Green and Brown Stripes - Love You Card

For today's card, I used Sketch #93 from the Operation Write Home Stars and Stamps blog. I started to CASE Marianne's striped sample card, but then made some changes along the way. Thank you Marianne, for the inspiration!

The card stock is Ellen Hutson's golden brown (card base), Paper Source leaf (light green) striped with G24 and E25 Copic markers, and PaperTrey Ink fine linen (light tan) striped and framed with olive Copic multiliner and G24, G28, E25, and E29 markers. The twine is PaperTrey Ink rustic jute button twine.

My sentiment "Love you" is computer-printed with brown ink in "Hobo Std Medium" font. The dots are periods (...) formatted as "superscript" to raise them up above their normal position.

Created for Operation Write Home, "supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them." (104)

ZigZag Pattern - Brown, Rust, and Cream

Today's card has a rustic look, with strands of twine and a rust/brown zigzag pattern on a cream background. One of my many "medallion band" layouts. The solid color card stock is PaperTrey Ink terra cotta tile (rust card base) and dark chocolate (dark brown layered under the patterned paper and sentiment). The patterned paper and sentiment are computer-printed on Neenah classic cream card stock. (Details below.) The twine is rustic jute button twine, also from PaperTrey Ink. The circle punches are EK Success 1-1/2" (sentiment with rust border) and 1-3/4" (dark brown layer). To create my zigzag patterned paper in PowerPoint, I overlapped two vertical "stacked" text boxes of V's in 34-point "Arial Black" font (bold). The text box of rust-colored V's is rotated 180 degrees. By tinkering with the text box placement, and the character and paragraph spacing within the text boxes, I was able to make an interesting zigzag effect. The "Thanks" sentiment on its circular border is printed with same rust and brown ink colors using American Typewriter font (24 point). For the two dots, I used a colon (:) in very large font (110 point) in a separate text box, positioned over the sentiment's text box. A simple way to line up the dots where I wanted them. Created for Operation Write Home, "supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them." (103)

Raspberry with Pink Hearts - Missing You

Hearts and circles. One of my favorite designs.

For the original card I made in kraft and blue, click here. For my tutorial, click here.

Card details:

• The punches are a 1" circle, a 1/4" circle, a 1" heart, and a 1/4" double slot punch. Tip: punch the slots first, and then the hearts.
  
  
• The sentiment is computer-printed in purple ink with "Lucida Handwriting" font. The card stock is Paper Source rhubarb (raspberry), Papertrey Ink scarlet jewel (deep wine), and Paper Source strawberry (bright pink).
  
  
• My white "ribbon" is a narrow (3/16") strip of Neenah card stock. I tried using real ribbon, but the Neenah's stiffness made it easier to thread through the slots, adjust, and adhere. Tip: bend each heart a bit while threading it onto the "ribbon."
  
  
• I ran the threaded hearts through my 1-1/2" Xyron. Then I was still able to adjust them as I positioned them on the dark wine circles (which I had already attached to the top raspberry layer).
  

Created for Operation Write Home, "supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them." (056c)

Raspberry Hearts Card with Squares

Hearts, a circle, squares, and a ribbon stripe. Shades of raspberry. In real life, the colors go well together.

The card stock is Paper Source rhubarb (card base), PaperTrey Ink scarlet jewel (dark wine color), and Neenah solar white, on which I computer-printed the pink squares.

The sentiment "Love you..." is computer-printed in purple ink, using Hobo Std Medium font, expanded spacing. The ribbon is 1/4" twill, colored with RV66 Copic marker. The EK Success punches are 1" heart and 3/4" circle.

Created for Operation Write Home, "supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them." (102)

Six-Circle Card - Red, White, and Blue

A circle of red, white, and blue on a striped background.

My six-circle element was borrowed from Charlene Austin's beautiful card, posted on her Willow and Paisley blog. To simplify the spacing and assembly, I printed a template (below) for myself. I placed my red and white circles face-down onto the template and laid a few strips of Scor-tape across them to adhere them to each other. (But not to the template!) Then I adhered the red-and-white piece face-up to the large blue circle.

If you'd like to use my template, you can paste the template .jpg into Word or PowerPoint and resize it, as desired, to fit your punched circles. For my card, the large outer circle is 2-1/4" diameter.
More card details:

• Card stock is Neenah solar white, PaperTrey Ink pure poppy (red), and Paper Source night (a very dark navy blue).
  
• I made the red-and-blue striped paper in PowerPoint and computer-printed it.
• Circle punches are 2-1/4" and 1" by EK Success.
• The three lines on the red strip are drawn with cobalt Copic 0.5 multiliner.
  

Created for Operation Write Home, "supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them." (101)

Red and Green Ten-Dot Christmas Card

A simple Christmas card using a ten-dot design - two offset rows with ten half-inch circles. (Or nine plus two halves, to be precise.) Created for Operation Write Home's World Cardmaking Day "Holiday Cards" blog hop. I love making cards that can help our troops connect with their family and friends across many miles.

For a holiday theme, I drew little loops and stripes on three of the dots to look like Christmas tree ornaments. I colored all the dots with red, green, and gold Copic markers. Then I added shiny domed stickers on top of the "ornaments", a red marker stripe below the sentiment, and a red ribbon bow. I made some with a deep green card base (above) and some with red (below). For all the details, scroll to the end of the post.

To continue hopping with Operation Write Home, click on the blog hop badge below!

Card details:

• The dots are colored with Copic markers G14, G17, R29, R59, and Y26.
  
• My card stock is Neenah solar white, layered on Paper Source spruce (deep green: top card) and PaperTrey Ink pure poppy (red: bottom card).
  
• I used Seongsook's helpful ribbon trick for my bow knot.
• My shiny clear EK Success epoxy dome stickers came from PaperTrey Ink (72 for $3). The diameter is just a bit over 1/2". Press down hard to adhere them, or they won't look really clear. They are very mailable - flexible, and less than 1/16" thick. Not to be confused with "bottle cap" tops, which are (in my experience) larger, thicker, more rigid, and pricier.
• The Merry Christmas sentiment is computer-printed in dark green with "Lucida Handwriting" font (expanded spacing).
• The ten-dot pattern can be hand-drawn with a plastic circles template (1/2") and a black 0.3 Copic multiliner. But it needs careful spacing and "perfect" circles to look nice. After a few times of drawing it, I made a PowerPoint file that prints my (uncolored) circles. Much easier.
• For a few more of my cards based on this pattern, you can click on the ten-dot label, below or in the labels list on the right of my blog.

Created for Operation Write Home, "supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them." (24)