Growing in Unity – day 1

Hello and happy Monday! I’m super excited to be this week’s Growing in Unity girl. Unity stamps make up the vast majority of my stamp collection… my husband even got me new Unity for Christmas last year. Hey, what can I say? I have good taste AND my husband is a keeper! 🙂

Today I have two cards to share; I make a lot of cards for Operation Write Home – they send blank cards overseas for our troops to write home to family and friends – and with the delay in sending mail overseas in time for it to have time to travel back here to the US, we are already on to Valentine’s Day and love cards already. Crazy, huh? Anyhow, here’s two I made with a fun Jillibean Soup/Unity set. One of these will probably go to my husband… he saw them and liked them both. 🙂

My Mind’s Eye paper Jillibean Soup/Unity set – hearty barley Twinery twine Papertrey ink smoky shadow card stock

My Mind’s Eye paper Jillibean Soup/Unity set – hearty barley Twinery twine Papertrey ink smoky shadow card stock

We are actually headed to Puerto Rico next Saturday for a belated 10 year anniversary trip. I am excited! And very overwhelmed. We will come to home to our youngest’s birthday, then Thanksgiving, then our eldest’s birthday just after that. EEEK!

Unity is allowing me to do a giveaway of 2 Itty Bitty stamps this week, so be sure to come back each day and comment to win! Have you seen the new releases? Oh my gosh – cute!!

Jen

OWH sketch 189 – my coolest friend

Hello and happy Sunday!

Time for another sketch challenge from Operation Write Home! I’ve been trying to use up some of my 6×6 pads that are nearly finished or those that are not my favorites… this one definitely falls into the “nearly finished” category. I love these bright winter patterns and colors! 

This was the first time I made a snow hill and didn’t try to glossy accent the heck out of it. What do you know? I really like it plain (I know it’s harder to see. I popped it up on dimensionals; you do see it more clearly in person.) 

This is sketch 189, by the way:

Crate Paper snow day collection Paper Smooches swanky snowdudes Smokey Shadow/PTI card stock

Thanks for visiting me today!

Jen

OWH/ODBD September challenge & 6×6 use it up challenge

Hello! 

Today marks the beginning of a new Operation Write Home/Our Daily Bread Designs challenge. This challenge is to use wheels. my first attempt… well, I would show you, but you wouldn’t stick around very long – and I wouldn’t blame you! 🙂 So I went in a different direction, and went to find a trusty OWH sketch (this is 180), and I’m happy to show you the end result:

Hero Arts for OWH set PTI smokey shadow card stock, Bazzill cherry splash and walnut cream Momento tuxedo black ink, SU edge punch

Notice how I didn’t use ANY patterned paper on that card? Are you shocked? Yes, me too. 🙂

And then… I’ve been trying to use up this My Mind’s Eye Christmas 6×6 pad that I hate dislike kind of very much. I had a moment of inspiration the other day when I realized I could focus on using the non-holiday sides and go for more masculine themes.  I ended up making a few holiday cards and a few masculine. These are the holiday ones:

My Mind’s Eye paper “merriest days of Christmas” Stamps via Unity Stamp Co, Lawn Fawn, and Hero Arts for OWH

And these are the masculine ones:

Stamps via Unity Stamp Co and Paper Smooches

There were just a few scraps after finishing these, and you can bet I recycled them with no guilt. It was very much an “I shall conquer you” moment… and I am pleased with the end results. No one should use up (what you think is) ugly paper and have made ugly cards, right? That kind of defeats the purpose. This was not a full pad, by the way, maybe 2/3? And I ended up with 15 cards.

This weekend marks the end of the first week of school, our parish fall festival where I failed to make pies and instead purchased them with little guilt, and I think the littlest child is getting sick. On an up note, last night my husband and daughters spent time on YouTube looking for “homemade trapeze systems”. Today he is the best.daddy.ever for getting them a trapeze bar for their play set.

Have a great weekend!

Jen

OWH/ODBD challenge for August

Yes that’s not a terribly exciting title. Sorry, it’s been one of those days. It’s 5:30 pm and the girls fell asleep about 45 minutes ago. Do you see my problem??

Oh goodness gracious.

On the other hand, I do have a card for the August Operation Write Home & Our Daily Bread Designs challenge. Each month the (lovely) ODBD people challenge the (creative & talented) OWH people to make cards based on a theme for our heroes. If there are 25 cards linked, they will pay the cost to ship one box of cards overseas to our heroes; if 50 are linked, they will sponsor two boxes! What a generous thing, right?

The theme this month is using the colors brown, green, and pink. Voila:

Card stock: PTI ripe avocado and Gina K chocolate brown Jillibean Soup patterned paper and embellishment sentiment by Ali Edwards for Technique Tuesday

Thanks for visiting me today!

Jen

OWH MWT – punch cards

No, not discount cards, cards made with punches. That said, I LOVE me a good punch card (discount card). I prioritize stores that care about my return business. 🙂

Okay, so the OTHER kind of punch cards is the midweek challenge for Operation Write Home today. I have been living it UP with my sis and my nephews that are in town on vacation so this card is an oldie but one that I haven’t shared before. I made it for a friend whose infant son was being baptized. I was short on time and decided to go with a simpler “congrats” card than try to finagle a baptism card with no baptism stamps.  I wish I would’ve taken a pic of the inside; I did the inside too with some pretty Verve scripture stamps and it looked nice. I thought so anyhow. 

As it goes, I was so busy taking a pic of the card before leaving for the party that I left the card in the lightbox. True story. I apolized the next day and she told me she knew the gift I had was from us since I had also decorated a tag for the bag. LOL

Paper Smooches sentiment SU ribbon My Mind’s Eye (blink, maybe??) PTI smoky shadow card stock

So there you have it! Punches. Of all kinds. sorry, I’m kind of punchy today (TIRED!!). LOL

Oooh, also, come see me Friday. I will have some great things to show you!!

Jen

OWH MWT – Christmas in July

Hello… is it Friday yet? It is HOT and HUMID here in Wisconsin. I’ve not been able to let the kids play outside much this week due to the heat… but we have taken advantage of our community pool’s free swim program. For 45 minutes daily they are open for free; then they close and reopen an hour later. A little time to swim and then I’m not the bad guy who makes everyone leave when they were having so much fun? Total win/win. 🙂

Today’s OWH mid-week challenge is “Christmas in July.” Um, yeah. Last year I challenged the OWH ladies on Facebook to join in making a few cards per month with me… and a few did. This year I challenged them again and we had a LOT of ladies join in. It’s very informal, but every now and then someone will update with how many she made for the month. I think it’s awesome!

My goal is 5 per month until October, but some months I did one or two… others I made 20. Go figure. I’m packing up a few to start sending to Kris, so I pulled out a couple of my favorites:

MME designer paper, Gina K ivory card stock Lawn Fawn stamps and sentiment Sizzix snowflake emobossing folder Nestabilities ovals

MME scraps – I couldn’t bear to throw these, so I made a quilt card! Paper Smooches sentiment Bazzill card stock

Thanks for visiting me today! 🙂

Jen

OWH MWT and a BIG announcement! :)

There; hopefully I’ve lured you in.. and now I shall get on with the card first. 🙂 

It’s Operation Write Home mid-week throwdown time and the challenge this week is masculine cards. Well, I was out of town on Sunday and never got around to sketch 180 when I returned, so here you go – a two-fer:

Paper – MME Stella & Rose Card stock – PTI smokey shadow Hero Arts for OWH sentiment CTMH gray ink

What made this card much more difficult was forgetting to mat that rust-colored piece (I couldn’t leave it. It didn’t look right). I sliced off a couple of very thin strips of card stock, added a little liquid adhesive, and slapped ’em down (all in a calm, easy manner, mind you) and voila – I bet you couldn’t even tell I had to fudge it. 🙂

And now for the BIG NEWS – I’m on the Lone Wolf Designs Design Team! Kris is the owner of Lone Wolf Designs LLC – here is her facebook link – and she provides crafting supplies at 25% off retail! Seriously, go check it out. I know how I love a good deal! Be on the lookout as I share some projects using the products she carries (Lawn Fawn, anyone?). 

Today was highly productive… I took the kids to the zoo for a free and up-close-and-personal look at “underground creatures”, including some very reptilian ones. It will not surprise those of you that know me that I feigned an urgent bathroom need when they brought out the snakes… *shudder*.  Then I engaged my daughter and her friend in some child labor life skills (hulling strawberries with my super-duper cool and you will want one too strawberry huller and then mashing them); made jam, and then made pretzels with the girls once the friend went home. I can’t decide if the cinnamon-sugar or plain ones are my favorite… with plenty of kosher salt!

Thanks for visiting me today!

Jen

Unity’s FWF 6/21 – so this is love

Happy Friday! I’m so excited to once again be linking up with Friends with Flair over at the Unity blog! Last weekend I went to a local shoebox (card making) swap and since we had only 9 women, we had everyone make 2 cards so you could make one and take one from each person.

Last week I shared the first card I made; today is the favorite card reveal:

Basic Grey Kioshi Unity Stamp Co sentiment (so this is love set) ribbon flower PTI plum pudding card stock and ink Gina K ivory card stock

Okay, I should clarify. We did vote on ‘best card.’ This was not the winner, but it is MY favorite and considering I taught several in the group how to make those ribbon flowers AND their own homemade glue dots I’d say this card definitely taught some of the group a new trick or two! And it’s my favorite card. So there. 🙂

I made some with a different (non-Unity sentiment); this card showcases a much better ribbon flower. The above one I was clearly hyped on too much Diet Coke!

Thanks for visiting me today!

Jen

Drunken Stampers challenge 132 – Monty Python

Hello! Saturday has rolled around once again and I’m super excited for today… not only is it the new Drunken Stampers challenge, it’s shoebox swap day! I’m headed to a local shoebox (card) swap where we’ll make and take cards and eat some REALLY yummy food. I should know, I made my famous lemon dream cake for dessert. (Okay, it’s not famous. But family requests it at least twice a year, which I think gives it total edge.) 🙂

The Drunken Stampers theme this week is Monty Python. Yeah… never seen it. All I know is they told me rabbits. I got those! They’re even in my yard getting – as my seven year old says – “a free lunch” from our small container garden. Yeah. Not anymore, bunnies! I raised the containters and they better find a free lunch elsewhere! My children suggested catching them in cages so we could have bunny pets. Um, no.

I love how this My Favorite Things stamp set includes little sentiments that fit right in the heart. SO CUTE.

My Favorite Things stamps Basic Grey paper Gina K and Papertrey Ink cardstock Nesties ovals/scalloped ovals ribbon from stash

Thanks for visiting me today! Hop (haha, get it?) back to the Drunken Stampers blog to upload your own rabbitty creation and see all of the other inspiration projects!!

Jen

OWH MWT – things with wheels; bloghop winner!

Hello there! It’s time for another OWH mid-week challenge and this week’s challenge is to use transportation images. I went right to this fun My Mind’s Eye paper for my card:

MME Away We Go PTI smokey shadow card stock Paper Smooches sentiment chipboard arrow from Basic Grey

This card was inspired by sketch 156, flipped! 🙂

And I’m here to also announce the bloghop winner!

Random.org chose comment number 58, Rufus!

Rufus said…

In my next box, there will be lots of love cards and Hero mail. Can’t have Sandy without!

R/

MAY 25, 2013 AT 9:50 AM 

Please email me at jennifer.mueller409 at gmail dot com to claim your prize. 🙂 A new winner will be chosen after 3 days.

Jen

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