I know it probably seems weird to be gearing up for Valentine’s Day right now, but for Operation Write Home, ’tis the season! 

If you’re unfamiliar with Operation Write Home, it’s an organization that collects handmade greeting cards to send to our military members stationed overseas.  Our troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and at sea can then send cards home to their loved ones – since they can’t easily get out to the Hallmark store or Walmart or whatever to buy a card.  You are also welcome to send “any hero” cards to encourage our brave men and women overseas.  For more details, click on the link above or the one in my sidebar to visit Operation Write Home’s website. 

Because of the lag time in sending the cards out to the Middle East, and then allowing time for the troops to mail them back home, OWH works its seasons ahead of the calendar.  The deadline for sending Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa cards has passed, so now they are working on collecting Valentines.  If you’d like to make some handmade Valentines for them, you’ll need to mail them to one of the OWH shippers by January 7, 2011.

If making cards to donate doesn’t interest you, you can still help Operation Write Home in another effort.  Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores recently held a Craft for a Cause Contest, and Operation Write Home was one of the three organizations that received the most donations.  Now, the top three organizations are in a contest for votes.  The one that receives the most votes by December 4, 2010 will receive $50,000 from OWH!  Please click on this link to vote, and vote often!  But remember you can vote only once per 24-hour period.

And now, here’s today’s card.  I really wanted to make it a little fancier, with scalloped borders or some of my Nestabilities, but nothing worked with the size of this image.  So I opted for just a simple straight edged mat with punched corners embellished with pearls.  When I got the pearls out, I wondered if they’d work on the sash of the dress – and it turned out they fit quite nicely there. 

Supplies:
Stamps: Ava Holding Balloons (In Style Stamps); So Much Love (Lizzie Anne Designs)
Cardstock: Basics White (Papertrey Ink); Real Red (Stampin’ Up)
Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine)
Other: markers (Copic); self adhesive pearls (KaiserCraft); ticket corner punch (SU); Angel Wings paint (Shimmerz)

Here’s a funny.  Whenever I photograph one of my cards, I take at least 3 or 4 shots of it, and then choose the one that looks the best.  I think I took 5 pictures this time – and as I was looking at them up close on my computer, I realized NONE of them showed off the Shimmerz paint on the wings.  Not a one.  So back to my photo staging area I went.  Because I took the photo at night, I was using my small Ott-Lite lamp to shine light on the card.  It took me a while to get it adjusted to pick up the glimmer.  Lesson learned – when all else fails, turn the lamp upside down so the light shines up onto the card.  Seriously.  It worked!

If you came here from Giselle’s Cross My Heart Papercrafts blog, thanks so much for stopping by!  The next link in today’s blog hop will take you to Operation Write Home’s Homefront Blog, where you can learn even more info about this fantastic organization, and start off at the top of the blog hopper list.