OWH in the News

I love it when someone takes the time to compile a large amount of information into one easy-to-navigate format, and someone at OWH has done just that. If you ever wanted to know pretty much all the terminology related to cardmaking, you can find it HERE!

Operation Write Home (OWH) serves American servicemen and women around the globe by providing handmade cards for them to write letters home to their loved ones and supporters. In fact, OWH recently "deployed" its 2.5 millionth card--that's 2,500,000 handmade cards that have gone to military personnel so that they can keep in touch with their families since 2007. I am very pleased to be a tiny part of this amazing project. 

To see a recent local news segment about OWH founder Sandy Allnock and her mission, click HERE, and then click on the photograph. When you see Sandy open her door to pick up a box of donated cards, look closely at the return label. I'm pretty sure that's a Club Scrap label--and those cards are from CS members!!

OWH has guidelines to follow for submitted cards on their site. Another way to help is by donating money to help SEND those boxes overseas. It costs quite a bit to mail those packages! All donations are tax-deductible.


I do wish OWH was around when my hubby was overseas!

ODBD Challenge Entry

This month's Our Daily Bread Designs challenge for OWH is wheels. There are some fantastic cards already submitted, and you can see all the other entries here. I decided to play with two different "wheel" stamps. The first card has all Club Scrap materials (except the brown brads). The papers and ribbon are from the Random Doorways kit (January 2013). The bicycle and tire tread stamps are from Wheel & Sprocket (August 2006), while the "got adventure?" stamp was part of the Great Outdoors collection (October 2007). To add a bit more texture to the card, I embossed the bicycle with the verdigris embossing powder that was included in the WOW Christmas 2012 package. 

When I ordered some OWH stamps from Stamper's Best, I found this really cute vintage pram stamp. These cards were made with various CS papers and Stampin' Up! ribbon and welcome stamp. The cards are simple, but sometimes it's nice just to play with a bit of paper, ink, and ribbon--back to the basics of stamping.

I'm looking forward to seeing what October's Our Daily Bread Designs challenge will be!

Playing with "Take Wing"

Club Scrap's kit this month is a fun, colorful one called Take Wing. Here's a picture of the CS kit; the Lite kit ships Monday!

Isn't it fun?! Just love the swirls, feathers, leaves, and birds. It even has some flowers, which endears it even more to me. The colors are a glossy white, two shades of green, a red, and the prettiest navy I've ever seen in a paper. In fact, that navy print in the top right of the picture has a silver print on it--probably my most favorite CS paper of all time!

I decided to play with the kit today. I've been making cards a lot lately. I like being able to try new techniques (new to me, anyway) on a smaller scale. 

These are the materials I picked out: both greens and a navy. All of these came from the HPOPs (half pound-of-paper) that CS offers. I like getting this pack so I don't have to cut into my 8.5x11 or 12x12 papers. It comes with various sizes of the kit papers. I also pulled out the navy ribbon from the kit and the "Thank You" stamp from the Greeting UM (unmounted) stamp set. The embossing folder in the back has a feather design. It's from Paper Wishes. I always label my embossing folders so I can find the one I want quickly.

I only wanted to emboss part of the panel--leaving the top smooth for the greeting. I placed the stamp on the paper and adjusted the paper inside the embossing folder. Ran it through my Wizard, and the beautiful feather design appeared.

After stamping the greeting, I adhered the navy ribbon at the top of the embossing. Sliding a smaller piece under that one, I tied a knot, which makes it look like a bow. Love that tip!

Here is the finished card. I die cut some flowers out of some small papers from the HPOPs bag. I really can't make a project without adding flowers of some sort. The dies are from Paper Wishes. The tiny flower in the center is from Club Scrap's Birds of a Feather collection from a few years ago. The green is a great match with the Take Wing kit.

Horsin' Around

My family has horses, so I love to play with any art supplies that have a horse theme. My latest favorite is Club Scrap's Equestrian kit from November 2012. (There are several items still available from that collection! Check 'em out: http://www.clubscrapshop.com/store/c/112-Equestrian.aspx.)

I like using the pre-printed panels (cutaparts) in the Greetings to Go kits to make cards. They often have a greeting and artwork right on them, so they just need a bit of embellishment.

But sometimes I like to do my own stamping, as I did with this card. The wording is so cute. (Not sure what our girls asked for when we ended up with horses--perhaps giraffes!)

My top card uses embellished panels, and the bottom one a manila tag from my stash. Love the running horses stamp. I used Club Scrap sapphire, moss, and earth inks to get the collage effect.

I had to look if the Greetings to Go pack is still available, and it is! Love these fall colors! All Club Scrap's GTG packs come with card bases, panels, and envelopes to make 15 cards plus cutapart panels and embellishments. It's a great deal, and to have cards made with CS's quality cardstock is such a bonus.

Thanks for taking a look at my entry. Hope you have a blessed week!