Hello! Welcome to Operation Write Home’s Virtual Cardmaking Party! If you came here looking for the Celebrate Summer Blog Hop, I hope you’ll allow yourself the chance to get sidetracked and consider helping Operation Write Home 🙂 but otherwise, you’ll want to click here –>  Celebrate Summer
If you’re here for OWH and feel like taking a little break from your cardmaking, you are welcome to check out all the creative fabulousness on the blog hop! (Don’t worry, by OWH standards this is a short hop, with less than 30 participating blogs.)

If you’ve ever been intimidated by challenges in the past, I’m here today to show you that challenges can be as Easy As 1, 2, 3.  My challenge for you is to create a card (which I hope you’ll send to Operation Write Home!) with the following elements:

1 piece of designer paper
2 different images (any combination of rubber stamps, digital images, or die cuts is OK, but you can’t use more than two distinct images)
3 or more words in the sentiment, which must be shown on the card front (the sentiment does NOT count as one of the two images)

The theme of the card, layout, and color scheme are all up to you.  You’re welcome to include any embellishments you wish EXCEPT glitter, because glitter can flake off and be detected on night vision goggles, creating a hazard for our troops.  Really lumpy, bumpy embellishments aren’t a good idea either because they can get caught in postal service machinery and make a card undeliverable.  If you have any questions about OWH’s requirements, deadlines, and/or shipping info, please click here –>  link to lots of very helpful information! If you have any questions about my challenge, please leave a comment on this blog post, and I’ll reply to you ASAP.

In the right sidebar you’ll see an announcement for OWH’s Beat the Heat card drive – to create a shipment that’s half cards for fall and winter holidays, and half general occasion cards.  I had that in mind as I was making my sample cards for this challenge. I also kept my cards pretty simple to go along with the “easy” part of my challenge.

First is a Halloween card.  I went digging way back in the OWH sketch challenge archives for the layout for this one.  This is sketch challenge 12.  I added a couple layers behind the designer paper, to mimic the mats around the focal panel.

I can only imagine how difficult it must be for our heroes serving overseas to leave their families, especially their children.  So in my packages for OWH I always like to include cards that can be sent home to kids.  My second card is a birthday card that I hope is neutral enough for either a boy or a girl.  I used one of my favorite OWH sketches, #43, for this one.  The sentiment reads, “Hope you have a monstrously cool birthday!”  I was sooooo tempted to add birthday hats to the monsters, but that would have messed up the two image requirement for the challenge.

So, now it’s up to you!  Let me see your cards using one designer paper, two images, and a sentiment with 3 or more words!  Mr. Linky should be visible at the bottom of this post, underneath my supplies list, so you can share your work.  You’ll be able to link your creations over the next month, but keep in mind that OWH is awarding prizes to random participants who link their cards by 11:59 pm Pacific time Monday, July 5.

Supplies for the Halloween card:
Stamps: Halloween Set (Purple Onion Designs)
Cardstock: Pumpkin Pie, Early Espresso, Naturals White (Stampin’ Up); Pome designer paper from Ambrosia 6″ x 6″ pad (Basic Grey)
Ink: Early Espresso (SU)
Other: markers (Copic)

Supplies for the birthday monster card:
Stamps: Little Monsters (Lizzie Anne Designs)
Cardstock: Cool Caribbean, Green Galore (Stampin’ Up); Vintage Cream (Papertrey Ink); Telegraph Hill designer paper from Phoebe 6″ x 6″ pad (Basic Grey)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: markers (Copic)

Thanks for visiting my blog today! 🙂