More "love" & "miss you" type of cards....with a patriotic paper/color scheme---from a OWH sketch.  I made two cards of each of the samples I will show.....so a total of 6 cards in this set.  They're fairly similar....just different embellies/sentiments.  I like how they turned out, and hope that our heroes do, too!   Thanks for looking, and commenting if you have the time. 

So here's a pic of the group of the 6 of them:

 

Also, today, in order to not seem partial, I will post a couple shots of our other kitty: Sissy! She's so very "cat-like" in comparison to our other cat (seen in yesterday's post). Sissy likes people when SHE's interested in them, has the cat instincts for hunting/playing/wanting to escape to the outside and eat grass (which she's not supposed to do!) etc.

New cards from a couple of days ago~~~

I worked concessions at the Salt Dogs baseball games this weekend with my daughter to fund raise for the Cheer Leading trip to the Alamo Bowl.  Because of that, I didn't have a chance to get these new cards on here.   I really love how the "LOVE" cards came out (I made 3 of these same cards).  I used my cricut Lacy Labels cartridge to die cut the "LOVE" part, added some distress inks (Tim Holtz, either tumbled glass or broken china---can't remember!), used my Texture Boutique with the Swiss Dots embossing folder, prima flowers with blue Dazzles from Paper Wishes in the centers, and ribbon from my stash! 

Looks like this guy wants in on some card making action!  This is one of our two cats, Gizmo, all splayed out across my little crafting table!  He's the fluffiest and softest can you will ever know.  Love him, and his sister, Sissy!  (I'll do a pic of her sometime soon).   Thanks for looking and sharing any comments you might have!  I'm looking for advice on how to pack up my cards to ship off for the first time to OWH.  I have about 40 cards now, and hope to add a few more today.....

Back at home, missed my crafting!   So, I did some more cards for Operation Write Home (OWH).  There was a call put out for more "love" and "miss you" cards, so that's what I did! 

First 3 are "love" cards....each seen alone and then together as a group.

Then this is the group of 3 that I did that are "miss you" cards....

 This one has the green rick-rack trim and the other 2 look alike and have lavender rick-rack trim, as seen below.   Pretty quick and simple cards....makes me want a stamp that says "missing you" rather than "miss you"

 This is a card I did for my daughter's friend's b-day....sweet 16 obviously!

and then just a simple "hi" card....using my texture boutique with the swiss dots embossing folder.

Thanks for looking!   Glad to be back home with the rest of my family, whom I missed dearly!  And back to crafting, which I so enjoy doing. 

Day 2 & 3 of our extended weekend trip.  Day 1 was ziplining and on Days 2 & 3 we got to the reason why I came here---the whole reason for being here:  White Water Rafting.   Here are a few pics of our first time ever of WWR....

This first day of rafting was a beginner's lesson on Clear Creek in the Idaho Springs area of Colorado....just about 30-40 minutes west of Denver.  This usually has rapids classified as 2's and 3's (on a white water scale of 1-6) but, sadly for us, the water level this year is at record lows due to minimum snow last winter which equals less "melt" and mountain run-off.  So these rapids were only in the "2" category and, although it was still fun, it wasn't much of a thrill of a ride.  Because of that, we booked an intermediate trip the following day on the Arkansas River down through the Royal Gorge, out of Canon City, CO.  This place had many rapids in the 3's and 4's!   Much more exciting!  It was a couple hours drive each way from where we were, but then we got to do some "real" rafting so it was worth it!   There are two other people with us on this trip (they're the couple in front) and you see me in the middle on the left and Emily in the middle on the right. 

This was Loads of Fun! and I'm very glad I finally got to experience this and that no one fell out of the raft on our trip  ;-)  Another thing I can now check off of the bucket list.....

No new cards to display:   I have been away on an extended weekend in Colorado!  As hubby can attest to, I have fantasized and dreamed about white water rafting (WWR) for several years now.  In fact, a few years back our whole family went to Estes Park, CO and I tried to sign us up to WWR.  Well, that was a bad time to try and do it:  record high water levels with some fatalities and high minimum age requirements to participate (Emily wasn't old enough!).  Probably better for all of us that we didn't get to do it then.  Skip to now:  I've considered, thought about, and now have finally jumped in to DO IT!  Here's a couple pics of our ziplining experience.  We're only here for 3 days, and ziplined the first day with WWR the 2nd and 3rd day.  Pictures on WWR will come once we get back home and I get them on here! 

 Here I am!   The part that was pretty scary was the moment you had to take off.  Once zipping along, it was incredible....but making yourself take the "plunge" off the platform was really something....

 And here's Emily.  She seemed to be a natural at this and did really well learning how to control the whole thing.  In all, we did 6 "zips" on this trip, with speeds of 30 mph!  Keep watching in a day or so for pics of WWR....

Productive day yesterday! I got 14 more cards for Operation Write Home completed and another one is started that I'll work on later today after grocery shopping, laundry, & housecleaning! (the usual Sunday routine).

The first 12 cards are one's I started at the Archiver's workshop/class I took yesterday in Omaha (roughly an hour away from where we live) and finished up a bit after I got home.  I didn't realize until I looked at the pics that all 12 cards have baker's twine on them!  The "star" cards are neat and slightly different:  the star is punched out of the front of the card with a star strategically placed on the inside of the card directly under where it is cut out of the front....like a window card or something. 

These 3 would probably work for the new sketch challenge that was just announced on their site, so I'll probably post to that as well.  These are from 3 shades of green from the Bazzill two scoops paper line, gently sanded to enhance the tactile aspects (so you can see the design embossed in the paper).  I added some bling to the bottom right corner and did some inking around the edges.  The sentiment is lifted with pop dots.    

Love these 3!   Used a Big Shot die cutting machine for this.  I added some inking (directions didn't call for it) to help them "pop" a bit. 

The 3 cloud cards were just a tad plain to me, so I used my cricut to cut out a "sun" and added it plus some bling to the balloons and bling along the bottom sentiment.  The balloon is pop-dotted to lift it up and give dimension along with the baker's twine, that is glued in place to look like it is floating. 

Then I was still feeling creative and made these 2 cards last night.  I tried to use some less-girly colors and affects.  The shape was inspired by the "negative" space left from the cards above, so I used them!  simple ribbon and silver studs instead of "bling".   Thanks for taking the time to look, and maybe a comment??  

Well, I messed around today and shopped and received lots of goodies that I had ordered online a few days ago that I will be using in my crafting.  Guess you could say I got about 4 hauls!  I don't do those youtube "haul" videos, but if I did, you'd see some nice stuff!  As I was shopping some great deals at Hancock Fabrics (they are closing out their scrapbook area so I found "Thickers" for a $1 a pack!!!!) I was keeping in mind this program and shopping with "new eyes" so to speak.  Also, I'm off in the morning to head to Omaha (an hour away) to do a workshop at Archiver's Scrapbook Store.  The class is called "Create A Bunch" and I'll leave with a dozen completed cards which I'll be able to use (I hope!) for OWH.  I'll post pics tomorrow, so stay tuned!

I still had some (and by "some" I mean quite a lot of!) excitement with this new project last night and got busy making more cards, some of which may have to go in my own stash and may not get used for OWH because of their guidelines.  Like this first one that I worked a long time on.  I used plain blue paper, did some heat embossing in white (clusters of flowers) and clear (small butterflies).  Then added the dimensional butterflies, chipboard circles "joy", pretty ribbon, raised the vellum tag on foam squares, and misted the whole front with white Glimmer Mist.  That was not a good choice.  The rules for OWH say "no glitter" because it shows up on night vision goggles putting the person at risk if there is glitter residue on them.  You can use stickles (glittery) because it is glue and doesn't flake off....but I'm unsure about glimmer mist----it looks to me like it rubs off so I'll put this one in my own stash!

Then this card was done with scraps left over from a card (below) and a card from the previous day.  I love how this one turned out but will probably keep in my own stash (not sent to OWH) because the felt flowers (from PeachyCheap site) are VERY thick and dimensional and probably exceed their guidelines on maximum "thickness" of cards. 

This card is very similar to one from the previous day....just different sentiment, different embellies, and I did use stickles on this one (around the sentiment tag)

Love this card a lot!  I got the idea from a blogger and youtube gal I follow.  The stamp set is a Stephanie Bernard set, the middle part is corrugated paper I got at Hobby Lobby that I paper pieced on and I used my Texture boutique for the swiss dots background.  Plus, I love baker's twine, which adds just the right touch, I think!

Then this card is very dimensional, which is hard to see, but still would fit guidelines, I think.  It's also quite feminine/girlie, so I hope that doesn't make it a poor choice for someone.  I heat embossed the white border along the bottom, then did distress inking all over (the card was initially white) with a couple of Tim Holtz inks from his spring collection, added round journal stamp in purple, sentiment in black so it would show up, and layered stickers for embellies along with the rhinestones. 

Thanks for looking, in case anyone happens along my little blog!  I'm having a blast so far and have gotten so many nice comments and "welcomes" from others at OWH.....which I really appreciate!

Here's my attempt at following a sketch from "Operation Write Home" or OWH.  I need to find out how to post their sketch here, as the other bloggers do, so you can see what I was following.  But for now, here's the card I created!

 

Yay!  I've been searching for "how to do" and I think I figured out how to post the sketch!   Here it is!  On the sketch, the hearts are representative of *any* embellishment and don't indicate the need to only use hearts, so I used epoxy stickers that I backed with a complimentary color of cardstock (blue).  The epoxy stickers say: "fun, cute, love, hi!, and sweet."  I stamped the "hi" word and added some bakers twine plus double-mounted it and notched in the left side.  The embellies & sentiment are "lifted" with foam dot dimensionals, giving them a 3-D aspect that you cannot tell in the picture.

Then I did a few more cards to send off with this first one.  These were not from an official OWH sketch, just my own creations and design.  Giant celebratory tags with flowers, ribbons, some have slide mounts "framing" the birthday sticker sentiment.  Stamping up both sides that says "happy birthday" with a couple of wrapped present icons.  Can't see in the pics, but I inked around the edges. The HB stands for happy birthday, and all three of these, plus the next two, are fairly general b-day cards.   

Two more birthday cards. The one on the left has "wishing you a very happy day" heat embossed with lime green Zing embossing powder. These both show the slide mounts I used to "frame" the stickers. Yellow square on the left one, blue circular slide mount on the right one. Paatterned paper is torn on the bottom on each tag to show off the tag cardstock color. 

This one is a little hard to make out, but the heat embossed image in white says: "you're never more than a thought away" and on the inside I just did a simple "thinking of you" stamp. This one I added a tiny bit of bling with yellow-ish rhinestones (two on the blue sentiment, one at the bottom right). They just look yellow here, but are actually sparkly yellow IRL. 

Thanks for looking, folks!  If you're a bit of a cardmaker like me and want to get in on this OWH, let me know!     Penny

Scary territory for me....I have just started a blog!  Unbelievable!  All of my internet browsing, reading crafters blogs, and watching videos on youtube about cardmaking has led me to this point.  I'm just getting started on a new venture in paper crafting: making cards for military personnel with "Operation Write Home" (OWH).  And as I look at their "OWH" program and the sites of many of the members, it appears they all have blogs where they post the cards they have made and the card sketch challenges they are participating in.

So, that has now led me to start a blog of my own!  Those who know me know that I absolutely  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to travel.  I found out that Sagittarians (like me!) commonly "have the wanderlust" which is German for the strong desire or compulsion to wander or travel.  That's me!  So, the name of this blog is aptly *I think* named "Scrapper with a Wanderlust" and I'm Penny.   If anyone ever reads this, I would like to say "thank you" and I want you to know that once I get this somewhat figured out, I will post pictures of the first cards I have made for OWH.