Miss Shoe

The current Essentials by Ellen Pin-sights Challenge has this photo for inspiration:

I decided to create a punny missing you card for Operation Write Home, inspired by the red, white, & blue colors. I also used Sketch #167 by OWH for my design.

I began by creating my background. I used 2 of the stamps in "Bokeh Dots" to stamp circles in Versamark on dark blue cardstock. I did the larger ones first, then heat embossed with Ranger Super Fine Detail White embossing powder. I let that cool for a minute, then did the same with the smaller circle, heat embossing with Zing Rouge embossing powder.

For the focal piece, I first die cut a circle using a Spellbinders "Standard Circles LG" die. I used the men's shoes from the "Twelve Days" stamp set, also from the Essentials by Ellen line, for the image. I did a little stamp surgery, cutting away the "10" from the stamp. I did save that piece, as I can always mount the two images back together on a block, to stamp them as intended. I placed the shoes where I wanted them on the circle, and also placed the greeting, from the "12 Days Companion Greetings" set, in place. I picked up both with an acrylic block, and stamped them using Memento Tuxedo Black ink. Finally I colored the shoes with colored pencils.

All that was left at this point was to assemble the card. I cut a strip of red cardstock, and cut one long edge with a pair of decorative-edge scissors. (Remember those oldie-but-goody tools? LOL) I glued that to one side of my background panel, so only about 1/4" of the strip stuck out. Then I adhered my background to a white A2 card base, and glued the circle on top. And this card was done!

Missing U

I've been enjoying May Flaum's Camp Scrap 2015 for the past few weeks. It's sad to think it's coming to an end soon! The prompt for the 4th week of camp was to create something inspired by something else. I recently came across this card through Pinterest. I liked the mix of the stamp with the sticker "u," and decided to give it a try myself. For my card, I chose Operation Write Home's Sketch #227. That particular sketch comes in 2 different options: one with a circle focal panel and the other with a rectangle. I decided to use the one with the rectangle.

After choosing my patterned papers from my scrap stash, I went ahead & adhered the striped pattern to a piece of kraft cardstock. I also matted a piece of white cardstock, cut to the size of the focal panel in the sketch, with a piece of teal. I used the strip of teal dot paper to determine where to stamp my greeting. I put the cardstock panel in my MISTI, and used a grid sheet to line up my stamp, from Hero Arts' "Year Round Sentiments" set. I put a piece of painter's tape over the "u" in the stamp, and inked up the rest with Versafine Onyx Black. I removed the tape, and stamped the greeting.

For the "u," I die cut one from dark teal cardstock, using a die from the Hero Arts "Alphabet Uppercase" set. I ran it through my Xyron Sticker Maker, to apply adhesive to the back side. I adhered it to my focal panel, to which I'd already adhered the dot patterned paper strip. Finally, I mounted the panel to my card front, and adhered that to a white A2 card base. This card has gone in my final shipment for Operation Write Home.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

A Blog Named Hero: "Make the Sentiment the Star"
a2z Scrapboking: "CAS"

Missing U

Hero Arts has been having a "Tic-Tac-Toe" challenge on their blog this month. I decided to make one final card for that, using the squares for heat embossing, die cutting, and my favorite color (blue) from the inspiration graphic.

I die cut a panel of pale blue cardstock with the largest of Lawn Fawn's "Large Stitched Rectangle" dies. In Photoshop, I then created a blank "canvas" sized to a portrait A2 card. (I did end up later using my printed piece in a landscape orientation.) I copied one of the files from Hero Arts' "Artistic Circles" digital set onto that canvas, then used a hue/saturation adjustment layer to change the color to blue. Next I created a gradiant layer, and clipped those 2 layers to the "Artistic Circles" layer. In effect, this colored the design with a gradated blue, making the middle lighter than the edges. Finally, I printed the pattern directly on to the blue cardstock panel.

For the greeting, I stamped one from Hero Arts' "Year Round Sentiments" onto a scrap of white cardstock, & heat embossed it with Ranger's Liquid Platinum embossing powder. Then I die cut that with one of the "Hearts" dies by Little B, and also cut the little cross stitches with one of the other "Hearts" dies. I inked it with Stormy Sky Distress ink on an ink blender tool, making the edges darker than the middle. I traced the heart onto a piece of craft foam, then cut that out, slightly smaller than the cardstock piece. I glued the foam on the back of the die cut with Ranger Multi Medium Gloss.

I decided to pull out one of my Sew Ribbon tools, which I have not used in ages. After deciding where to place the heart (which I wanted over the ribbon), I pierced the slits into my background panel, and threaded some ribbon I'd gotten from Ellen Hutson through the slits. I finished that by taping the ribbon ends to the back of the panel. Finally, I glued the greeting heart to the panel, over the ribbon, and mounted the finished card front to a white A2 card base. I will be sending this card in my final shipment to Operation Write Home.

I'm also entering my card in the following challenges:

Operation Write Home June challenge: "Missing You" (sponsored by Our Daily Bread Designs)
Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Anything Goes"

I Really Really REALLY Miss You!

Splitcoast Stampers is having their Sketch Challenge #546. I had to work out the dimensions of all the elements, but I stayed true to the sketch. I'm also still working through my Prima "Doodle Deux" 6x6" paper pad, as I explained in this post. So I figured I'd kill both birds with one stone with my card, so to speak.

After choosing 3 patterns from the collection, I cut them to size. I decided to mat all my layers with black, to echo the black in one of the patterned papers. I adhered my layers to a piece of black paper, and used one of my Perfect Paper rulers to create a 1/16" mat on all sides.

I chose a greeting stamp from Stampabilities. I stamped it in Versafine Onyx Black ink on a piece of peach cardstock, and matted it with black. I die cut one of Spellbinders' "Ribbon Buckles" from metallic copper cardstock, and threaded some cream ribbon through that. After adhering my patterned paper layers to some more peach cardstock that I'd matted with black, I determined where to place my greeting panel. I used that to gauge the placement of my ribbon, then adhered the ribbon ends on the back of the matted peach layer. I adhered my greeting panel on top, and glued the ribbon buckle in place, so it won't shift around.

I matted a piece of blue cardstock with more black, giving it a 1/8" mat. Finally, I adhered my layers to that, and mounted it to a white A2-size card base. I will be sending this card to Operation Write Home.

I'm also entering this card in Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Anything Goes" challenge.

AEIO Missing U

This is my second card for the Hero Arts "Tic-Tac-Toe" challenge. The squares I chose from the challenge graphic are "Watercolor," "Tag," & "Favorite Color" (blue). I will also be sending this card to Operation Write Home, as part of my final shipment next month.

I used one of the sketches from My Favorite Things that accompanies their "Blueprints 13" die set. I also used several of the dies from that set. I first die cut my background panel from 140 lb. watercolor paper. Then I scribbled 4 different blue gelatos on my craft mat. After taping the paper to my cutting board, I spritzed it liberally with water. I took a wet paintbrush, and also liquefied the gelato colors. I then painted the background with that mixture. The color was not nearly as intense as I wanted it, though, so after blotting off some of the water from the paper, I scribbled directly on it with the gelatos. Then I used my fingers to move the color around, since I've found that, even with water, I get better blending that way. I continued in this manner until I got the color intensity and blending I wanted. Then I set that aside to dry.

I die cut a banner from vellum, and the tag from white cardstock. I stamped the greeting, from Hero Arts' "Year Round Sentiments," on the tag, using Hero Arts' Pool ink. I used the same ink to stamp the largest heart from that set on a piece of pale blue cardstock. For the heart, I used the "rock 'n' roll" technique, "rolling" a Tsukineko Platinum Planet pigment ink pad around the edges of the stamp, then stamping the heart again. Thankfully, I had it mounted on my MISTI, so it was very easy to stamp it in the same spot again. Because the pigment ink tends to take a LONG time to dry, I set that aside.

After my watercolor panel had dried, I moved it from the cutting board to my non-stick craft sheet. I taped the Hero Arts/Basicgrey "Repeating Loops" stencil over it, and spread Golden's Light Molding Paste over the stencil. Once I had the coverage I wanted, I carefully removed the stencil and cleaned that, my craft mat, and my palette knife immediately, before the molding paste could harden. I set the panel aside again to let the paste dry.

Once the paste had dried completely, I measured the banner and tag against it. Because they are longer than the width of the panel, I had to cut a bit off the end of each. Since the gelatos had seeped under the tape I had around the edges of the main panel, I ended up inking around it with Mermaid Lagoon Distress ink. Once I'd done that, I adhered the tag to the banner, and adhered the banner to my card front,hiding my adhesive under the tag. I poked holes around the vellum, using the holes in my Tim Holtz ruler as a template. Then I stitched through the holes with silver embroidery floss. This not only added a decorative element, but also helps hold the vellum in place--especially important since this card is for OWH, and will likely be handled quite a bit.

Finally, I fussy cut the stamped heart, leaving a small border around it, and glued it in place. I felt the white tag needed a little something something, so I took one of the hearts from Simon Says Stamp's "Watts Up" set and stamped it several times in Stampabilities' "Baby Blue" ink. I adhered my completed panel to a white A2 card base, and I was done!

I'm also entering this card in the following challenges:

A Blog Named Hero "Favorites" (favorite color)
Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Favorite Technique and/or Product" (favorite         techniques--watercoloring & stenciling)
Simon Says Stamp's Monday "Don't Cut, Just Paste"

Red, White, & Blue--Missing You

Operation Write Home, a charity that has supported heroes with handmade cards since 2007, will be closing later this year. All cards need to be sent in by August 1st, so I’m helping to get the word out! This is GOOD news, because it means there are not enough troops overseas who need cards to send home. Rather than communicating across thousands of miles, they are (or soon will be) able to communicate with their loved ones across the dinner table! I have created a card for this, OWH's final Memorial Day Bloghop.

I began by choosing one of their bonus sketches:

I used patterned papers from the "Red White & Blue" 6x6" pad by We R Memory Keepers, Simple Stories' "SN@P Color Vibe" 6x6" pad, and my scrap stash. I cut most of them into 1.5" wide strips, then punched the long edge with the "Arched Lattice" border punch by Martha Stewart. I added a strip of dark blue cardstock behind the punched area on each strip, and trimmed that to follow the curves of the punched edge. Then I adhered the strips so they completely covered a piece of white cardstock cut to 4x5.25".

I stamped one of the greetings, from this Hero Arts set, in Versamark ink onto a piece of red cardstock. After white heat embossing it, I cut it in a circle, and matted it with a circle of white cardstock. I inked the edges with Salty Ocean Distress ink, and adhered it to the card with foam tape.

***Added note: I forgot to mention that you can return to the top of the hop, at the OWH blog, by clicking the #FinishingStrong graphic at the top of this post. I apologize for any confusion!***

I'm also entering this card in a2z Scrapbooking's "Anything Goes" challenge.

Moose You So Much

I noticed, the last time I sent cards to Operation Write Home, I had a dearth of "missing you," "birthday," and "thank you" cards. So I decided to make a greater effort to create more of those cards to send in. When I made this card, since I already had my Hero Arts "Missing You" stamp set out, I decided to create another card. This time, rather than color the image in, I decided to do some paper piecing. I've done that on the sheep from this set, but never on the moose. Turned out to be a little more challenging that I originally thought!

I began by choosing Sketch #119 from OWH. It is a simple design, which I felt would work well with the somewhat more complex paper-pieced moose.

I stamped the moose and greeting onto a piece of white cardstock, in Versafine Onyx Black ink, then die cut it with one of Spellbinders' "Standard Circles LG" dies. I also stamped the moose onto 3 different patterned paper scraps: one for the antlers, one for the nose, and a check pattern for the body & ears. I then cut out each section. The nose was pretty easy & straightforward to cut. Since the body included the ears, that was more difficult. One of the ears I had to cut out by itself. The antlers were also rather fiddly, since I had to cut around where the ears went and in and out of the top parts. Finally, I had all my cutting done, and glued each piece on the image I'd stamped on the white cardstock. I did leave the eyes white, and just colored in the hooves with a black pen.

To create the card front, I cut 2 pieces from patterned paper scraps on my desk to 1.75x4". I also punched a strip from a third piece with the Martha Stewart "Arch Lattice" border punch. I glued that behind the yellow paper, with the punched area just peeking out above the paper. Then I adhered my patterned papers in place on a kraft cardstock panel. After inking around my focal circle with Gathered Twigs Distress ink, I glued it on top of the patterned paper panels.

I applied adhesive with my ATG gun to the back of the kraft panel and went to glue it to an A2 card base. That's when I noticed the panel was about 1/4" shorter than said card base! Apparently I'd lined it up in my paper trimmer wrong. So I cut 2 strips from dark brown cardstock, and glued them to the top & bottom of the front of my card base. I adhered the front panel over those, and this card was done. I did add a little Glossy Accents to the moose's eyes, just for a bit of shine. I will be sending this card to Operation Write Home.

I'm entering my card in Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Anything Goes" challenge.

More Than Just a Little

The current challenge theme at Simon Says Stamp's Monday challenge blog is "One Stamp, Many Ways." I decided to use one of the stamps from Simon Says Stamp's "Summer Garden" set 3 ways.

I began by choosing Operation Write Home's Sketch #250 as the basis of my design:

I decided to create a one-layer background by using masking. To begin, I die cut a circle from some Simon Says Stamp masking paper, using one of Spellbinders' "Standard Circles LG" dies. I used the negative portion to mask off most of a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper I'd cut to 4x5.25". Inside the unmasked circle area, I stamped the flower image several times using Ranger Archival Watering Can ink. I then removed the mask, prepped the paper for embossing with my anti-static pouch, and stamped over the flowers around the edge of the circle with Versamark ink. I sprinkled on Ranger Super Fine Detail White embossing powder, brushed off any powder from the grey flowers, and heat set the rest of the flower portions. My vision was to have the white heat embossed flowers be a continuation of the grey ones inside the circle. I proceeded to stamp the flower several more times over the background, using Versamark, and white heat embossed those images.

For the background, I first applied masking fluid over the circle area, so it would remain white. When that dried, I applied Distress inks in Dusty Concord, Shaded Lilac, Salty Ocean, & Faded Jeans onto my non-stick craft mat. I spritzed them with water, and smooshed the watercolor panel face-down into the ink. After getting an initial coverage of the different colors, I dried it a bit with my heat tool--being careful not to heat the masking fluid too much--and pounced it back into the ink puddles to add color and visual texture. I repeated this process a few more times, until I got the look I wanted. After drying it for the last time, I removed the masking fluid.

I cut a strip of navy cardstock to the size indicated in the sketch, and stamped a greeting from Mama Elephant's "In My Heart" set on that in Versamark. I heat embossed that with the same embossing powder. For the yellow flower, I stamped the image once more onto another scrap of watercolor paper, using Watering Can ink. I colored it with watercolor pencils, using a damp brush to blend the colors. When that dried, I die cut it with the coordinating die. I adhered the greeting strip in place, and glued the flower down to one side of the greeting. Finally, I matted the finished watercolor piece with another piece of navy cardstock, and mounted that to an A2 card base.

I'm also entering my card into the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Anything Goes"
Simon Says Stamp's Work It Wednesday "Stamping"

Miss You

Catch the Bug Challenge Blog is having their "Stella Says Sketch #304" challenge this week. This is the sketch for this challenge:

For the focal image on my card, I chose the "Theodore Hot Air Balloon" by Bugaboo Stamps. I figured this would make a cute kid's card to send to Operation Write Home. I also chose a greeting from Doodle Pantry's "Missing You" set. I've had this digital set for a long time now, and just rarely think to use it for some reason. I've decided I really need to make a more concerted effort to use my digital images & stamps!

I chose the striped patterned paper from Simple Stories' "Vintage Bliss," and the butterfly pattern from Basic Grey's "Hey Girl" 6x6" pads. To determine the sizes of my panels, I created a blank canvas in Photoshop the size of a landscape-oriented A2 card. I played around with different size blocks, until I found a size that would comfortably hold my focal image, and work with the patterned paper layers. I cut a piece of Strathmore Mixed Media Paper for the focal panel, and printed the bear directly onto that. I also printed the greeting on Mixed Media Paper, and die cut that with a Spellbinders "Standard Circles LG" die.

To color my image, I used my Inktense pencils and a damp paintbrush, and watercolor to paint the sky. After cutting my patterned paper panels, I tacked down the striped pieces to my pink cardstock background with my ATG gun, then machine-stitched around the edges of those. I did likewise with the butterfly paper. Well, sort of. My sewing machine started not working right after stitching down one side of one butterfly panel. So finishing the machine stitching was not an option at that point. I could have started over, but decided to hand-stitch the rest instead. So I measured & poked holes along the remaining sides every 3 millimeters to create a zigzag pattern, then used the same sewing thread to stitch the remaining panels. It took a lot longer, but I think the added texture was worth it. And, of course, my machine started working again afterwards!

To finish the card, I inked the edges of the greeting die cut with Peacock Feathers Distress ink, and glued it in place. Then I adhered the completed card front to a white A2 card base. Hopefully one of our overseas military heroes will send it home to his/her daughter, to let her know she's loved and missed!

I'm also entering this card in Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge: "Special Lady/Girly."

I Miss You

This is my second card for the sketch challenge at Our Daily Bread Designs' blog. While I did keep to the basic sketch, I omitted the mats behind the layers.

My inspiration for the focal panel background came from a lesson at Online Card Classes' "Stretch Your Stamps 2" class, by Lisa Spangler. I stamped Stampabilities' "Wrought Iron Background" stamp on white cardstock using Versamark ink. Then I clear heat embossed it, and when the embossing had cooled, I blended Scattered Straw Distress ink over the panel. I spattered Heidi Swapp "Seafoam" and Dylusions "Postbox Red" spray inks over the panel, just to add some flecks of color. Finally, I did a technique called "iron off embossing." I placed the panel under a couple of sheets of copy paper, and used a warm iron to melt the embossing into the paper, thus removing it from the panel. Finally, I die cut it with Lawn Fawn's "Stitched Journaling Card" die.

For the focal image, I stamped Our Daily Bread Designs' "Chickadee" onto a piece of watercolor paper, using Ranger Archival Jet Black ink. I colored only the berries & branch with Inktense pencils, blending the color with my water brush. I did add a bit of orange on the bird's claws and beak, but basically left it uncolored. Because I wanted to pop the bird up from the background, I die cut it with the coordinating die, and cut 4 more pieces from white cardstock. Then I glued all the layers together. This pops it up, while providing more support to the smaller bits on the die cut.

Stitched Journaling card & embossing detail

I used the border embossing folder from the "Poppy" set by Cuttlebug & Anna Griffin to emboss the red and green strips. After I embossed those, I went over the green with Bundled Sage and the red with Victorian Velvet Distress inks, just to give a little more depth. I also used the main embossing folder from that set to emboss a piece of navy cardstock. I made a diffuser from matboard to use when I embossed, so the lower left corner of the panel would not be embossed, since I wanted to stamp my greeting there.

After gluing down my red and green strips, I stamped a greeting from this Hero Arts set on the navy panel, using Versamark. I heat embossed it with Ranger Super Fine Detail white embossing powder. Finally, I glued my focal panel on the card front, and glued the chickadee to that. I will be sending this card to Operation Write Home, for an overseas hero to write home to his/her loved ones.

I Really, Really, REALLY Miss You

The "By Design" class at Camp Scrap for Week 4 is a sketch that May Flaum, our camp director, calls "title in the middle." It's really more for scrapbook layouts, where you put your title in the middle of the layout and surround it with photos or other things. But she did demonstrate a card, so I took my inspiration from that to do this card. I also channeled my inner mixed media artist, using gelatos, Distress ink, and clear embossing powder on my focal panel.

The challenge this week at Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday challenge blog is "Emboss It." This could involve dry embossing, heat embossing, or embossing paste. I used both heat and dry embossing on this card.

I started by choosing one of the embossing folders from Lifestyle Crafts' "Bloom" set. Then I looked for a greeting that was basically oval in shape, & found this one from Stampabilities. I paired it with one of Spellbinders "Classic Ovals LG" dies. I needed to make an embossing diffuser, so the center portion of the panel would not be embossed. So I cut a piece of matboard to the same size as my watercolor panel, and used the oval die to cut a hole in the middle of the matboard piece. I spritzed the watercolor piece with water, to give a better embossed impression, and placed it in the embossing folder, which I taped shut. Then I taped my diffuser in place on top of the folder and ran it through my Grand Calibur die cutting machine.

I stamped my greeting in the non-embossed area using Brushed Corduroy Distress ink, and clear heat embossed it. Then I took 4 colors of gelatos in the yellow/orange/red family, and scribbled each on my non-stick craft sheet. I sprayed the embossed watercolor panel with water, and used my water brush to pick up the gelato colors. I spread the yellow around the center, then went on to orange, and finished with red. After hitting it with my heat tool to dry it, I went back in with another wash of the same gelatos to deepen the colors.

After it dried, I matted the watercolor panel on a piece of brown cardstock, matted that with a light teal cardstock, and mounted the whole panel to my card base.

Miss You All the Time

The entry deadline for the sketch challenge at Hero Arts' blog is today(!), so I decided to do one more card to enter into that. I used their Sketch #1 for my card.

I cut 2 pieces of Core'dinations cardstock, and die cut the lower edge of the beige piece with the Simon Says Stamp A2 Curved Edge Die. I temporarily adhered the beige over the green, spritzed the cardstock lightly with water to help me get a better embossed impression, and ran them through my Grand Calibur with the "Gear" embossing folder by The Paper Studio. After that dried, with the cardstock still on the folder, I lightly sanded over the raised areas to get the tone-on-tone look. (Leaving the cardstock on the folder helps give support to the design when sanding.) I inked around the edges with Walnut Stain Distress ink, and matted it on a mid-tone cream cardstock.

For the greeting, I used a stamp from this Hero Arts set on light cream cardstock. I couldn't get the brown I wanted with my ink pads, so I ended up coloring the stamp with a dark brown marker. After stamping, I die cut it with a Spellbinders Classic Circles die, and inked the edges with Walnut Stain ink.

The Hero Arts sketch shows small branches coming out from either side of the greeting. Since I wanted this to be a more masculine card, and don't have any small "branch" dies to speak of, I chose one of the dies from Spellbinders' "Ironwork Accents" set, cutting those pieces from the same brown cardstock I used for the card front. I lightly marked where the greeting would go on the main panel with a pencil, and used that as a guide to glue my accents down. Finally, I adhered the greeting with foam tape and adhered the main panel to the card front; and another card for Operation Write Home is done!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Hero Arts "A New Sketch"
A Blog Named Hero "You're the (em) Boss"

Missing Ewe

The current challenge at A Blog Named Hero is "Paper piecing." I wasn't sure at first what to do with this, never really having done paper piecing. Truth be told, I wasn't even sure what paper piecing entailed exactly! Fortunately, I happened upon a couple of videos on YouTube demonstrating paper piecing techniques, so that at least gave me some direction.

Since I was making this card for Operation Write Home, I turned to the sketches they have put out, which I keep in a binder. I knew I wanted to use the sheep & "Missing Ewe" greeting from the  "Missing You" OWH stamp set by Hero Arts, so I used the sizes of those stamps as a starting point to guide me in choosing a sketch. I whittled down my options to just a few, then finally chose this sketch:

I stamped the sheep in black once on a light-beige patterned paper from my scrap stash for a base; then again on a grey striped paper for the nose, ear, and feet; and white cardstock for the eyes. I carefully fussy-cut the pieces out, and glued the grey and white pieces to the beige paper. I went around the outer edges of the paper-pieced sheep with a black brush-tip marker, to give a more finished look to the edge. (This is a tip I picked up from Kristina Werner.)

For the patterned paper squares, I used 3 scraps: the same beige paper I used for the sheep's wool, a yellow chevron from the "Chevron" 6x6" paper pad by My Mind's Eye, and a yellow polka dot from Fancy Pants Design's "Park Bench" 6x6" pad. I rounded the corners of each square with my 1/4" Corner Chomper, and adhered them to a piece of light blue-green cardstock cut to a standard A2 card size.

I used a Spellbinders Classic Circle die to cut a piece of light blue cardstock for a background for the sheep. I cut the scalloped frame with a Spellbinders Lacey Circles die from a darker blue cardstock. I glued those pieces together, then glued the sheep on top and adhered the whole piece to the card front. I applied Glossy Accents to the sheep's pupils, rounded the bottom corners of the card with my 1/2" Corner Chomper, and I was done!

I am entering this in the "Paper Piecing" Challenge #40 at A Blog Named Hero.

I Already Miss You

The rector at my mom's church is leaving soon to take a teaching post at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. She asked me if I could make a going-away card for her to give to him at the reception following his farewell Mass. I felt quite up to the task, given the dozens of cards I've made, which have gotten several compliments from various people. So I said, of course I could. This was about a week before the farewell Mass.

My first step was to do a search for "handmade going away cards" on Pinterest. Sadly, this did not yield much at all in the way of ideas. So I started perusing my own boards of card ideas & videos I've pinned over the past several months.

I came across this video by Julie Ebersole, using Dylusions spray inks to create a background, then bleaching that with water and a stencil. I thought that could be pretty cool, so I tried it. Not disastrous, but it still wasn't doing much for me. I tried a couple of other ideas, but they also did nothing for me. As my deadline loomed closer, I was really beginning to get nervous! I did manage to get an element--a die cut stained glass rose window made using a Spellbinders Die D-lites die & colored with Inktense pencils. But that was as far as I could seem to get.

Finally I got an e-mail with this post on Sweet 'n Sassy Stamp's blog. In going through the images, I found this one, and had an "ah-ha" moment!

I decided to CASE this idea, using that die cut "window" I'd done. I embossed a piece of white cardstock with the "Garden Lattice" Spellbinders M-bossabilities embossing folder. Then, while the cardstock was still in the folder, I lightly went over the raised portions with Antique Linen Distress Ink, to provide some further depth. I cut the top arch shape using a Spellbinders Grand Nestabilities Classic Circle die and partial die-cutting. I also cut another piece of white cardstock slightly wider, and used the next larger size circle die to partially cut the cardstock just at the one end. I inked that piece near the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

For the lower front panel, I dragged the Vintage Photo ink pad lightly over the cardstock, overlapping my drag marks to create a woodgrain effect, as demonstrated in this video by Gina K. It was a little rough-looking, so I blended more of that ink on with an ink applicator tool. To hide the seam between the upper & lower panels, I cut a 1/4" wide strip of white cardstock, inked it with Vintage Photo, and popped it up on foam tape.

For the green strips on either side of the front, I colored watercolor paper with the same green Inktense pencil I'd used in the window. I printed the first part of the greeting onto white cardstock, rounded the 2 left corners with my 1/4" Corner Chomper, and inked the edges with Antique Linen. I die cut the "you" from white cardstock that I'd already inked with Antique Linen, using this die from Simon Says Stamp. I adhered them to the front panel, and adhered the whole panel to a 5x5" card base. And the best part (even better than getting my mojo back)? My mom loved it! (And she's sure the priest did, too!)

Miss You All the Time

I was looking through my stencil collection the other day, and came across this "Aspen Trees" stencil, from The Crafter's Workshop. I've had it for quite a while, and have never used it, so I decided it was finally time to do something with it. I found one of Operation Write Home's "bonus" sketches, which I felt would go perfectly with this stenciled image. I decided to use a stamp from an Operation Write Home stamp set by Hero Arts for the sentiment. So now I had an idea, supplies, and a plan.

I taped the stencil to a piece of white cardstock, and went over it with Distress Inks in Faded Jeans, Broken China, and Tumbled Glass, using my ink blending tool to make kind of on ombre sky. I used Black Soot Distress Ink on a small sponge dauber for the black spots on the tree trunks, going in with a Black Soot Distress marker for the really tiny areas, so the black wouldn't bleed into the blue. Then I cut this panel down to the measurements in the sketch, and set it aside.

I cut another piece of white cardstock, and went over it with Iced Spruce Distress Ink & my ink blending tool, to create a soft grey backdrop for the tree panel. I stamped the "miss you all the time" stamp in black on white cardstock, die cut it with a Spellbinder's Classic Circles die, and went over it with the Iced Spruce ink as well.

I decided to mount these pieces on a black background, both to tie the background in with the black in the trees & sentiment, and for a bit of drama. I adhered the Iced Spruce panel first, then the birch trees. Last, I popped the sentiment up on foam tape in the lower right corner. A rather simple masculine card, but I still think a striking one, which will be going to Operation Write Home to send to troops overseas.

I am entering this in Simon Says Stamp's Monday "D is for Distress" challenge.

*Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PAD FADED JEANS Blue Ranger	*Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PAD BROKEN CHINA Blue Ranger	*Tim Holtz Distress Ink PAD TUMBLED GLASS Blue Ranger	*Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PAD BLACK SOOT Ranger
*Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PAD ICED SPRUCE Ranger WINTER	*Ranger Inkssentials INK BLENDING TOOL Applicator Foam IBT23616	*Tim Holtz Distress MARKERS BLACK SOOT Ranger TDM32458

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