Two AnyHero Cards

Simon Says Stamp's Monday challenge blog is having a "Summer" challenge this week. Here in East Texas, summer=hot! And hot makes me think of red. Since July 4th is also quintessentially summer, I decided to make 2 AnyHero cards for Operation Write Home. AnyHero cards are basically thank you cards that we write to military personnel overseas, thanking them for their service & sacrifice. A local Boy Scout troop has agreed to participate, and requested 25 cards. So I've been busy making thank you cards!

For my first card, I took inspiration from one of Laura Bassen's lessons in Online Card Classes' recent "Mask-erade" class. I first created a stencil by die cutting a scalloped square from a piece of acetate. Starting with Spun Sugar Distress ink, I inked through the stencil onto my white cardstock panel. I pivoted the stencil slightly, and inked through it again, using Worn Liptstick Distress ink, overlapping the first inked area. I continued in this fashion, with Distress inks in Abandoned Coral, Festive Berries, Barn Door, Fired Brick, and ended with Aged Mahogany. I did make sure to clean my stencil off after each inking, to keep from accidentally transferring color to the part of my cardstock I wanted to keep white.

Once all the inking was done, I removed my stencil. I die cut the "Thanks" from the panel with one of these dies, and also die cut it 5 more times from white cardstock. I glued all the die cuts together, to make one thick greeting. After backing the opening in my panel with a piece of Scor-Tape sheet, I placed my die cut in the opening, making sure to add the little inside pieces in the letters as well. Finally, I mounted the panel to a white A2-size card base.

I got the inspiration for my second card from this one that I found on Pinterest. I first die cut the 3 smallest stars from this set out of red, white, & blue cardstocks. Then I layered them with foam tape between each layer. One great thing about AnyHero cards is that, since these are not mailed in envelopes, there is not the same restriction on using dimension as for cards made for our heroes to send home! I embossed a piece of white cardstock with the "Argyle Background" embossing folder by Darice. Once that was done, I glued my stars in place, making sure to keep them in a straight vertical line, with reasonably even spacing.

For the greeting, I used the "Thank you" from Hero Arts' "Year Round Sentiments" stamp set. I stamped it on a piece of blue cardstock with Versamark ink, then heat embossed it with Ranger Super Fine Detail White embossing powder. I glued that in place on my background, then mounted the panel to a white card base.

I'm also entering my second card in a2z Scrapbooking's July Challenge: "CAS."