Memorial Day Blog Hop - 2013

Hooray! Thanks for stopping by! Happy Memorial Day Weekend and welcome to my Memorial Day Bloghop post for Operation Write Home, 2013.

I made my card following the most recent sketch, #173. I love how detailed the newer sketches have become and all of the great possibilities that you can create. Here's the sketch:

I also immediately fell in love with the sample card by Linda. Outdoorsy cards are right up my alley. They're my favorite to make, because I live my life in such a beautiful outdoorsy place! In fact, I'm really looking forward to some camping real soon. Do you think that we'll run into bears like this?

I used some really fun new papers by BoBunny from the Camp-A-Lot line. How appropriate! I also used a stamp that I purchased inside Yellowstone Nat'l Park. The price was kind of crazy, but I couldn't resist a souvenir of my favorite things... rubber stamps and bears. A bear rubber stamp! Hooray! I also used a Sizzix embossing folder and some really cute canvas-like ribbon from Stampin'Up. I stamped the image and heat embossed using some Cocoa embossing powder by CTMH.

Although our theme today is Thank You - I did not add a "Thank You" sentiment to this card yet. I figure that masculine cards can be hard to come by and this one could be used for any guy - Dad, Uncle, Brother, Son.... for Thank You, or any other occasion. The writer will have to decide that for themselves  :) Then again, I would love to get an outdoorsy card like this myself, so maybe it will be perfect for someones' Mom or wife? 

Thanks for stopping by to see my Operation Write Home blog hop card.  I've been a huge supporter since 2009, when I first discovered OWH (Then "Cards for Heroes.") It all began when I made a patriotic card for the family of my friend who was deployed to Iraq. In my online search for patriotic cards, I discovered OWH quite by accident, but fell in love with the idea. It all began here and has now been my favorite hobby for the last four years! Looking back at my first OWH cards, I am ever amazed and grateful for all of the lessons that I have learned and encouragement I have been given by others. I've met so many new friends, and had so much fun along the way of supporting the troops in the best way that I know how.

Hey... fun - here are posts from the Memorial Day blog hops from 2010, 2011! I missed the hop last year... I'm so glad to be back! :D

Be safe and have a very happy Memorial Day Weekend. Enjoy the blog hop!

(You can start here, if you like!)

Margaritacicle

Ugh! Where has the time gone! The end of the year is coming impossibly fast. School will be out soon and of course there is Memorial Day Weekend coming up too! Hooray!

I don't share many altered projects along with my cards and pages here... but I thought that this one was worth saving for the archives. It was my besties' birthday last week and I wanted to make her a special treat. If anybody deserves a special treat - this lady does and I sure admire her for the strength and courage she has shown lately. I love her bunches. And so, I made her margaritacicles. :)

We used to go out for a margarita now and then, but so far this year, I'm not allowed. Something about the tequila interacting with my cocktail of Lupus drugs... lol... maybe soon I will be able to get off of them and go  have some fun... then again... there is always the virgin margarita, right? OH!!! WHAT FUN IS THAT???

Here are the 'cicles... beware, they are spiked!

I found the popsicle stick thingies at KMart. I looked everywhere! Why were they so hard to find?? Later, I found more at the dollar store in the summer toy aisle. Duh.....why didn't I go there first? I made the little tag with a few strips of glittered border sticker with the cocktails on it. Somebody gave me this strip at the last crop and I thought it was so funny I saved it for something special just like this! I used an odd assortment of other things to make the tag, including old letter stickers, a "Happy Birthday" rub on and an old sticker-patch thing. I used some foamy letters from CTMH and some bits of ribbon, doily and twine.I love how it turned out.

On the back side, I added the recipe... I found several recipes for frozen margarita treats and one like this seemed to work fine. I was a little bit worried about how the alcohol would freeze, but something about blending it with the sweetened condensed milk made it happen. I topped each one with a slice of lime and mentioned sprinkling them with salt before eating, but I hear that they were quite sour (ok, I tried just a lick!) and I think that sugar would work fine too. It was a fun and easy treat for my friend and I hope that she had an extra great day. :)

Here is the recipe, in case you can't read my chicken scratches. :)

1 1/4 C. Lime Juice (I used the bottled stuff.)

4 Limes (Three would have been plenty.)

1 14oz. Can of Sweetened Condensed Milk

1C. Water

(Next time, I think I will do 1C lime juice to 1 1/4 C. water, to tone it down a bit! Holy limesauce!!!)

1/4 C. Tequila

2 tbsp Orange Juice

Blend all, top with slices of lime. Freeze for at least 6 hours. Sprinkle with Salt.

This recipe makes 12 margaritacicles of this size, or eight margaritacicles and one big red solo-cup margaritacicle slushy drink for your husband. :*)

May ETM Kit!

Express The Moment still has the most wonderful monthly kits! Here are a few projects from my May kit that I wanted to share!

ETM kits are still jam-packed with plenty of goodies for making your "Project Life" style albums! There are more pages in this kit than you can shake a stick at... from the "Photo Freedom" line by Echo Park.

The premade 4x6 and 6x4" mats are so easy to cut out and place directly into your page pockets. Very little embellishment is needed, but there is plenty more in the kit available to use!

This month's 8x8 page is just right for one 6x4" photo and I love the assortment of titles that you have to pick from. Many of the patterned pages even have little 3x4" squares for "Project Life" style albums. These also make really awesome titles for any kind of page.

There are so many cute colors and papers to pick from in the May Kit. There is a darling punch set provided and some cute edge borders ready-to-use too. Add to that buttons, ribbon and a full sheet of "Happy Birthday" rub-ons that will keep you in stock of Birthday cards all year long! This card was made following one of the latest Operation Write Home sketches - #169.

This month there is another first - an entire 8x5 pad of solid Bazzill cardstock in a variety of colors and textures! I'll tell you why Bazzill like this is my very favorite for card-making. The solid core and heavy weight make these mats perfect for bases - especially if you love to use embossing folders like I do. Here is a variety of cards I made simply by cutting solid mats at 4 x 5.25" and adding a few simple embellishments and the "Happy Birthday" rub-ons from the kit. 

Do you have a bee stamp, sticker or digi? I added one to this card. (Stamp by Imaginisce - not included in this kit.) I added the "Happy Birthday" rub-on with a slight twist, using a few alphabet stickers from the kit too. This card makes me happy!

I also used another Imaginisce stamp for the present on this card... you get the idea... solid base mats with some embossing make some really cute, clean and simple cards. They are also very fast to make!

Last one - I did want to show a few scraps of some patterned paper in this month's kit and a cute index card that was included, plus the cute "swirly" border die, a heart punch and button from the kit.

With all of the goodies in this kit, I'm sure that you will find lots of parts and pieces to make your own variations of these cards. Thanks for stopping by to check them out!

Winner Winner!

Congrats to Penny for being selected for my VCMP blog candy! Hope to hear from you soon...

And a big thanks to all of you for playing along with my VCMP post!

VCMP - my stuff!

I sure hope that everyone had fun with the Operation Write Home Virtual Card Making Party! We have a couple of these every year and they are always one of my favorite things! I hope that you'll have a little time to hop around and see some of the other creations - the ones that I have seen have been awesome! I hope to spend a little time tonight getting around to see some more.

Hosting my a spot here was definitely fun - I didn't get as many cards of my own done as I would have hoped, but there is always tomorrow. :)

Here is one for the ODBD "Miss You" challenge. I used a stamp from Stamper's Best and a Spellbinder's die, plus an embossing folder by Sizzix and some cute yellow patterned paper that came from a 6x6 stack by Fancy Pants. The sentiment is an old one from a set of sentiments that I have, and I can never remember where they came from. I should write it on the sheet of stamps next time I have them out!

Next was a challenge at Paula's for making cards for kids following an OWH sketch. I used sketch #132 and some more Fancy Pants paper and lots of bling. I colored a little digi girl with my watercolor pencils and added some bling to her earring and belt buckle. Little kid cards are not too hard to come up with ideas for. Tween and teen girls can be a challenge, I think. I hope that somebody has a girly at home that will like this one. :)

My last one is for a challenge over at Sandy's for Romantic cards. I decided to go for several things I don't use much of... yellow, for one, and some Stampin' Up embossing folders. I got the layout for the card from some place on Pinterest. I think that it's a lovely design. I added some bling and a sentiment from that same stamp set as above. I'm not much of a yellow person and might make this design in other colors, but I decided that maybe yellow, for Sandy's challenge would be nice. :)

I didn't get to tweet chat, because I just don't Twitter. :) 

Thanks for stopping by!

VCMP - Cards out of scrapbooking sketches!

To join in the rest of the VCMP, click the image!

Welcome, all you card-making rebels on National Scrapbooking Day!

I'm giving you permission to go ahead and go make a scrapbook page. *sigh* But we all know that Operation Write Home is all about the CARDS! Today, you're in luck. I'm going to share a fun little thing that got me into making cards in the first place! I'm so excited!

 Last week, I had another card-making party with a group of young ladies from my home town. I love working with scouts, young men and ladies' groups - they always make the very best "Any Hero" letters and cards! I always ask if it's OK to take photos of my ladies while they are working, and I love to keep little snapshots of every party I have. I thought it would be fun to make a page for my album with a few photos from last week's event!

So first, I went in search of a nice scrapbook page layout. I use lots of sketches from Pagemaps. (They have great card sketches there too... and it's their Birthday celebration this month, so please do stop by and say hello!)

Here is my page about my girls. They made such cute hero cards and wrote such nice letters! I can't wait to get them mailed off!

So, we all know what happens when you are done making a scrapbook page! You're left with a few inches of leftover papers, a scrap of ribbon, a few stickers or embellishments and maybe there is still some floss on your needle from where you did a little stitching!

I used to have a tendency to save these pieces for "later"... meaning that I ended up with all sorts of odds and ends that just kind of got jumbled in a basket together. Eventually they got mixed in with other pieces and parts that didn't coordinate, and then I just had a basket of mess that I never really did anything with. So here is your a-ha moment for the day! While you've still got this matching pile of scraps, make a quick card out of it, and be done with it!

Best of all, there is no need to go in search of another sketch or argue with your muse about ideas. Since you already went through the trouble of arranging your pretty scrapbook page, just stick with the same layout idea, or something very similar! Here is the card that I came up with, to show you an example.

I used part of the same sort of layout, putting a sentiment where my photos once were. I used the last of my scrap of ribbon and a little bit of leftover floss for stitching. To the left edge, is a scrap of marquee sign that I cut from the bottom of my journaling element. I even used up some tiny pieces of patterned paper and a leftover sticker and a few die cut stars. To be truthful, I probably had enough leftover scraps to make two cards like this.

Using scrapbooking sketches to make cards can be a fun way to challenge yourself, not only to use up your scraps, but to make very detailed, fancy cards. Scrapbook layouts are also fun to turn into cards because they sometimes give ideas about incorporating fun elements such as stitching, layering, and fancy border punches. Just put sentiments or images where the titles or photos are supposed to be, and think... smaller!

What a way to stretch your sketches!

Don't you think that you could also make a fancy card out of scrapbook sketches like this...

... or this ...

... or this?

Your scrapbook layout sketches don't have to be the 8.5 x 11" kind, but that size seems to be good for making cards because it is the most similar to our preferred A2 card size. And doesn't the one above give you fun ideas for incorporating things like staples, stitching, stamped swirls and a border punch?

If you would like to play along, I'll leave an Inlinkz thingy so you can share your creations. You don't have to make a scrapbook page, but if you do, share both! I will pick a random participant to send the last of my MFT stamps to. I've still got a bunny and an alphabet set to give away and I'll even sort through my other goodies and see if I can find some fun papers to throw in too. :)