Fabulous Friday Fun — Swap Afoot from Bazzill Basics

Oh, I want to play! Here’s a fun interactive project for cardmakers from Bazzill Basics. A ginormous swap using BB papers and a special starter kit.

Here’s the skinny:

1. Send $5 to cover postage and handling and receive:

• 5 sheets of 8.5×11 Bazzill Card Shoppe cardstock for card makers (cut in half to make a total of ten A2 cards).
• 24-sheets of 6×6 patterned paper in a variety of half-scale designs.

2. Use the goodies to make ten cards for Bazzill’s Wayfarer Card Swap, going on now. Mail in your creations and get ten other cards from swappers.  For more info and to register to play, visit: http://swaps.bazzillbasics.com/ Offer available through July 15, 2012. Patterns and colors may vary. Allow 2 to 3 weeks for shipping.

3.  Mail to: Card Swap Starter Kit, Bazzill Basics Paper, 7001 W. Erie St., Ste. 2, Chandler, AZ 85226.  U.S. addresses only.

Not convinced yet? Check out this pretty card from Tricia Berry:

Oh, why did I wait so long to send in my $5? I want my papers NOW!!!!

Stay tuned for some Fabulous Fun Finds … is it too early to start prepping for Halloween?

More Cards for Soldiers

A quick post … with more cards I made to send to Operation Write Home.

As I did with earlier cards, I was looking for a generic card with multiple uses. This congratulations stamp from Close To My Heart fit the bill nicely.

(Dotted folder from Cuttlebug; washi tape from Elmer’s. Love how the texture even works with the washi tape, a technique I saw on Lisa Spangler’s blog… she has the cutest ideas, you must check her out and look at her pretty cards here! )

Now here’s a bright card, below!

The beautiful, bright cardstock is from Die Cuts With A View, Silky Smooth Brights. The pink piece was embossed using a Lifestyle Crafts folder, then sanded lightly to bring out the white core; the blue piece was cut using a Spellbinders Nestabilities. The flowers are from Hero Arts, the sentiment from Technique Tuesday.

And last…. Love this cute camera paper from Die Cuts With a View — can you see the subtle sparkle on the cameras? The top was embossed using a Lifestyle Crafts folder; the sentiment is by Hero Arts. I stamped and embossed it on DCWV bright yellow Silky Smooth paper, but it was too bright. So I swiped on some Ranger Picket Fences Distress stain, then wiped it off the black-embossed sentiment. The easy border is Bazzill Basics’ Just the Edge selection. Just cut and glue!

Thanks for stopping by!

Winner!

Thanks, everyone, for commenting on the coolness of cardmaking! The paper giveaway winner (chosen by jotting names on paper then having the hubster pick one) is Jane! You get this yummy paper stack from We R Memory Keepers, which is soliciting cards to send to troops. Congratulations Jane! I will be contacting you via e-mail for your mailing address. I hope you make some cool cards and submit them to the We R Memory Keeprs contest, and send them on to Operation Write Home. Don’t forget, there are still plenty of prizes at the We R Memory Keepers site.

Thanks for playing!

Cards for Soldiers

Last Friday I posted some info on Operation Write Home — an organization that sends handmade cards to troops so they can send cards home. I am also having a We R Memory Keepers paper give-away on my blog (deadline for entries is Father’s Day. See my Friday blog for more details.)

Anyhoo…. I have made a bunch of cards to send to WRMK and Operation Write Home. Here are a few:

Many soldiers have children back home, so I wanted to make some child-centric cards. I thought it would be fun to make some “interactive” cards — cards that children can color! (It didn’t hurt that I just got some gorgeous bright papers from Die Cuts With a View!) So I ran few sheets through various embossing folders (the pink embossed design is from Lifestyle Crafts), stamped some owls (Hero Arts) and a two-word instruction (hee hee … stamped with a tiny Hero Arts alphabet set). Fast, easy, and I hope fun!

Here’s the boy version:

Almost all the same stuff, but the embossing folder is by Sizzix (maybe a Tim Holtz design?).

One more color-me-in design:

This was a fun background. I started with a diagonal embossing folder (Lifestyle) and then turned the folder so that I created a cross-hatch pattern on the top half. Here’s a close-up:

Isn’t that fun? The elephant is an old one from Magenta …. the sentiment also an old one from Hero Arts.

Thanks for coming by!

Fabulous Fun Friday — Operation Write Home

Have I got a fun blog post today! (Prize alert! Scroll down!)

Many of you know about Operation Write Home, an organization that collects cards to send to troops so THEY can write to family and friends back home. I love this group. Contributing is a great way to do something good, be creative and stamp, stamp, stamp.

This month the incentive to make cards is even greater because …. wait for it … We R Memory Keepers™ is trying to collect 50,000 cards to contribute. And there are prizes.

The deadline to submit cards for the contest is midnight, Tuesday, July 24, 2012. 

Did I mention prizes? There are chances to win goodies each week on WRMK’s Facebook page. At the end of the contest, WRMK staff will pick the top 50 cards to be voted on by the company’s Facebook fans.

The top 25 cards will receive a Power Punch
Top 10 cards will receive a Lucky 8 Punch
Top 5 cards will receive a Love 2 Craft collection
The top card receives up to $1,000 in WRMK product (prize value for top card will depend on the number of cards collected)

For more submission guidelines and more info, visit their website: http://www.weronthenet.com/Operation_Write_Home

Do visit the Operation Write Home™ site (www.operationwritehome.org) to see the card making guidelines — there are some restrictions on what you can send.

So… who wants to play? To get you started, We Are Memory Keepers is giving away a “Stack Pack” to one of my blog readers. Leave a comment by the end of Father’s Day (appropriate, yes? It’s June 17, midnight). Tell me why making cards for others is a great idea!

Look at this fun prize: (Think how many cool cards you can make from this stack!)

I’m going to make some cards soon, and I’ll be sharing.

Thanks for stopping by … and happy card making!

Setting a Mood with Color

There are several factors that set the mood for a card. Image, design and… maybe most importantly … color.

Bright colors seem festive while darker colors can denote different scenes and moods. Often, when I’m playing with an image, I will stamp it over and over, trying various colors, embossing powders, papers, etc. I’m a serial stamper! The good news is, I often have a stash of cards made at one sitting. Perfect for giving as a gift set.

Today I want to show a series of cards I made using only color to change the look — and mood — of a card.

My apologies for using an image (Bamboo Lake) from Kodomo, a company that is no longer around. Sad sigh. I loved their images. But there are several similar Asian images around.

The background on this (and most of these) was brayered on glossy cardstock using Kaleidacolor Autumn rainbow inkpad. I have had my Kaleidacolor (Tsukineko) pads forever and love them because the colors are separated. To use, you simply push the little tab in and the colors come together. My Kaleidacolor pads must be at least 10 years old!

The image is black embossed.

The pretty pastel pad changes the look — and placing the panel on a white card keeps it crisp.

Now I’m ready to try gold embossing:

This one also used the Autumn Leaves inkpad, but I concentrated on the other end of the pad, giving me a slightly different color combo. (Background also Kodomo, stamped in Ancient Page Sandlewood ink.)

Mixing it up a bit, I brayered Ranger’s Adirondack Mountain Lake (another pad I’ve had for ages!). Did you notice that the color lines run vertical on this one?) Bamboo lake is embossed in copper powder.

This one photographed darker than it really is… you can’t really see the subtle silver in the background paper or clearly see the silver embossed scene. The ink is Adirondack Winter Sky.

I love embossing in white on dark backgrounds! I used Adirondack Mountain Lake again.

This last entry is called “Ghost Lake” because the image was stamped on colored cardstock using Jacquard’s Castaway pad. This is not really an ink, but a color remover — sort of like bleach but without the stink and much easier to use!

Thanks for stopping by!