OWH Sketch Challenge 220: You are my anchor!

Playing along today with OWH Sketch Challenge #220. This one looked complicated but was really fun to try!





I used the new Float My Boat stamp set from Lawn Fawn, Night of Navy ink and cardstock from SU! and DP from DCWV Summer Magic stack. I really wanted to add some brads or pearl pen, but didn't have the courage! I liked what I had going and didn't want to throw things out of kilter! Ha!

Hope you're having a great day. Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings,
Shari B

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

OWH Sketch Challenge 166

Hello, peeps!  Have you all come down from your Easter candy sugar high? Hope you had a great day. I had a fun afternoon with my kids and grandaughter then had some time to play in my craft room.

My craft room was as cleaned up as it ever gets...boy, does that get the mojo flowing! I pulled out the Latte matstack from DCWV, some masculine stamp sets from Stampin Up, and decided to play along with the OWH Sketch Challenge.


I stamped the Lighthouse image in Memento London Fog.  For the embellishments I tried three charcoal banners on one, and three light gray ribbon banners on the other.  Never quite sure how to embellish guy cards...looking forward to the Spring Training Bloghop at OWH next weekend to get some masculine card ideas!

Thanks for stopping by...have a great week!

Blessings,
Shari B

OWH Sketch Challenge #165

Today I've been trying out some fun extras I received in my last Stampin' Up! order and playing along with the OWH Sketch Challenge. 

This bold leaf print was just screaming for either a bird or floral focal point.  I went with my bird punch and an SU stamp set called Language of Friendship.  This is a great layout, and I hope to try my hand at a few more cards using this sketch!

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great week!

Blessings,
Shari B

OWH Sketch Challenge #130

This is my second post of the day using this cute turtle stamp from SU! This stamp set is on loan from a friend, and I'm definitely giving it a workout! You can see my previous post here. I turned this week's OWH Sketch Challenge on its side, and saw three turtles creeping along.  I wasn't sure what kind of sentiment would fit, but settled on this stamp from Scrappy Mom's.  The turtles are colored in copics, and I used Glossy Accents on the eyes and the blue turtle shell.  I finally had a chance to use my Martha Stewart fringe scissors for the grassy border, and I pulled a variety of papers and supplies from my stash to finish it off.



-





Thanks for stopping by to take a look!

Blessings,
Shari B

OWH Sketch Challenge #128

For this week's OWH Sketch Challenge, I gathered up some clouds I had cut for another project and pulled out my Loads of Love stamps from SU!  I grabbed DP from PTI (I know, I've been using this a LOT lately) and DCWV Linen Stack. The truck chassis is paper pieced, and the pups and tires are colored with copics.


I normally don't use a sentiment inside my OWH cards, but in this one I stamped "Thought you could use a little pickup".  Hee hee.  I might try some variations on this theme, as the little pickup was really fun to do!

Have a wonderful week! Thanks for stopping by to take a look!  :)

Blessings,
Shari B

OWH Sketch Challenge #126

Hello, crafters! Today I wanted to share a happy little card that was inpired by the lastest sketch challenge at Operation Write Home. I started with this cute monkey stamp from Hero Arts that jumped in my shopping cart a couple of weeks ago!  He's swinging from a banner, which was a $1 find at Michael's. I also colored  some extra flags and popped them for dimension. Papers are from PTI and SU, and sentiment is from Scrappy Moms.

This card was more fun than a barrel of monkeys, but I seem to be technology challenged tonight, and keep deleting parts of my post, so I'm going to quickly get this posted without further ado!




Thanks for stopping by to take a look!  Have a great week!

Blessings,
Shari B

OWH Sketch #125

This week's sketch challenge at OWH Stars and Stamps blog reminded me of a "LOVE" stamp from Stampin' Up that I hadn't inked up in years! I heat embossed the letter blocks in gold, and mounted them on some pretty white embossed paper I picked up on a DP shopping frenzy at Michael's a few weeks ago. I added some white ribbon and layered everything on a white card base.




I decided this would make a pretty wedding or anniversary card, so it's being filed away until the perfect occasion arises!



Then, it was on to some cardmaking for my OWH box! I cut some sentiments at 3/4" in black using the Cricut Stamping Solutions cartridge, grabbed some gingham ribbon, and layered silk flower embellishments from Creative Memories.  Quick and fun!









And now, for the card I REALLY wanted to make today!  I've been wanting to use this cute stamp from Penny Black for QUITE some time....and thought she'd look pretty cute on this floral embossed paper! I dug around for some black gingham print paper for a background, and the "XOXO" seemed perfect...like it was meant to be!

Copics Y11, Y15, E11, E31, YG03, YG13, RV02, R35, R37

WOW! Lots of card making today!  Thanks for stopping by to take a look!  Have a great week!

Blessings,
Shari B

OWH Sketch Challenge #124

For this week's OWH Sketch Challenge at the Operation Write Home blog, I decided to try out my new Hero Arts bicycle stamp. This was at impulse buy the other day at Michael's.  I forget why I stopped in there - there was SOMETHING I really needed - and ended up buying a couple of stamps I didn't KNOW I needed!  Well, hey, they were half price - and I saved $10.00!



For this card I used a sponge, a scallop shape, and SU Bashful Blue ink to stamp the cloud effect in the background. For the grass, I sponged some SU Pear Pizzaz, and stamped some blades of grass with a stamp from the SU Gnome Sweet Gnome set. I colored the flowers and basket with copics. The background papers and sentiment are also from SU.  I backed everything in black, and added a scrap of gold ribbon and a gold banner with black pearls for a bit of pizzazz.

Now that I've got a card finished for my OWH box, I'll be getting back to a project I started yesterday - wrangling my scraps!  I need to make more space in my craft room for those "must have" impulse buys!

Thanks for stopping by to take a look!
Blessings,
Shari B 

OWH Sketch Challenge #123

Have you looked through at all the ideas and inspiration shared on the OWH Memorial Day Bloghop 2012? In addition to commemorating Memorial Day, we honored the mighty CARD SKETCH! Operation Write Home has a great collection of sketches, and a new one is featured every Sunday on their blog!

For this week's OWH Sketch Challenge I tried something new.  Instead of formulating a perfect plan in my head for this sketch (which can be really hard to do some days), I just grabbed scraps off my pile and started trimming to the prescribed sized.. Once I saw it "live" and to scale,  I started grabbing some other things I had laying around the craft room, including the cute kite stamp ($1 find at Michael's) and an assortment of blue paper from PTI.  The mojo was flowing! The cloud was hanging out on the corner of my desk (left over from another project), and I dug around in my cupboard for this nice sentiment (another $1 find). I did some inking, copic coloring and Cuttlebugging, and here are the results!



This was really fun to make....I might need to whip up some more for my OWH box!   Thanks for stopping by to take a look.  Have a wonderful week!

Blessings,
Shari B

OWH Memorial Day Sketch Blog Hop

Hello! Hope you are having an enjoyable Memorial Day Weekend!  I'm excited to be part of the Operation Write Home Memorial Day Sketch Blog Hop! The sketch I selected is #30. You can find a collection of 100+ sketches on the OWH website....and plenty of other inspiration and information on how to donate your handmade cards for our deployed troops to write home on.




I flipped the sketch upside down, grabbed some coordinating papers from the Green Boutique collection by Paper Trey Ink and the Flowers for Mimi stamp by Penny Black.  Cardstock is from Paper Trey Ink in white and New Leaf.  Sentiment from Hero Arts is stamped on a shape cut with a Nestibility die. I colored Mimi with copic markers, added a bit of twine, and...DONE!

Thanks for stopping by to take a look! Have a safe and happy holiday weekend!

Blessings,
Shari B

OWH Sketch Challenge

I've been playing with today's OWH Sketch #121 and a bunch of pretty Stampin' Up! supplies from the last Sale-a-bration catalog. The designer paper, ribbon and brad is "Everday Enchantment" and for the tone on tone stamping at the top I used the "Fresh Vintage" stamp set in Pear Pizzaz.  Also used SU cardstock in Espresso and ink in Espresso and Pool Party. The sentiment is SU from the Tagtastic hostess set.  I did some inking in Pear Pizzaz, and was careful to line up the strips at the bottom with the existing light brown distressing across the bottom.  The banner was made using Very Vanilla paper and a herringbone Cuttlebug folder.  This was lots of fun to make and I can't wait to make more cards using these supplies from SU!

UPDATE - here's a second card I made using this "recipe".  : )
Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful week!
Shari B

OWH Sketch Challenge #116

Hello! Hope you had a great Easter! When I got home from visiting the kids, my neighbor called to say they had received some of my mail yesterday. One of those items was this stamp from Penny Black! I then ran to my computer to check the sketch at OWH Stars and Stamps Blog. Yahoo! It was a good fit so I rummaged around in my cute paper, grabbed my copic markers and walaa...a sweet card for my box of mostly-manly cards for OWH.

Now...back to some card making! Thanks for stopping by and have a GREAT week!
Shari B

OWH Sketch Challenge #115

Today's sketch at OWH Stars and Stamps is a real "keeper".  I looked over my stamps and decided it had been way too long since this sassy little penguin from Stampin' UP! had seen an ink pad.  I knew I wanted to go bright and colorful, and found this citrus-y paper in a DCWV card set, which is called, coincidentally, "Citrus".  I used a Scrappy Mom's sentiment that would work for lots of different occasions, and those crazy circles from Cuttlebug reminded me of the bubbles on the surface of the lake.  (You know, like "blub, blub" something is swimming down below.)  Can you tell this card is making me happy?  : )

Time to clean up my stamping mess and get to some chores and a run to Walmart!   Hopefully I can be strong and steer clear of the craft aisle today!

Have a blessed day!
Shari B

OWH Sketch Challenge #113

When I saw the OWH Sketch Challenge for this week, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.  A couple of hours and many design changes later -  here's what it evolved into!

The stamp is "Easy Rider" from Penny Black, which I had previously colored with copic markers, and the DP is Anna Griffin paper that I inked up with Rose Red.  I added Barely Banana from Stampin' Up! (which seems to be a go-to color for me lately!), a sentiment is from Hero Arts and some favorite ribbon I got at Michael's a while back.  No Cricut or Cuttlebug on this one...how did THAT happen?

Now - on to my next project of the day, which is getting started on  a SMASH book with memorabilia and photos from my trip to the Holy Land in February.  Hope you are having a fabulous day, and thanks for stopping by!

Shari B

Hangin' with my Peeps!

A beautiful day in Grand Forks, and noteworthy as well.  President Clinton is in town, Marilyn is back from the Big Apple, it's St. Patrick's Day, and I've had fresh air breezing through the house all day! After a few weeks of being tired, run down and mojo-less, I finally am feeling energized and creative!

The cute little critters on my card below have been patiently waiting a WHOLE YEAR to find a home. This card came together quickly with a sentiment from Scrappy Mom's stamped on a die cut I found in my stash (cartridge unknown) and paper from Stampin' Up. The grass die cut is from Plantin Schoolbook.  The yellow embossed strip is Barely Banana from SU, and I added a bit of twine for a finishing touch.

I'm linking this up to the OWH Stars and Stamps Blog for the March ODBD Challenge. The challenge was to use three techniques in one card. I used embossing, stripes, and ribbon. Well, OK it's twine...but I could go with die-cut, layers and stripes.

TIC-TAC-TOE 

Three in a Row

Brads	Piercing	Stripes
Digi stamp	Layers	Embossing
Die cut	Fun fold	Ribbon

Hope you're having a GREAT DAY!  Thanks for stopping by to take a peep...I mean peek!

Shari B

OWH Sketch Challenge #102 - Take 2

Here's the good news and the bad news - I've had some time to make cards as I've been hunkered down in my craft room by a space heater.  Furnace trouble! Hope to have that resolved today!  In the meantime, here is another card inspired by the current card challenge over at OWH Stars and Stamps blog.

For this one, I turned the design on it's side and again used papers from the DCWV Linen Stack and ColorBok Flea Market pad.  The stamp is from Studio G.  The butterfly was hanging out in my stash of embellishments. I hope he can weather the trip to Afghanistan and back, as this card will be included in my next shipment to Operation Write Home!

In compliance with my New Year's resolution, no new supplies were purchased for the creation of this card.
 : )

Blessings on your day!

Operation Write Home Sketch Challenge # 102

My New Year's Day plans changed due to a combination of fresh snow and high wind, so I decided to see what I could do with this week's Operation Write Home sketch challenge. Here are the results...

Patterned paper is from DCWV Linen Closet Mat Stack and Colorbok Flea Market. Brown paper and gold cord is from SU. The sentiment is from Scrappy Moms.