Card Day Club meeting and all in all things didn't go too bad! Tigger was in good spirits and continues to seem like he is feeling good every day. Tiffani decided that she was not such a fan of ferrets. Poor Steve the ferret got to watch all of the carding from his little tower cage home but he didn't get to participate in any of the shiny sparkly glittery goodness. . . I am pretty sure that he is still just heartbroken. . . but anyway, here are the goodies!

First is Hanna's "hatch" card - made using Cricut cut eggs and the "hatch" sentiment. The best part about this card is that little feather that she added poking up out of the egg where the chick is. Haha! I do love this one.

Stephanie made these "thinking of you" cards tha are bright and springy and fun - I love the Cuttlebug textured background and the green with the pink - this is a really fun spring time card!



Stephanie also made us these really neat pocket cards - that little piece of patterned paper with the ribbon through it comes out of the pocket - I LOVE this idea and I think that Stephanie definitely owes us a tutorial on how to fold these pockets. She sent her cards pre-made this month so we didn't get to see how it was done. STEPHANIE!!! I AM GOING TO PUT YOU ON YOUTUBE!!! Haha.

I brought kits for everyone to make this spring card - the tutorial if you missed it - can be found here.

I also had kits to make this Happy Easter card with bunnies from the new Easter 2010 cartridge. Fun!

Tiffani was able to make a template and create these spinny cards - the purple cardstock "wheel" in this example has four different stamps or embelishments - when the wheel is turned (it rotates on the center brad) a different sentiment shows up in the little window. Awesome fun! I think that we need a tutorial on this one too, Tiff. :)

Tiffani also brought these cute little "lunchbox" cards - they are small enough to slip into someones lunch box or pocket for finding later on - what a cute idea, and what a cute little heart card this is with the puppy! She brought along little gold heart charms to tie to him like a collar.

Here's another version - this one is a little monster - I can imagine that my kiddo would get a good kick out of this. :)

Tiffani gets the award for chief chick this month with this one - the chick is from the Easter 2010 cartridge - the legs and shoes are from the Paper Doll Cartridge - and the flower is from another cartridge - I forgot to ask which - we gave this little chick-a-dee a lot of glitter and bling - isn't she fabulous and ready for Easter! I love her!

This is one of Tiffani and her SIL Brandi's creations - It's the glitter-on-the-tape technique and it makes a really beautiful spring flower! I can think of tons of occasions to use this card, it's so springy and pretty and glittery and . . . oh boy!

Brandi has also sent along this Bunny Bag that is ready to be filled with Easter treats - he even has a cotton tail glued to the back... so cute! Speaking of Brandi - I do believe that the next meeting of the CDC will be hosted by Brandi in April - more details to follow. . . thanks everybody for the fun day!

March Expressions

Ahh, time again for the Express the Moment monthly card kit. . . here are the goodies for March! The spring colors in the kit are exactly what I need to pull me out of the soggy cold wet pre-spring funk that I am in. Just yesterday I was bragging that the driveway was finally clear and melted completely off - this morning guess what - MORE SNOW. Puh-leaaaaaaase spring! Where are you???

First, here is the LAST card that I made with the kit. I had all of these bits left over. Now who would think that you could put a sticker with a piece of ric-rac and a flower and a couple of buttons and a square clip and some leftover ribbon together and call it a card? This one turned out to be one of my favorites. Hehe.
Live, Laugh, Love is one of my Mom's favorite sayings. I noticed that the stickers in the kit included "laugh" and "love" . . it was simple enough to add a third sticker and also add some of the tiny alphabet stickers to make "live" too. Fun! I love the tiny alphabet stickers because they are so versatile.


Kim added something really special to this months' kit - everyone will get one of her darling yo-yo flowers - just add a button or other embellie to the middle and you get the cutest flower ever. I wish I knew how to make a yo yo! Did I mention that this kit is just full of MORE RUB-ONS! They are awesome for sentiments, inside and outside of the cards.

Those rub-ons can be used in lots of different ways. Here, I cut some of the words apart and applied them to small scraps of the orange patterned paper. They kind of remind me of those refrigerator poetry magnets, you know, where you have a word on each magnet? Hehe. . . more rub-ons and flowers were added to the smaller white scallop and to the right side of the card. I am currently in a Spellbinder craze - I used my Cuttlebug to cut out those cute scalloped and embossed circles. I can't get enough of them. :)


How about something a little less flowery - a card that would be fun for the boys? This one is full of circle fun - the kit also includes this huge blue brad and some eyelets and this cute patterned paper with all of the dots and circles. What are you going to do with it?

Now wait, maybe this one is my favorite. . . I used the plain red cardstock for a background and cut a strip of the butterfly patterned paper - next I cut out more butterflies and folded and layered them for a 3-D look. I will add a close-up of the butterflies so that you can see. I used a craft knife to cut out those tiny butterflies - it took a little while but I love how they turned out.

Here are a couple of cards that are based on this tutorial . . . I can't seem to stop making them because they are so much fun. This month's kit is just full of cute embelishments and long pieces of ribbon and border stickers that are perfect for making these pocket cards.

Finally, here is an example of a card made from this tutorial . . . check out the fun use of those letter stickers and those bright bold colors. I love them. :)

I must admit that I am guilty of saving some of my favorite bits of the card kit to make my 8x8 page each month. Is anybody doing this with me? I do always end up sending my cards to friends or relatives and some of them end up going off for the troops. My 8x8 page is a fun way for me to save some of the bits of the kit for myself. (I'm just kinda selfish that way!) It also is a fun reminder of what we got to work with that month. At the end of the year, I will have a really fun book to share. Who is going to the ETM crop??? I will be there, I even got an extra night off of work so that I can go! I will bring my book and cards to share. Can't wait to see everyone and have a good time. Crop day is better than Christmas!

See you soon - thanks for stopping by!

Color Challenge!

We have had a couple of nice days here in Southeast Idaho. It rained a little bit yesterday and the sun has really helped us start to thaw out a little. For the first time in months, the driveway is completely cleared of snow/dirt (snirt) and you can even see bits of the lawn in some places. Things will be a muddy ugly mess soon for sure. I am really looking forward to the spring colors and the first sightings of buds on the trees and the spring flowers poking up out of the frozen tundra!

The OWH blog Stars and Stamps has offered another fun color challenge and I was excited to try my hand at a colorful card based on this photo. I love the reds and purples!!!

I cannot tell a lie - I totally stole this next technique from a card that I saw on display at Robert's Crafts the other day. Robert's is closing at the end of April. Did you know??? Dooooom!!! I am really upset about this. But anyway, here is my card, and a quick tutorial for trying the technique - which is really fun.

*disclaimer - this card won't be appropriate for the troops, because of the glitter. . . but I can't make ALL glitter free cards, you know? I just can't stand it!!!



The first thing that I did was to collect my papers - I used the Easter 2010 Cricut Cartridge to cut this cute egg and scalloped background.



Next - I used what I will call the Tape Technique - I applied strips of scotch tape to the back side of my egg. I trimmed around the egg with scissors to cut off any overhanging tape. The important part is to make sure that all of the little window areas are covered completely. It also helps to apply the tape with the paper down on a non-sticky surface like a cutting mat or a piece of wax paper - something that the tape will not stick to.



Next, I used my doodlebug glitter to fill the little window areas. The glitter sticks to the tape quite nicely! I found this little tool to apply the glitter to the tiny areas - it's a skin tool actually - I believe that I got it from Avon for a dollar or something crazy - it has a teeny tiny little spoon at the end. Spoooon! I think that this is a zit tool . . . so I will call this the Glitter Spooning Zit Tool Technique. Maybe I need a video about that?

Finally the layers were all completed and I matted them together. The glitter-on-the-tape technique is really fun and it actually makes a really neat little stained-glass appearing embelishment. It would be fun to make a card with this kind of thing as a window, so that the light shines through the tape and glitter - try it - you will see what I mean.

In other news - the CDC will be meeting at my house on Monday the 8th at 10am. . . we will be doing Spring / Easter / St. Patty's day cards - can't wait to see you guys!

Mr. Tigger is doing well and has been sleeping a lot. When he isn't sleeping, he has been hanging out by the back door. He has been eating well and he even played with Steve the Ferret a little bit yesterday. We keep hoping that he will do well - so far, so good!

New Tut :)

What I love best about making cards, or scrapbook pages, or whatever, is that it gives me a sense of inner peace and calm. I get a sense of accopmlishment and everything just feels. . . good! It is a great thing that I am able to find peace and good feelings like this, because they also help to carry me through the not-so-good times. Sadly, like today. In the middle of my Monday Paper Engineering , we recieved some bad news about our good kitty Tigger, who sometimes co-stars in my videos. Not by my choice of course, he is a camera hog and likes to make random appearances. :) I think that he always has wanted to be a YouTube pet star!

I had just dropped Tigger off to the Vet this morning to have his teeth cleaned. He has had some dental problems of late, which most of the CDC can attest to. Sorry about the kitty dragon breath, ladies! Come to find out, Tiggers issues were due in some part to a bad tooth - but he has a massive tumor in his jaw. We ran around the options with the vet - which include a CAT scan (no pun intended) surgery, and even things like a trip to Colorado to the Veterenary Oncology clinic. Wow . . . just wow. The tumor takes up all of the left side of his lower jaw. For now, Tigger is home and is recovering from a tooth extraction and a good dose of anesthesia. He seems to be his good and normal self and we are going to watch him for now and see where life takes us. We love you, good kitty Tigger and we wish you all of the best. What a good furry friend you are!

And here is what Mom worked on, while all of the boys were away today. Enjoy!




Ahh, here are those measurements for the panels, if you want them too.

The card base is 5.5 x 12"
Score the card at 4", 6.5", 9", and 10.5"
Measure in 2"
Cut the card as shown in the video!

The panels are as follows:
Back panel - 5.25 x 3.75"
Middle panel - 3.25 x 2.24"
Front panel - 5.25 x 1.25"

If you are cutting Cricut embelishments, the 1.5 inch size works great for border embelishments!

The side panel (can be placed to the right, or the left, depending on how you fold your card) measures 1.75 x 3.75"

If you try this card, I would love to see what you can come up with. :)