Hola y Amor

If you read my blog last Friday, you will have heard the back story behind my purchase of the We R Memory Keepers Fiesta paper collection.  If you didn't, you can find it HERE.  As I mentioned, I "scrap wrangled" some of this paper.  Here are two cards I made entirely from pieces of the paper collection.

Challenges:
Cat's Scrapbooks Creations - WOW Wednesday

I'm counting this as a kids' card - #5 of 20!

It's My 2nd Blogoversary!

WOOHOO!  Today is my second blogoversary.  Thank you for following me.  I enjoy every comment and bit of encouragement.  More than anything, I treasure the "virtual" friendships I have made with you!  Thanks for giving me an outlet for my creativity and allowing me to share my creations with you.

SU! Easter Card

The deadline for Operation Write Home Easter cards is February 7 so this week's Midweek Throwdown Challenge is to make an Easter card for our troops to use to write home!

I decided I needed to do a few Easter cards for my box that I mailed BEFORE the postage increase took effect.  Easter cards that kids would like helps me meet my goal of 20 kids' cards! (This is kids' card #4.)  I love the bright colors - SU! Pacific Point, Gumball Green and Melon Mambo.  The stamp is from the SU! Gift Givers set that we used at a SU! workshop to make a 2012 calendar.  It has some great holiday stamps and nearly each one has a matching punch - right up my alley since I don't like to fussy cut!  The Happy Easter sentiment is from Studio G.

Gracias

This We R Memory Keepers paper has a funny story behind it.  I bought it at one of the retreats I attend with Cat's Creations Scrapbooks.  It is what we fondly refer to as "elephant dung," because if she put elephant dung out on the table we would ooh and aah over it and buy it!  Being Cinco de Mayo, I had to have it.  So I bought a huge 12 x 12 pad of it and then decided to host a back-to-school fiesta for my daughter so that I could use the paper for a scrapbook layout.  Hhhhmmm, wouldn't you have a party and THEN buy paper for your photos?  Oh no, I'm a paper lover - I do it the other way around!  How many of you have "staged" photos of your kids to "match" paper you have loved and bought?!

So, after just one scrapbook layout, I had LOTS of paper left.  I saw this SU! Gracias stamp was retiring and thought it would be cute with the paper for some Operation Write Home cards so I bought it.  Recently, I've been on a Scrap Wrangling kick - decided to wrangle some of the Fiesta paper scraps and came up with these cards for OWH.

I still have TONS of 12 x 12 paper left in this collection.  What would you do with it?!

Heart Candy Ants | Doodle Pantry

It's WOW Wednesday at Cat's Creations Scrapbooks blog.  You can win by playing along OR just by commenting on the participants' blogs.  I've got another Doodle Pantry creation for you today - this one uses the Heart Candy Ants set.  Don't you just love to eat those little boxes of candy hearts?!  They just scream Valentine's Day to me - LOL!

I merged one of the sentiments in the set onto the pre-colored image and paired it with digi paper from the Hearts A Flutter paper pack.  It's a simple card with a special message that will be sent from one of our deployed troops home to a loved one because this card went into my Operation Write Home box (back in December).  Nothing better than that!

You still have one more day to play along with the Doodle Pantry Digital Challenge - remember, you get a free set just for playing along!  Woohoo!

Kids' Cards for Operation Write Home

I am still working on my commitment to make 20 kids' cards for Operation Write Home.  Today I have a dragon birthday card for you.  My daughter LOVES dragons, so I have lots of kid-friendly images with dragons!  This image is from The Paper Shelter and is pre-colored.  The sentiment is from Create with TLC.  The ribbon and cardstock are from Stampin' Up! and the patterned paper is some that I scrap wrangled - it's as old as the hills!

Olive You - Doodle Pantry

The Olive You set is this month's free with purchase set from Doodle Pantry - until January 24.  It is just perfect for expressing your love with puns or for your favorite martini drinker.  There are green olives and black olives, pre-colored and outlines along with 5 sentiments and 4 digi papers!  Today I used one of the outline images and colored it with my Copic markers.  I also used Operation Write Home's S&S Sketch #45 and am entering this in the Midweek Throwdown Challenge - Show Us Your Green!

It's not too late to play along in this month's Doodle Pantry Digital Challenge.  All you have to do is use any Doodle Pantry image.  Everyone is a winner just for playing and will receive a free set called Cupid Turtle and be entered to win a gift certificate as well.  The deadline for playing along is January 24 so hurry!

cardstock - SU! Riding Hood Red and Lucky Limeade, black from JoAnn's
embossing folder - Basket Weave from SU!
ink - SU! Riding Hood Red
Copic markers

Scrap Wrangler - Part 2

If you visited my blog on Monday, you got the whole backstory about my Scrap Wrangler cards and saw the first six.  If you missed it, click HERE and you will find all the links to the Operation Write Home vlog, tutorial and OWHtv episode that will teach and inspire you to wrangle your scraps, too!

I told you on Monday that I would reveal my favorite card today.  Here it is, and I'm entering it in the Cat's Creation Scrapbooks Wow Wednesday Challenge.  Please check out this challenge - it is hosted by the best LSS EVER!  You have the opportunity to win by either linking up a creation or commenting on the entries - how easy is that?!

This one is my favorite because it's very classy, yet it's only made with one piece of cardstock, one piece of scrap patterned paper, one stamp and one ribbon.  The scrap piece of patterned paper was just perfect.  It looks like I stamped those images on the paper - it just all came together!

Here are the others:

Hhhmmmm, not so straight stamping on this one!

Scrap Wrangler - Part 1

Wow, when I first saw THIS VLOG by Sandy Allnock, president of Operation Write Home, I was inspired and ready to organize my scraps of patterned paper.  If you click HERE, you can find the tutorial with ideas on how to use your scraps on cards.  I even bought a cool box to store them in once they were wrangled.  That was back in April 2012, but alas, I didn't get around to it until December 2012!  Why in December?  Well, I finally got another kick in the pants when Sandy made some cards using her already wrangled scraps and showed them on THIS EPISODE of OWHtv.  So, I finally did it - WOOHOO for me!

Thanks to Sandy (and that final kick in the pants I needed) today and Wednesday, I will share 13 cards I made in one evening (I don't know about you, but I can't usually make that many cards in one evening if I start from scratch on each one!) using scraps from a 6x6 pad, some SU! Tangerine Tango and Close to Cocoa cardstock, and a few stamps. punches and bling.

Here are the first six cards.  You'll have to come back on Wednesday to see the rest and to find out which was my favorite!

Doodle Pantry | Workout Birdie

I just love the Doodle Pantry Birdie character!  When I saw this sentiment from Create with TLC, I knew I had to use it, and the perfect image to pair it with is Doodle Pantry's Workout Birdie!

Now, I'm sure some of you made a New Year's resolution to eat right or exercise or lose weight - this image is just for you.  Workout Birdie comes in two versions - the "good" birdie with dumbbells in both of her hands/wings and the "naughty" birdie with a dumbbell in one hand/wing and an ice cream cone in the other.  Which are you?!

I used ribbon from my monthly club with Really Reasonable Ribbon on both cards and followed a tutorial from the owner Bonnie for this new twist on a bow.  Check it out because it's easy peasy and there is no bow tying involved - yippee!  (You have to scroll down a little ways - it's part of the Grinch Pills tutorial.)

Love Snakes | Doodle Pantry

It's WOW Wednesday at Cat's Creations Scrapbooks blog!  I made this card for my OWH box (mailed in December for Valentine's Day) using the Doodle Pantry set called Love Snakes.  I merged the sentiment into the center of the pre-colored image and used my Spellbinders Nestabilities dies to cut it out.  The orange strip is embossed with a folder called Heart Blocks.  The ribbon is from my Really Reasonable Ribbon monthly club stash.

Don't forget that you have until January 24 to participate in the Doodle Pantry Digital Challenge - just use any Doodle Pantry image to play along and you will automatically receive a free digi stamp and be eligible to win a gift certificate!

Birthday Cards - CASE'd Card Revisited

In honor of my brother's birthday today, here is the birthday version of the card design I CASE'd from Bonnie, owner of Really Reasonable Ribbon.  Which is your favorite color combo?  I think mine is the first one with the bright blue and green.  Kaylie liked the cupcake paper best, especially with the green paper and ribbon - more colorful, she says!

Challenges:
OWH Our Daily Bread Designs Challenge - Dry embossing
Forever Friends Challenge Blog - Birthdays
The Pink Elephant - Celebrate

SEI Paper, Pacific Point cardstock from SU!,
and ribbon from Really Reasonable Ribbon

SEI Paper and ribbon from my stash (brown grosgrain)

SEI Paper plus Kiwi Kiss cardstock and ribbon from SU!

Emily's Christmas Gift - Part 2

Along with the Christmas mini album I give my sister-in-law Emily every year, I also made her a Greeting Card Organizer.  I made two and let her choose which one she wanted and kept the other for myself.  (BTW, if you were curious, she chose organizer #2!)  Do you find yourself making things for other people and NEVER making anything for yourself?  I do!  So, sometimes I make two of something so I can keep one.

I bought the kits from Joey Otlo at the Cat's Creations Scrapbooks National Scrapbook Day Retreat last May.  If you click on Joey's name, it will take you to her blog where she has more kits for sale, including the Greeting Card Organizer kit.  The kit includes the organizer and the matching cards!

Organizer #1:

Organizer #2:

Emily's Christmas Gift - Part 1

Every year I make a Christmas mini album for my sister-in-law Emily.  She opens it on Christmas Eve, ooohs and aaahs, and hands it back to me!  Yes, she hands it back to me because it does not yet have photos in it.  A few days later she gives me her stack of Christmas photos, and usually by the end of January she gets back her completed Christmas album WITH photos!

I always use a kit to make her Christmas albums so they are nicely coordinated.  I buy my kits at Cat's Creations Scrapbooks in Mineral Wells, TX, my local scrapbook store.  I attend her twice monthly crops and 4-day retreats - that's where I work on putting together the album every year and then completing it with the photos.  So, thank you, Cat, for making gift giving easy!  Visit her website often and subscribe to her blog to see some of the beautiful album classes she teaches.  She can mail kits to anyone who might see something they want to make!

Here's this year's album without the photos yet!

Front Cover

Center Spread

Some of the Other Pages (this was a much larger album than I usually make):