Welcome to the OWH Blog Hop

I am so excited to participate in my first ever blog hop with Operation Write Home and honored to have you stopping by to take a peek at my Stampin' inspirations!

As the spouse of an amazing man who served almost 25 years and participated in many tours over seas before retiring in 2009 from medical reasons I am proud to now be able to support Operation Write Home. Sometimes I wish I could do more as it is such a small thing to do to help them stay in touch with loved  - but it means so much to them and their families! 

These are the men and women who risk their lives both at home and over seas to help keep us safe and ensuring that we are able to enjoy the many freedoms we often take for granite - my heart and my gratitude goes out to them daily!

Now on to the cardmaking .... I wanted to share a card with my favorite little Christmas Greeting Girl from the Stampin Up Greeting Card Kids stamp set! She is such a sweetie and so much fun to color with our Stamp Write Watercolor markers and my Aqua Painter.

I also love how you can use one stamp set to make so many different cards by just tweaking the layout and embellishments. Here are a few more cards I made to share today using the same materials but changing up the layouts and embellishments slightly ... I will than package these up and half of them are going to OWL and the other half I will sell them to help raise money for my Run for the Cure this year...equally supporting my passions!

 

If you would like to support the Operation Write home initiative there are so many ways to do so ... visit here to learn how to donate your handmade cards for soldiers to use when over seas to keep in touch with their loved ones back home or please follow the link to give a cash donation ...

 

Happy Stampin' and Blog Hopping!

Last Chance Strength and Hope

 The last chance to pick up the Strength and Hope Stamp set or the Strength and Hope Digital Set which comes with the stamp images and some gorgeous DSP for My Digital Studio is fast approaching!

Here are some cards I made showcasing just how pretty and versatile that this stamp set is ... one of my all time favorites and for such an awesome cause!

Place an order for this Stamp Set before the end of the month and receive a special additional small gift of thanks from me for your support!

Happy Stampin'

Playing with Punches - Shoebox Swaps

This offering is from our Playing with Punches - shoebox card swap with my upline team! Nancy designed and shared her shoebox with us to get to make this card - it was so much fun!

This card used the Lattice Bigz Die with it handcut to create the Celtic knot look, the Butterfly punch, the Boho Blossoms Punch, the 2 Step Bird punch and the ribbon punch. It also features the 2011-12 In Colors and the Butterfly Prints stamp set!

Also wanted to share that I am able to invite a 'guest' to the Upline Team meetings so of you ever wanted to come out and see how supportive and fun being a Stampin' Up Demo can be - drop me a line!

Happy Stampin'

Sale-a-brating Metal

This is one of the cards we will be making at our upcoming Technique class on Tuesday February 1st ... featurings working with sheet metal .

This card the sheet metal serves as a shiny focal layer which has been run through the embossing folder with the Elegant lines set and mounted on a vanilla cardstock back that is embossed with the Framed with tulips. Accented with the Butterfly embosslit, the ribbon punch as well as the Punch Bunch stamp set from our upcoming Sale-abration promotion - just one of many gorgeous stamp sets you can earn FREE with your Stampin' Up purchase!

Is this little Poppy Stamp below not adorable ... so much I can see doing with this one!

Now this particular stamp itself comes with a 'stamped' scallop floral as the outer image around the poppy which can be punched out as an entire single layer image ... however here I have layered it by punching the scallop oval in Cherry Cobbler and than using the 1 3/8 Circle punch to punch out the 'inside' of the stamped image only and popped it up on dimensional's.

I love me some layers and depth in a card ... the metal serves as my bling in this one!

On Dasher with bling...

Here are two cute and simple Christmas card layouts featuring the Dasher Stamp, Candy cane Christmas designer series paper from the Holiday mini and of course some nice rhinestone bling on the antlers!

Love this DSP paper and how easy it is to switch up and make two different cards by just flipping the paper this way or that ... well that and their is glitter bling right in the paper!

Just Believe

This is one of my new favorite stamp sets ... who am I kidding they are pretty much ALL my favorites but this is the one I have been dying to get playing with most recently - so I was excited to see it showcased at our Card swap last weekend!

This card showcased the 'faux water colouring' technique that Liz did a rewind on at our team meeting ... meaning revisiting a technique she had already showcased at her classes!

The ribbon punch is another one being pushed to the top of my wish list each time I use it ... love how quick and easy it punches both sides of the ribbon leaving a nice flat line edge left over for the next use of the paper - very little waste left over with it!

Stamp Around Wheels

These are cards designed by my upline Liz Goldhawk ... as a member of her team I am blessed to attend team meetings and technique classes with her so we can stretch our creative souls and grown our businesses together - just another example of the wonderful supportive atmosphere Stampin' Up promotes!

This month we were working with the Stamp Around Wheels - something I admit I had not yet really played with and am so excited now at the versatility of these wonderful tools!

The first card we made showcased how to use the Baroque Border wheel (although any abstract patterned wheel will work) to create a frame using a paper mask technique .... doesn't it make such a pretty card!

This second card was TOTALLY rocking... using the Very Vintage jumbo wheel we rolled the image on the background Marina Mist paper and than on the Whisper White strip we used a mask that Liz created using the different size Circle punches and placed this over the paper and rolled the Vintage wheel over it and then highlighted the circles with a Stamp Write maker - totally cool effect! The top layer is using the Vintage Vogue Stamp set flowers in Cherry Cobbler and vines in Marina Mist. The cool Cherry Cobbler paper accent ribbon is made with our Ribbon punch.