This is the sketch from Inchie INKlings for the current challenge:

This is the card I made, based on the sketch:

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Here is the Stars and Stripes challenge sketch for this week:

And here is the card I made, based on the sketch:

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Here is this week's Our Creative Corner sketch:

And here's the card I made:

This is another card made to be sent to the great people at Operation Write Home.

We had some friends over for dinner a couple weeks ago. At one point, the conversation turned to my card-making. They asked to see some of what I'd done, so I brought out my inventory for them to "ooh" and "aah" over. I also showed them the framed work I had done after the craft fair. It was really fun for me to show off what I so love doing.

Then about a week ago, I got a call from a lady who knows one of those dinner guests. She'd been told of my paper crafting abilities and wanted me to frame her granddaughter's wedding invitation. We talked a bit and I agreed to do the work.

She brought over the invitation:

The wedding will be held locally at the winery up the road and the reception will be held here at Royal Highlands. In keeping with the wine theme, the bride's color is merlot. We struggled a bit to find a background paper in my stash that would come close enough to the real thing. Carol took several sheets back to her house and picked one which was pretty close to the actual dress..

I bought the frame and a few other supplies and went to work. I had a couple of ideas already laid out in my head and just had to work with them until I found just the right combination. Here's the finished piece:

I'm still letting the glue dry which is holding on the white flowers. I'll call Carol tomorrow and let her know she can pick it up. I sure hope she'll like it as much as I do. :-)

The sketch challenge from OWH Stars & Stamps this week is this:

Here is my card based on this sketch:

Here is the inside:

Again, I used the "recipe card" concept to include a full sized sheet of writing paper for the sender.

Thanks for looking.

I've been making cards for Operation Write Home for the past several days and finally got around to doing the sketch posted at their Stars & Stamps Blog.

Here's my card based on the sketch:

In addition to using the sketch, I also used the "recipe card" tutorial to make the pocket inside to hold a full sized sheet of writing paper.

I hope some soldier will enjoy sending this card.

This week's CPS sketch is this:

Here is the card I made, based on the sketch:

Here's the inside of the card:

And now for the story: I have been following the Operation Write Home organization for about a year. I sent them a bunch of Christmas cards last winter and have wanted to do more. They recently posted a tutorial on making recipe cards. With a little pocket inside, it is even easier to include a full size sheet of  writing paper folded up inside the card. So I tried making one and realized how very easy they are to make.

I started with what I call "cheater" cards, ones that use printed fronts with few embelishements. I had a number of sheets already printed, primarily E-Cuts from scrapbook.com. I went through those and came up with 7 cards in almost no time. Here are those cards plus one with a hand-made paper flower that is from Fred-She-Said. All nine of the cards are a finished size of 5.5 x 4.25.

In case you are not familiar with Operation Write Home, this is their mission:

Supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them.

So we make the cards and send them to OWH. They collect our hand-made cards and ship them to where ever our troops are stationed. Its a wonderful cause and a great way for us card makers to give back. Check them out.

Have you ever noticed how one thing can lead to another? Here's my quick story about that.

I've been making greeting cards for some time, now. I've been selling some to friends and relatives and one or two online. I sold a respectable number at our community craft fair in the Fall, and even more at our recent Spring fair.

Once or twice along the way someone would comment about not wanting to send the card but wanting to frame it instead. That's what one lady said to me at the recent fair. She actually bought one of my cards with a specific frame in mind. Unfortunately, that card turned out to be a poor color choice for the frame she had in mind. So she brought me back the card along with the frame and asked me to make something to put into it. She also brought a second frame for the same purpose.

Here are the original card and what I made instead to put into her first frame.

The second frame was a bit more of a challenge, only because I had the "perfect" shade of blue paper to put into it, but not a large enough piece to use. After much searching, I finally found a (rather large) piece of heavy card-stock in the painting isle at Jo-Ann Fabrics. It wasn't an exact match to the original, but it was the closest thing I could find anywhere.

I had already mapped out my pattern so the working of the piece went fairly quickly. Here is the final result for her second frame.

Having been asked to actually create something specifically for a picture frame has gotten me to thinking. Why not do it ahead of time and sell frame and artwork at the next craft fair? Why not, indeed! So now I'll be on the lookout for interesting and inexpensive picture frames that might lend themselves to my style of artwork.

Look out world! Making cards has just let me to a whole new artistic outlet!

Here's the sketch from Mojo Monday for this week.

I chose to do the square version, though it would be fun to try a round (or otherwise shaped) card one of these days. Here's what I came up with:

I used "A Garden's Treasures" digital paper pack from Designer Digitals. I was able to print just the sizes of paper I needed. Everything fit onto one standard sheet of printer paper. Almost no waste at all.

Thanks for stopping by.

On Thursday, "Just Us Girls" came out with their challenge for the week. It was a color challenge, something I hadn't done yet. Since I do other sketch challenges, I kept an eye out for which one would lend itself best to the colors they wanted and the papers I had in mind. The "Mojo Monday" challenged filled the bill. Here are the colors and sketch info.

Here's the card I finished for the two challenges:

After struggling with the layout of the pieces, I decided that the three focals just didn't work when laid out straight like in the sketch. It was too "formal" looking for the whimsical flowers in the print.

I used my Cricut and "Make The Cut!" software to cut the Happy Birthday tag and its shadow layer.

Another Sunday, another card sketch from Card Positioning Systems. Here is sketch 159:

At first I wasn't quite sure how to approach this one. Then I found a card idea I had in a folder that I really liked and I could easily see how to make a similar card using the sketch. Here's what I came up with:

I had made the lavender flowers some time ago, but didn't like them on the original card. I think they fit on this card quite well as it is a larger card at 8" x 5.5".

This is a new challenge group I found this week, called "Just Us Girls" Challenge. This week's challenge is to make a card with a flap. I hadn't done that in quite a while, but thought it would be a fun task. Here is my card.

I have also been wanting to make a card with black accents. The style certainly seemed to lend itself to doing just that.

The cardstock and papers all came from my stash. The flower is from Prima Marketing. The button is from my MIL's button collection.

Here's the new Mojo Monday sketch:

This is my card based on the sketch:

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The new sketch at Card Positioning System is this:

Here's the birthday card that I came up with based on the sketch:

Thanks for viwing my work.

This week's Our Creative Corner sketch is this:

Here's what I did based on the challenge:

Supplies:

Paper Pizazz Soft Tints in yellow and green
Paper Flair Embossed Motifs - daffodil bulb
Pale yellow ribbon found in my stash

I have found another great location for sketches and ideas for my cards. This is my first entry with Mojo Monday. Here is the sketch.

After a couple of false starts (cards that turned out nothing like this sketch), this is what I finally created:

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This week's sketch:

This is the card I made this week based on the sketch:

This card is made primarily from scraps I have in my stash. I recently re-discovered these flowers that had been hiding in a closet. It was fun to use them on this card.

When I first saw the sketch for this week, I immediately thought of a card I had made some time ago. It also fits the sketch.

Supplies used:

Ampad Pastel Cardstock + other cardstock scraps
Avec Quartet Stencils
Sulky Metalic threads in gold & purple
Pima Carnival Sparkle gold flower
Studio 18 purple rhinestone
gold peel-offs

Here is the CPS sketch for this week:

Here is the card I crafted based on the sketch:

Materials used:

Paper Flair Emobssed Motifs
Offray 1/4" ribbon
Green & pink scraps from my stash
"Sacked Roses" Digital Paper Pack by Katie Pertiet - Designer Digitals

This is the first card I've made with these paper packs from Designer Digitals. I printed the pink roses sheet onto cardstock, trimmed it to 9" x 8", then folded it in half for the base card. I am totally thrilled with the outcome.

A new week brings a new sketch challenge. Here's the sketch:

Once again, my idea for the challenge came fairly quickly. This is the result:

This is a small card, 5.5" by 3.75". The base is card stock from my scraps. The papers are "Soft Serenity" Bitty Scrap Pad from Provo Craft, which has been in my stash for ages. The flowers are from Prima.

This week's CPS sketch:

Amazingly, my idea for the challenge card came quickly.

Once again, I used papers and cardstock from my stash. The hearts are Starform Stitching Stickers attached with foam tape.

I wasn't sure I'd be able to make this card this week. We are painting and I've been removing wallpaper from the kitchen. I finished the wallpaper and needed a break, so went to my craft table. I'd been playing with papers and had the idea pretty well worked out, so I could put this together fairly quickly.

This week's sketch, CPS-152:

And here's the card I came up with:

It's made entirely from scraps in my stash so I can't quote products or brands.

A new week brings a new card challenge. Here is the original sketch:

And here is the card I made, using the sketch idea.