OWH Stars and Stamps: May 2011

Tutorial - Z Fold

>> Tuesday, May 31, 2011 – Cardmaking 201, Tutorial

I hope everyone had an opportunity to enjoy this weekend's blog hop. Here's a reminder that just because the weekend is over, the posts have not gone away. Sandy has put together a handy inlinkz post for quick reference in case you want to go back and see your favorites.

Today we're featuring a tutorial that was posted during the hop, to make sure everyone gets to see it. You guys have repeatedly told us that you like interesting new folds, and this card is one of those, and it includes enough space for our heros to write in. This was originally posted by Nancy at Scrap Happens! Be sure and stop by her blog and say hello. Nancy writes:

I call this a “Z” card because it is built on a fun little “Z” shape base. It sits up like a fun little decoration, and the inside edge matches the front. When closed, it looks like this:

Here is a a few shots of the card when it is standing up:

Here is another example of the “Z” card. . .

This card is fun to make to use up a whole lot of small embellishments, stamps, or leftover bitty things that you might have lying around. It would be a great use for small stickers or punches without causing the “sneeze” effect (just looks like a bunch of small things splattered all over the front of a card, without much organization!)

The instructions for making this card are really pretty simple.

Your base measures 4.25 x 12”. You can use a patterned, or solid piece of cardstock for this as shown. The 4.25 x 12” piece is scored at 3.25 and 6.5” and are folded as shown. Layer the card base with pieces of white that meaure .25 inches smaller than the surfaces that you want to cover. For example, the Red white and blue card has white pieces that measure 4 x 5.25 (inside), 4 x 3” (middle) and 4 x 3 1/8” (front.) Make sure you glue that front piece flush with the right edge so that the blue part doesn’t show when the card is closed.

The squares and 1 x 1” and 7/8 x 7/8” . Decorate each of these squares with your stamps, punches, or various small embellishments. I used a few Close To My Heart stamp sets for this – “Beautiful Day” and “Happy Holidays” stamp sets both have tons of small cute stamps.

The last step is to add these squares to the card as shown. The third row over, is centered on the fold and they stick out over the fold a little. Here is a shot of the card when open:

You can see how those squares stick out a little over this folded edge. The fourth row of squares is adhered to the inside of the card, as shown. Don’t be afraid to use a ruler as a guide to center these squares until they are exactly where you want them to be. Here are a few more helpful hints: Gluing the third row down first kind of gives you a good guide for where to place the rest. Also, you can use a light adhesive first, or some kind of glue that is slightly repositionable until your squares are where you want them to end up permanently.

---

Thanks, Nancy, for another great tutorial.

Everyone, please remember you can offer a tutorial or a suggestion for one by emailing me at kate@operationwritehome.org.

I also want to encourage everyone to visit the Cardmaking Resources page, where you can find links to all the previous tutorials from the Stars & Stamps blog. I recommend checking there or the Cardmaking Glossary when you're wondering about how to do a technique. Many of the requests and suggestions I received on my hop post this weekend can already be found linked on one or both of those pages.

Bloghop candy winners!

OWH candy winners have been announced on the Homefront Blog .... we also need your opinion on something there!

Note to bloggers: if you're having trouble locating your winners, you can try posting on our Facebook page, or email info@operationwritehome.org and we might be able to figure out who it is.

Memorial Day Bloghop: The Reprise

>> Monday, May 30, 2011 – Bloghops

Need a quick reference to what you saw this weekend? A reminder to go back and visit something? Or maybe you want to do like a lot of our Facebook friends are doing: go to random.org and pick a number, then go make a card inspired by that blog! Don't forget, you still have through tonight, Monday night, to enter for a lot of the candy!

Sketch Challenge #71

>> Sunday, May 29, 2011 – Sketch Challenge

Wow, how 'bout that bloghop! I don't know about you, but I'm still hopping my way through all those awesome blogs! (Scroll down one post to get to the start of the hop!)

I bet we all have tons of ideas for cards now, which will be helpful for our Start the Second Million Challenge! Check it out:

While you're working on your second million, see if you find this sketch useful:

We have four, yes FOUR! samples today courtesy of the awesome Carolynn! Aren't they cute? Carolynn doesn't have a blog so please take a moment to leave her some love here on this post. I really appreciate your help this week, Carolynn!

That should give y'all some great ideas! Be sure and link back to show us what you made, I love to visit!

To play along in this week's sketch challenge, simply upload a project using this week's sketch to your blog or online gallery then leave a direct link to your project using the Inlinkz widget at the bottom of this post. And remember, you may use this sketch at any time. Feel free to re-post the sketch on your blog along with your card… then come back and leave a link for us so we may all see your cards!

We encourage everyone to take a few moments to visit and leave comments for the other participants. Comments are a wonderful way to say thank you for sharing your creative project and inspires everyone to create.

Memorial Day Bloghop 2011 Starts HERE!

>> Saturday, May 28, 2011 – Bloghops

Welcome, welcome, welcome! We're so glad you're here! This promises to be a weekend filled with incredible inspiration, creativity, freebies, prizes....and so many more surprises along the way! Be sure to get yourself a cold beverage, send the kids to the neighbor's to play, and settle in for some bloghopping!

For those who are new to bloghops, this is an effort of bloggers across the internet to share their love for Operation Write Home's heroes—service members deployed abroad, sacrificing for their country....and we send them handmade cards to write home on! We've sent over a MILLION cards, and have impacted military families in ways we'll never know!

CARD TO SHARE

This card is made with the American Angel image by MelJen Designs, and papers are from the Yankee Doodle line from We R Memory Keepers - read below for the blog candy to find out the prize WeR is offering!!

Note: Cards folded this way get tucked ALL the way into the envelope; cards folded the other direction have the back tucked inside the envie, and the front hanging out in view.

BLOG CANDY

What would a bloghop be without candy? We R Memory Keepers is giving us a great Yankee Doodle Prize Pack, pictured below...to enter to win, you'll need to find the secret code hidden among the blogs! Look for tips in BLUE like this first one - collect the letters in the shield at the top of each, unscramble, and enter the answer in a comment on the last stop - the Homefront Blog! The winner will be randomly drawn from all correct answers. RESPOND WITH THE PUZZLE ANSWER ON THE HOMEFRONT BLOG ONLY. Or you'll be giving it away - and reducing your chances to win! lol.

Subscribe to this blog by email using the link in the sidebar. And like us on our FB page!

*Note: If you're really short on time, you can hop just to the blogs with the hidden tips. See the asterisks in the blog list at the end of this post!

BLOGHOPPER TIPS

Comment! Leave some love for the bloggers who have worked so hard to make this hop a success. See if you can leave something more than "nice card" — we all love to hear specific feedback about our creations!
If you get "lost" (ie if a blogger posts a broken link or forgets entirely), simply come back here and pick up where you left off. We'll be checking the links and trying to get repairs done, so don't worry about reporting errors....just move on and enjoy the blogs!
Keep a piece of paper handy to jot down ideas you want to go see again!
To comment on blogs, many need you to enter your email address, Google account, etc. Unfortunately it's not uniform, so we're unable to assist if you don't have such accounts. You might wish to set up a temporary free Google account (using a free Google address that you can check, rather than your regular one).
If you're entering for blog candy prizes and you do NOT have a blog (ie the person can't contact you by visiting your blog), you may wish to leave your email address in case you win. To cut down on spam, type it "name at server dot com" rather than "name@server.com".)
If you're inspired, the last stop on the hop, you'll have the chance to add your card link! Join in the fun!

SPAMMER REMINDERS:

Just go away, okay? Thanks.
You're still here? Re-read #1.

CRUISE SURVEY

Yes, you read that right. We're pondering the idea of a cruise! Please take our short survey, it should take you about a minute or two to answer some real fast questions. When you click "finish" it will drop you right back here so you can start hopping! Click THIS LINK to take the survey.

THE BLOGHOP LIST!

OWH, OWH Stars and Stamps*
Sheila, 2pawprints
Velda, Oldstamper Musings
Shelly, Create with Me
Paper Crafts Magazine, Paper Crafts Connection
Anita, Cards & Coffee
Dawn, The Chatty Stamper
Amy, Love to Crop!
Misty, DeliteFul Gifts
OWH, Hero Blog*
Kristen, Creative Syzygy
Lisa, Stuff-n-such By Lisa
Alex, Paper and String
Allison, Allison's Creations
Melissa, Meljen's Designs Challenges & Inspiration
Marjorie, Auntie Margs blog & crafty stuff
Sudie, unKit scrapbook and show
Nicolette, BeyondScrapin
Yolanda, Imagine.Make.Share*
Karen, Feline Creative
Paula, Cut n Paste Memories
Sherry, Bits of Cheer
Angel, Make Something Cute!
Gerda, StampFairy
Karel, One By One The Flamingos Are Stealing My Sanity
Jennifer, Crafty Card Gallery
Alaine, MissAlaineous' Mosaics
Pat, PatQ's Cards
Julie, Handmade by Julie*
Cindy, Cindy's Card Co.
Emily, Bombshell Em's Artistic Expressions
Gina, California Scrappin'
Veronica, Circle B Enterprises Scrapbooking & More Store Blog
Samantha, Expressions Of A Craftaholic*
Holley, Holley's Hobbies
Jen, The Sparkle Within
Erica, Creative But Messy
Leslierahye, Leslie Rahye
Jan, She's Gone Stampin'*
Yvonne, One Creative Momma
CJ, Tea and Stitches
Megan, Megan Bean
Dixie, What's Next*
Ky, Bunny nest
Heather, We Grow By Our Dreams
Deborah, Thoughts of a Grasshopper
Barbara, Paper Therapy Ponderings*
Darlene, Expressions by da
Redonna, Perpetual Playtime
Seongsook, Seongsook's Creations
Christy, Christy Blade Handmade
Paula, Handmade by Paula*
Elizabeth, Visions of Paper
Kerri, Big Smiles From Kbear
Angie, {stampings of the shug}
Kris, A Work of Heart*
Lianna, Llama Tales: Tales from the Laughing Llama
Karen, Slightly Scrappy
Kate, Hello from Kate*
Melissa, Melissa T. Liban Illustrations' Cute Crafty Land
Yvette, Cre8tiveGirls
Holly, InkPaperStamps
Jennifer, Ink N Scrap Habits
Karen, Creating with Kajikit*
Patty, pssmitty
Jennifer, I'm Crafty
Brittany, Levels of Light
Tiffany, The Joy Inside of Me
Sandy, A Colourful World*
Cherie, Graceful Cardmakers
Sylvia, Bella Scrapbook Designs
Antoinette, Inspired stamps
Sarita, Blessed Scrapper
Amber, Damask Love
Missy, Scrappy Mom
Crystal, Crystal's Creative Escape
KellyRae, Sassy Rubber Artists
Patty, Patty Creates
Doris, MomsBeenScrappin
Amanda, Who Are You Calling Crafty?
Cheryl, She Stamps
Shelly, Angel at Heart
Susan, sbartist : painting in the dark
Louise, Trinity Paper Arts
Lisa, Papergrace Designs
Diane, Stampin Ldyglfr62
Susan, SalonD'Arte
Laura, Scrappin' Daphne
Susan, SMBdesign
Lisa, Stamping With A Mission
Dolores, The Corner Studio
Nancy, Scrap Happens!
Tami, Fiskateers
Susan, Pieces of Fate
Jennifer, Just Coffee Please...
Trish, Mouse Print Creations
Amanda, Scrappnbee the Scrapbooker
Sharon, Sharon's Shenanigans
Carole, Ramblings of a FibreJunky
Joanne, Sleepy in Seattle
Trisha, Trishlicious & Co.
Linda, The Stamper's Touch
Angela, Midnight Crafting
Sharon, Desert Rose Outpost
Julie, Cr8've Juices
Shauna, SK Studios
Sylvia, Sylvia's Stamp Corner
Ronda, Musings from the Button Box
Courtney, Back to the Drawing Board
Magdalena, Axes Designs
Jennifer, Our Change of Art
Windy, Card and Page
Brenda, Infinite-Possibilities
SergeantLaura, The Stampin' Soldier
Anita, Crafts from Miracle's Table
Lauri, Paperville
Cindy, Mostly Markers - Cards
Shana, Starting from Scrap
Jennifer, Life of Reilly
Brittany, Yesterday's Echo Scrapbooks
Erica, My Cricut Craft Room
Corinna, My Scrapbook Life
Patricia, Thinking of Inking
Stasia, Stampin' & Scrappin' with Stasia
Shemaine, Scraptastic Designs
Cara, MiscellaneousMe
Becca, Expressions
Lena, Scrapbutterfly
Debbie, The Craftin Cafe
Andrea, Contagiously Crafty
OWH, Homefront Blog*

Featured Carmaker: Rosa Lee T., San Jose, CA

>> Friday, May 27, 2011 – Featured Friday Cardmaker

Hello everyone! Are you ready to take a short break from getting ready for this weekend's blog hop? This week I'd like you to meet Rosa Lee. She's part of the stamping group at the Los Gatos Elks Lodge who were featured here back in August of 2010. She does not have a blog so be sure to leave her a comment here at the end of this post.

How long have you been stamping?
I have been making OWH cards for about eighteen months or so.

Do you have a craft room or specific area where you stamp/craft?
I make my cards at my dining room table and put everything away when I am finished. I have a rolling cart with drawers that holds most of my supplies that I roll into my closet. I average around 70 to 80 cards a month as time permits.

What are your favorite stamp/craft products?
I have purchased a great many clear stamps and love using those. I also like the EK edge punches.

Do you have a favorite technique?
I am learning as I go, and Cindy has taught me so much, that I really don’t have a favorite technique. My cards today look so much better than when I first started... guess the most important thing I have learned is to layer, layer, layer.

Are there colors you love to include on your cards?
I try to use all colors as long as they look nice. Since someone else will be selecting the card to send to a friend or loved one, I like to make a variety, not every one has the same taste.

How did you hear about Operation Write Home?
My husband belongs to the Los Gatos Elks Lodge and they help “sponsor” our little group of card makers by providing us the use of monthly meeting space and some money for supplies. OWH is one of their projects. One of the officers of the lodge asked me if I would be interested, so I started attending. I must say that without Cindy Etkind and her tireless efforts, patience, suggestions, supplies and time, we would not have achieved the 10,000 card level in so short a time. She is amazing and deserves a “standing ovation”. As a matter of fact, she was presented a plaque for “Citizen of the Year” by the Los Gatos Elks Lodge just this month!!

What motivates you to make cards for our heroes?
I am NOT a scrap booker or card maker for my family and friends. I make these cards because it gives me a “warm and fuzzy” to think that they in some way help our troops overseas and their families. I hope the following answers are what you needed. It just feels good to do something for someone else, especially in this situation. My husband served in Vietnam and says that this is such a wonderful thing that we are doing. He and the others that served in that war had nothing like this and it was greatly needed.

OWHtv: Episode 13

>> Thursday, May 26, 2011 – OWHtv

Thanks to everyone who joins us live every Thursday night for the banter in the chat room!

Bloghop confirmation

We just sent an email to the bloggers for the hop - with all the storms, we'd like to confirm your participation! If you did NOT get the email, but you DID sign up, we may have your addy wrong, so email bloghop@operationwritehome.org and we'll figure out what's wrong.

If you ALREADY SIGNED UP (signups are CLOSED now), please do one of the following:

If you're STILL BLOGGING on the hop, leave a link to your blog in a comment on this post.
If you're NO LONGER ABLE TO BLOG on the hop, email bloghop@operationwritehome.org.

(Don't email just to say you're still on board...let's keep the email to a minimum, thanks!)

Try A New Technique

>> – Midweek Throwdown Challenge

Thank you everyone who entered into last weeks Summer Fun challenge!

We enjoyed visiting your blogs and looking at your wonderful cards! We have a Summer Fun challenge winner to announce today, congratulations Yolanda D. InLinkz chose you!!! I'll be talking with you soon!

This week’s challenge is “Try A New Technique”. We’re challenging you to make cards for our heroes to send home to their loved ones that use a technique you’d like to try but haven’t yet. Please remember no glitter or glitter products on your cards for Operation Write Home. If you’d like some great ideas we have Tuesday tutorials right here, click the button on the right side of our blog for some wonderful inspiration. We’re looking forward to seeing your awesome creations this week!

Instead of a sample card maker this week I thought it would be fun to show some of the cards from our Tuesday Tutorials for inspiration.

Nancy

Seongsook

Kate

Sandy

A big thank you to Kate for all her work bringing us the Tuesday Tutorials!

To play along in this week's challenge, simply upload a project using this week's challenge to your blog or online gallery then leave a direct link to your project using the InLinkz widget at the bottom of this post. And remember, you may use this challenge at any time. Feel free to re-post the challenge on your blog along with your card… then come back and leave a link for us so we may all see your cards!

We encourage everyone to take a few moments to visit and leave comments for the other participants. Comments are a wonderful way to say thank you for sharing your creative project and inspires everyone to create.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you join in the fun!

To play along this week, please enter your name, URL and email address in the link below then press next step and select the photo of your creative project. An icon will appear on the blog featuring the photo you selected. If the photo doesn’t appear right away, don’t worry, it will after the page has been refreshed.

Tutorial - Blogger Basics

>> Tuesday, May 24, 2011 – Tutorial

Blog Hop is coming! Blog Hop is coming! For today's tutorial, Paula is sharing some tips for new bloggers, to help everyone prepare for the big weekend. You may already have seen these tips on her blog at Handmade by Paula.

A Cram Course in A Few Blogger Basics

OWH sponsors "Blog Hops" on a regular basis and I know I was confused and intimidated when I made my first attempt to join in the fun so I've decided I'd write up a post that might help some of you who might want to participate but feel you're not tech savvy and not sure you can do it. I am far from being a "professional" in the realm of blogging but hope that I can help ease your way with these few simple lessons.

Note: You should be able to click on these images to make them larger and easier to read.

Checking Your Time Zone

1) Choose the "Settings" Tab

2) Choose the "Formatting" Tab

3) Scroll down and check your time zone. I'm on the East Coast and have set my zone accordingly. Most of the OWH hops/events I've taken part in are scheduled on EST Time so you may find it easiest to use this setting as well. If you decide to use your own time zone just be sure you do the math and are careful when you schedule posts. (More on that later in these lessons).

Scheduling Posts to Be Published (Go Live) at a Specific Date and Time

Scheduling your post to appear at a specific time is a great thing to know how to do and it's quite simple. Knowing this little trick means your post can appear to have just been "posted" while in fact you set it up weeks ago and you're actually lounging on a beach in the Bahamas! (Margarita anyone?)

1) Create your post as your normally would.

2) Then click on "Post Options" in the lower left hand corner.

3) You will now see some additional POST OPTIONS available to you as shown below. Here is where you will type in the DATE and TIME you want your post to "go live". Click the "Scheduled At" button (instead of automatic which will post the entry immediately). Enter the date and time accordingly. It's important that you know WHAT TIME ZONE setting you are using. Remember back in the beginning of this cram course we set my time zone at EST, so the post example you see here would go live at 8 AM on the East Coast but my friends in San Diego would see this post at 5AM because of the time difference.

4) After you've input your date and time settings click on PUBLISH POST. While this may not "seem" right, it is. Once you do this you will then be able to see exactly what you have set up in the post lists screen that comes up and looks like this next image. As you can see my post in this example will be published at 8:00 AM East Coast time on April 29, 2011. I can still go back and edit, delete or even change the scheduled date and time if I want or need to.

Turning Off Word Verification

Turning off word verification means that when someone visits your blog and wants to leave a comment they can do so without the extra step of 'word verification'. It makes leaving a comment especially easy when you are taking part in a blog hop or online event. While I leave mine set to OFF all the time, you can turn it on and off easily so it makes sense to turn it off at least temporarily if you are taking part in an event and want to make commenting fast and easy for your visitors. I should mention that turning verification off can also open you up to receiving 'spam comments' but blogger does have some built in filters to keep most spam from being published and you can also review and eliminate any comments you choose.

1) Choose the "Settings" Tab

2) Choose the "Comments" Tab

3) Scroll down until you see "Show word verification for comments?"

4) Click on the "No" Button.

5) Scroll to the very bottom and click the "Save Settings" button to retain the change.

You can go back at anytime, the same way, click YES and SAVE SETTINGS and word verification will once again be required of anyone trying to leave you a comment.

Creating a Simple Link in Your Post

1) Write your post as normal and highlight the text you wish to turn into a link.

2) Click the LINK tool on the tool bar.

3) A new window will open in front of your post window that looks like the image below. Notice the TEXT TO DISPLAY box is automatically filled with the words you highlighted. You need to fill in the box that is asking for the URL (which stands for Uniform Resource Locator, in case you enjoy trivia) which is the web page (or blog etc.) address you want that link to take your reader to.

4) In my example here below I am creating a link to the OWH Stars & Stamps Blog. I cut and pasted the address into my box to make it easier and avoid any typos but you can, of course (carefully) type it too. Just be sure you remember to use the 'test this link' option you see in blue right below where you've entered the URL so you are certain the link goes where you expect it to. Clicking the 'test this link' option should open up the 'destination' page in a new browser window.

5) Make sure you click the OK button in the lower left corner of the 'Edit Link' window to save your entries/edits. Here below you can now see what the link looks like in my blog post. Though it appears in blue and underlined in my sample you can use the toolbar to edit color, font etc. Just be sure if you do make edits that you recheck your link. I typically make 'checking my links' one of the last things I do before I publish (or schedule) my blog post.

Add a Supplied Badge to Your Blog Post

1) Create your post in compose mode as usual.

2) When you are ready to add your badge (or any pre-coded link) switch to HTML mode. Notice how you see the text I typed but also some HTML 'coding' that represents setting for fonts, sizes, colors etc.

3) Next cut and paste the provided text into the post while in HTML mode. You can see that the text I cut from the supplied badge link/artwork now appears at the very top of my post in HTML mode.

4) When you click the tab to return to 'Compose' mode you will now see that the badge artwork appears. Clicking on this encoded badge art will now cause the viewer to be directed to the designated page (the top of the OWH Blog Hop in this example).

Whether you are new to blogging or just want to learn a little something you didn't know I hope you found these short lessons a helpful guide and that you'll be encouraged to join in some of the fun online events hosted by Operation Write Home.

Happy Crafting and Blogging Everyone!

P.S. — If you'd like to start a blog and need some basic guidance I'd suggest you visit this page at Dummies.com which has six fairly simple lessons on the essentials of getting started with blogger.

Thanks, Paula, for the great tips!

Remember, everyone, if you'd like to share some tips or techniques with the OWH community, email me at kate@operationwritehome.org. "See" you all on Saturday!

Sketch Challenge #70

>> Sunday, May 22, 2011 – Sketch Challenge

Hello, OWHers! I really enjoyed seeing your sketch challenge entries this week - you all are so creative and make such lovely cards! I hope everyone is taking a minute to check out the other bloggers that link up - there are some great ideas and inspiration in the OWH family!

Speaking of checking out other blogs, don't forget we have a bloghop coming up!

Our sketch this week features a big curved section! Here's a tip for you if you don't have a tool to cut curves or circles: simply pick out an appropriately sized salad plate or bowl, place it upside down on the back of your paper, trace the curve with a pencil, then cut it out carefully with scissors. Low tech and low cost, and it works just fine.

Our samples this week were made by the fabulous Penny! She has a blog called Penny's Place where you can see more of her beautiful work. Please stop by and leave her some love. Thanks so much for the great samples, Penny!

Okay! Get busy, crafters! I can't wait to see what y'all do with this one :)

To play along in this week's sketch challenge, simply upload a project using this week's sketch to your blog or online gallery then leave a direct link to your project using the Inlinkz widget at the bottom of this post. And remember, you may use this sketch at any time. Feel free to re-post the sketch on your blog along with your card… then come back and leave a link for us so we may all see your cards!

We encourage everyone to take a few moments to visit and leave comments for the other participants. Comments are a wonderful way to say thank you for sharing your creative project and inspires everyone to create.

Featured Cardmaker: Beth L., Hartland, MI

>> Friday, May 20, 2011 – Featured Friday Cardmaker

Hello everyone! This week I'd like you to meet Beth, from Hartland, MI. I know you'll enjoy her cards and learning a bit about her as much as I have. Beth doesn't have a blog so be sure to leave her your comments here at the end of this post.

How long have you been stamping? Since Oct. 2009. I have been scrapbooking since 2005 and in 2008 switched almost totally to digital for my scrapbooking. Stamping is new to me since I didn’t use it much in my scrapbooking. I love being able to use up all my scrapbooking papers for the OWH cards.

Do you have a craft room or specific area where you stamp/craft? I haven’t had a specific place to stamp/craft but my oldest son just moved and I am going to take over his old bedroom for my craft room.

What are your favorite stamp/craft products? My Cuttlebug and all the neat things you can do with the embossed papers and cutting dies. I just started using the cutting dies (Nestabilities) and I love what I can make with them. I love the digital stamps that OWH has for us. I am making a bunch of birthday cards with the Frantoonie stamps.

Do you have a favorite technique? I feel like I am still a beginner and have so much to learn. I have learned a lot from my friend, Nan, who has been making cards for 20 yrs. We get together to make OWH cards every Friday night.

I go to the Stars and Stripes blog and read/watch the tutorials for ideas and new techniques. I want to try the pinwheels and dryer sheets next. I loved the embossed flower card Pam made. I made a bunch of those for Mother’s Day and I have been watching the blog and Facebook for Father’s Day ideas.

Are there colors you love to include on your cards? I love blues and greens and mauves/pinks. I like making bright cards for kid’s birthdays.

How did you hear about Operation Write Home? I got a digital scrapbooking newsletter from Simple Scrapper that had a contest to make cards for OWH. I thought it was a fantastic idea so I got some of the Moms in our 4-H group and Nan to join me making cards. We started getting together once a month for a whole day of card making and now we get together on Friday nights because of working schedules.

What motivates you to make cards for our heroes? My Dad was in the Army and my uncle went over to Iraq as a surgeon when the war first started so I wanted to do something for those that are serving. I started in Oct. 2009 and then my youngest son enlisted in the Army in Dec. 2009 so I have a very strong reason to support all our troops. He just graduated from his advanced training and is going to his new assignment.