Hello!  Welcome to my stop on the Operation Write Home World Card Making Day Blog Hop! Today we’re celebrating the fun and joy of making cards by sharing cards made for the purpose of sending to our military members stationed overseas, so that they may write to their family and friends back at home.

Since the Christmas holiday season is quickly approaching, we’ve been asked to make cards suitable for Christmas or winter, based on any card sketch we’ve found.  I have two cards for you today so I will try not to chat too much!

First is a Christmas card.  I started out with OWH Stars & Stamps Sketch #52, but it didn’t quite end up looking like the sketch.  I originally had a different image, but when I was coloring it, my marker sprung a leak and the color bled where it wasn’t supposed to go.  I had this digital image already printed and cut, so I decided to go ahead and use it even though it wasn’t a circular shape.  Then I realized it would look better if I used the mirror image of the sketch, so it wouldn’t seem like the bear was looking off the edge of the card.  So, even though my card is a little different than the sketch, I think it turned out all right in the end:

Since the first card didn’t turn out as planned, I decided to make a second card and stick more carefully to the way the sketch was drawn.  I also wanted to make something that could be suitable for pretty much any recipient – male or female, age 1 to 101, because I feel those are most versatile for the troops to use.  This time I chose OWH Stars & Stamps Sketch #43.  I like it because it’s easy to create a little scene on the tilted panel.  The iceberg, penguin, and speech bubble were all fussy cut and then adhered to the snowflake panel.  I added some shimmery paint to the iceberg for some extra visual interest.  I spent a little time debating whether to make this a “thinking of you” card or a “love” card.  Love won out in the end:

Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you’ll join me in creating cards for this wonderful cause.

Supplies for the bear card:
Digital Image: Rhubarb Trims the Tree (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps)
Sentiment Stamp: Cozy Friends (SNSS)
Cardstock: Riding Hood Red (Stampin’ Up); Pure Luxury Ivory (Gina K. Designs); designer papers from Blitzen collection (Basic Grey)
Ink: printer ink; Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: Labels One Nestabilities die (Spellbinders); markers (Copic); mini star brad (The Paper Studio); dimensionals (SU)

Supplies for the penguin card:
Stamps: Critters in the Snow, Love ‘n Breakfast, A Birdie Told Me (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Baja Breeze, Basic Black (Stampin’ Up); Pure Luxury White (Gina K. Designs); designer paper from Fa La La collection petite paper pack (Lawn Fawn)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: Frost White shimmer paint (Tsukineko)