10 Favorite cards of 2011

This week for our Operation Write Home fun challenge was to pick 10 of our favorite cards we made in 2011 and post them for a mini-hop of sorts over the weekend.  Here are the ones I chose.  They are not the artsy-est or most commented on.  I picked a variety of styles and themes (well except for the extra one for Christmas!) and ones I enjoyed making.  I would have loved to picked maybe 12 but maybe next time!  :)  I hope you like them.

This one was a tone on tone embossed patterned paper so I heat embossed the sentiment to match.  It just felt so delicate.

This is one of the great pinwheel tutorials from the OWH Stars and Stamps blog.

This is made with one of the free state digis that was created by Sandy and posted at the OWH main blog under Free - State digis.

This was actually made with leftovers and my favorite part is the gold foil look on the blue handmade paper and the gold distressing on the textured background.  Simple but I really like this one.

There are 2 reasons I chose this one.  One because of the image that I got from Melonheadz Illustrating blog is wonderful for OWH.  And two....... because I actually did an image with people on it! Well, and the star brads are cute.

I just loved this as a Christmas card TO our Heroes!  The sentiment is from the OWH blog, freebie digis section and the red leaf bling was my great find of the week. 

This was made with some very lovely patterned paper.  All the sentiments on the background paper are embossed!  Great paper.

Loved this card!  The entire center image is a mix of stickers.  Yep, stickers!  How fun is that?

Gosh,  I guess I liked my holiday cards.  To me this one has a great country feeling with the crocheted flower, stitching, lace and buttons.

This final one was chosen not for some great design quality but for the image.  It came from Create With TLC blog and I thought it was perfect for the purpose that I make these cards to begin with.  All I did was color it and add the puched heart. 

Thanks for stopping by and enoy your weekend.  Now, let's get some cards made!

OWH MWT - Thank you!

The Midweek Throwdown at OWH Stars and Stamps for this week it to make a Thank You card in honor of Dixie who has just retired from being one of our shippers.  She did an excellent job and now we look forward to seeing all those lovely creations she didn't have time for before.  This pic came out a bit yellow.........it should be a little more mustard color...... hm? 

Yolanda's Leftovers Challenge 2nd batch

 

Ok, here is the 2nd batch of leftovers for Yolanda's challenge.  Lots of strips, but they make easy backgrounds.  Um, easy if you can match up the papers that go together!  LOL!  These are made with the same strips just one is on black and one is on a gray background cardstock.  Very interesting outcome.

Yolanda's Leftovers Challenge

I hope to make a bunch for this challenge.  That would mean that I am making "tidy" and also making more room for new stuff!  YAY!  The blocks of patterned paper and the dark brown are the leftovers.  Ok, off to make some more!

The same with this one.  The blocks are the leftovers.  I think it works.

Thanks to Our Heroes Challenge

This challenge is in partnership with Hero Arts, Inc and can be found on the S&S blog here.  Part of the challenge requires that we use a sketch from the Stars and Stamps sketch vault to make the card and that it has to have at least one stamped image.  Well, stamped images for me usually mean sentiments so here is my version of sketch #43.

OWH Hero Arts Blog Skip CASE

This weekend Operation Write Home is having a Hero Arts celebration by having a blog skip which starts here.  Part of the celebration asks for us to CASE a card made by one of our blog hostesses.  I chose this blog Expressions of a Craftaholic hostess to CASE.  Now, mine is backwards to hers so I hope that counts as a CASE.  If not, tell me and I'll do another one.   Sandy has turned me into a ribbon junkie now so all my cards seem to have a touch of ribbon.  The butterfly was a sticker that had bits of glitter spots on it and I really liked it so I covered all the glitter spots with Dimensional Magic and made it pop up with foam adhesive. 

Sketch Challenge #99

Realizing that mine don't often look like the sketches, they do inspire me so this is the one for Sketch Challenge #99 at OWH Stars and Stamps blog.  The flower silk and the sentiment is a new one from River City Rubber Works, a most wonderful site with a wonderful selection of stamps.

Valentine's and Love

I am finishing up making the box of Valentine and Love cards to go out at the end of this week.  It takes a little longer from here (Canada) to get to Sandy so, I try to have them out 2 weeks before the deadline.  This one is for the Valentine's Last Call at OWH Stars and Stamps.  The first one was made with a Sizzix folder and colored with ink.  The second one is a bit busy but all the parts have a nice shimmer to them and I felt that worked well.  The background paper, the tag, the ribbon edge and the embossed sentiment.  Hope some one likes it!

Love Notecard Makeover Backside!

Now this is the backside of the card from the previous post.  So there are 6 of these as well.  I turned it upside down so that it wouldn't look so much like the first one.  This is mounted on that parchment looking cardstock, framed the sentiment with silver paint pen and nothing says romance like black sheer (something) ribbon. :)

Love Notecard Makeover!

This was a notecard I got in a pack of 6 from Michael's on clearance.  Both the front of the card and the back of the card are printed in this really pretty pink.  I just cut it up and mounted it on the black, added a bow, a shimmery butterfly and some bling!  The close up shows the wonderful subtle embossing on this card.  Instant wow!  So I made 6 from the fronts, 6 from the backs and have 6 pretty pink envelopes that will become cards too.  Not bad for $.33!!!!

Totally Sketch Inspired!

This bunch is totally sketch inspired!  This sketch is from OWH Stars and Stamps sketch #97!  I am not usually prone to doing sketches and this one at first glance looked too hard for sure.  But, the inspiration from the gallery got me going.  I made one and then got out my scrap file.  The rest of these cards just hopped on the paper!  This is by far the most cards I have ever made from one sketch in one sitting.  And got some of my scrap file cleaned up as well!

Simple and Repurpose

This first card is just a simple use of paper and a really pretty ribbon.  Quick and easy!

This 2nd card is a "re-purpose".  I recieved this quite a long time ago and instead of just tossing it I cut it down and remounted it onto a fresh new card base and replaced the sentiment that was on it with one for the Heroes to use for upcoming Valentine's Day (see all the tiny little hearts?)

Sophocles

Look what I found in my pile of "left overs" and "need to use."  This pretty vellum quote.  Simple and Ms. Mo-jo was just getting warmed up!

Frosty embossed vellum

I've had these sheets of embossed vellum on my desk for awhile and I decided it was time to give them a spin on the dance floor.  Nice and simple, and architectural style flower, faux scallops with punched dots and popped for dimension. Sending the Love!

Fishing for Love

I made 2 fishing themed cards with the Love sentiment, but one was out of focus when I took the pic so I'll have to get it out of the box and try again when I have some daylight.  Here is one of them.  Very simple, but more masculine.  I will post the other one when I get a better picture.

Love (with no hearts)

I have no idea how I came up with this idea.  I was digging through the sketch challenge file at OWH Stars and Stamps blog attempting to attempt a challenge.  Sometimes it seems so simple and others, sheesh!  Mo-jo block!  But I do like how this came out and look Ma! No hearts!  I like how the tan swirl came out looking rather suede.  The sentiment is a free digi from Create With TLC.  I just love this sentiment! 

Love in the "Blues" (and grays)!

I am really working on some simple Love cards for the men or the men to recieve.  I like the not quite so obvious hearts!  I found this gray plaid in my old stash folder.  I got 4 cards out of what I had.  Now I wish I had more of it.

Butterfly Love

I like using purple and green and this one just caught my eye.  I stepped out a bit by using the yellow background card base, but I think distressing the edges toned it down a bit and tied it together.  Too bad my in house critic thought this one was a total bomb!  The photo doesn't show it well but the butterflies on this one are popped, too. 

Thinking of You on Veteran's Day

I always gravitate towards the Thinking of You type cards for our Heroes, so here are some more.  The butterfly is some opalescent dark blue that was put through a texture folder and then popped off the page with some shelf liner.  Then the sentiment was heat embossed.  I haven't done that much lately and I do love how it looks and feels, got to use that more!

Two sided paper for OWH sketch #91

I've never been good at using the 2 sided paper together.  Usually I just pick which side I like and use that one.  Stretching my comfort zone mixed with my being "sketch challenged"..... I figured Veteran's Day was a good day to let 'er rip!  This paper came from a 4x6 pad of paper from K&Co that someone sent to me.  It has 18 sheets and since I am getting the hang of this sketch..... well, they may all come out similar.  But, I won't send them all in one box so that my shipper (Sandy) doesn't have to store them.  So far I have made 4 each from 6 sheets of paper.  The circle is heat embossed for some nice shiny texture.  Yay!

Matter of Time

I kind of thought that this would be a nice card for someone to send home when they are getting close to coming home or as encouragement that they will be together again soon.  Then I noticed that in the pic I didn't get the sticker edge down good, ugh!  Where is that bone folder?  The sticker is a gorgeous shiny copper color.

Big Bird! (image)

I remembered reading on Paula's blog about some paper she had that had large images on it.  This is one I had on a 12x12 sheet "bottom of the stash" paper.  I cut out this image first and so far have made 2 more cards with the same sheet and they all look fairly different.  I still have some left over so more cards to make!

Absence make the heart grow fonder!

How about this for a little "love you" message?

The cards from Paula's Digi

I thought I would post the cards I made with the digi I got from Paula's bog Handmade by Paula.  I like this one and more than likely it will be on a lot more cards.

Sending You My Love!

I got this wonderful free digi from Paula at Handmade By Paula and think that it could be for any time of year!  Her cards were wonderful!  Mine, not so much as hers, but I will keep trying!  I liked this layout so I made 2 more in green, some in blue and other colors with matching digis.

Shaking off the snow for a few!

I put away the Christmas stuff (for now) and tried to have visions of warm spring days and sunny colors.

Valentines Already?

I'm trying to get in the Valentine type mood.  Actually, I think I just like making Love cards.  I know those men and women love their families and this amazing country.  God bless our Heroes!

Handmade Paper Trio

It seems odd to change from Christmas cards so soon.  Changing mo-jo takes a bit of effort.  I will be making personal Christmas cards but the ones for OWH are out the door!  Yay!  These 3 were made with a lovely handmade paper that has been sitting in my stash.  Not now!  I've got a lot more of this wonderful paper that will make great springtime cards. 

Merry! Merry! Christmas Presents!

I'm trying to cover a bunch of different themes for Christmas.  This is a stamp that was enlarged on the computer before printing.  I made 11 of these bright, happy Merry Merry's!

Pearl Button Thinking of You

I took a break from Christmas cards to make this Thinking of You card.  I know the Heroes need general cards like this as well even through the holidays.  I wish you could really see this paper.  All the words are embossed.  Very cool stuff!  I made 7, then ran out of that pearl and pink ribbon.  That is a good "run out" since it means more cards in the box getting ready to go out.