OWH - Sketch #174

Happy Memorial Day weekend and thanks to everyone who visited my blog and participated in Operation Write Home's Blog Hop. For this week's sketch I wanted to do something with a summer or beach theme and found this starfish stamp from Stampin' Up's "Seaside" set. I used mostly scrap cardstock, a piece of torn vellum, and an embellishment from the retired hodgepodge hardware set.

Blog Hop - Operation Write Home

Welcome to another stop on the Operation Write Home Memorial Day Blog Hop!

Memorial Day is a day of remembering the men and women who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. It originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the Union and Confederate soldiers who died in the War. By the 20th century Memorial Day had been extended to honor all Americans who have died while in the military service. It typically marks the start of the summer vacation season, while Labor Day marks its end.

I hope you enjoy my cards and don't forget to scroll down and click on the OWH Banner to find the next stop on the blog hop.

OWH - Sketch #173

In preparation for Memorial Day and the Blog Hop at Operation Write Home, I used the "Liberty for All" stamp set from Stampin' Up! for this week's sketch. I started by stamping the image on acetate using StazOn ink and attached it to the cardstock with black eyelets. I added bakers twine in place of the circle and finished the card with a rub on sentiment.

Bleaching Technique

Here is my swap for this month's technique. I used the "Inspired By Nature" stamp again and added a punched butterfly. I applied bleach to the edges of the card and then outlined the edge with faux stitching. The instructions are listed below.

OWH - Sketch #172

Happy Mothers Day!  Here is my card for sketch #172 from Operation Write Home. I used the "Inspired By Nature" stamp from Stampin' Up! and used bleach as my ink, yes good ole Clorox bleach. I added some faux stitching and finished the card with a rub on sentiment.

Sketch 16

Here is my take on sketch #16 from Shimelle.  The focus of this sketch is scrapbooking smaller photos. The papers are from Stampin' Up's "On the Go" collection and many of the embellishments are from the "Fan Fair" collection.  Happy 6th Birthday Nathan!!!

OWH - Sketch #171

Here is this week's card for Operation Write Home.  Since I received so many positive comments on last week's card, I decided to continue the tag theme by replacing the three rectangular pieces with tags. I distressed all the tag edges and wrapped the tag base with linen thread.  I then substituted the circle with a very old embellishment from Stampin' Up! called a skeleton leave.

Tim Holtz - 12 Tags of 2013 (May)

Here is my take on this month's tag. Instead of using cardstock for the tag I used a piece of cardboard that came with another product. I applied inks before applying the rub ons and just kept applying ink layers as I went. Unfortunately the cardboard was super absorbent so my dragonfly image quickly faded after stamping it with StazOn. In order to salvage the tag I used a previous tag technique and stamped the image on acetate.  The twist I added was to apply Crystal Effects and ink to the back of the wings.

OWH - Sketch #170

Here is my card for this week's sketch from Operation Write Home. I used a pre-printed tag from Stampin' Up! as the focal point; added a brad and three small pearls.

Sketch 15

Here is the latest sketch from Shimelle. The focus of this sketch is layering scraps of paper. For my page I chose three pictures from a trip to the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. If you can't tell from the photos, the views are absolutely amazing. All the papers and the ribbon are from Stampin' Up!

OWH - Sketch #169

Happy Spring! Circles are the focus of week's sketch from Operation Write Home. Fortunately I had most of the components of this card sitting around but I just wasn't happy with how they were going together until I saw this sketch. The sun was colored using markers and blender pens from Stampin' Up!

Sketch 14

Here is this week's sketch from Shimelle. The theme being circles and an oversized photo. For this page I chose one of the first photos that I processed using Radlab in PSE11. The patterned paper and ribbon are from Stampin' Up!

Tissue Paper Technique

With all the spring flowers starting to bloom I wanted to use this retired stamp set called Spring Garden from Stampin' Up! for my next card swap. I had remembered seeing a video a while back from fellow demonstrator Brandy Cox and thought this technique would work perfectly.  You basically stamp on tissue paper, crumple it up, smooth it out and then glue it down.  Simple.

89.019 Years Old

Here is a scrapbook page that I did for My Digital Studio's challenge titled "Boys Will Be Boys." All the products shown are Stampin' Up!

OWH - Sketch #168

Here is my card for this week's sketch from Operation Write Home. I changed up the layers slightly but stayed true to the overall theme.  The sentiment is a rub-on and the hanger is from the Hung Up Cute Clips set.  All products used are Stampin' Up!

OWH - Sketch #167

Hey everyone! I finally got around to last Sunday's sketch from Operation Write Home. If you've been following my blog you know that I've been doing a lot of digital scrapbooking lately...sorry. For this card, I recycled one of the flowers from a previous post and made a cute little banner with Stampin' Up's new typeset photopolymer stamp set.

Sketch 13

Here is Sketch 13 from Shimelle. The theme for this week's Sketch to Scrapbook page is "Scrapbooking with three 4x6 photos." I knew immediately when I saw Shimelle's layout that I wanted to scrap the Matchbox Twenty  (MB20) concert we went to in March. The papers and the washi tape are Stampin' Up!

Sketch 12

The theme for one of Shimelle's sketch to scrapbook pages this week is "Scrapbooking with both square and standard photos". So, I thought it would be a great opportunity to pair some instagram inspired photos with one really old photo.  The layout was created using MDS software. Happy Birthday Patrick!

Sketch 11

This weekend Shimelle released three Sketch to Scrapbook pages.   The theme for Sketch 11 is "Scrapbooking on the Diagonal".  For this page I chose two photos of Joe's dad Patrick since he will be celebrating his 89th birthday this Wednesday.  The Stampin' Up! papers and the photos for this layout were created using MDS software.  The embellishments were added in PSE11.

This and That Epic Day Journal

This month Stampin' Up! released their new "This and That Epic Day Journal". The journal is spiral bound and has a debossed chipboard cover with a hexagonal pattern. The interior has 60 beautiful scrapbook sheets.  Coordinating items such as stickers and washi tape are also available.  Here are a few closeup photos of my cover. For those of you that may be wondering...yes, it is comparable in price and size to that other chipboard journal.

Tim Holtz - 12 Tags of 2013 (April)

I was so excited when I saw this month's tag from Tim since I love dragonflies. Other than the stamp, I used all Stampin' Up! products along with an overhead transparency, my silhouette to cut the gears and the number 4, and a random blue brad to adhere the wings.

I started by applying layers of ink to distressed copper metallic cardstock. I then stamped the dragonfly with versamark ink and embossed with black embossing powder. I used two pieces of washi tape from the This and That kit to adhere the newsprint designer series paper and finished off the tag with more embossing powder randomly sprinkled over the tag. The wings were stamped with StazOn and the arrow is from the new Hung Up Cute Clips set.

OWH - Sketch #166

Happy Easter! Here is my card for Operation Write Home's sketch #166. In lieu of the three corner embellishments I used one of Stampin' Up's new "Hung Up Cute Clips". The sentiment inside the thought bubble is a rub-on and the labrador retriever was cut using my silhouette.

Sketch 10

I really liked Shimelle's sketch to scrapbook page this week. The theme was "Using Triangles" which I thought would be a great opportunity to use some bold graphics. To balance the page I used a partially black and white photo that I edited in PSE11. This page was made using Stampin' Up's MDS software.

OWH - Sketch #165

Here is this week's sketch from Operation Write Home. The background paper is a kraft card stock with a clear embossed pattern that I distressed slightly with chocolate chip ink. The scalloped border was punched from a metallic patterned paper (retired) and the natural trim ribbon, which is my all-time favorite, was distressed and tied with the magic bow maker.

Sketch 9

Here is this week's layout for Shimelle's sketch to scrapbook page titled "Scrapbooking with a Central Focus". Although I didn't have great photos of this particular leg of our trip, I knew I had to document the crazy birds that we encountered that night. It was truly something out of a movie and so unbelievable that we still laugh about it to this day.