Big Help

This past week was the second time I used my system of randomly selecting a card sketch (I use the fabulous collection of sketches at Operation Write Home) and then spending the week making cards based on the sketch. As you can see, I was able to get a lot of cards made this week! It was so easy to just dive in, since the design was already decided. And the more cards I made, the more ideas I got. First of all, the random number generator selected 175, so that's the sketch on which I based all of these cards. The first card is for my new pen pal, Tom B., with whom I was matched with the help of the Wish of a Lifetime organization. The patterned paper and stamps are very old Close to My Heart items. The most interesting thing about this card is that I used a trick I found online (probably on Pinterest) of painting plain brads with nail polish. It works great. I just stuck the brads in a dry kitchen sponge while I "painted" them.

This next card will go to Cards for Hospitalized Kids. I used my Cuttlebug (a million thanks to Caroline, the most generous person I know!) to make the dotted background. The snowman and little house are stamps from Darcies, and the sentiment is part of an OWH fundraiser set from Stampers Best.

This will be an Any Hero card for Operation Write Home. It uses more ancient CTMH paper, plus the fabulous set by Stampers Best. You can see I began deviating even further from the sketch when I didn't combine four small squares to make the larger square here.

These two Any Hero cards use very old papers from Keeping Memories Alive. Even after all of the paper purging and scrap wrangling I've done, I still have papers that are over fifteen years old. Crazy. The tree image is by Art Impressions. I sponged the backgrounds behind the trees with Distress inks.

One of these is a card for Sandy, the founder of OWH, and the other ... Well, it turned out so Spring-like, I thought I'd better save it for, you know, Spring. Card on the left uses more KMA papers, the one on the right uses purple CTMH; I'm not sure about the yellow and white. Sentiment is by Posh Impressions.

This last card is for the postal workers where Sandy takes her dozens upon dozens of OWH boxes to be mailed. I hope they'll get a kick out of the Israeli postage stamps. Patterned paper by Hot Off the Press, sentiment stamp by Posh Impressions.

And there you have it! I am so pleased with the way this system is working for me. I've got a new sketch number and am raring to start on a new week's worth of cards! 

And in case you're wondering...yes I am still knitting. Every day, in fact. I am almost finished with a big - and I do mean BIG - project, which I will share next month after it has been gifted. It has been a pleasure, but after a month and a half of working on only one project, I am more than ready to get some more diversity going.

Have a wonderful weekend!