Springtime, Summertime, Jillibean Soup and Operation Write Home

Stars and Stamps - Operation Write Home's card blog - has "summertime" as their midweek challenge.  I am just squeeking in on this challenge.

How much more summer could you get than strawberries and a gingham table cloth.  I got a 6 x 6 pad while shopping this week end and the strawberry paper is from the pad - I had also bought the 12 x 12 piece of paper - it has the strawberries on one side and the green gingham on the backside.  The lace is from the lace bag.  It is gorgeous and finished on both edges.  I made sure there was red behind the holes in the lace so they showed up.  The stamp is from Hero Arts.

The challenge on The Pink Elephant is a spring time card - in Wisconsin - Winter/Spring/Summer all tend to come together - so I am sharing it with them for a spring time card also.  With the weather we had in March - many of the strawberry fields were already to bloom - hopefully we will get some strawberries this year fresh from the patch.  Nothing is better.

One card will go to Operation Write Home and one will go to my mother.

Have a good day.

Hero Arts, Thinking of You and Operation Write Home

The midweek challenge at Stars and Stamps, Operation Write Home's card blog, is to make thinking of you cards.  I had this card in my head - I have made a smiliar one using a leaf stamp and greens and browns. 

The base is watercolor paper, a layer of cardstock, and another layer of watercolor paper.  I stamped the Friends definition (Hero Arts) in grey Memento ink and then the flower (a very old old Hero Arts) flower in different shades of blue/green ink.  The sentiment on each card is another Hero Arts stamp.  I overstamped the friend definition over the sentiment.  Everything has a little inking on it in the lightest shade of blue/green.

There is a new challenge blog - A Blog Named Hero - which focuses on Hero Arts Stamp - the challenge this week is to use your favorites - the background stamp "friend definition" is a favorite of mine.  It can be used as a background on almost any card you make. 

The challenge on the Pink Elephant is to make a Clean and Simple Card.  I think they both qualify.  I have six more of the second card ready to be assembled for Operation Write Home.

Unity Stamps and Ippity Challenge

I am enjoying being able to take pictures of my cards outside again.   Of course, then you have to watch for shadows, bright glowing orbs (it is called the sun).  I took 3 or 4 pictures of this card and this is the best one I got - but I found it quite interesting how I ended up with the glow around the little butterfly.  How fun is that. 

A very simple card made with some of my new stamps from Unity.  I am having lots of fun with all those new stamps.  The challenge on the Unity site (ippity challenge) - is to use flowers.  Luckily I had bought one flower stamp so I was able to participate in the challenge. 

My friend Ivanka's blog led me to another challenge site - The Pink Elephant - where the challenge is to use a butterfly.

I stamped the image and sentiment in VersaMark and embossed with white.  I inked the edge of the kraft paper with white ink.  I used my Spellbinders to cut all the layers.  The pin dot paper is a scrap laying on my table from Authentique.  I thought it added just enough interest to the card.  The image and sentiment were pop dotted.  I added the butterfly this morning - as I was trying to fall asleep last night - the thought popped into my head that I should add a butterfly to the card.  Luckily there was a scrap of the brighter pink on my table leftover from yesterday's card.  I used a Martha Stewart punch.

Thanks for stopping by and yes - it is Friday and we can start to get ready to enjoy the week end.