Labor Day Weekend VCMP!

Welcome everyone! I'm so excited to be participating in the Operation Write Home, Labor Day Weekend Virtual Card Making Party! Woohoo! If this is your first VCMP, let me just tell you how much fun you are about to have! Every few hours, another link will be posted over at the starting place on the Stars & Stamps blog. You can visit each stop and play along by making a card to go along with the challenge on that page. Are you ready for your first challenge? Go!

My challenge is to make a winter or Christmas themed card for OWH following  a sketch! My card turned out to be Christmassy, because of the papers and sentiment that I picked, but you could definitely do this with a general winter theme by using any wintery themed papers or colors that you desire! Here is the sketch for you to follow:

I made this one up because it was such a good opportunity to use up my last little bits of some of my favorite papers. The 1" squares were done with a punch, although cutting 1" squares could also be done with any trimmer. (I must thank Paula for her awesome photo shopping skills and helping me with the sketch today! Thanks, Paula!!!) Here is my card:

Running the mat with the inchies and white cardstock through an embossing folder was kind of an afterthought, but I do like how it turned out, with just a little bit of added dimension.

Here are a few more tips if you are going to try this!

Inchies are best when punched or cut from paper with small patterns.

When assembling the card, start by placing the inchie at the top center onto your card first! Then place the other inchies around it, to complete the pattern.

Don't get hung up on the inchie squares... I think that it would also be fun to use other inch-sized shapes to complete a similar pattern... maybe some hexagons or even some snowflakes! 

Maybe some of your stops along the VCMP will include a little bit of incentive! As for me, I will be picking one of the InLinkz participants at random to receive a little blog candy. I've got an adorable, brand new acrylic snowflake stamp that needs a new home. Isn't he cute?

Single Snowflake by CTMH

Can't wait to see what you all come up with! Play along by adding your card below and thank you so much for stopping by!

That's A Matter Of A Minion...

Punch art is fun... i've been collecting a board of things on Pinterest to make using my punches. I've also been collecting lots of different punches to use for this.. much to my wallet's dismay! :)

Here is a little guy I have been thinking up for a while. I did use a few punches but some of the pieces are just cut with a trimmer. So this is my take on the little Despicable Me minions! Love them!

Here are the pieces and sizes that I used:

I used a 1" square and 1" circle punch and a 1/2" circle punch and a corner rounder, 1/2" round side.

The body is 1 1/2 x 3"

The pants are 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 square.

You will need a few 1/4" strips of black yellow and blue for his headband, arms, stirrups and some little strips that are about 5/9" for his pants. 

Next, I cut some gloves and boots using the Cricut Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge. The ones that I liked best were from the "Supergirl" shape, but there are tons to chose from on that cartridge. I cut them at 3/4". When I was browsing the cartridge, I noticed a lot of other "dress up" parts like hats and accessories... they might be fun for making dressed-up minions later!

I punched circles at 1" and 1/2" out of grey paper for his goggles and used some different sized googley eyes that I had on hand.

The first step is to round the corners of the yellow rectangle and then round the bottom corners of the blue square. Cut a few notches so that your pants are shaped like this:

Layer these together and add some blue strips for the stirrups. I just trimmed down the sides after I glued them on.

Next glue your arms and legs onto the back side of your minion.. he's starting to take shape, don't you think?

Here, I added the gloves boots and strap for his goggles. I trimmed down the sides again when I was done. Or, I suppose you could fold them around the back.

I used a fine tip black pen to add hair and a mouth and I added some little black button brads for his cute suspenders.

I googled a bunch of minion images to get ideas of how to doodle their hair and mouths. No two minion is the same, of course, so it doesn't really matter what you try! You could also try doodling some mouths and hair on a piece of scrap paper first if you want.

Minions come in all sizes, so it is okay to shave of a few sides or two to make them shorter, fatter or whatever you want. They come in one eyed, and two eyed varieties, so that is where the bigger circle punches and eyes come in. I've been working on a small army. :)

Soon I will take over the world!!! I gave this little guy a sign to hold. :)

Into the Operation Write Home box these little minions will all go... I hope that they brighten the day of lots of children when they receive them in the mail! Thanks for stopping by!