Cards, Crafting and Sisyphus

Are you familiar with the legend of Sisyphus? In Greek mythology he was someone who always lied. As punishment, he had to spend eternity rolling a boulder up a hill, watching it roll back down, and then pushing it back up again. 

What does that have to do with crafting? Well, about a year ago I decided to use each card sketch from Operation Write Home at least once. I have made a lot of progress -- at least 100 sketches complete. But they release two new sketches each month, so sometimes it feels like this task will never be complete! Cardmaking is far more fun than pushing boulders up hills, and no one is forcing me to do this. Still, sometimes I feel just a little tiny bit like Sisyphus. That's how I was feeling when I finally made a card for sketch #250 and then found an e-mail announcing sketch #251. 

So here is the card for #250. The next sketch can wait until my attitude improves. 

OWH Sketch #250

I'm entering this sketch in the Simon Says Stamp Work it Wednesday Challenge which is to show what you are stamping. For this card I stamped the sentiment and also used two different stamps to make my own embellishment. 

Paper: My Mind's Eye Boy Crazy
Sentiment Stamp: Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler
Image Stamps: My Mind's Eye Boy Crazy
Ink: Stampin' Up Soft Suede and Colorbox Scarlet
Chalk Ink: Colorbox Toffee

Alphabet Soup

I love card designs that use 3" x 3" squares because I can use a whole sheet of 6" x 6" paper or 12" x 12" paper and not have any leftover scraps. A couple weeks ago I cut a 12" x 12" sheet of paper from the My Mind's Eye Alphabet Soup Boy collection into 16 3" x 3" squares. So, I've been going through all the Operation Write Home sketches that use 3 inch squares.   

The theme for the Wednesday Challenge this week at Simon Says Stamp is "All Creatures Great and Small." They are focusing on Paper Smooches stamps this week. That's easy for me. The Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler is one of my favorite stamp sets and I use it all the time. 

Operation Write Home Sketch #56

Paper: My Mind's Eye Alphabet Soup Boy 
Stamp: Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler
Ink: Momento Nautical Blue

"H" is for "Hugs"

This week the Monday Challenge at Simon Says Stamp is "H is for..."

I'm still working toward making at least one card for each Operation Write Home sketch. So today's card uses OWH sketch #30.

I love card designs that use 3" x 3" squares because I can use a whole sheet of 6" x 6" paper or 12" x 12" paper and not have any leftover scraps. So I modified the OWH sketch a little so that I could use a 3" x 3" piece of paper.

The Paper Smooches Sparks challenge this week is "Anything Goes." Well, this card certainly meets that criteria. I've been getting a lot of mileage out of the Paper Smooches set that includes the "Hugs" sentiment used here.

OWH Sketch #30

Sketch: Operation Write Home #30
Paper: My Mind's Eye Alphabet Soup Boy
Stamp: Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler
Ink: Hero Arts Shadow Ink Red Royal
Punch: Stampin' Up Artisan Label

"H" is for "Happy"

This week the Monday Challenge at Simon Says Stamp is "H is for..."

I'm still working toward making at least one card for each Operation Write Home sketch. So today's card uses OWH sketch #76.

The pack of My Mind's Eye paper I'm using came with some chipboard embellishments. They worked nicely as additions to this card. Because I didn't want the sentiment to compete with the chipboard elements, I stamped it directly on the patterned paper.

The Paper Smooches Sparks challenge this week is "Anything Goes." So, that includes this card, lol. I use the Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler all the time. 

OWH Sketch #76

Paper: My Mind's Eye Boy Crazy
Embellishments: My Mind's Eye Boy Crazy
Stamp: Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler
Ink: Stampin Up Soft Suede

Boy Crazy Cards

I bought some paper and stickers from the My Mind's Eye Boy Crazy collection. These papers have fun, bright colors and cute images of robots, cars, stars and sneakers. Sketch challenges from Operation Write Home were used for the design of each card. This month there is a challenge on the OWH website to make cards using red, yellow and blue. This paper collection is perfect for that!

Sketch 192 was made using a sentiment stamp from Paper Smooches and a red and white dotted card base from My Mind's Eye.

Sketch 192

Sketch 195 uses a robot stamp that was made to coordinate with these papers.

Sketch 195

Sketch 226 uses sentiment and star stamps from the My Favorite Things Masculine Graphic set.

Sketch 226

Sketch 244 uses a card base from My Mind's Eye and a sentiment stamp from Paper Smooches.

Sketch 244

Purple, green and sparkles, oh my!

This group of cards was made with paper from Kathy Davis.  I was attracted to the bright, bold designs, but the large size of the prints made the paper hard to work with. As with my other recent posts I'm listing the Operation Write Home sketches that go with each card.

Sketch #58. The sentiment is from Paper Smooches.

Sketch #58

Sketch #125. I think this turned out a little too busy. The letter stamps are from There She Goes.

Sketch #125

Sketch #201 is simple but fun. I used rub-on letters from Heidi Grace. They matched the milky teal flowers perfectly.

Sketch #201

For sketch #202 I used stickers from Tim Holtz and inked over them with chalk ink.

Sketch #202

Sketch #207 looked simple at first, but simple looking sketches can be challenging too. The sentiment is from Kaisercraft.

Sketch #207

Sketch #220 was difficult for me, but I made it work. The sentiment is a little difficult to see. It is in the lower right -- from Hero Arts Year Round Sentiments. 

Sketch #220

I just love sketch #235. It's so graceful, yet simple and good for paper with large images. 

Sketch #235

Sketch #237 I used a stamp from Close to My Heart. The embellishments are from sets meant to coordinate with this paper. 

Sketch #237