Veteran's Day OWH Style!

Thanks for visiting my blog today. We are celebrating Veteran's Day Operation Write Home Style - by having a bloghop! Operation Write Home (formerly Cards for Heroes) collects blank handmade cards and sends them to our deployed heroes so they can keep in touch with their family and friends. OWH also collects AnyHero cards and letters - cards written TO our heroes to show our support. If you didn't start the hop from the beginning, start here so you don't miss any of the handmade goodness.

AnyHero cards can be any theme. In honor of our Vets, I made one in military fashion:

Supplies: stamps (discontinued) from The Greeting Farm, Memento Tuxedo Black ink, Copics, Cuttlebug embossing folder, misc. camouflage duct tape, jute twine, EK Success corner rounder.

Love this little guy! I hope he brings a smile to a hero's face. He was colored with Copic markers. The camouflage strip is duct tape -- I found it at The Tape Depot when I was buying ATG refills. Pretty cool I think.


My next card is for Valentine's Day. Huh? It's not even Thanksgiving yet. Well, the deadline for cards at OWH comes early, so the cards can get overseas and back in time for holidays. Many people are busy with Christmas so OWH is starting to collect them early to ensure they receive enough cards.



Supplies: Kissing Couple stamp from A Muse Artstamps, sentiment from Papertrey Ink, Copics, Spellbinders Nestabilities, Quickutz embossing folder, ribbon from Michael's.

One of my favorite color schemes is red, white and black. It doesn't work for every holiday or occasion, but I thought it would make for a cute Valentine.

Thanks for stopping by today. Your next hop stop is Kate's blog Hello from Kate. She posted early so I already saw a sneak peek of her cards. You're in for a treat - I don't want to spoil the surprise but let's say it made my head spin!

No Cuttlebug, but you still want to use the embossing folders?

I have not tried this myself, but...I have heard that some people use a rolling pin with their embossing folder. Yes, a rolling pin, the long round wooden thing in your kitchen collecting dust. Now you can finally put it to good use. Place the paper/cardstock in the embossing folder and start rolling over it.

So if you don't have a die cut machine, give it a try!
{or even if you do have a machine, it might be a fun experiment. ;) }

ETA: If you want to see all the folders available, check out the Provo Craft website. I bought my Halloween folders online from Scrapyland.

Cuttlebug & Core'dinations

First post on my blog, and I have decided to jump right in with a little tutorial. No stamping on my examples, but you could easily incorporate stamped images.

I bought a pack of Core'dinations Black Magic cardstock from Joann.com. The cardstock is black, with a colored core. So if you tear it, or sand it, you can see the color inside. When I saw it, I thought it would be great to use with the Cuttlebug embossing folders and sandpaper. I made a few Halloween cards for one of my favorite organizations, Cards for Heroes.

I used a sheet of core-dinations with a purple core and the Cuttlebug Spiderweb embossing folder (sorry, the cardstock looks a little pink in the picture).

I ran it through my Sizzix Big Kick. The black side of the cardstock should be raised or embossed.

Then I sanded it.

Here is an after and before look at the sanded web:

I used the Quickutz Revolution spider die and cut it out with the reverse side of a piece of Core'dinations cardstock.

And here is the final card. I used foam dots behind the spider to give him some lift.

Here is another card I made with the same technique. The ghost & pumkin die is from Bosskut. I used foam dots behind the pumpkin and the ghost's arm.

Thanks for visiting my new blog. I'm offering a little blog candy, a new Cuttlebug Spiderweb embossing plate. Leave a comment (or just say hi) and I will choose one person at random on the evening of Friday, September 19th, 2008.