Officially Retired! September 1, 2013 and Operation Write Home Fun

Today is the official beginning of my retirement.  Paperwork has come through.

Today is also the Operation Write Home Blog Virtual Card Making Party.  There are challenges for this weekend.  I had fun making cards for the different challenges.  These cards will go to Operation Write Home to  be sent to soldiers so they can write home to loved ones and friends.

Challenge 1 was to make a Christmas or Winter card with 1" squares.  This is my SU Paper from last year's Festival of Prints pack from the Holiday Mini.

The second challenge was to use the letters OWH in your stamping.  Here is my card.  O=oval  W=wheat H=hemp for the wheat.  This is the set from SU called Truly Grateful stamped in curry and mounted on crumb cake then cherry as the background.  On the background I stamped in versamark using the wood like stamp.

The third challenge was to make frames.  I made my own before the measurements were posted.  I used white and cherry paper.  I stamped with cherry, pumpkin and  baja blue inks and the SU set called Flower Shop.

Challenge 4 was a sketch challenge.  I turned it on its side.  I love these Penny Black characters.  I stamped in memento black ink and colored with Copic markers.  I embossed it with hearts and added bees bringing a letter.  

  

The 5th challenge was to use masking tape on an acrylic block.  I first used blue painter's tape on the acrylic block, then added the masking tape.  I didn't have any problem removing the tape from the block.    I used pumpkin ink with the tape then stamped in espresso for the wheat.  I added the block of color using curry ink.  I used Truly Grateful by SU.

The 6th Challenge was to make a tic-tac-toe card.  I chose the bottom three elements; embossing, kid friendly embellishments, and a thing with 4 legs.  This was fun.  I stamped and left the image uncolored so a child could color it.  The embossing is post marks like you'd see on a passport, on retired SU designer paper.  I used smile face buttons and sparkly red hearts.



Challenge 7 was to make a Fall card.  Curry was my base with fall leaves embossing on the retired turquoise designer paper.  I used the Truly Grateful SU set and the Gently Falling stamp sets.

Challenge 8 was to make a card with a bee and a creative bee sentiment.  Here's mine.  I don't have large bee stamps so I downloaded a clip art image, framed it in black and added my text: Missing My Honey.  This was added to curry cardstock with the honeycomb embossing folder.

Challenge 9 was to make a card using the negative of a die or punch.  My card was stamped with memento black ink and colored with copic markers.  I then added a 2" and 2 1/2" circle opening over the turtle.  I added embossing to make it look like a turtle shell.  I used SU's octogon punch for the greeting.

I also participated in Sketch Challenge #188.

                          

Well that was a lot of fun.  Now I just have to post these on SCS.

Today we invited Tim's Dad over for lunch.  It was a fun time with sandwiches, potato salad, chips and conversation.  It was humid today and I melted outside on the screen porch and eventually told Tim I had to go inside.  He and his dad didn't seem affected by the humidity.

Blessing of the Day: Tim's Dad came to lunch.  Ben, Rachel, Sarah, Tim and I had a great time with grandpa.

Thanks for stopping by.  Maybe you can take a peek at the Operation Write Home site and participate in some of the challenges.

Blessings,