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!