OWH Memorial Day Blog Hop

Welcome to my stop on this wonderful Memorial Day Week-end Bloghop! If you are following the hop you should have arrived here from Stephanie's blog, SeaSteph's Creations. If you arrived some other way please feel free to start at the beginning of the hop at the OWH blog!

I have always felt a connection with Memorial Day, probably because my birthday is May 28th. I am also a Veteran, married to a soldier that is deployed overseas this year. I so appreciate those who serve and have served in our Armed Forces to keep our great nation safe and free. My deepest and heartfelt thanks goes out to you.

I also appreciate those families that serve and sacrifice, giving loved ones to our military; providing the stability and strength that our military members require in order to serve wherever our nation sends them. Thank you!


On my card I used Our Daily Bread Designs' God Bless America, using the Pyramid technique that I learned from Sherry Cleever's blog. It may be difficult to see, but the flag is made up of four layers. (You can click on the picture to see it bigger.) I colored the flag using watercolor pencils, baby oil and a blending stump.

The sentiment is from Verve's Heartfelt Phrases. I thought this sentiment appropriate. (I think I'll tuck this card into the box I am readying for my husband!)

For the tag I used one of the Nestabilities Trio Tags. I wanted it to stand out from the flag and after a bit of experimenting used a blender pen on the inside of the Nestability, quickly put my paper in place and ran it through my CB. Once cut, I put it in a fine black embossing powder. After I heated the EP I had to fill in the areas the powder didn't stick and reheat. I eventually got this tag.

I threaded some thin black organdy ribbon through the tag and put it all together. I still needed something and ended up adding some Diamond Stickles to the stars.

I hope you have enjoyed my card, feel free to leave a comment as reading your comments makes it all worthwhile. Now hop over to Dawn's blog, The Chatty Stamper. For some reason Blogger will not allow me to embed the link to Dawn's blog, so here it is: http://thechattystamper.blogspot.com/2010/05/owh-memorial-day-blog-hop-2010-give-way.html Please cut and paste if this still won't link, you don't want to miss Dawn's wonderful artwork!

Farewell Gifts

My DH's boss's wife is one of those special people. And I totally mean that in a wonderful way. She is one of the most genuine people I have ever met. Well, they will be leaving soon for their next assignment. MG Gould will become the next Air Force Academy Superintendent. That is good news for them, but sad for us. For Paula's farewell we brought gifts to fill a basket and I decided to make her some cards that she will be able to put to good use. I made three each of these two designs. I stamped the envelops to match, but unfortunately I was in a hurry to wrap them and leave for the party and didn't get a picture of them with envies. Oh well, at least I was able to scan one of each.

The first uses a new background I received from Rubbernecker called Flourish. I loved it's playful elegance, (is that possible?) The sentiment is from Verve called Jeremiah 29:11. I wish I could see Paula's face when she sees these cards, as I am sure she will appreciate them. I used my Clear atyou Spica pen to highlight "plans", "the LORD", "prosper you", and "hope and a future". The edges are all distressed. You know my thinking was that this card would be great for someone in distress, thus the distressed edges. . . . Yes, that is the way my brain works sometimes.
I didn't get a picture of the inside, but I added a layer of Lovely Lilac, distressed edges and masked a rectangle in the center and stamped the background in VersaMark.

Stamps: Flourish background (RubberNecker), Jeremiah 29:11 (Verve); Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento), Clear atyou Spica pen; Paper: Basic Black, Lovely Lilac; Accessories: distress tool (SU).

This next card uses Cornish Heritage Farms' Hometown Pride from their Thomas Kinkade line of stamps. (Thank you so much to CHF! I won this stamp during one of their release parties!) I do wish that CHF would offer this line unmounted. *sigh*

I do want to state upfront that this is pretty much a complete CASE of this card on SCS by stampwithkristine. She has a beautiful gallery! The sentiment is by A Muse from a set called Hero Mail. This is an awesome stamp set!! I used my oval & scallop oval Nesties for the sentiment layer. I used my T!m Holtz ruler for the paper piercing. TIP: I used my Onare paper piercing tool and it worked so much better than my piercing tool from my Crafter's Tool Kit (SU)! I also added just a couple short strips of Herma Dotto Removable onto my Ruler to help keep the paper in place. Truth be told, it was so much easier after I started using the Onare piercing tool. I used my Copic Markers B24 and R29 for the flag. I used my double rectangle punch (SU) to punch the bottom to weave my ribbon along the bottom.


Stamps: Hometown Pride (CHF), Hero Mail (A Muse); Ink: Rich Cocoa (Momento), Real Red, Copic Markers B24 & R29; Paper: Ballet Blue, Real Red, Whisper White; Accessories: Oval & Scallop Oval Nestabilities, double rectangle punch (SU), Grosgrain Ribbon (SU), Tim Holtz Ruler, Onare Paper Piercing Tool.