Missing You and Kids

The Midweek Throwdown Challenge this week at the Operation Write Home blog, Stars and Stamps, is to make a Missing You card. Using (bet you already guessed) scraps I couldn't bear to part with, I made this card using OWH sketch #129. The sentiment was done in Word and printed out. I'm not sure which font it was. The pale paper was a gift and I am guessing the design on it was made with the shaving cream technique. The purple strip I did with alcohol inks (this piece was left over after I made those purple ornaments for the Christmas cards).

 Another scrap card, made in response to OWH president Sandy Allnock's challenge for us to make more kid-friendly cards for our heroes to send home to their children. The bear is by Darcie's, the sentiment is Hero Arts. I used a fun trick I learned on-line. The stamp is on clear acrylic, so I put my circle of cardstock on the table, put my clear acrylic block over that, then curved the stamp to fit inside the circle. This is the first time I've done this (at least, as far as I can recall...and please note my motto: "If I can't remember, it didn't happen!") Patterned paper is well-aged Frances Meyer brand. This uses OWH sketch #152.

Here is another card I think is kid-friendly. I love this little flower stamp with the smiley face by Close to My Heart. More scraps were given new life in the making of this card. Sentiment by Hero Arts. The blue paper is also CTMH, the yellow (which was also used to mat the circle in the card above this one) came in a packet of travel-themed scrapbook papers. I think I bought it in 2004 in Salt Lake City but I could be wrong about that (big shock, I know. Please see my motto in the paragraph above...). I based this layout on a card I saw linked in the OWH tutorial about using up your scraps of paper.

I also got a jump on my New Year's Eve Paper Purging Party yesterday. Sometimes I am just in the mood, you know? I put a fair sized stack of paper into the recycling box, then I went ahead and reorganized my embossing powder stash. A bunch went into the trash because of the high glitter content (plus, I never use them). Cards made for OWH and also for children in hospitals (which is something I want to start doing again) should not have glitter on them, because it can flake off and either stick to uniforms, thereby making the wearer easier to spot with night vision goggles, or it can get into wounds or stuck on skin or get in the eyes...Just not a good thing to put on cards for the most part.

Most of the rest of the embossing powder was poured into little plastic storage boxes. Usually ep (as it is called) comes in tiny jars. When you use it, you stamp an image and while the ink is still wet, you pour the ep over the image. The powder sticks to the wet ink, and the rest of the powder gets shaken off. You need to pour back what you don't use into the tiny jar. This equals a huge mess everywhere, at least in my case. For years I have seen people using plastic containers to hold their ep. This makes returning the excess so much easier! (The stamped and powdered image is then set with a heat tool, which melts the powder and creates a nice effect).

Just to make a long post even longer, I will tell you that I am making good progress on sock #2 of the pair of socks I started for Meital. I hope to have some knitting to show you soon.