Ornament Exchange part 2

If you missed part 1 of this post it is here. As promised here are the Ornaments I made to exchange. I signed up to exchange 5 ornaments. The pictures only show 4 because I made 2 of the pink one.



These are Kusudama origami balls. They are made with Washi paper but you could use any type of paper as long as it isnt too heavy. Cardstock would not work very well. Each ball is made up of 12 flowers and each flower has 5 petals (although some of Lisa's had 6!) so that is 60 pieces of paper all folder and glued per ornament. Thank heaven for binder clips, bobby pins, and Aleene's Tacky Glue!


I found the instructions here over 2 years ago but was intimidated to make them. Honestly it wasn't hard, just time consuming. And once I got a good routine down, the balls came together pretty quick.


I have not personally heard from each person I mailed ornaments too, but I am assuming they all have them by now as I sent them Priority Mail 2 weeks ago. I have only received 2 of my ornaments so far. Parcel post takes 30 days (not during the holiday rush) to get here to Japan so I will start to worry come New Year's. I will do a part 3 post once I have them all together.



As you can tell I haven't been blogging much, but I have a load of crafts that I have done that I want to share. I hope you won't be too offending seeing Thanksgiving and Christmas crafts around Valentine's Day! Some of what Ive been making is for Christmas gifts so it's under wraps.




I have been inspired by alot of crafty blogs lately and I like to ready all of the "Linky Parties" and see what others are crafting and cooking. SO I am going to try today to Link to a few of these that I frequent most. I hope it works and that I do it right!


Linking to:


Sassy Sites

Tatertots and Jello

CraftOManiac

Archway Cookies

Here are the Valentine's cards my friends, Lisa H. and Ashley H., helped me make for Operation Write Home's Archway Cookie Challenge. We made a total of 60 cards to send. I only colored one set of cards, the rest of my contribution were card sketches and assembling parts and pieces.



The Elephant and Kangaroo cards are from an old Stampin' Up! set. They were colored in with Copics. The ricrack die cut is from PapertreyInk. Used misc. cardstock and printed paper.



I love how simple yet elegant the heart card is. I have been wanting to try this style for some time now. Misc. printed paper and punched hearts. Sentiment by CTMH.



The Goldfish and Toucan are also from an old Stampin' Up! set and colored in with Copics. The background is embossed with Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder. I used two heart punches to create the hearts used on these cards.


If you want to send Valentine's for OWH the dealine for shippers to receive them is Jan 7th.


I will be posting some non-card crafty items soon!

Operation Write Home's Be My Valentine Bloghop!

Welcome to my stop on the Operation Write Home "Be My Valentine" Bloghop!

You should have arrived from Sheryl's Crafting Corner. If not, you need to go to OWH Stars and Stamps blog to start from the beginning and enjoy ALL of the inspiration.

This is the first time I have participated in an OWH bloghop as a blogger. It is one of the reasons I started a blog so I could participate this way and I'm SO excited!

A little bit of business before I share my Valentine's Card~

The deadline for your OWH shipper to receive Valentine's Cards is January 7th.
The deadline for sending Christmas cards is already passed.

Operation Write Home made the Top 3 charities in JoAnn's Craft for a Cause contest. Please Vote for OWH! You can vote once per day per IP address. If you would like to see the card I entered in the contest to help OWH into the Top 3, scroll down 2 posts. There is also more info about the contest.

Here is my Valentine's Card to Share

Stamp images by Waltzingmouse Stamps, Sentiment by PapertreyInk embossed in Gold, wonderful ribbon I have been hoarding by Stampin'Up!, and Nestabilities.

I have 2 friends that I meet with every other week to make cards, gift tags etc.. and this next week we are going to make Valentine's because Archway Cookies will send 4000 cookies to the troops if Operation Write Home cardmakers mail 4000 Valentine's Cards to their shippers by December 1st! Isn't this an great reason to get a head start making and shipping all those wonderful valentines.

Thank you for stopping by. Your next stop on the bloghop is

Katlyn at Splashes of Joy

Ornament Exchange

I have just started getting out and exploring blogland. I find most of the blogs I follow are craft ideas/sharing blogs. Wonderful ideas! Very creative women! I'm not worthy~

So I find one blog and it links to another and then another and that's how I found Wendy's blog. She is an especially crafty lady who is dearly missed after her recent move. She is featuring an ornament a day for the month of November AND a far-away friends ornament exchange! I figured I am a pretty far away friend! I talked my friend Lisa into doing it (we are doing 5 ornament each!) and I tried to "talk" my sister into it (nudge).

You can sign up and read the rules at her blog Craft Goodies or just check out her creative ornaments. If you are part of the exchange and you get an ornament from me or Lisa (we are working on them together) it will be unique and Japanese-ish! Obviously I will not be posting any pictures until the ornaments arrive at their final destination.

A final word on Christmas ornaments. Tradition. I have ornaments that I hang on my tree EVERY YEAR that one of my Aunts made me when I was growing up. The oldest one is 38 years old. Not going to say how old I was when I got it :O
One of my sisters has continued that tradition and my children look forward to their ornament every Christmas. I also give my kids an ornament too, so when they are old and grey and they put those ornaments on their Christmas Trees, happy memories (I hope) will come flooding back to mind.

JoAnn's Craft for a Cause

Here is a card I made and entered for Operation Write Home in JoAnn's Craft for a Cause contest. I have to use only items purchased from JoAnn's (online for me) and scan the receipt plus 3 photos. The top 3 charities with the most entries go on as finalist to win prizes (and money) for their charity. OWH made the top three! SO now it is down to a vote. You can vote once in a 24 hour period per IP address. VOTE for OWH! The money will help pay for postage to mail the boxes of cards to the desert and also to help pay for envelopes, etc.. If you want to learn more about Operation Write Home click on the button on my sidebar. Card details; Image and sentiment by Inkadinkado, Paper by DCWV Pocket Full of Posies stack, ribbon by Kaisercraft. Did you notice I paper pieced the Turtle shell? She has flowers on it!

backlog of cards

So, I haven't posted for awhile but I have been making cards on a fairly regular basis. Every other week I meet with my friends Lisa and Ashley and we stamp! Since I am a stamping veteran of at least 19 years, I feel like I need to share my knowledge with them. I hope they enjoy it. We have done thank you cards (this post), funny birthday cards, halloween tags, learning to use a card sketch, masculine birthday and different types of embossing (dry, heat, & machine). Here are some of the card examples I have made for these classes.

This card features a sketch from OWH Stars and Stamps. The image is a stamp from Two Scoops Rice design. Mochi is a Japanese food of pounded rice and will include a sauce. I have even had mochi covered ice cream. I used Crystal Effects to make the Mochi glossy. I free handed the swirls on the red paper with a gold spica pen.

One of the techniques I have learned by reading Nichole Heady's blog of stamping on the patterned paper and piecing the image together. I used a versamark pad to creat the background on the teal strip of paper. Images by PapertreyInk. This is also a OWH Stars and Stamps sketch.

Image by MelJen's, colored in with Copics, and sketch by OWH Stars and Stamps.

This is one of my Thomas Kincade stamps by Cornish Heritage Farms, sentiment by PTI. This is the cracked glass technique. I have been wanting to try this forever. I did not have/could not find my Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel, so I used regular clear embossing powder, about 7 layers. Then I stuck it in the freezer (forgot it was there) and pulled it out and cracked it. Sentiment is embossed with gold filigree embossing powder.

I have a few more cards that I haven't finished that I will post another time. I have a few more posts to finish up today and then maybe I will feel "caught up" in the blogging world.

Down to the wire!

This is my entry for this weeks Designed2delight Digital Stamps artists challenge. I don't really have much to say about this one and I don't have the time to say it either! If you have questions about supplies or techniques, leave a comment and I'll respond later.

CAS Flowers

No matter how hard I tried to add printed paper or more embellishments, I just could not do it. I am a "Clean And Simple" girl at heart. Especially since I fell in love with coloring all over again once I got my Copics. The image is the center of attention, not all the doodads.

This image is from Faith at Designed2delight digital stamps. I received it free for participating in last week's challenge. The first image I printed, my printer was almost out of black ink and I felt like it was bigger than what I wanted to use. So I set the image aside, replaced my ink and printed a smaller, darker image. Because it seemed "faded" I decided to use my Prismacolor pencils on it and Gamsol with a blending stub. I really like the way it turned out. It reminds me of folk art.

The smaller, darker image I used my Copics on. I was trying to find a printed paper with blue and brown designs, but I just couldn't find anything I liked in my stash. So I layered it with my oval Nestabilities. Other supplies for both cards include SU! cs and misc. ribbon/rickrack.

D2D October challenge

Here is my entry for the Designed2delight digital stamps Artists Challenge. The free digi is the two apples together. I printed, colored, and cut 4 sets of apples and cut strips of brown cs to weave a basket to hold them. Sentiment is from PTI.

Comfort and Hope

Here is my Designed2delight digital stamps artists challenge. I earned these free digis by Faith by participating in last week's challenge. I can't believe I've been good and stuck with this for 2 months now. Yay!

This is a sympathy card. I don't think I have ever made a sympathy card before although I have a slew of stamps that would be perfect. I need to make some ahead of time so they are ready to send when necessary. I decided to try to make the flowers 3D. It is kind of hard to tell in the first picture so I took this one at an angle. You can also see the wonderful texture from my new PapertreyInk impression plate. You can also see the sparkle in the flower centers from my yellow spica pen. Other supplies include SU! cs and ribbon, copic markers, foam dimentionals.

PapertreyInk Blog Hop!

I am SO excited to be a part of this blog hop. Nichole challenged us to share something that we new we have learned about creating and who is our inspiration. As far as inspiration, Nichole herself and many of the Design team members inspire me everyday.

Being a rubber stamper for over 19 years I was really skeptical about acrylic stamps. When I finally tried them I still wasn't sold. After finding PapertreyInk and their awesome quality of product with Clean and Simple designs that create such a variety of looks, I wish all my stamps were acrylic stamps!

There are so many techniques, tips, sketches etc... I wasn't sure what to share. I was working on this project when I read Nichole's post about the Blog Hop. It is a small thing I am going to share and probably most of you know it already and I don't know where I learned it, but besides being clear to see exactly where you place your stamp, acrylic is also flexible. "i'm batty for you" is actually a straight stamp. Because it is acrylic I was able to curve it on the handle so it would fit just perfect.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: All PTI and Copic markers and spica pens.

Thank You Binder

I saw this fabulous idea on My Mix of 6. I decided I wanted to make it all out of paper, kinda of like a stationary folder. So I got out my ruler and started doing the math for what I wanted. The finished size is 6"x 9"x 5/8". I re-typed up the Thank You outline and Words and Wording and the Title (although I think I may change "Binder" to "Folder"). Stick some thank you notes, envelopes, postage stamps and a pen and you've got a nice homemade gift. I am going to be teaching a class to two of my friends on how to make this next week. No formal tutorial written on it.. just scratch paper with my scribbled notes all over. I will probably make one with them and send it to my Aunt with all the thank you notes I am making for her to use.

Altered Clipboards

I altered a couple of clipboards a few years ago. One was given as a gift and the other never quite got finished. When I saw this idea by Rebecca at Roots & Wings Co. I had already made up a homework caddy because of one I saw on their blog (it is written by sisters and sisters-in-law) and shared with my friend Lisa. So we decided to alter some clipboards. We both have 4 kids so you know we need all the organizing help we can get. She made 6 boards (for her and her husband as well) and I made 4 for my kids. It took a few days because of the glue we used for the paper and because I wanted to use varnish on them like I use for my washi eggs and tea boxes. I also used alcohol inks on the metal clip since paint scratches right off. Name tags were laminated and then tied on so they would hang straight while the board is hanging on the wall.

Two Cards

I am posting two cards today. The first one I made for one of the birthday challenges on OWH but I didnt read the guidelines that it was supposed to be a Holiday card until I was finished and ready to post the card. So it sat in a pile while I worked on some other crafty items (posts to come!).

Supplies: SU! cs, PTI cs, Verve sentiment, MelJen's Designs Digi, Copic sketch markers and spica pens, MS punch, misc. printed paper and ribbon.

My Aunt is in the hospital waiting for a liver transplant. Being so far away there isn't much I can do, so I thought I could make some Thank You cards for her and her family to send. She is a HUGE Elvis fan. I got these stamps from Cornish Heritage Farms, which unfortunately has since closed it doors. I had to make this card a 5x7 for everything to fit the way I wanted. For once my card turned out exactly as planned.

Supplies: SU! cs, PTI cs, CHF Elvis stamps, Versamark ink pad.

Scaredy Cat

I have felt overwhelmed by all of the Card Challenges in honor of Operation Write Home's birthday celebration. Alot of love and inspiration out there. I have been working on some non-card crafty projects (that I will be posting here soon) and decided I would just stick with my Designed2Delight digital stamps challenge for this week.

Supplies: SU! cs, PTI cs, sentiment, ink, & button twine, Nestabilities, MS tag punch, Copic sketch markers and Spica pens, CB embossing folder.

OWH Birthday & Sketch #33

Operation Write Home is celebrating their Birthday this month. Beside this being a sketch challenge they asked the card be birthday themed and PINK! (I added a bit of purple too!)

Supplies: SU! cs, PTI cs and sentiment, Martha Stewart punches, Cuttlebug embossing folder, Washi tape, copic markers, and digi image by MelJen's Designs.

Sketch #11 by Carly

Last week I used the same card for the Designed2delight and Sketches By Carly challenges. This week I did separate cards and I had so much fun making this one! It is my first square card. Now I need to learn to make a square envelope, although this card is so thick with the PTI die cut felt flower, it probably needs a CD mailer type box/envelope. All supplies are PapertreyInk except SU! oval punch and DP, Nestabilities scalloped circle die, and Copic markers.

Sew Beary Kind

When I saw this image from Designed2delight digital stamps, I immediately thought of a Dad with his little vest on. My Dad used to go on business trips when I was young and I remember him sending me cards in the mail. I still have those stashed away in an old shoebox. This card is going to Operation Write Home and I hope some little girl enjoys getting this card from her Daddy as much I did when I was young.

I got to use one of my new tools on this card, Imaginesce I-Top, to make the center brad on my felt flower, which... is made from PapertreyInk die cuts and felt. This felt is SO amazing! It is 100% wool and cuts so nice with the die cuts. I have another card I need to finish that also uses the wool/die cut combo. I used my Copic markers to add a little shading to the petals as well as coloring the image. Other supplies: PTI cardstock and sentiment, SU! ribbon and corner punch.

Back 2 School

MelJen's challenge #24 is a Back 2 School theme. I used some of Meljen's freebies to create this card. I ended up making 4 identical and will probably save them for Teacher Appreciation Day in the spring. I followed Sandy's example to color the apple. I need more practice. I would actually like to take a Copics class one day.. and Im sure even after that I will need more and more practice!

Supplies: SU! cs and ribbon, Nestabilities, Copic markers, Spica pens, PTI impression plate.

Thinking of you

Have you ever gone to CASE someone's card only to find out you are missing supplies to do it? And where I live I can't just run to my local craft store and pick up the missing items. Operation Write Home Stars and Stamps Midweek Throwdown this week is fall themed cards. I haven't been having very good mojo with cards involving leaves so I decided to CASE a card from PapertreyInk's own Nicole Heady. Her cards are ALWAYS perfect. Found out I was missing the woodgrain template and the mat stack 4 die (they are now on my shopping list for this month's release purchase.) So I substituted a cuttlebug folder and a different PTI die. I don't have their inks and couldn't find the right color combo in my own ink pads so I used SU! markers. The ink beads up on the acrylic stamps but for this stamp I think it was ok. I pulled out my embossing powders and low and behold NO gold powder. I havent heat embossed in forever and I am guessing it was probably one of those jars that fell into toddler hands and dumped. Overall I think it turned out ok. Still havent found my mojo.

Ready for Fall

Here is the weekly challenge for Designed2Delight digital stamps.

I tried to use Carly's Sketch but my image didnt fit quite right and I need practice coloring leaves.. a lot of practice. I had planned on using some leaves cut out of the image but ran out of room so I ended up putting them on the back (right next to where my OWH stamp with be).

Supplies: SU! cs, Copic markers, CTMH leaves, nestabilities, CM square punch, Corner chomper (photo).

Boo to you!

I am SO excited because I just got my PapertreyInk August release stamps this week! Yes it takes me 2 weeks or so before they arrive in the mail because I live at an APO box. By the time I get them and play with them, sneek peek is about to start again. Anywho they fit perfectly for OWH Stars and Stamps Midweek Throwdown challenge of Halloween cards. I'm also excited because my card is almost exclusively PTI products: Cardstock (black is SU!), 2 coordinating image sets. 2 coordinating die cuts. Additional supplies are Copics, Martha Stewart border punch, and misc. ribbon.

P.s. I LOVE candy corn!

Smile!

I bought this Digi by MelJen at Whimsey Stamps to go with this sentiment stamp I already had by Inkadinkado. I also have another sentiment in the same set about chocolate that would go with this image too.

I made this card for MelJen's Designs Challenge #23-STRIPES! Although I almost didnt have room for those stripes but they are right there under the tag.

Other supplies: Copic markers, PTI cs, SU! cs, DCWV printed paper, and misc. ribbon.

D2D challenge

I'm not a big cat person but I though this little guy turned out cute. The image was free from Designed2Delight for participating in last week's challenge. I think I actually did the whole month of challenges! I am definately looking forward to next month.

Additional supplies: PapertreyInk cardstock and sentiment, Copic markers, Corner chomper.

Bear and Snail

Here are two cards that I have made this week that are not for a challenge, I just felt like coloring. I keep putting out CAS cards even when I try to do something a little more fancy. Maybe my images are too big. Maybe my crafty stuff isnt organized to the point where I can sit down and be more creative (i.e. find what I am looking for).

The bear image is from Bugaboo Stamps, Copic markers, PTI cs and sentiment stamp, SU! cs and oval punch, and washi paper tape from The Greeting Farm.

The snail image is from author/illustrator Elizabeth O. Dulemba, SU! cs, PTI cs, die cut, and stamps. I really liked coloring the snail. I wanted to make him a slime trail, but alas there wasn't enough room on the card.