January ODBD for OWH - stripes & hearts

There is a new Our Daily Bread Designs challenge up for Operation Write Home (don't know what that is? Go here and find out. Then link up your own card.) 

This month's challenge is to use stripes. Now, my office/craft space is a Disaster. Capital 'd' disaster. I've been spending 15 minutes a day the past few days to whip it into shape and it's much, much better, but not ready yet to create anything... luckily, I made this card back in November and saved a photo of it.

Supplies:

Stamps: paper smooches simply said sentiments

papers: my Mind's Eye, Gina K

Dies: Quickkutz heart dies

Ribbon: old - maybe American Crafts

Thanks for visiting me today! Stay warm - it's frigid here in Wisconsin, and school has already been cancelled for Monday. We're staying in!

Jen

OWH MWT - pink/green love

Hey, just popping in with a quick card share for today's Operation Write Home challenge! The challenge is to make a love card with pink and green, and I made a card the other day that fits the bill. :)

This was one of those "happy accident" cards. I was going to use the pink heart that I die cut for the sentiment, but - not thinking - I stamped it in gray ink, and it was hard to see. SO, miracle of all miracles, I realized that I had lined up the die cut pretty well and I just used the negative space against the green and framed it out with a faux layer, i.e., tiny strips cut to 1/4". :)

Of course you are all the final say on whether or not it actually works! :)

My Mind's Eye papers
Quickkutz heart die
Paper Smooches love sentiment

Thanks for visiting!

We had snow flurries this morning. AHHHHHHHHHH! I'm not ready!

Jen

Operation Write Home World Cardmaking Day HOP! Thanks, hero!

Hello! 

I'm so happy you are here for the Operation Write Home blog hop! Click on the link above to see all of the links; there's always great inspiration! Today we are using OWH sketches (a new sketch is posted every Sunday) to make thank you notes. 

My story for this card is too long for this post, so if you would like the back story of how I made this card for a local hero who was interviewed for our local phone book's "Tribute To Veterans" edition, go to this post. 

I won't tell you that I didn't read the directions and use a sketch to make this card, soooo... let's say this is based on sketch 189 and I REALLY played around with the measurements   'K? Good. :)

My Mind's eye Lost & Found 6x6 (Christmas papers, go figure!)
Paper Smooches Circle of Honor sentiment stamps
Stamping up Ruby Red and Momento tuxedo black inks

Now go read that back story and comment to win some blog candy. Wherever you are, I hope you are having a beautiful day!  Thanks for visiting me!

Jen

OWH sketch 191

Happy Sunday, people! I'm recovering from a long, busy day at Scrapfest yesterday. It was so much fun!! I owe a HUGE thanks to my bloggy and now real-life friend Sarah for saving the day - I was supposed to attend with a local friend, but she was unable to come at the last minute. Sarah agreed to come and take her place at the classes, so I rocked some tunes and diet coke and made the 2.5 hour trip there and back yesterday. 

AND she is as lovely and funny as you would expect reading her blog. I'm so glad we got to meet and hang out all day! :)

I will review some of the classes and share some of the projects this week, so stay tuned! (Hint - my favorite class (AGAIN) was Jillibean Soup. Love Jill!!!)

It's time for another Operation Write Home sketch, this week is 191. I made this card:

Jillibean Soup apple cheddar soup
Paper Smooches sentiment
Gina K dark chocolate card stock
labels 8

And if you can't tell anything odd about it, I will thank you greatly. (The labels don't 'nest' well, so I die cut the sentiment and then trimmed the red around it. Can you tell?)

I'm not sure about that green apple background, so give me a yay or nay in the comments, will you? 

And my moment of shame... I bought these yesterday:

In the Archiver's 'sale' section. 8 paper pads, people! The problem is, they all call to me. And the truth... I had more in my basket that I put back! This is most of my haul. Technique Tuesday! I'm not sure why we didn't hear more squeals when we were shopping... oh the good stuff to be found!

Jen

Unity's FWF 9/13

If you are here for my Lone Wolf Designs post, showcasing Lawn Cuts by Lawn Fawn, please scroll down or click here. 

Hey there friends, time for another Friends with Flair Friday over at the Unity Stamp Co blog. I have gotten out of the habit of participating (boo!) and so here I am again. :) 

I have been trying to use up some of my partial 6x6 pads... because sadly, I seem to accumulate them faster than I can use them. I'm sure I'm the only one with multiplying paper. 

Anyhow. I LOVED this MME happy go lucky pad and I am sad to see it gone, but it was so much fun to create with. I loved the patterns and the bright colors!

This was a random stamp I received and I ADORE it. :)
Random ribbon from stash, Quickkutz heart dies. At this point I was only
running on smaller scrap pieces, yet this is probably my favorite card of
all that I made using up this pad!

And here are a few more. I used up all of my leftover Jililbean Soup epoxy buttons on these cards... the colors coordinated perfectly! The left bottom card uses a gorgeous Unity flower stamp. SO pretty!

Stamps via Unity Stamp Co, Paper Smooches, Ali edwards for Technique Tuesday.

And a handful more for good measure:

Stamps via Paper Smooches, Ali Edwards for TT, Lizzie Anne Designs.

Thanks for visiting me today! have a wonderful weekend!

Jen

OWH sketch 189 - my coolest friend

Hello and happy Sunday!

Time for another sketch challenge from Operation Write Home! I've been trying to use up some of my 6x6 pads that are nearly finished or those that are not my favorites... this one definitely falls into the "nearly finished" category. I love these bright winter patterns and colors! 

This was the first time I made a snow hill and didn't try to glossy accent the heck out of it. What do you know? I really like it plain (I know it's harder to see. I popped it up on dimensionals; you do see it more clearly in person.) 

This is sketch 189, by the way:

Crate Paper snow day collection
Paper Smooches swanky snowdudes
Smokey Shadow/PTI card stock

Thanks for visiting me today!

Jen

OWH/ODBD September challenge & 6x6 use it up challenge

Hello! 

Today marks the beginning of a new Operation Write Home/Our Daily Bread Designs challenge. This challenge is to use wheels. my first attempt... well, I would show you, but you wouldn't stick around very long - and I wouldn't blame you! :) So I went in a different direction, and went to find a trusty OWH sketch (this is 180), and I'm happy to show you the end result:

Hero Arts for OWH set
PTI smokey shadow card stock, Bazzill cherry splash and walnut cream
Momento tuxedo black ink, SU edge punch

Notice how I didn't use ANY patterned paper on that card? Are you shocked? Yes, me too. :)

And then... I've been trying to use up this My Mind's Eye Christmas 6x6 pad that I hate dislike kind of very much. I had a moment of inspiration the other day when I realized I could focus on using the non-holiday sides and go for more masculine themes.  I ended up making a few holiday cards and a few masculine. These are the holiday ones:

My Mind's Eye paper "merriest days of Christmas"
Stamps via Unity Stamp Co, Lawn Fawn, and Hero Arts for OWH

And these are the masculine ones:

Stamps via Unity Stamp Co and Paper Smooches

There were just a few scraps after finishing these, and you can bet I recycled them with no guilt. It was very much an "I shall conquer you" moment... and I am pleased with the end results. No one should use up (what you think is) ugly paper and have made ugly cards, right? That kind of defeats the purpose. This was not a full pad, by the way, maybe 2/3? And I ended up with 15 cards.

This weekend marks the end of the first week of school, our parish fall festival where I failed to make pies and instead purchased them with little guilt, and I think the littlest child is getting sick. On an up note, last night my husband and daughters spent time on YouTube looking for "homemade trapeze systems". Today he is the best.daddy.ever for getting them a trapeze bar for their play set.

Have a great weekend!

Jen

OWH MWT - fall theme

Autumn... say it isn't so! The summer is flying by; school starts in less than 30 days. I need to finish school shopping... thank goodness for Catholic school uniforms, at least. (Yeah, retailers, I'm looking at you. Clothing for seven year olds should make them look like seven year olds, not teens. Thanks.)

Since this week's Operation Write Home challenge is to make fall cards, and I don't have much "fall" stamping stuff so I dug into my stash of "gotta use this up" baggies that just have a few pieces of random paper lines. This is Authentique, I do believe, what line exactly has escaped me. I wasn't all that keen on it. :)

It still made a nice card, though!

Authentique paper
Gina K card stock in dark chocolate
Paper Smooches sentiment

Thanks for visiting me today! 

Jen

OWH MWT - punch cards

No, not discount cards, cards made with punches. That said, I LOVE me a good punch card (discount card). I prioritize stores that care about my return business. :)

Okay, so the OTHER kind of punch cards is the midweek challenge for Operation Write Home today. I have been living it UP with my sis and my nephews that are in town on vacation so this card is an oldie but one that I haven't shared before. I made it for a friend whose infant son was being baptized. I was short on time and decided to go with a simpler "congrats" card than try to finagle a baptism card with no baptism stamps.  I wish I would've taken a pic of the inside; I did the inside too with some pretty Verve scripture stamps and it looked nice. I thought so anyhow. 

As it goes, I was so busy taking a pic of the card before leaving for the party that I left the card in the lightbox. True story. I apolized the next day and she told me she knew the gift I had was from us since I had also decorated a tag for the bag. LOL

Paper Smooches sentiment
SU ribbon
My Mind's Eye (blink, maybe??)
PTI smoky shadow card stock

So there you have it! Punches. Of all kinds. sorry, I'm kind of punchy today (TIRED!!). LOL

Oooh, also, come see me Friday. I will have some great things to show you!!

Jen

OWH MWT - any hero cards

Hey! It's Wednesday - seriously? We had a longer weekend up north... thanks to the telephone company needing to make a service call on Monday, so it feels like Tuesday to me. Oh well, I guess the weekend will get here that much faster! :)

Today's OWH challenge is to make Anyhero notes. I had part of one last sheet of this K & Co. Americana pack, so I sliced it up to make 12 of this design:

Cuttlebug stars embossing folder
Nestabilities labels 8
Paper Smooches sentiment
K&CO. paper, Gina K ivory cardstock
Twinery twine

 Just a few were blue, most were the red and white stripe.

My mom helped assemble! She's better at bows than I am.

I embossed the kraft piece, used my white ink pad over the surface to make the stars pop a little more, and adhered the banners. I tied on the twine and added the die cut sentiment and done! 

Thanks for visiting me today!

Jen

OWH MWT - Christmas in July

Hello... is it Friday yet? It is HOT and HUMID here in Wisconsin. I've not been able to let the kids play outside much this week due to the heat... but we have taken advantage of our community pool's free swim program. For 45 minutes daily they are open for free; then they close and reopen an hour later. A little time to swim and then I'm not the bad guy who makes everyone leave when they were having so much fun? Total win/win. :)

Today's OWH mid-week challenge is "Christmas in July." Um, yeah. Last year I challenged the OWH ladies on Facebook to join in making a few cards per month with me... and a few did. This year I challenged them again and we had a LOT of ladies join in. It's very informal, but every now and then someone will update with how many she made for the month. I think it's awesome!

My goal is 5 per month until October, but some months I did one or two... others I made 20. Go figure. I'm packing up a few to start sending to Kris, so I pulled out a couple of my favorites:

MME designer paper, Gina K ivory card stock
Lawn Fawn stamps and sentiment
Sizzix snowflake emobossing folder
Nestabilities ovals

MME scraps - I couldn't bear to throw these, so I made a quilt card!
Paper Smooches sentiment
Bazzill card stock

Thanks for visiting me today! :)

Jen

OWH MWT - things with wings

Hey! Thanks for visiting me today!

I have a local shoebox card swap on Saturday and I'm so darn excited for it! I thought I'd share one of the cards I made for it (we are making two since we are a small group of ladies) since it fits with today's Operation Write Home challenge to use 'things with wings.'

At first I didn't even think of using this card... and then I realized the bird counts. :) 

Paper Smooches stamps
Lawn Fawn papers
markers; random pearls, stickles sealed with glossy accents

Hopefully the ladies like this card; I think it's cute and hey, it gives you a head start on some winter cards! My other card is my favorite; I'll share that one another day. :) STANDARD DISCLAIMER - I would not send glitter/stickles to OWH without sealing the glitter with glossy accents AND performing a heavy arm-rub test first! 

I'm also linking this up with the ODBD challenge to use water on a card. Snow = water. :) 

Have a good rest of the week!

Jen

Viva Las VegaStamps! DT Tryout

Hello there!

Viva Las Vegas Stamps extended their design team call, and even though I just recently discovered them (Operation Write Home Memorial Day bloghop for the win!!!!) I've decided to throw my hat into the ring... throw my bling onto the stage? That seems more appropriate for Vegas! :)

Here are my three pieces:

This is a fun card I made with Paper Smooches stamps
and Echo Park papers. 

LOVE my chevron dies! I adore sentiment stamps. I use a
LOT of sentiments and those heart dies... another favorite.

This is a fun fold card I made for a friend's daughter's birthday.
It takes several photos to appreciate... well, that's my theory at least!

These three are a great representation of my style - clean lines and bright colors. Did you know the only room in my house that's white is our master bedroom closet? It's true! Color = awesome.

Thanks for your consideration, DeeDee!

Jen

OWH MWT - things with wheels; bloghop winner!

Hello there! It's time for another OWH mid-week challenge and this week's challenge is to use transportation images. I went right to this fun My Mind's Eye paper for my card:

MME Away We Go
PTI smokey shadow card stock
Paper Smooches sentiment
chipboard arrow from Basic Grey

This card was inspired by sketch 156, flipped! :)

And I'm here to also announce the bloghop winner!

Random.org chose comment number 58, Rufus!

Rufus said...

In my next box, there will be lots of love cards and Hero mail. Can't have Sandy without!

R/

MAY 25, 2013 AT 9:50 AM 

Please email me at jennifer.mueller409 at gmail dot com to claim your prize. :) A new winner will be chosen after 3 days.

Jen

'

OWH Memorial Day bloghop - you're a good egg

HEY!

Sorry to yell. I'm just so excited for this Operation Write Home Memorial Day bloghop! :) (Click on the link to get back to the thumbnail list.)  On a weekend where we honor the lives of those who have died fighting for our freedom, it's so fitting to also think of how we will serve those who are currently fighting.

• This is Operation Write Home sketch 59. 
• I was going for masculine; I think I got gender neutral (but that's ok, happy accidents - right??).
• Paper Smooches stamps are SO fun. Love them! I know this isn't quite a 'thanks' sentiment, but it's close... and I stamped the 'thanks' inside.

Stamps: Paper Smooches wake up set
My Mind's Eye Breeze papers
Gina K cardstock
Glossy accents, SU not quite navy ink

And if my card didn't make you grin, this might: a set of Chrismtas ribbons AND a whopper collection of various Unity Stamp Co stamps (some sentiments, some images). :) 

Comment to win; for an extra chance leave a second comment telling me that you will mail at least 5 cards to Operation Write Home in the next two weeks (they can be Anyhero cards, too!).  

Now go hop some more! 

Jen

Sarah & Jen's February challenge - fun fold kid card

Hello and welcome to our final blogger buddy challenge for February. This one is mine and I challenged us to make a fun fold card for a kid!

I recently discovered the "joy fold" card and I think it's super fun! I made two of these, one for a boy and one for a girl, but I forgot to take a picture of the boy one before I gave it to the intended recipient. Sorry about that; I was in a hurry! :)

Here is the girl card:

My Mind's Eye Lime Twist happy go luck dp
Bazzill strawberry splash card stock
Paper Smooches sentiment
Basic Grey butterfly, random flat pearl from stash
CTMH ink, gold pen

And kind of open:

And here it is flat (still okay for Operation Write Home!):

Thanks for visiting me today! Be sure to hop back to Sarah's blog to see what she made! She's super talented. :)

Jen

OWH MWT - hey buddy

Hello and happy Wednesday! It's cold again this morning and supposed to snow today. The kids are excited. :)

Today is challenge day over at the Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps blog. The challenge is to make kid cards. I love kid cards, don't you? 

Sentiment: Paper Smooches
Papers: Jillibean Soup (cars) and DCWV (background)
Gina K navy card stock
Creative Memories circle punch; foam tape

These were simple and quick but still pretty fun. The background papers are from DCWV, and they are embossed slightly! They are from a *coughcoughveryveryverycoughcough* old pack I had. I'm sure none of you have any older papers laying around... :)  And on that note, I made card kits to complete another pack of 6x6 papers I had almost completed! Woot! Look for that post later this week once I get them all assembled.

Thanks for visiting me today!

Jen

OWH sketch 158 and ODBD challenge

Hello, hello, hello! Did you notice anything over there? ---------------> I joined a design team! I hope you'll check it out and maybe join in on some challenges. :)

First up, here's the fruit challenge card for this month's Our Daily Bread Designs challenge. I had some of these Echo Park scraps so I used them all up on these fruit cards. Woot! This is sketch 140, by the way.

Echo Park dp; Gina K and Bazzill cardstock
Paper Smooches fruitastic stamp set
glossy accents; Momento inks

And now on to the sketch for today... this is 158 over at the Stars & Stamps blog!

I took some liberties with the sketch. I'm trying to use up this paper... I cannot recall who makes it, or the name of the line, for the life of me. :/

Paper: unknown
Stamps: Paper Smooches; MFT chevron die and QuickKutz heart dies

Thanks for visiting me today! :) 

Jen

Jen & Sarah's challenge #1 - January

So my good friend Sarah over at Sarah's Stamping and Stuff and I heard about a challenge from Sandy, the president of Operation Write Home, to find a blogging buddy for 2013 and engage in challenging each other to improve our skills. It sounded like something right up our alley so each month, we'll bring you two challenges and our takes on those challenges. This January challenge #1, and it's Sarah's - Luck o'the Irish; be sure to use some twine. 

I don't have any Irish genes, but I do like green. I should use more of it in my crafting. :)

I found this fun number paper in a random pack from Jillibean Soup. These kinds of number patterns always make me think birthdays! So, I made a birthday card. Note all the green and the twine (also green!) on the banner. :)

Sentiment: Paper Smooches
Twinery twine; SU not quite navy ink
Jillibean Soup paper; Bazzill card stock; Swiss dots embossing folder

I even embossed the blue background with a dots folder, so this card also meets the OWH Our Daily Bread Designs challenge to use embossing on a card.

That's all for me today. Be sure to stop at Sarah's blog to see what she created as well!

Jen 

OWH sketch 153 - buh-bye, winter!

Well, theoretically speaking, of course. Here in Wisconsin it's a winter wonderland and will be for months yet. :)  I'm getting my box ready to mail to Kris @ OWH with the last of the winter cards plus a bunch more general ones. Today's sketch over at the Operation Write Home blog is super and I couldn't resist one more snowman card.

It was tough, though. My husband did a little Facebook research and bought me a bunch of Unity Stamp sets and a stack of Bazzill paper for Christmas. Imagine my surprise... he even checked my stash and made sure I didn't have those sets already. Yup, he IS the best and NO, he has no unmarried brothers. :) So stay tuned for more Unity creations to come! :)

Here it is; I think this qualifies as a kid card too. I left off all sparkles and went with some glossy accents for the hat and a torn edge for snow.

Echo Park dp, Paper Smooches swanky snowdudes
Sizzix snowflake embossing folder with white ink
makers & glossy accents

Thanks for looking! See you on Tuesday with my top favorite cards of 2012, a giveaway, and a challenge buddy announcement. :)

Jen