Michele's Craft Room

May 17, 2013

OWH Sketch #172 ~ & Mid Week Throwdown ~

It's a brand new week and that means a new sketch challenge from Operation Write Home!

You can find the sentiment here. The papers are Recollections, the crocheted flower is from Close to my Heart and the teal flower/brad are from my stash. I used a Viva Decor Pearl Pen for the yellow dots and distressed the edges with Tim Holtz Broken China Distrss ink.

The sentiment is from the new Hero Arts OWH wood mounted stamps (LP279). I unmounted this sentiment and cut it in half to create 2 lines. A great tip I learned from Sandy Allnock! Here is some more great stamp altering advice. The heart paper is from the Recollections - All Girl pad.

You can find the cute little freebie here. The papers are from Bo Bunny - Camp-A-lot.

OWH - Mid Week Throwdown Challenge ~ Make your sentiment the focal point
The sentiment can be found here. I used my markers to color random lines across the image and Spellbinders dies to complete the focal point.

I punched the hearts out of the leftover scrap once I cut the image out.

Don't forget to mark your calendars for the awesome OWH blog hop next weekend. There will be tons of ideas and inspiration waiting for you!! I hope everyone is having a great week!

May 11, 2013

Birthday Cards for the Ronald McDonald House Hop ~

Welcome! Sarah Henderson had a wonderful idea to make birthday cards for children being treated at the Ronald McDonald House in Lubbock, TX. If you would like to make some cards too, check Sarah's blog for the address. I am sure the children will be thrilled to have a card, hand made just for them. Sarah is offering a stash prize for commenters and for those of you that send in cards, there is crinkle ribbon and clear stamps up for grabs!

I created these cards with the Cricut - Create a Critter 2 cartridge and used the Hero Arts Good Friends and Happy Birthday stamp sets.

The papers are from Recollections and the elephant was cut at 3-1/2".

The butterfly was cut at 2-3/4". I added some Cotton Candy Stickles to the wings. Used a white gel pen for the trail and a Fiskars border punch for the scallop.

I used a little Scribbles Paint - Watermelon to make the dots on the sentiment and the hearts that were cut from the wings went inside the card.

BLOG CANDY!!! I have some adorable Crate Paper Rubons that are the perfect size for cards or scrapbook pages. ~~Simply leave a comment and check back here Tuesday to see if you are the winner!~~

Congratulations to #5 Sandy S!

I hop you are enjoying the hop so far! Your next stop is Miranda. Be sure to check Sarah's blog for more information how you can bring a smile to a child's day. Thanks so much for joining us!

1. Sarah - http://itswhatkeepsmesane.blogspot.com/
2. Melissa - http://papershenaniganz.blogspot.com/
3. Michele - http://michelescraftroom.blogspot.com/ <----- You are here
4. Miranda - www.nanasscrapspot.com
5. Nadja- http://nadjarobbins.blogspot.com/
6. Carla - www.racincrafts.blogspot.com
7. Sandy S. - http://simplycraftycreationsbysandys.blogspot.com
8. Jennyfer - http://scrapalajen.blogspot.com
9. Nancy - http://alwaysastorycreationsbynancy.blogspot.com/

May 8, 2013

Operation Write Home ~ Virtual Card Making Party (Day 2)

Challenge #4 ~ Create a card using OWH sketch #171

The papers are from the Recollections All Girl pack. The sentiment is computer generated. Have no idea where I found this image ~ sorry.

Challenge #5 ~ Create an AnyHero card using a photo I took
My husband and I are NASCAR fans. This photo was taken at Bristol Motor Speedway last August. NASCAR supports out awesome military so there are always 100s of uniforms at every race. Makes me so very proud to be an American!

Challenge #6 ~ Create a summer themed card

Love these stamps from La La Land Crafts. Seeing it here, I wish I would have colored the background and made more of a scene with it. I used a brick embossing folder on the tan background and the sentiment is from SP & Co.

Struggling yet again with the backgrounds but I'm learning a little bit each day. I used the Hero Arts Happy Birthday & Right at Home stamp sets. I stamped, scanned and reduced the house stamp to make it fit and added Glossy Accents to the balloon. I adhered the sentiment before realizing I needed to mat it but I use lots of adhesive in hopes my cards don't end up in triage lol so it wasn't coming off!

Bonus Challenge ~ Create a card with googlie eyes
Monkey See Monkey Do! Isn't he the cutest?? It was a freebie from Dustin Pike.

I printed a small image of Dustin's colored monkey to go by and figured I may as well use it!

That's it for now! Working on my Hero card messages so I can get my 1st box in the mail tomorrow. Hope you're having a crafty week ~ See you next time :-)

May 6, 2013

Operation Write Home ~ Virtual Card Making Party

I love a good challenge and was so excited to learn about the card making party at OWH this weekend. It's 2 days worth of challenges creating cards for our Heros to write home to their family and friends.

Day 1 ~ March 4, 2013
Challenge #1 ~ Create Miss You cards
The green paper is from The Paper Studio 180 Paper Pack and the sentiment is from Hero Arts Right at Home stamp set. The fish is from the Frances Meyer Mountain Scene sticker set.

Challenge #2 ~ Create a Kid's card using the sketch provided

The papers are from Recollections Bold Basics and DCWV Cafe' Mediterranean. You can find this cute little guy here.

Challenge #3 ~ Create a Romance card using any OWH tutorial

There are soooo many OWH tutorials you can check out here. I chose the easel card because I wanted it to be extra special. These instructions were super easy to follow.

The sentiment is from Broken Box Stock. The image is from Creative Reflections but it said the blog had been removed. You can find it on my Pinterest board.

Challenge #4 ~ Create a card based on a scrapbook layout sketch

This was another tough one considering that scrapbook layouts usually require a 12 x 12 sheet of paper. An A2 card is only 5-1/2 x 4-1/4 so improvising is definitely necessary lol.

The papers are from the Bo Bunny Camp-a-lot Collection. The dies cuts are Spellbinders Standard Circles and Classic Scalloped Squares Large. This blog had also been removed but you can find the image here.

Stay tuned for Day 2 of the OWH Virtual Card Making Party! If you aren't familiar with Operation Write Home and would like to play along, please see the guidelines here.

May 3, 2013

Disney Pixar Hop ~

Welcome to the Disney Pixar Blog Hop

Today we invite you to come check out this great group of crafters who will be showcasing cards, layouts, or projects featuring our favorite Disney Pixar Characters.

Connie Can Crop is the first stop on this fun Blog Hop.

This is a one day blog hop and we appreciate your leaving a comment to encourage all my fabulous crafty friends to continue sharing their ideas and creations.

We have an awesome sponsor and giveaway for this hop!

The Paper Nest Dolls

Original and hand-drawn, all images are unique and special, and inspired by her children.

The Paper Nest Dolls will be giving away a $25 gift certificate to one lucky person. This gift certificate is redeemable at The Paper Nest Dolls and may be used to purchase rubber stamps and digital stamps only.

So what do you need to do to win? Easy... become a follower of each of the fabulous blogs in this hop and leave each of us a comment letting us know what you like best about our projects.

Then come back to Connie Can Crop and post that you followed the rules.

You will have until 9:00 pm Sunday to finish the hop and leave your comments.

Be sure to follow everyone and leave a comment along the way!

Ready to join in the fun?

I watched a YouTube video this week and they used the "multi cut" feature on the Cricut. I thought that button was for cutting multiple images. Nooooo, this button repeats the same cut so when using thicker cardstock, you are more likely to get a clean cut image. I chose to use Boo on my card because she is so stinkin' cute!

The card base is a lavender glitter paper from my stash. The patterned papers are Recollections. Instead of the Cricut cut bow in her hair (which I lost...it's probably stuck to my sock somewhere), I used 2 itty bitty flower gems.

Ok, so here's my funny....I'm not too proud to admit that her shoes are on the wrong feet!!! It was 4 am and these pieces are sooooo small....I wasn't about to try and pry them off. Most kids her age always put their shoes on the wrong feet so let's just say I did it on purpose....for realism!It looks fine but I know that the pieces should have been flipped over and used on the other foot. LOL

Boo was cut at 2-3/4" so you can imagine how tiny the white pieces were for the eyes. I used a white gel pen there and a brown Prismacolor pencil to give her some eyebrows. I used Microsoft Word to create the sentiment and a corner punch on the ends of the banner.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit today. I have a little happy ready to go out! ~~Simply leave a comment and tell me which Disney/Pixar character is your favorite! Random.org will choose a winner on Wednesday so check back here to see if it's you!~~ Happy Hoppin' everyone!
~~~I wish I had the funds to mail 19 gifts - thank you for your wonderful comments ~~~
Congratulations to #9 ~ Kathy's Krafts