Operation Write Home ~ Blog Hop 2010

This Memorial Day weekend highlights the OperationWrite Home blog hop.

Operation Write Home is an organization which creates hand-made cards for deployed soldiers.   I happened across the site last year while visiting fellow crafting bloggers.   What a great idea to send a card to let our soldiers know that we are thinking about them and appreciate their courage and sacrifice.  "THANK YOU", from all of us to you.

As an added bonus to this special blog hop, I'll be selecting one lucky winner to receive a set of the "Seeing Stars" stamp set from SU!  To be eligible, you simply need to select the Follow Me on my Google reader or leave a comment here at this post by the end of the day Sunday.  A randow winner will be selected Monday, Memorial Day.  Take a look at all the fabulous stars included: 

If you've already been hopping along, then you've probably come from The Love of Stamping blog. If not, that's OK, you can start here and keep going. If you get lost, simply go back to the home page HERE.

Here's my first card, a sample using the Seeing Stars images.  With the 4th of July just around the corner, it's a great set to have and works equally well for Christmas, birthdays and backgrounds for collages.

I'm a big fan of patriotic colors, especially when they're folk art style.  Here I have some grungy stars and stripes paper layered with cheesecloth, dyed fabric and metal stars. 

A little close-up of the star and fabric piece.

Here's another grungy background paper with paper and fabric embellishments.  The text on the craft colored paper is the new 'Red, White & Blue" wheel from SU!.  It's wheeled in Navy ink.  The folk art star is an old SU! punch but I thought given then folk art colors, it would work best.  A little stitching along the stars (more folk art touches).

This lace strip came from the Dollar Store.  I stained it with walnut ink!

 

Now,  hop on over to Cindyscardco and check out her patriotic samples.  Enjoy the rest of the hop!

Patriotic Treat Basket

Remember this little treat basket video I created last year?  I've gone ahead and created a PDF for those who needed a bit more detail on putting it together. You can find the PDF on the Pockets Of Inspiration.NING site at THIS post, (but you must first become a member).  It's a free download for anyone interested.

Be sure to checkout my post for the "Operation Write Home" blog hop Saturday May 29th.  Over 130 blogs will be offering card ideas with a red, white and blue them.  All blogs participating are allowed to offer blog candy, tutorials and anything the blog owner chooses to offer.

Tour de Freaks ~ May 2010

It's time for another Tour de Freaks.  The tour doesn't officially start till May 20th, so if you're here to view my post, make sure you check back so you can view the tour in all its glory.

If you've already started the tour, then you've probably come from viewing  Dawn Olchefske blog and her fabulous creations.

This month, I've created some very patriotic projects.  Here's something that can be used as a table decoration, or better yet, to brighten up those gray office cubicles.  All text that you see is from the "Red, White & Blue" jumbo wheel.  SO much versatility if you just ink up the text you want and wheel it out.  It's like 15 extra stamp sets for free!

The basket uses the new Lattice embossing folder.  Having this container textured REALLY made a difference. 

Are you curious about the basket?  It's the egg template basket from Stampin' Up!  I'll post the pattern on the 21st for those interested.

The next project uses the new jumbo wheel in the traditional way, simply wheeled and mounted.

The stars are from the Seeing Stars stamp set.  What would fit more than this patriotic wheel?

Below I tied a little mini vintage tag, also from the Summer mini and embellished it with cardstock layers.

I hope you've enjoyed my projects.  Now, hop on over to Janine Tinklenberg's blog by selecting the button below to view her VERY creative projects!

Patriotic Colors

It's been a while since I've created a mosaic. Being that I'm out of town for a while (and no access to upload my personal images/samples) I created this colorful spread for the upcoming July 4th holiday.

Enjoy.

Melanie




1. Patriotic Pillars, 2. A patriotic house in Annapolis, 3. Patriotic Bug!, 4. Stripes and Stars Cake, 5. July Display ~ Patriotic, 6. Red White & Blue, 7. Red, White and Blue, 8. crafting 365/ Day 82, 9. Red, white, and blue button socks, 10. Red, white and blue, 11. Red, white and blue boat, 12. Red White Blue, 13. Red White Blue, 14. Red White Blue, 15. red white & blue to remember - may 29, 2006, 16. Red, White, Blue and Green, 17. Red White & Blue, 18. Red and White Under Blue, 19. Red, White, and Blue!, 20. Patriotic Altered Hang Tags, 21. Patriotic Picnic ~ June Design Project, 22. Patriotic bunting, 23. Americana, 24. Patriotic Tussy Mussy RED WHITE BLUE 4th Fourth of July Glitter!, 25. Patriotic in Celebration, Florida

Patriotic arts

I've been working on some 4th of July projects. These were super easy to make with the help fo some chipboard, designer paper and punches.

The small red star at the top is simply designer paper covering a star chipboard. The navy stars were created by tracing the stencil that remained once I removed the initial chipboard star. I find by tracing the inside of your chipboard stencils you get a much better fit to cover your peice.

The bright red star on top of the Nayv and the little white star on top of that were both created using my Stampin' Up! star punches. These are peices I'm using for an upcoming class in June at the Whole Food market. I've even painted a pot to match!




I purchased this cute wooden Liberty heart at a local antique shop (although...I'm sure it is not antique). It was the perfect inspiration for creating the cardstock covered chipboard heart over on the left. I finished off the entire peice by rubbing my white craft pad on top. The small white stars is from a Christmas stamp set I purchased earlier in the year. Just goes to show how versatile rubberstamps really are.

Creative Cards

Well, the weekend is almost over. I spent hours catching up today on my papercrafts. First I tried to mimic the card Judy created in my previous post. You can see what I came up with below.



Here's a spin on the project. What do you think of the Ultra Fine Cosmo Glitter around those flowers? That is the 5 Petal Flower punch I cut in half for a different look.



My next project was working on Chipboard. Stampin' Up! is having a big promotion in the Month of May and I want to make sure everyone has ideas for using their chipboard. Most of my creations were geared toward the 4th of July and Patriotic colors. The past two years I have taken an interest in the red, white and blue patriotic colors. In fact, last year I took tons of photos with the patriotic theme of objects I came across. I'll be sharing those photos as the 4th nears (possibly sooner). Until then, here's a glimpse of what I worked on today. More photos to follow tomorrow so make sure you come back to see.

The tool I'm using here distresses the edges of cardstock. Each of the crevices on the grey wheel has a tiny blade for slightly shredding the edges. The other two tools are for scoring and a rotary cutter.

Lastly, I wandered out to the garden today to take a break between crafting. I photo my garden each year in hopes of making a Garden Album of some sorts. Maybe I'll get to that this year.

That should do it. I'll be back tomorrow to share my other chipboard projects. Hope to see you then.