MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

Yes, it is true.  Operation Write Home’s mission is accomplished.  What a blessing this organization has been to help our service people, selflessly fighting for our freedoms so far away from home, keep in touch with their loved ones.  Closing the doors of OWH means that many of our deployed heroes have come home or hopefully will be home soon. The card makers finished strong and Sandy, the founder of OWH, has enough cards to send to her contacts through 2016.  I feel honored to have been part of OWH and hope my cards brought smiles to the faces of the recipients.

What to do with my cards?  After researching a variety of organizations, I have decided to donate cards to Send a Smile 4 Kids, which is an organization whose purpose is to create and collect donated handmade cards to be distributed to children while they are inpatients at Children’s Hospitals.  I plan to make cards for birthday, cheer, and encouragement for the staff members to give to the kids, as well as cards for kids to give to their parents for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.

Because this is a time of transition with my card making, I thought it was a perfect time to update my blog and will be tweaking it in the next week or so.  I am excited to have a new focus for my cards and hope they elicit many smiles from kids.  Let me know what you think of my new design so far!

Disney Cards

Mickey and Minnie have brought many smiles to kids (and adults!) around the world and I hope these cards will, too.  One of my friends, Linda, let me borrow her Disney Cricut cartridge and I have been taking full advantage of it. Below are a few of the designs and I am still working on a couple more.

Mickey Miss You Card

Minnie Miss You Card

 

Minnie Love You Card

 

Mickey Love You Card

Happy Day Card

I found the Disney washi tape used on the first four cards at JoAnn’s in the clearance section – what a score!

Julie, did I do okay? 🙂 Have a Happy Day!!

Giddyup!

OWH recently requested some western themed cards so today I am sharing more horse cards made with my Inkadinkado stamps.

Howdy horse card

Horse card with horseshoe and leather, denim, and bandana paper

Horse card with Cricut cowboy hat, twine

Barn window card

To enhance the western theme, I used a variety of patterned papers to imitate textures like wood, leather, denim, and bandanas.  Some of the papers are so realistic that they look close to the real thing.

More Critters

Because I love Cricut’s Create-A-Critter cartridge so much, I am sharing a few more of my favorite cards made with it.  Most were created for OWH except for the giraffe baby card, which was made for my sweet friend Pat when her granddaughter was born.  I took the liberty of using glittered paper on that one (a no-no for OWH) so of course I had to take a good picture of it!

Missing you is ruff

G’day Koala

Monkey card topper

Owl’s it goin?

Tons of Thanks

Giraffe baby card, by special request

Giraffe baby card close up, glittered paper

I wish I had taken a better picture of the completed monkey card but forgot before they were all boxed up and sent, so I will just have to make more so I can get a better photo.  I was happy that some of my punny sentiments went right along with the critters.  TGIF!

National Craft Month

Did you know that March is National Craft Month? One of my favorite crafts is creating with my Cricut machine. Here are four of my favorite Cricut cards created for OWH with the thought that they would be perfect for children to receive.

There is nothing better than bee-ing with you!

Toadally in Love

Miss you Deer-ly

Wishing you . . . A turtley awesome day!

They were cut with the Create-a-Critter cartridge, which has such adorable, endearing characters sure to evoke a smile. I just happened to have some punny stamps to go along with them too.

Hickory Road Inn, Batesville

This past weekend some crafty friends and I tried out a new crafting B&B, the Hickory Road Inn, in Batesville, Indiana.  Unfortunately, Traci is recuperating from being very ill and hospitalized with pneumonia and other issues, and we missed her smiling face and crafty inspiration immensely.  Get well, Traci!  Take good care of yourself because we have lots of creating to do in the future!

The Hickory Road Inn was very comfy and cozy, and the innkeepers Leacarol & Jerry prepared delicious breakfasts for us and made our stay extra special.   Here are some pictures of our accommodations:

Kitchen – Hickory Road Inn

Bedroom downstairs

Bedroom 3

Bedroom 2

Bedroom 1

Barb is so talented with her embroidery machine and made these very special wine glasses for each of us with our embroidered initials.  Thanks Barb!

Initialed wine glasses that Barb made

Terri finished her Hawaii scrapbook and Lisa finished her 12 Days of Christmas embroidery panels, both of which have been works in progress for a little while.  They turned out so beautifully!  Ronda and Teresa continue to amaze us with their natural card-making talents.  Kim worked on cards and her scrapbook, Judy got lots of cards marked off her long list, and they both have a new-found love of Versafine ink.  Such a productive weekend!

I focused on making some thank you cards for my daughter-in-law who works with the deaf community, birthday cards to fill special request, as well as some Mother’s Day cards for Operation Write Home.  I finished enough cards to fill a large-sized priority box which will be sent out to OWH this week, and about 25 Anyhero cards will be included thanks to Ronda writing out so many.  The Anyhero cards go to the deployed service men and women and thank them for their service, sacrifices, and dedication to keeping us safe and free!

Thank You cards for Maura

Mother’s Day with Butterflies on Embossed Background

Mother’s Day, Pastel

Anyhero card

Anyhero card – close up of embossed stars

Crafting in progress

Craft Room

Craft Room – Terri and Judy setting up

We had cool weather on Friday and delightfully warm and sunny weather on Saturday, which we took advantage of by walking through the woods on the property.  Saturday’s weather was such a special treat because we knew Sunday was forecasted to be icy and snowy.   Unfortunately, the ice arrived earlier than expected so we headed out bright and early Sunday morning so we could get home before more ice and snow crusted the earth.  We had hoped to stay until 2:00 in the afternoon or so but oh well, better safe than sorry I guess.  Mother Nature has caused us to leave our last two crafting retreats early – first for thunderstorms and tornadoes and this time for ice and snow.  I think Mother Nature must be going through menopause and I sure hope she snaps out of it soon!!  Bring on spring!

I’ve Bean Missing You

We have had a few cold weeks around here so I thought maybe you could imagine this card radiating some warmth out to you! Usually I am not a fan of kraft paper but thought I would give it a try on this card background since it fit with the color scheme, and I am happy with the results.

I’ve Bean Missing You

Can you imagine the aroma of fresh-brewed coffee and feel the warmth of the cup in your hands?  Sounds like more snow is on the way so try to stay warm!