OWH Top 14 of 2014

2014 has been a whirlwind of a year.  I had to take Summer off from school because my clinical site wasn't approved until classes began and Fall off because I wasn't sure about the internet access I would have while volunteering in South Africa at VulPro. Volunteering for a month with VulPro was just an amazing life altering experience.  I can't tell you how much I want to go back and clean up the Vulture Restaurant (says the vegetarian!).  I had good intentions of sending my small box of cards to Sandy at OWH before my trip, but I just wasn't able too.  But when I returned, that's one of the first things I did and to my amazement, she featured me in an unboxing video! Anyway, to this post.  Sandy wants us to chose our Top 14 cards from 2014, So here's my list:

I think this one is my favorite of all.  Its an OWH fundraiser set.  It's CAS.  And OWLS!

I made this one after taking the Stenciled Online Card Class.  It was a challenge for me to do something abstract with the offset layered pieces.  

Another CAS, but the elephants from Lawn Fawn are just too adorable.

Feathers! 

 Another OWH fundraiser set with this paper is just adorable.

A Patriotic card.  Love this Paper Smooches Eagle. 

I didn't send this one to OWH, but it definitely is in the cards for this year. (ha...see what I did there...in the cards....yeah....)

 This one is a card I created from the Watercolors Online Card Classes.  And Patriotic!

To be honest, I don't really remember making this one.  I was probably enjoying a delicious adult beverage, or 2...At any rate, I love the bright sunshiny colors.

I got this Mama Elephant stamp when it was released so some of the sales proceeds could go to OWH.  And its one of the first cards I jumped on the sequin bandwagon.  

I really like the contrasting stars on this one.  

I totally CASE'd this one, but I used an OWH fundraiser stamp and distressed it a bit and love the rustic look it took. 

I got this Downy Woodpecker stamp and had to immediately watercolor it.  CAS, and an adventure for me to do a realistic watercolor image.

And another Paper Smooches Eagle, but my favorite part are those cork stars.  LOVE!

Thanks for stopping by and running down memory lane with me.  Be sure to stop by the other blogs participating in the HOP and get inspired!

Watercolor Cards

Seems like watercolors are all the rage these days.  I decided to try my hand at a few techniques I saw on Pinterest.

I just swept some similar colors in stripes across some watercolor paper. I Die cut a star and used Hero Arts OWH fundraiser set Year Round Sentiments.

I tried something a bit different with this one.  I wet embossed a feather stamp, heat set then ran some watercolor paint across.  The sentiment is also from Hero Arts Year Round Sentiments.

With this one, I stamped Wplus9 feathers with some Distress Inks and ran a wet brush up to fill the top corner with color.  I used a distress tool on the edges of the square and added some enamel dots.

Thanks for stopping by!

A few OWH Cards

Here are a few cards I've created to fill my OWH box.

Sentiment and owl image is from Hero Arts OWH fundraiser stamp Lil' Hoot and the tree die is from Taylored Expressions.

The Squirrel and sentiment is from Paper Tray Ink 

All feathers are from Wplus9 Fanciful Feathers.

OCC Stenciled Day 1

I decided to take the new Online Card Class: Stenciled.  The first day of class gave so many great ideas and tutorials.  The first I used the misting technique shown by Julie Ebersole, which is one I've never used before.  First, I had to create a mist since I did not have one.  A while back I got some Ranger Misters and used some Distress Ink reinkers to make my mist. I attached my stencil to the cardstock, placed in a cardboard box and sprayed over the stencil.  I think I was a little to heavy on the misting, but I'm happy with the results.

I heat embossed the feather and sentiment (hard to see in the pic) with WOW Metallic Silver embossing powder.  

The feather stamp and "Just a note" sentiment is from Clearly Besotted's Fanciful Feathers.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy New Year!

There is so much to look forward to this year!  In March I'll be attending the National Wildlife Rehabilitators Symposium in Tennessee.  MIL has just about booked our beach vacation in August.  But most of all, I'm going to South Africa!  I am soooooooo very excited! I applied for a grant offered by the Zoo to all keepers to do conservation work.  I'll be working with Old World Vultures with Vulture Conservation Programme (check them out here: VulPro).  Although I've been to Africa twice before, this will be my first time alone, and not strictly as a tourist.

Since it's January, ODBD posted its challenge on OWH and this months challenge is Stripes.  I took a bit of liberty w/ the stripes by creating them with 3 strips of scrap paper.  My inspiration came from Jana Millen's card.

 Here's my card:

Dies: Simon Says Stamps Pointed Feathers

Paper: My Minds Eye Darling Dear

Ink: Distress Ink Iced Spruce, Versacolor Scarlet

Embelishments: MME Smile Enamel Dots, Sekura Glaze Pen

ODBD Challenge for December

Every month, Our Daily Bread Designs posts a challenge on OWH and will donate 2 boxes of shipping for 50 cards posted.  This, month, the challenge is to create a masculine card and here's the card I created.

I used WPlus9's Fanciful Feathers stamps and dies and My Favorite Things Peekaboo Dots die.

OWH Blog Hop for World Card Making Day!

Hey, Y'all! 

Welcome to my stop along the Operation Write Home World Card Making Day Blog Hop!

If you're new to OWH, they are an incredible organization that collects handmade, blank cards from cardmakers across the country and sends them to our troops overseas so they have something beautiful to write to their families in.  Its my way of saying thank you to our troops and supporting them and the country.  My grandfather served in the Navy in WWII, I have a few family members currently enlisted as well as some dear friends and even a few coworkers.

This years theme is to create "Thank You" cards using an
  OWH sketch.

My first card is from Sketch #3. 

And here's my take on it:

I used Simon Says Stamp's Pointed Feather dies and paper from DCWV's La Creme stack.

The sentiment is heat embosed from Hero Arts CL582 set.

For my next card, I chose to use some of my Hero Arts fundraiser stamps and used Sketch #41.

I like the simplicity of the sketch and altered it slightly by moving the front piece to the center.

Here's my take on this sketch:

I inked the edges of the sentiment block and background block.  Used a bit of burlap ribbon and a few My Minds Eye enamel dots.  The stamps were from Hero Arts CL582.

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to check out the rest of the blogs on the way! 

Thank you OWH for hosting this amazing event!

Enjoy! 

Feather Card for OWH

I wanted to create a more rustic card using a negative cut scrap piece from the card I made here. I distressed the edges of the negative cut then inked and distressed the sentiment.  I used a cut of raffia ribbon that I've had forever.  I used 3M dimensional adhesive to the negative cut and sentiment.

Another busy few weeks have flown by.  My second semester of Vet Tech school has come to a close.  But, in just 10 short days, the fall semester begins.  Sheesh!  

After I completed my exams today, I needed to make a card for my Mother-In-Laws birthday, which we'll be celebrating at their lake place tomorrow.  I've been completely obsessed with all the new Feather stamps that are coming out (go figure, right?!).  I had pinned a card a while back that featured feathers, so I CASE'd. 

The original can be found here

And here's my card:

I used Clearly Besotted's Fancy Feathers stamps and Distress Ink in Shaded Lilac, Peacock Feathers, Ripe Persimmon, Mowed Lawn and Picked Raspberry.

Thanks for stopping by!

OWH Sketch #182

I knew exactly what I wanted to do with OWH's Sketch #182 when I saw it. 

I knew those little 5 pieces needed to be feathers. I LOVE My Favorite Things' Right on Target die and stamp set and have been obsessed with feather stamps and dies lately.  All the stamp companies keep coming out with new ones and I just need them all, lol!

Here is what I did with the sketch: 

Thanks for stopping by!

OWH Card and AnyHero Mail

Hi all! Boy, it's been a crazy busy few weeks.  Lots of school work and work events, so I haven't been able to create too much.  I finally had a moment to sit down and work on something. OWH posted a new sketch on Sunday, which was based on the cutest AnyHero letter made by a 7 year old.

Sketch #180: 

And I made this card:

  Paper: Paper Tray Ink Kraft Cardstock, Hobby Lobby color cardstock

Die: My Favorite things Right on Target

Sentiment: Waltzing Mouse Stamps Fine Feathers

We recently held an AnyHero writing party at the Zoo for my coworkers and we got a lot of letters written.  The best part was that the Zoo Camp teachers had the kids write letters and draw pictures and the Teen Volunteers also wrote letters.  They are just amazing!  Kids have no filter and write what they think and the spelling makes it THAT much more special.  I wish my poor spelling skills were appreciated like that, lol.  

 Here are a few camper drawings:

And a sampling of some AnyHero Letters from Zookeepers:

All of the pictures are from our animal collection.  Some drew on the cards, some talked about the animals on the cover and some told jokes that included the animals.