JAMSquared

Category Archives: Crafty Goodness

Some Father’s Day Cards

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Since I sent Mother’s Day cards to my sister and sisters-in-law this year, I thought it only fair that I send Father’s Day cards to my brother and brother-in-law too.

This first card is for my brother-in-law Brian. He is a fan of John Deere. I used OWH Stars & Stamps Sketch Challenge #20 and the OWH Stars & Stamps Mid-week Throwdown to make masculine cards. To qualify for the mid-week throwdown, I made a second of the same card, but changed the sentiment to read “a happy hello.” This second card will be sent to Operation Write Home.

A Father's Day Card for Brian

Stamps: Riley and Company Tractor Riley; Hero Arts CL053 ClearDesign June (sentiment)
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Garden Green, Summer Sun
Designer Paper: Stampin’ Up Paper Prints Certainly Celery
Ink: Stazon Jet Black; Stampin’ Up Garden Green
Markers: Stampin’ Up Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery,  Garden Green, Bashful Blue, Summer Sun, Basic Black
Accessories: Fun Flock Caramel Latte Tan (applied using a Quickie Glue pen)

For my brother Jason, I made this card using his favorite colors of blue and green. This card meets the requirements of All That Scraps Weekly Wednesday Challenge #32 to use buttons and ribbon.

A Father's Day Card for Jason

Stamps: Stampendous Changito Piggyback
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Basic Gray, Pumpkin Pie, Bashful Blue
Designer Paper: Stampin’ Up Summer Picnic
Ink: Stazon Jet Black
Accessories: Stampin’ Up Old Olive 5/8″ satin ribbon; Papertrey Ink Vintage Holiday Mix button; DMC embroidery floss #740; colored pencils

Blog Candy Winners

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I had so much fun participating in the Operation Write blog hop this past weekend. I finally finished hopping yesterday evening. So much great inspiration and touching stories. I ended up with 77 comments on my post. Ya’ll made my day. Thanks!!!

This hop has made me realize a few things about my blog.

  1. I am currently working on some upgrades to my blog, one of which is deciding on a new WordPress theme. I am definitely going to find a theme that numbers the comments. I ended up having to copy and paste into Excel, so I could make sure I didn’t miscount.
  2. Apparently, the comments is not as intuitive as I thought. The themes I’m considering are much more clear in this regard.
  3. I should make my own tutorial. That might be kinda fun.

Jessica didn’t want to take a nap yesterday afternoon, so my plan to choose winners at 3 PM were quashed. I used random.org and picked 3 winners. I am emailing the winners and hopefully, I’ll make it to the post office tomorrow.

  1. Big Blog Candy – #59 – Susan G – Great card, and I would LOVE to win the stamped images :) the link for the tutorial, did not take us there. :(
  2. Runner-up – #21 – Mary S – Beautiful cards. Love the clean lines and the embossed stars. Thanks for the candy offer. It will make good additions to cards for OWH.
  3. Runner-up – #31 – Paula Mangum – I love simple – quick cards. Yours are beautiful. I appreciate you giving the link for the digi – I remember seeing it on the OWH blog awhile back, but ignored it – now it is safely stored in my files so I can use it as well. TFS

OWH Memorial Day Weekend Blog Hop

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Welcome to the Operation Write Home Memorial Day Weekend Blog Hop. I’m super excited to be a part of this blog hop, as it is the first hop I’ve participated in where my blog is a stop. For my readers who don’t know what a blog hop is, a blog hop is an event where participants move from one blog to another to read the entries on a related subject.

Today’s hop started at OWH Stars & Stamps. You should have come from Loni’s Life. After reading my post, you will hop on to Crafty Rika.

Operation Write Home is a wonderful organization that I discovered earlier this year. Their mission is to support our nation’s armed forces by sending blank homemade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude (called Any Hero cards) to encourage them.

I like organizations that support our nation’s troops. I’ve baked cookies for Operation Baking Gals, but making cards is a little less time sensitive in terms of getting to the post office. Both of my grandfathers served in the Army. An uncle retired from the Air Force. An aunt served in the Navy. Her husband, my uncle, retired from the Navy, and one of their sons, my cousin, currently serves in the Navy. James’ grandfather served in the Army and his Dad did a stint in the Air Force. Needless to say, I think it is very important to support our troops. They put their life on the line, so that we may live in freedom.

I’m sharing two cards with you today. The first is a red, white and blue missing you card in honor of Memorial Day. Memorial Day was originally held May 30, 1868 in commemoration of soldiers killed in the American Civil War. After World War I, its observance was extended to all U.S. men and women who died while in military service and is federally observed on the last Monday in May.

My Heart is With You Card

Stamps: Designed to Delight I {Heart} the USA; Stampin’ Up Small Sayings (sentiment card 1); Saltbox Studio Celebration Sayings (sentiment card 2)
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Real Red, Brilliant Blue
Ink: Dell printer; Stampin’ Up Brilliant Blue (sentiments)
Tools: Cuttlebug Stars embossing folder; Stampin’ Up Scallop Trim border punch, Word Window punch

You can pick up the American flag heart digi stamp here for free. The second card is almost the same, but I changed the sentiment to make it an Any Hero card.

Thank You for Serving Card

I didn’t use any ribbon on these cards, but one of my most favorite tricks is for a quickie bow. Check out the video tutorial for it here on my friend Geeta’s blog (***Edited to Add*** Looks like something happened to Geeta’s video and it can’t be played now). I haven’t tied a bow on card without using this technique since I learned it. It is so easy and the bow always comes out looking great.

Back at the beginning of the month, I was very fortunate and picked up three separate blog candies: one for being the randomly selected participant in the All That Scraps Weekly Wednesday Challenge, one from a vender giveaway on Craft Critique and one from a Prairie Fairy blog hop. I want to share my good luck with ya’ll and am offering the following blog candy to one randomly selected commenter on this post. I will select a winner on June 1st at 3 PM CST. Candy consists of Stampin’ Up So Very set, star foam glitter stickers, patriotic adhesive rhinestones, patriotic ribbon, and 5 stamped images.

Blog Candy

I am also offering runner-up blog candy of the 5 same stamped images. There will be 1 runner-up per 100 unique comments.

Thanks for visiting my blog today and have a blessed Memorial Day weekend.

***Edited to Add*** Apparently, a number of people have had trouble leaving comments. If you go directly to the post (click on the title so you only see that post), you can scroll down to the  comment box. Another way, there is a number under the date for the post (upper left side of post). That number is the number of comments. Clicking on the number will take you directly to the post, allowing you to scroll down to comment box.

ATS Challenge #29 and a Sketch

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I always enjoy joining the ATS challenges. They have a nice mix of challenges: some easy and some that put me outside my stamping comfort zone. This week’s challenge, ATS Weekly Wednesday Challenge #29, was to use dry embossing. I also used the sketch from Crazy 4 Challenges Challenge #38.

I wish I hadn’t colored her socks red, but initially I hadn’t planned on cutting her out. I like that it is a clean and simple card and that the dry embossing gives the sentiment.

Have a Birthday Ice Cream Cone!

Stamps: C.C. Designs Sweet Kiki La Rue
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Real Red, Always Artichoke
Designer Paper: Stampin’ Up Summer Picnic
Ink: Stazon Jet Black
Markers: Stampin’ Up Real Red, Blush Blossom, Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue, Regal Rose, Barely Banana
Tools: Cuttlebug Happy Birthday embossing folder; Xyron 5″ Creative Station

A Birthday Card for My MIL

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My mother-in-law’s birthday is this coming Saturday. Her favorite color is purple so I colored this little fairy baby image with various shades of purple. I received a print-out of this digi stamp from Robin Markowski in the OWH image swap I did back in April. I wish it had been sized just a tad smaller as it almost didn’t fit in my largest nestability. I have colored all 10 of the images I’ve received and this is the first one I made into a card. I have a bunch of ideas for the other images. Stay tuned for those. See this post for the card I made with the image I shared.

I used the Mo’s Dream Team May sketch. It would be neat if I was chosen as June’s guest designer.

Mo's Dream Team May Sketch

Birthday Card for My MIL

Stamps: Mo’s Digital Pencil Baby Fairy Flora; Stampin’ Up It’s Your Birthday (sentiment)
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Perfect Plum; the Paper Studio purple textured cardstock; Georgia Pacific white cardstock
Ink: Genuine Canon ink; Stampin’ Up Whisper White Craft (sentiment)
Accessories: Prima flower; purple brad; Basic Basic 5/8″ purple gingham ribbon; purple glitter (on fair wings)
Tools: colored pencils, Stampin’ Up Curly Label punch; Nestabilites Standard Circles Large; white gel pen

On a side note, I’m participating in Operation Write Home’s Memorial Day Weekend Blog Hop. I’m super excited about participating as I’ve always just been a hopper, not a stop on a hop before. It should be lots of fun. Come back Saturday for the red, white and blue card I’m going to share. There might be something more to see.