OWH winter challenge & WCMD winners!

Hello!

Today’s Operation Write Home challenge is to make a winter card that uses a nature element. I was completely predictable and chose snowflakes. 🙂 I won two Itty Bitty’s of my choice recently and this was one of my picks – I *adore* it!

Unity Stamp Co sentiment SU crochet trim Sizzix snowflake embossing folder poor attempt at following a sketch… all me!

I’d also like to announce the winners from the OWH World Cardmaking Day Hop this past weekend. Thank you for all of your kind comments!

The paper pads go to:

Ann said…

Jen, what a fabulous story! Thanks for all you do for our heroes. I love how each edition is dedicated to ones who are so deserving. Great job!

OCTOBER 5, 2013 AT 7:56 AM 

And the stamps to:

Colleen said…

What a great story and a way to honor the Heros!

OCTOBER 6, 2013 AT 3:40 PM 

Ladies, please email me at jennifer.mueller409 AT gmail dot com (remove spaces and insert appropriate punctuation) with your mailing addresses, please! 

Thanks,

Jen

OWH Sketch 185 just be you

Hello! Sunday rolled around again and time for another great card sketch from the ladies at Operation Write Home. If you’d like to see what the girls and I wore today for Mass, you can look here. (We’re girly like that. I let them help organize my jewelry box this afternoon.. as in “mommy pulled out all the jewelry looking the right piece and needed to put it all back” and they were two very happy little girls!)

I am trying to use up this My Mind’s Eye happy go lucky paper, but it’s hard. I like this stuff.

This is sketch 185.

MME Happy Go Lucky kraft paper Sizzix button die #5 MME sweetest thing sentiment Twinery twine, Really Reasonable twill ribbon

One of these days, I will get a non-crooked card. Today is apparently not my day…

Jen

LWD design team showcase: Echo Park & Lawn Fawn

Hello! It’s Friday and my first official blog post as a design team member for Lone Wolf Designs. If you haven’t heard of Lone Wolf, be sure to hop over to the Facebook page and check out all of the great brands Kris carries – and you ALWAYS get 25% off MSRP. That’s the kind of deal I like. 🙂

Today I’m showcasing Echo Park and a little Lawn Fawn as well. I snatched up this great EP ‘beautiful life’ 6×6 pad recently, my stacks of other 6×6’s not withstanding. Pretty paper.. I cannot live without my pretty paper!! 

So pretty. And no, I’m not a manicure sort of girl.

So. My first step after flipping through several times was to tear out the papers I most liked and see what combinations jumped out at me. For layering, I used kraft and navy. Hello, Mama was right – basics never go out of style…

So many choices!!

This is so crazy to type, but school starts the day after Labor Day. Each year I give some cards to the teachers as little gift sets – 2 or 3 cards with a tag or two, but I’m perpetually creating them at the 11th hour. No more. I figured a 3 card set and a couple of tags – with an extra to wrap up and tie on the gift – would be a great crafting night project. 

I started with the cards. This one had me wildly thinking for a bit; I didn’t know what to do with those doilies… and then Lawn Fawn’s Jessie’s ABCs to the rescue! Oh my gosh, can I tell you how much I used to HATE alphabet sets? I sold every single set I had because I never used them. And then I went to Scrapfest last year (Mall of America, Bloomington MN, every September. Can you say “girls weekend?”) and saw Kelly Marie of Lawn Fawn in action (if she lived closer we’d have to be stamping buddies. she is the sweetest!), and how EASY these are to use. You just line up the bottom of the individual letters on your acrylic block, and they are perfectly aligned. Genius. It’s pure genius. So I dug ’em out and stamped the “love u”. 

Echo Park beautiful life Nestabilities – labels 8 Lawn Fawn Jessie’s ABCs Tim Holtz Fired brick ink

I don’t normally use ivory as a layer (or white), but I like it here!

A little tape kept the layers from sliding while I figured out where all the pieces were going.

I broke out my dies from my new ArtBin magnetic organizer for this card! Did you see my review? I LOVE THIS THING. Seriously. But not as much as I love my pretty paper, so to keep going…

Then I decided to go for a simpler card. Everyone always needs a card that could work for multiple occasions .. I love these tiny butterflies and they are the perfect backdrop for this Lawn Fawn sentiment. 🙂

Echo Park beautiful life Lawn Fawn Flying By Sizzix buttons 5 die Twinery twine Tim Holtz ink in crushed olive

What, you don’t stamp your sentiment in multiple colors to decide which you like the best? I couldn’t decide!!! Tim Holtz fired brick, victorian velvet, and crushed olive

This sweet floral print was the perfect backdrop to use a doily die – and some more Jessie’s ABCs. I had the ‘o’ upside down originally. One stamp and that was clear – and so I flipped it back around!

Echo Park beautiful life lawn Fawn Jessie’s ABCs Tim Holtz weathered wood ink Nestabilities small circles dies Quickutz doily die ribbon from stash

Yeah, that o is upside down!!

Fixed!!

So pretty! LOVE this color scheme!

And I am my father’s daughter, right? I needed to create some coordinating tags to use up all of the scraps I while making cards. 🙂 For me, taking the smaller pieces and finding a fun design is such fun. This was the first one I made:

Echo Park Beautiful Life Lawn Fawn Clear to See We R corner chomper Tim Holtz fired brick ink

And then I made this one! I took two different sentiments from the Lawn Fawn Stay Tuned set to create the sentiment. I LOVE how easy it is to do that with Lawn Fawn stamps.

Echo Park beautiful life Lawn Fawn Stay Tuned Jillibean Soup faux button, Twinery twine Tim Holtz walnut stain ink

Walnut Stain…aside from Antique Linen, it’s my go-to ink color. Please pardon the mess. It’s controlled chaos.

Trying to figure out where it all goes.

I love this tiny set. I love most of LF’s tiny sets. 🙂 I used the “tuning in to say” and the “you rock” together to create my custom sentiment.

This one was a total cleaning-up-putting-away-inspiration-strikes-get-it-all-back-out tag. Do you ever have moments like that?

Lawn Fawn Clear to see Echo Park beautiful life Marvy Uchida GB684 Tim Holtz walnut stain Twinery twine

I can’t wait to use up the rest of this 6×6 pad! I hope I’ve inspired you today!

You can find these and many more products for your crafting projects at 25% off MSRP at Lone Wolf Designs, LLC. All you have to do is join the Lone Wolf Designs Discount Craft Supplies Facebook Group. If you haven’t joined us yet, you are paying too much for your craft supplies!

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 sketch 168 – you are my world

Hello there! Pardon my recent absence; between our spur of the moment trip to Florida (heat! sun! princesses at every turn!) and then the adjustment of being back home and back to normal routines (school, cold, snow, ice, more snow), we tossed in another trip for my husband and a cold for my oldest and well, I’m stuck here at home for now. Can’t take a sick kid to Mass… or anywhere else, really.

On the upside, the house is pretty clean, I’ve counquered the laundry and made lots of cards. 🙂

This is Operation Write Home sketch 168. I bought this pack of 12×12 paper in a pack of 25 sheets for 1.99 at a local dollar store. I love it but 25 sheets is a LOT, you know? So I am glad to see sketches where I can easily create multiples. 🙂

Hero Arts for OWH sentiment Sizzix plaid embossing folder Distress inks in brushed curduroy, walnut stain, antique linen Gina K cardstock – ivory and carob cream

Thanks for visiting me today! 🙂

Jen

Unity’s FWF 2-15; Sarah & Jen Feb. challenge

Hello and happy Friday! Today is a two-fer; it’s Unity’s Friends with Flair AND the February blogger challenge with my good friend Sarah! We have two challenges each month; the first challenge is Sarah’s (be sure to visit her blog for her creative project) and it’s a color challenge to use red, white, and black only.

Do you ever have a crafting session where you think you can’t make a decent card for the life of you? Yeah, that was me trying to make this card.

Anyhow:

Unity’s Best Place to Be itty bitty, Hearty Barley (heart) Bazzill card stock in blackberry swirl and pomegranate splash Sizzix hearts embossing folder, white ink, black ink, corner chomper This is OWH sketch 115

This weekend Operation Write Home is having a virtual card making party (vcmp) in honor of President’s Day weekend. You might want to check it out. 🙂

Jen

Unity’s FWF 2/8/13

Hello, hello! It’s Friday. All day long yesterday I thought it WAS Friday already. However, I got my hair cut AND I got to go out to a late dinner and drinks with a good friend. We haven’t been able to catch up much with all the sickness going ’round… whenever we plan something, someone gets sick. 😦

It’s time to link up for Unity’s Friends with Flair, and I of course have my card ready. (Be sure to hop back to the Unity blog and check it all out!)

Voila!

Unity’s Sew Cute sentiment Cosmo Cricket Material girl dp; Gina K cardstock Sizzix button die, Twinery twine, Momento bamboo leaves ink

This sketch is the Cards in Envy sketch and so I’m lilnking it up there as well. Thanks for visiting me today! 

Jen

OWH sketch 157, the Paper Players sketch 130

Hello there on this snowy Sunday! We got sleet, some tiny hail, and lots of snow today. I’m headed out to shovel in just a sec; I put my girls to bed a few minutes ago and my oldest asked yet again if tomorrow will be a snow day. I don’t think so, but you just never know! 🙂

Today is sketch day, both at Operation Write Home and the Paper Players. First up sketch 157 from The Stars and Stamps blog:

Basic Grey Hopscotch papers Ocean Tides (PTI) and Dark Chocolate (Gina K) cardstock unknown stamp set; glossy accents, foam tape Divine Swirl embossing folder, Nesties labels 18

And then a new challenge for me, over at the Paper Players blog. I think I will become a regular there, I like their challenges a lot!! 🙂 This is sketch 130:

Cosmo Cricket material girl papers Gina K dark chocolate cardstock Stamp: Unity Stamp Co Sizzix button die, Twinery twine, We R sew stamper

That’s all for me – gotta go shovel. 🙂 See you later this week and thanks so much for visiting me today!

Jen

OWH sketch 153 – buh-bye, winter!

Well, theoretically speaking, of course. Here in Wisconsin it’s a winter wonderland and will be for months yet. 🙂  I’m getting my box ready to mail to Kris @ OWH with the last of the winter cards plus a bunch more general ones. Today’s sketch over at the Operation Write Home blog is super and I couldn’t resist one more snowman card.

It was tough, though. My husband did a little Facebook research and bought me a bunch of Unity Stamp sets and a stack of Bazzill paper for Christmas. Imagine my surprise… he even checked my stash and made sure I didn’t have those sets already. Yup, he IS the best and NO, he has no unmarried brothers. 🙂 So stay tuned for more Unity creations to come! 🙂

Here it is; I think this qualifies as a kid card too. I left off all sparkles and went with some glossy accents for the hat and a torn edge for snow.

Echo Park dp, Paper Smooches swanky snowdudes Sizzix snowflake embossing folder with white ink makers & glossy accents

Thanks for looking! See you on Tuesday with my top favorite cards of 2012, a giveaway, and a challenge buddy announcement. 🙂

Jen

GIU – day 2

Tuesday already! Yesterday flew by with doctor’s appointments and several lost things, thanks to my newly-turned three year old. “Tabby, have you seen mommy’s phone?” In the doll bin. While she napped, I searched high and low for SIX gift cards. Turns out I had slightly misplaced two of them, but only after I called the store where I purchased them to see if I had left the other four them behind did she tell me that those, too, were in the doll bin. ARRGH! Today we need to finish wrapping gifts. Stay tuned, this week I will have some holiday gift card holders and tags to show you! 🙂

Don’t forget to come by every day and comment to win! Unity will give away two Itty Bitty’s of your choice and I will be giving away some random Unity stamps as well. 🙂

Today’s card is one I made for my oldest daughter’s teacher. I’m enclosing a few blank cards with the rest of her Christmas gift. I figure the one card that people always need is a thank you card. Am I right??? 

Unity’s Dec. 2011 KOM (jar) and Sew Cute set sentiment My Mind’s Eye dp buttons, cut with Sizzix die buttons #5

Thanks for visiting me again today! 

Jen