OWH Birthday Challenges

Happy Birthday to Operation Write Home.... and what a way to celebrate... daily challenges to make cards for our heroes, plus last weekend's Virtual Cardmaking Party!   Certainly keeps us busy, as well as providing a lot of inspirational mojo!  I haven't been able to keep up with them, but will share a few of my cards here as we celebrate throughout September.



Challenge #4....Miss you - Love you cards being  sponsored by Inspired Stamps all month long.

Challenge 13 VCMP#3....Unique Christmas - non-traditional colors...hosted by Paper Therapy Ponderings






Challenge #14 VCMP 4..... Pick a number from the OWH sketch list... hosted by Handmade by Julie 
I picked sketch 22 for a Christmas scene.




Challenge #21 VCMP 11....Keep it Clean (CAS) hosted by Sparkle Within..... this can be a Valentine or just a love card.



Challenge#22 VCMP 12.....Daddy's child sponsored by Tami's Craft Connection 

May get around to doing more as the month goes on, so check back later.  Thanks
~~ Dolores ~~

A Winner!

Just had to share the news, as am not used to winning anything.  However, my entry below for the Stamps R Us Kids Birthday Card Challenge #4 made me a winner of the prize, courtesy of Laura.  

So, it is possible and will now spur me on to try entering more challenges.
See you there!?

~~Dolores~~

OWH Birthday Bash

Heard there's a party going on, right?  So, I'm back again to join in on the big Birthday Bash at Operation Write Home.  I haven't been around for a while as, for me, it seems difficult to do very often since I'm still learning about this blogging thingie and it takes me too long to decide what to tell you, then to take the photos that I want to share, and post them here, etc. 

Since it's been such a sweltering summer in these parts, I've been hibernating with my A/C going full blast.  Have lots to keep me from going stir-crazy, not only with my painting, but also devoting evenings to making cards for our heroes and sending them to an Operation Write Home (OWH) shipper to forward on to one of the military units.

This month of September already has been quite a busy one, especially with the big Birthday Bash going on at OWH during the entire month.  There are daily challenges for cards to create for our heroes, with many prizes being offered if the cards are published in a blog and linked to OWH or one of the many sponsors.  This is all so new to me, but I want to join the party with at least a few of the challenges.  So, I'll start by showing you the one I created for the Stamps R Us challenge for a child's birthday card using Elizabeth Dulimba's cute digital stamp of a birthday bear. 

You might like to try it yourself, as even if you are not a card maker, there's a great video here that will lead you through the process of making a simple card. Who knows, you might enjoy trying this, and join the rest of us crafters for this wonderful cause.

I did manage to meet another challenge for the Mid-Week Throwdown to create a happy Halloween card, and here's what I came up with.  This little owl is a Studio G clear stamp.

Well, I have to say I've been busy trying to catch up on a few of these challenges, cause here's another that I managed to do for sketch #34 that was to be a thank you card with yellow in it.

Last but not least, I also met the Family Challenge by Ciara, the OWH mascot.   My talented daughter, Sandy, did some great sketches of Ciara for digital stamps that were free for use in making cards for OWH, and I used this cute one of Ciara sitting beside her snow buddy. 

 

I think that's about all for now, but I'm on a roll here this weekend, and hope to meet a few more challenges that I'll post later.  Am so glad we have until the end of the month to keep creating lots of cards for our heroes.

Thanks for stopping by today, and hope you'll return again to see more in my little corner studio. 

~~Dolores

P.S.  Forgot to mention when I wrote the above, that my thoughts and prayers were with all that were affected by the 9/11 disaster.  We should never forget those that were lost to us and the heroes that resulted from it.  May the Lord bless them all. 

Christmas in July

Hello there.... I'm back, believe it or not, and wishing for Christmas in July!

We are in the midst of a record heatwave here, and Frederick registered 106 degrees F. yesterday, but only 103 today:((  I'm feeling summertime cabin fever and decided it would be a nice diversion to create some wintertime/Christmas cards for our heroes early to keep thinking "cool".  However, first I wanted to make a card using sketch challenge #23, and afterwards found that it also covered the midweek inspiration color challenge.  

This is also one of the images included in the 5-page set of stamped images promised as a surprise gift to one lucky person during the Independence Day blog tour last weekend.  I have made a random pick of all comments received, and the winner is:   Carol L.  I'll be getting in touch with Carol for mailing instructions this week.   I thank everyone for their kind comments and for participating in this blog tour with me.

Before I call it a night here, I'd like to mention that I'll be busy working on some paintings over the next few weeks to get them ready to enter into several shows, so I may not be blogging very often.   But, if anyone is interested in seeing some of them, you won't have to twist my arm to get me to post a few.... maybe even as "works in progress" so I can get your feedback.  I believe I wrote earlier that I do keep busy creating not only cards for our heroes, but paintings in pastel, oil and acrylic and want to share them with you here in my Corner Studio. 

In the meantime, thank you for visiting here, and do check back periodically to see how my work is progressing.   Keep cool....and have a good night.

~Dolores~

Introduction

Hello.... thank you for visiting me here, on my very first blog. Can't believe I'm attempting to do this as it's all so knew to me. I hope you'll be patient as I attempt to share with you my thoughts, stories, photos, artwork, and my latest endeavors in card making.

What really got me to this point was my talented and creative daughter, Sandra...or Sandy as most know her. I have a treasure box full of her handmade cards, but didn't really know much about the Cards for Heroes project that she began some time ago. It has really grown in the past couple of years, so last October I decided to visit Sandy to check it out, and learned so much about it's operation.  In addition, Sandy patiently took me through Cardmaking 101, and I had such fun with it that she sent me home with some supplies to continue. Here's a photo of me with one of the first cards I made with Sandy.

The holidays then were a great inspiration, and knowing it was for such a worthy cause, I really began making cards in earnest. I am now a fan of the Homefront and S&S blogs, and learning so much through them because of all of you out there. It's a world of it's own I've discovered, and I find it hard to keep up with everyone online. But, I'm trying, and hope having this blog will help me even more.

Now, if I can figure out how to do it, I want to show you the card that I made for the recent sketch challenge #22.   I still haven't learned how to keep track of everything I use when designing a card, and can only tell you that I used Paper Co. cardstock base, some polka dot embossed paper, a floral swap image and ribbon from Michael's.

Again, thanks for visiting me here and leaving any comments you'd like to make. Do hope you'll return and see how I'm progressing with this new blog.
Dolores