Category: Challenges

Cards, Challenges

Jolly Snowman

Ruth Cooper

Hi Angels!

It’s time for another holiday card in red, white & blue for our Holiday in July Extravaganza for the Troops.

July is a good time to look at your 4th of July paper kits to see if there are any papers that will work for the winter holiday season. Plaids, polka dots, stripes, stars & hearts are all universal patterns that can work well any time of the year for any occasion. One such kit provided the patterned paper I needed to today’s card.

One of our group members sent some Troop holiday cards with this fun snowman die from Creative Expressions. I knew he existed, I just wasn’t quite sold on picking him up for my collection. As you can see after seeing the cards in person made with him, I now have my own die.

Isn’t the plaid paper from the Photoplay Land of the Free collection just perfect behind him? It definitely gives that cozy winter feeling to our red, white & blue theme. The sentiment is from My Favorite Things Christmas sELFies stamp set.

Have you tried a patriotic holiday card yet?

Thanks for popping by!

Cards, Challenges, Faith Based Art, Kindness matters, Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps

Bookmark Challenge

Ruth Cooper

Hi Angels!

Almost didn’t make today’s post as I wrestled with a migraine for about 36 hours, then I just feel drained. But even moving slow I decided to tackle the challenge from the Creative Worship Bible Journaling group.

We were challenged to create bookmarks to share with others. I think we are going to start seeing a lot of kindness initiatives in the coming months. It’s been a challenging year to say the least & sharing encouragement, love & kindness will make a big difference to our neighbors & our fellow brothers & sisters in Christ.

I made 2 cards & bookmark sets to go out as Happy Mail this week & a bookmark for me. I used the new True Beauty Stamp set from Sweet n’ Sassy Stamps along with the sentiment on the reverse of the bookmark from the Faith set. The embossing folder for the cards is Memory Box Chrysanthemum Field.

Complete set of 2 cards & 3 bookmarks
Bookmark gift inside of card
Front & Back of bookmark
The bookmark will easily fit in any book

I am actually working on a small stack of happy mail to send out this week along with our July shipment of Troop cards.

I challenge you to join in the kindness movement & do something nice for someone this week. Maybe a phone call, a card, a small surprise, just a little bit of something to let someone know you care.

A smile is a great start.

Cards, Challenges

Red, White & Blue Ornaments

Ruth Cooper

Hi Angels!

I have another great example for our July Holiday Extravaganza for the Troops.

This card was a bit fussy, meaning a few extra steps but I love how it came together. If I were making several of these for the Troops I would probably do either a batch of 6 or 12.

I always suggest when doing sets of cards for the Troops to keep the duplicates to a minimum because we are sending to one unit. Working in sets of 6, 12, 18, 24 work best to keep the variety fresh. I have received in the past a box of cards where the sweet person who sent used the same rather large stamped image on about 100 cards. They all started blending together even with different sentiments attached. It really helps a lot to have a mixed selection in the boxes we send to the troops. We want them to feel like a card “store” just arrived in a box with lots of different styles to choose from.

It was really fun digging through my patterned papers to see what fit our patriotic holiday theme. You can never go wrong with classic stripes, polka dots, plaids etc. I set aside a variety to work with for July.

This card features Memory Box Classic Ornament & Spellbinders Classic Triple Scallops dies. The greeting is from My Favorite Things Snow Globe Sentiments.

Have a Fabulous Week Ahead!

Thanks for popping by!

Cards, Challenges, Penny Black

The Holiday in July Extravaganza

Ruth Cooper

Hi Angels!

As most of you know, I have been working with Cards for the Troops for many years. It is one of my favorite encouragement projects especially since we are a retired Air Force family. My husband has always called it a multiple blessing. We get to make cards to send to the troops, the troops know we care about them & their families, their families are blessed when they receive that precious happy mail from their service member.

We have a special challenge going on this month on the Let’s Make Cards group on Facebook. That challenge is to make patriotic themed holiday cards for our annual holiday shipment. Of course everyone is welcome to make any style of holiday cards they would like but we thought it would be fun to throw some red/white/blue into the mix.

I thought it would also be a great way for me to share some ideas & get a few cards made myself for the shipment. While searching for ideas for the theme I saw an image with red/white/blue holiday trees. I knew exactly what I wanted to use to make this card.

Penny Black’s Tall Trees are just a fun pine tree shape and a great size. While looking at my dies, I thought it also would be fun to use PB Curved Stitch for the snowy hill and the holiday sentiment is from PB Holiday Hello & I didn’t search for where greetings came from. My dies desperately need reorganized.

We are pretty limited by restrictions on what can be used on our cards so I plan to showcase easy designs with a lot of interest to them. It doesn’t have to be flashy to be a great card.

I hope you are enjoying a great holiday weekend!

Stay tuned for more fun.

Cards, Challenges, My Favorite Things

Bearing Gifts – MFT Sketch Challenge 460

Ruth Cooper

Hi Angels!

Thought I’d pop in tonight with a sketch challenge. The month & all it’s busyness is winding down, which is a good thing since I needed to clear my schedule to care for my asthma flare.

When I started seeing the samples from My Favorite Things Christmas sELFies stamp set, it made it’s way to my house as it was just too cute. Here is what I came up with for this week’s sketch:

Yep, cute, clean & simple and I forgot how much fun spattering can be. I think one of our November classes is on it’s way to be a spattering class since I used it on last nights card too.

To create this card I also used MFT Bitty Holiday Wishes & Fishtail Flag Trio Die-namics. And did I mention before how much I love MFT Blu Raspberry cardstock? The color is fabulous! The spattering is done with thinned white acrylic paint & a toothbrush.

I hope you enjoyed this quick sketch card. Find sometime to take care of yourself this week. The holiday season is upon us & it’s easy to get super busy & not find time to rest.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cards, Challenges, Penny Black, Simon Says Stamp

Holiday Gnome

Ruth Cooper

Hi Angels!

Popping in to share the card I made for the Paper Craft Artist inspiration sketch. This is a classic easy sketch that can have multiple looks depending on occasion & supplies.

I actually took a couple of days off from the studio despite the fact that my worktop still needs several things put back in order. So since my space is a bit crowded I decided something fun & quick was in order. I actually saw the colors used on the recent Simon Says Stamp Blog Hop featuring their new Cheer & Joy release. I love fun holiday color combos so here is my card:

Yep I actually have a couple of items from the new release. Isn’t the Simon Says Stamp Gnome cute? I may have to reconsider ordering the gnome stencil too. Now if you know me well I only like certain gnomes. If they are of the “travel” variety they are as bad as clowns to some people. The cute ones with just a nose peeking out are more my style. The sentiment is from Penny Black’s new Merry Up stamp set & the patterned paper is from Penny Black’s Holiday Trimmings paper pad.

If you have some time, pick a challenge of your choice & see what you can create.

Have a Fun Weekend!

Cards, Challenges, Simon Says Stamp

Ribbon Awareness

Ruth Cooper

Hi Angels!

I know I have neglected my poor blog page again. It’s been an incredibly busy month & I keep thinking I need to post but then it’s late & I’m doing good to get a card posted on Facebook. Add in some allergy & asthma issues with the fall weather & well….. The really good news is I am enjoying creating more freestyle. Just puttering in the studio playing with this & that. I love sharing inspiration to spark your creativity too.

They started some challenges over on the Let’s Make Cards group on Facebook. I agreed to help host them along with my co-hostess Diann. These are to give you some ideas & creative inspiration. We hope you’ll play along. If you are not a member, you can request to join.

I am hosting the October 15th – 31st challenge & I chose Ribbon Awareness since October is traditionally Pink Ribbon Month. However there are many great ribbon causes so feel free to create a card for any ribbon cause you feel led to, post it to the group & then send it off to brighten someone’s day. We have either personally experienced a disease or illness or know someone who has. Let them know you care with a special card.

Here is my card:

I used Ann Corbiere-Scott’s In Memory of Laura stamp set paired with Simon Says Stamp Daisy Bouquet set for the background. I colored the ribbon with Zig Clean Color Markers

The Angels & I got to hang out with Ann at the Grace Conference in June & received her Fruit of the Spirit stamp set in class. She also creates state themed stamp sets & sells them only through local scrap/art stores in the state they were created for. Got to keep small businesses up & running or we won’t have them. You can find In Memory of Laura & her other designs on the Scraps of Love website in Arizona.

Find some time to brighten someone’s day this week.

Thanks for popping by.