celebrate the 4th - pub

Hey, there! Holy cow, it's been over a week since I last posted! I'm just so busy enjoying our summer break while I can that I keep running out of time to blog. The kids will start school on the 8th and this year, I'll be teaching ALL FOUR. Yes, my baby will start pre-K. *sob, sniff sniff* I guess I can't really call her may "baby" anymore, can I? :(

I digress. :) Here's a card that I made for a 4th of July pub assignment for SNR. I wanted to make a card with a sort of "flag" look to it, and this is what evolved:



Some stars are white embossed on blue card stock and then cut out and mounted on pop dots. The rest were stamped directly on the card with navy ink. The "Celebrate" panel was stitched on my machine and then the sentiment was stamped in between and heat embossed. It's different, but I think I like it. :)

I did manage to find some time to stamp this past week (used my new Hero Arts CLiNGS!), but my pics aren't coming out too well thanks to being so overcast these last few days. But one way or another, I'll post them soon.

Can't believe it's Friday already... hope you have a great weekend! And thanks for reading!

SUPPLIES: all stamps are Hero Arts (Galaxy of Stars with miscellaneous stars from other random sets, and All Occasion Messages for the sentiment), inks are SU! craft (white) and Versamagic (navy), white EP, machine stitching, Hero Arts star gems, and pop dots.

another card for CFH (featured on the Hero Arts blog)

Hello! Hope you (U.S. friends) had a great holiday weekend! :) Here's a card that was featured on the Hero Arts blog yesterday that I'll also be sending off to Cards For Heroes. It's a Father's Day card with an obviously patriotic theme (click to see details):



I stamped the Thanks Definition stamp on white card stock, trimmed it, and glued it to the Crimson note card. Then I trimmed a kraft note card, punched one end with a square punch, ran it through my crimper, and positioned it over the definition with pop dots. The blue "frame" was done with two different-sized square punches: first a smaller punch was used on the blue card stock, then I turned the larger punch upside down so I could see the card stock inside it. I positioned the larger square over the smaller square punched area, and punched! Voila... perfect frame. :) You could also do this with some square Nesties, if you have them. The rest of the card is pretty self-explanatory, I think.

Well it's Wednesday, and that means I have another Thrifty Thursday deal to share with you! :) This really is such a rockin' deal... TWO sets of stamps (valued at about $20 EACH) for just $11 + shipping. You can find the stamp sets HERE.

Or, you can head on over to the Hero Arts blog for some more cards from my fellow Hero Hostess and a FABULOUS card and video from the great Jennifer McGuire. The theme/challenge this week is manly cards. A lot of people say they have trouble with them, but you're sure to be inspired by all of the wonderful ideas the Hero Arts blog has for masculine cards this week! Check it out! :)

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Have a good one!

SUPPLIES: Hero Arts stamps (Galaxy of Stars, Thanks Background, and Happy Greetings), Hero's kraft and Crimson note cards, blue and white card stocks, Blue Iris chalk ink, SU! craft ink, white embossing powder, Fiskars crimper, Hero Summer button, thin jute, and pop dots

Cards For Heroes Memorial Day blog hop!

Hey, there! Welcome to another stop on the Cards For Heroes Memorial Day blog hop! :) If you happen to be stopping by randomly, be sure to go HERE to start at the 'top of the hop'. There are SO many wonderful creations to see... you won't want to miss a single one! :)

Cards For Heroes is a wonderful, WONDERFUL organization that sends handmade cards to our troops overseas... either as a thank you to them for their amazing dedication and sacrifice, or as blanks for them to send to their own families and loved ones. Check out the Cards For Heroes homepage HERE to find out how YOU can get involved, either through card making or monetary donations to go toward shipping.

Not many people know this about me (probably because it was so long ago), but my Dad was in the military... the Air Force, to be exact. He was an expert avionics communication technician stationed in the Philippines. Basically, he built and/or fixed the radios and communication equipment on the fighter planes. So any efforts to support our nation's military definitely touches my heart personally. :)

And just to let you know how much of a difference CFH is making in the lives of our soldiers, just check out THIS PAGE... emails and notes of gratitude from soldiers for all that CFH has done and meant to them and their families. I dare you to read a few and not get teary-eyed. ;)

Anyhoo, here's my card (click to see larger):



The star was stitched using one of those shaped plastic canvases (thanks, Cindi!) found in the needlepoint section of your local craft store. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes... and they're super cheap! Like maybe a buck or less? After using the template to pierce my design, I just used plain ol' embroidery floss to stitch the stars. The rest is pretty simple... a nice sentiment and some heat embossed stars that were cut out and pop dotted randomly. I hope it brings a smile to a soldier's face! :)

WE LOVE YOU, TROOPS! Thank you for all that you do for us, every single day. HOOAH! :)

And now, on to the next stop in the blog hop:

Diary of a Crazy Redhead!

She's a fantastic writer! You'll be sure to enjoy reading her posts and seeing her creations. :)

Thanks to you all for stopping by! I hope you were inspired to do something to show your support for our troops. Make a card or make a donation... either one will mean more than you could ever know. :)

Have a beautiful, blessed Memorial Day!

SUPPLIES: Hero Arts kraft note card, SU! card stock, VersaMagic chalk ink, SU! white pigment ink, DMC floss, needlepoint star template, Hero Arts sentiment (CL286) and heat embossed stars (CL318), and pop dots