SU September Stamp Club

It's time for me to post cards from my monthly SU Stamp Club again!  There's a catch this time though - I didn't make these cards myself.  I know, sad, right?!  I had to work when Stamp Club was meeting this month so Christi made the cards for me.  They are cute cards though.  Just wish I could say "I made them!"  

These will not be headed to Operation Write Home - at least not this year!  We are past the deadlines for Halloween and Thanksgiving.  In fact, we are only 10 days from the "early" Christmas/holiday card deadline!

In case you hadn't heard, I'm the new hostess for the weekly Operation Write Home Midweek Throwdown Challenge that posts every Wednesday.  Last Wednesday, the challenge was to make cards in multiples.  You can click HERE to see the post.  The challenge stays open for an entire year so it's NEVER too late to play along.  Don't forget to stop by next Wednesday to see what I have in store for you!

OWH Birthday Bash - Perfect Layers

Welcome to the last Wednesday of the Operation Write Home Birthday Bash celebration!  If you came here from Roxie's beautiful out-of-the-box coral-colored card, you are on the right track.  If you would like to start at the beginning of today's skip, click HERE to go to the Stars and Stamps blog.

Today we are celebrating with Perfect Papercrafting, makers of the Perfect Layers tool.  I had never used this tool before, but let me tell you a few things about it: you will get perfectly straight cuts every time and will not have to do any math calculations to figure out how to cut your layers.  How great is that!  If you are loving what you've seen and want to get your own set, you can use the code OWH5% for a 5% discount when you check out.  If you'd like a chance to win a $50 gift certificate from Perfect Papercrafting, be sure to leave a comment on every blog in the hop today in order to qualify.

Our mission today is to use our Perfect Layers tool and an Operation Write Home sketch to create a card.  I chose Sketch #132 and added LOTS of layers to it using my Perfect Layers tool.  This card went together so quickly!

Card Supplies
cardstock - SU Daffodil Delight, Midnight Muse, Tangerine Tango
stamp - Hampton Arts
ink - SU Midnight Muse
patterned paper - Echo Park (this is some of my favorite collection that I found in my scrap pile)

The Perfect Papercrafting website has some video tutorials showing how to use the Perfect Layers tool.  One of these shows that you don't have to make squares or rectangles all the time, so I thought I'd try it out.  I didn't use an OWH sketch on this one - it's just a bonus card!  Making the diagonal line perfectly straight and at the exact same angle each time was a cinch with the Perfect Layers tool.  (Any crookedness was my fault when I glued the blue piece onto the black one!)

Card Supplies
cardstock - SU Daffodil Delight, Island Indigo, Raspberry Ripple
stamp - SU Delightful Dozen
ink - SU white craft
ribbon - SU Daffodil Delight
bling - Mark Richards 5 mm silver metal sticker

For more inspiration, I will send you on to LEIGH'S BLOG.  Enjoy the last of the Birthday Bash until next September!

SU August Stamp Club

With this post, I am officially all caught up on posting the cards I made this summer in my Stampin' Up Stamp Club with Christi Beck - WOOHOO!

The birthday card went in the mail this week to one of my nieces. (Remember, I have something like 9 or 10 family/friend birthdays this month!)  Out of the two cards, it was my favorite - probably because of all that bright pink which is one of my fave colors, especially when combined with turquoise which is why my brads are turquoise instead of one of the other colors from the patterned paper.

The second card is cute and summery with the watermelons and checked papers. (Well, it is still in the 90s here in Texas, so we still have summer on the mind!).  This was a fun one to make because we used a big circle punch and then cut it in half and cut one of the halves into quarters.  Then we used a scallop punch to make the bite marks.  Fun, right?!

The September Stamp Club is in less than two weeks, so I'll try to do a better job of posting them closer to when I actually make them!  Thanks for stopping by.  :-)

SU July Stamp Club

Wow, I'm officially on a roll of posting once per week - I've managed to post two weeks in a row which is amazing considering how long it has been since I posted any cards I made.  Stay tuned later in the week for something even MORE amazing - two posts in one week!  LOL

Here are the Stampin' Up Stamp Club cards I made in July.  Aren't they cute?!

The banner on the birthday card was made with washi tape.  Cute idea, right?!  Among our friends and family, there are a total of 9 birthdays to celebrate in September, so I'm sure this will be going to one of them!  I didn't add a sentiment to the hexagon/butterfly card below, but I may have to add a Happy Birthday to that one as well so that I can use it this month.  Isn't it pretty?!  I bet my sister-in-law would like this one.  (Sorry about the shadows on my cards - my photography skills need some work!)

SU June Stamp Club

WOW, I haven't posted anything on my blog since the very beginning of the summer and now school has started AGAIN!  I don't have any excuses except that I was working very long hours at two different jobs.  I barely had time to sleep and eat, and my husband and daughter forgot who I was!  However, in all that chaos, I did make time to attend my monthly Stampin' Up! Stamp Club with Christi Beck.  It was the only crafting I did most of the summer, except for one crop I attended in July.

Here are the cards I made at June's Stamp Club:

That just leaves July and August Stamp Club cards to share with you...but I'll save those for another day!  :-)

Variety Is the Spice of Life

I found just a few minutes to pull a card together and make it under the wire for the OWH Design Boot Camp deadline this month.  The theme is Variety Is the Spice of Life - with tips on varying value, texture, color, shape, or size.  I really liked the sample card by Lee Mae with 3 different colors of the same flower, so I CASE'd her idea.  It's a pretty simple card given my lack of time, but I hope you like it!

Supplies:
sentiment stamp - Hero Arts
patterned paper - SU! Twitterpated
cardstock - SU! Blushing Bride
inks - SU! Riding Hood Red, Island Indigo and Baja Breeze
flower stamp - SU! Secret Garden
die - SU! Secret Garden

May SU Stamp Club

First I want to apologize to my followers - life has taken over my time and I have not been able to craft like I used to.  Hopefully now that school is over I will settle into a routine again, but I doubt it because my transcription job is in full swing along with my newest part-time job at The Container Store.  Don't you just hate when life interrupts your crafting?!

At least I still have my monthly Stampin' Up! Stamp Club to look forward to if I can't manage to find time to craft on my own.  This month we made two cards that have nature themes - one with a huge butterfly and the other with a hydrangea.  I laughed when I saw the butterfly card because my mom sent me a card using the same image that she made with her Stampin' Up! gal.  I thought I'd show off her card as well.

Mom's card:

My card:

I think I prefer the simplicity of the card my mom made over the one I made.  Plus, you can't tell from this photo, but the blue embossed butterfly really pops on the dark brown background.

The other card we made at Stamp Club uses an image of a hydrangea that we "colored" using ink and sponge daubers.  We "dyed" the ribbon using the sponge daubers, too.  It's fun to try techniques at Stamp Club that I would never do on my own!

April SU Stamp Club

This month I was excited to try the chalkboard technique that I've been seeing all over blogland.  This is not something I would have tried on my own which is why I really love going to Christi Beck's Stampin' Up! Stamp Club.  She always gets me to do something outside my comfort zone.  This wasn't bad at all!  We used white embossing powder to create the sentiment on black paper and then rubbed white craft ink across the whole thing to create the chalkboard feeling.  I liked the white embossed image on the black paper but didn't really think I achieved the chalkboard look as well as I've seen some people do it.  But, I absolutely LOVE the black, white and yellow color combo on the card - very crisp and clean!  Mom, I chose the polka dots for you.  :-)

I'm submitting this card for my Operation Write Home Design Bootcamp assignment this month.  Our lesson was to use odd numbers in design.  See my three little yellow flowers!

The second one is a very masculine card - YEAH!  I sometimes have trouble doing masculine cards on my own.  I really like the watch image which is part of a larger stamp set that I didn't like when I first saw it because I noticed the shoe and tie in the set and not the watch - funny what your eye is drawn to, isn't it?!  The sentiment on the inside says, "Happy Birthday."  Everyone always needs masculine birthday cards and this is a perfectly simple design that can be used over and over again.

I'm entering this card in Operation Write Home's Midweek Throwdown Challenge - It's About Time. Perfect, right?  And, in all my cleverness, I thought I would enter it in the Operation Write Home ODBD Monthly Challenge - Things That Fly.  We all know that "time flies!" In fact, it flies by whether we're having fun or not.  I can't believe that April is almost over and there are only a few more weeks of school left!

SU March Stamp Club

This month at Stamp Club we focused on watercoloring techniques.  I think the top card is my favorite of the two.  On that one we actually used watercolor paper.  The large flower images were a good choice because we had more space to actually color in and practice the technique.  Which do you like best?

SU February Stamp Club

This month at Stamp Club with Christi Beck we made product showcase cards - that means there was a lot of little things on our cards and we used lots of different products.  One was easy for me and the other was quite the challenge.  Read on to find out just what I mean!

This was the "easy" card.  While it had lots of little pieces, the stamping part was pretty straightforward.

On the other card, this is the card I dubbed the one "only a mother could love!"  Let me point out all the imperfections in my stamping.  On the rose, I got some of the red ink onto the green leaves.  The "practice" one I did, of course, was perfect!  On the sentiment, you will notice that I didn't get the "o" stamped very well and there is an outline shadow on the left side.  Then, on that cute little flag peeking out, we had to stamp in Pool Party with one stamp set and then stamp right on top in the brown with another stamp set.  I just knew I wouldn't be able to get it lined up - and I didn't!  LOL

So, Mom, since this is a card only a mother could love, look for it in your mailbox!  :-)

SU Just a Note Typewriter

WOW!  I actually sat down and made some cards that I used myself and didn't send to Operation Write Home.  It felt kind of weird because the only ones I usually make that don't go in my OWH box are family birthday cards and my Christmas cards!

The card with lots of pink and bling went to my great-aunt who is in a rehab hospital recovering from a few different ailments she suffered with over the Christmas holidays.  The other was mailed to the dad of my high school boyfriend to try to pass on information about our upcoming 30th high school reunion this summer.  Is it weird that I still send a Christmas card to my high school boyfriend's dad?  He actually called me after receiving my Christmas card a couple of years ago just to chat and catch up.  That's what I *LOVE* about cards, especially handmade cards - they're so much more personal than an email!

January SU Stamp Club Cards

Okay, I know it's almost the end of February and I'm just now posting my January SU! Stamp Club cards, BUT this was the first time I was able to schedule this post in keeping to my Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule.  When I took a long-term sub job for a teacher on maternity leave from January through March, I started working ahead because I knew my crafting time would be limited.  No worries though - both cards are great any occasion cards!

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.