Hambo Hoedown Challenge 38

Greetings Earthlings!

YAY!! This week I sent in my 'fall' box to Operation Write Home.

That's about 145 cards, mostly generic but I beat the Oct.31st deadline for getting Christmas cards in! I always 'tuck & stamp' my cards so the shippers don't have to do those steps. Since I live in the midwest, my cards get sent to Kris in Kansas. She does all the hard work of sorting all the cards and then packs them into boxes for the different military units that have requested our cards. She also has to fill out custom forms for each box and then she takes all these boxes to the post office and ships them overseas! Here is a quick video that tells you all about that process.

Alrighty then, onto this week's Hambo Hoedown challenge #38. This week it was another sketch challenge.

I have a hard time with sketches.. I definitely do NOT plan in advance what my layout is going to be. Sketches force me to 'follow the rules.' Yikes!

O.K. Fine. I'm not going to think about that now.. (Scarlett wasn't stupid) I'm just going to focus on the free image that Hambo sent me this week. It's called Zombie Bunny. I got it free because I entered their challenge last week and emailed them my finished card. Here's the image:

How do you make a cute, cuddly bunny look like a zombie?

It was tough. I still don't think he looks zombie-ish enough.

I used my Copics and Spica markers.

I added red Spica markers to make his eyes look blood-shot. Then more red on his mouth and paws to look like they're bloody..

There is no getting around it now, I have to check out that sketch and conform! Ugh!

I used the Spellbinders Lattice Rectangles to mat him. Some baker's twine and a few Sticko gel stickers with a bow and some candy-corn finish the card off.

I'd like to go back and add darker gray to his fur.. I'm afraid that will look stupid though. Oh well. I better leave him alone before I tinker too much and ruin it! (That NEVER happens..)

Party on, Wayne.

Another Hambo Challenge

Greetings Earthlings-

I really had fun with this week's image from Hambo Stamps. Because I followed all the rules when I entered their challenge last week, I got this free image this week:

The challenge was to use the colors  purple, orange, black and green . Not too tough for a Halloweenie card!

Copics were used to color the image. I used just a hint of V17 Amethyst on some of the wrappings..Then the shades of cool gray.

Spellbinders were used to trim the image down and mat it.

I decided to use one of the many paint sample strips I have.. I trimmed it down and used a large Peddler's Pack rubber stamp of a spider web. Even though I used Memento ink, it smeared a bit while I was working with it (remember it is stamped on paint, not paper.. ) so I used my heat gun to set the ink.  Next I combined some DP from my stash - all matted in black  & it all came together quickly for the card base.

Naturally, this card screamed out for googly eyes! I love an excuse to use those!

That's it for today - real life is rearing it's ugly head and I have to go to work.

Party on, Wayne!

Punch Idea!

Greetings Earthlings!

Today I made a card to enter into the challenge at Mo's Challenge Blog.

'Patchwork' was the theme this week. I immediately thought about when I tried my hand at quilting. DISASTER!!!!!! Evidently you have to have at least a rudimentary understanding of math to make the patterns work*.. A person can only make so many 'crazy'** quilts..So when I tried to make a quilt-ish background for this card, I had some trouble.. more on that later.

I used one of my favorite Mo digital images, 'Sprout'. I made several cards with her last April using springy pastel colors. This time out I decided to try a more autumnal feel.

I used paper piecing on the pot and her patches. (See the irony there?) I used a Fiskars Scalloped Square to punch out a bunch of co-ordinating DP squares.

Here are the Copics I used:

OK. remember earlier I said I had some trouble? Naturally the card doesn't measure out in nice 1" squares so I had to make some of them narrower. Once I had punched the squares, they were too small to put back into the punch to trim. There was nothing to hang on to. It occurred to me that I could make a 'handle' using temporary tape. (I keep regular and temp tape on ALL my work surfaces..I use it so often, I hate moving it around.)

Now then***, here are some pictures to explain what I did:

I doubled the tape back on it's self to make the 'handle' a little firmer. This worked like a charm. I wish this had occurred to me years ago. It's a pretty neat little trick!

Party on, Wayne-

* I have NO understanding of math.
**Yes, I am on medication.
***Channeling my Aunt Bernice, don't ya know..

Hambo Monster

Greetings Earthlings-

This week's challenge at Hambo Hoedown slowed me down a bit. Here is the cute image that I got free this week for entering the challenge last week (and I remembered to email it in too!) :

The new challenge said that you need to 'create a project that uses an item that starts with the first letter of your first name.'  Well my name starts with 'D'. I couldn't think of anything that starts with a 'D'.

I finally came up with the idea of DOTS. I like monsters with DOTS. I find they are a lot less scary than those without DOTS. Don't you?

I also ended up using a card base made by DCWV (Die Cuts With a View). So that is another D. :-) (yeah, double d...)

Here are the Copics I used:

I kept changing my mind about the colors of the monster.. So a few of the "E's" are actually layered over each other.. I also used some fabric with the  Various Colorless Blender to give him some texture. I also used a Colorless Blender marker to make his DOTS.

Party on, Wayne.

Oldies but Goodies!

Greetings Earthlings-

OK. I don't like it when people ask me how long I have been rubber stamping. It makes me feel really OLD!

I bought my first rubber stamps while I was in high school. Back then you could use black india ink or if you were lucky, you could find a blue ink pad.

I still have those stamps. They are still nice and rubber-y. Some stamps that I have bought since have become rocks and useless. Here's a pic of my first step on a long, long and expensive path..

These are all the same brand and I bought them at the same time. How old are they? How is that any different than asking me 'How long have you been stamping?' !!  OK, fine. Here is a shot of one on it's side..

Happy Now?!!

I decided to get these out when a challenge asked us to get something out that we haven't used in a while.. It's probably been 25 years since I last used these.. I think that qualifies.

So, a new place I have found to spend a lot of time is called Outlawz.  This is the challenge that made me dust these puppies off. It is a CAS challenge. Clean and Simple..Here's the challenge.

So, here is the card I created cleanly and simply:

I used some Spellbinders to cut out and emboss the image and the sentiment. I used Memento Tuxedo Black ink.As usual I used my Copics to color this image:

Do you have any stamps that are really, um, old? Tell me about them!

Party on, Wayne

Hambo Hoedown 35

Greetings Earthlings!

I got another free image from Hambo stamps this week. I love getting these in my email each week. Well, each week when I have entered the challenge the week before and emailed my entry to them too.

This week's image is called dragonfly.

The challenge was to copy a layout from their gallery. There were so many to choose from!!! I chose a card made by Taylor Van-Bruggen.

She made a nice clean layout - I liked that because using a lot of embellishments is just not me..

I followed the original pretty closely.

I used a Hambo image of Trees and manipulated and duplicated it to make the background. Here is what the Trees looked like originally:

I used these Copics:

Oh, it felt so good to be back to my lovely Copics! I missed them!

Party on, Wayne.

No stamps, No Copics!

Greetings Earthlings!

Scroll down to earlier posts for freebies

YAY! It's finally here!!  The Operation Write Home blog hop for World Card Making Day! I hope you are having a great hop - or if you're starting here I hope you find lots of great inspiration!! If you want to start at the top, you can click on the banner above to get there.

I am supposed to say why I donate my cards and funds to Operation Write Home. To be honest, when I actually think about the men and women (& dogs!) that risk their lives half a world away I get really choked up. These are VOLUNTEERS, folks. VOLUNTEERS!  Please click on the link on the upper right and at least give this fine organization some $ to pay for shipping. The soldiers don't have to pay postage to send these cards home but we do have to

 pay to send these cards to our

HEROES.

I kept this Christmas card simple. I wanted it to have a 'classic' look.

I started by embossing the base of the card using a Sizzix folder. I surfed and found the one I used ON SALE! I like the Sizzix folders for embossing the bases of cards because they seem to be a teeny weeny bit bigger than most of the Cuttlebug folders I have.

Next up I cut out the deer with a Memory Box die. Have you seen these? They are so crisp and detailed. This one is called Deer Trio. I added the style number to this picture in case you go looking for it. I purposely cut it out off center to balance out the sentiment.

The way the die is made you can make the 'ground' they are standing on thicker or thinner.. I kept this thin to leave plenty of room for the

sentiment.

After I had it cut out I used the Cuttlebug folder Swiss Dots only on the 'ground' portion of the die cut.  This made the 'sandwich' very wide so I could not use my Texture Boutique to emboss, instead I used my Big Shot. Even so, the antlers were over the edge but being so thin they just bent a little as it went through the machine.

I made the sentiment with PSE and then cut it out using a Spellbinders Fancy Tags. I also embossed the die cut.

Just to help the sentiment stand out a little bit I used some Memento Summer Sky ink (yeah, I know it's a winter scene..) on a sponge and LIGHTLY applied it to the top 1/4 of the base. It barely shows and you're not really aware of it

until you look for it.

Put it all together with foam tape and voilà!

I still can't believe that I made a card without Copics or stamps!

Now you're off to the next stop on the blog hop! Have fun!

Party on, Wayne