Join our CC DT card blog hop for Operation Write Home!

Hello, crafters! Hopefully you've all arrived from the very talented Nina's blog. If you are starting here, please begin with Amber's blog so you don't miss a thing!

Welcome to Cropchocolate.com's second blog hop - this time, we're honoring our wonderful troops and making cards for OWH - Operation Write Home. This wonderful organization provides handmade cards for our dedicated military heroes to communicate with loved ones back home. From today through October 8th, the CC Design Team will be running a blog hop filled with all sorts of challenges. There will be a main prize give at The Crop and some of the DT crew are offering individual blog candy, so be sure to read all the details! Please make sure all of your linked cards are made with at least 50% cropchocolate.com materials. If you haven't already, be sure to request a few OWH stamp here - you'll need it to stamp the back of all your OWH creations.

Before we get started, I just wanted to remind you that there are a few strict guidelines to follow while making your OWH cards, to ensure the safety & happiness of our heroes and facilitate processing of these cards for distribution. You can find a copy of the official OWH guidelines here or you can print out a pdf of their brochure - however, you'll definitely want to read it before you create and right before you get ready to ship off your cards to an OWH shipper. In a nutshell, though - NO GLITTER, A2 size cards only, use quality materials, be sensitive about content, no bulky embellishments, OWH-stamped... please follow OWH guidelines and requests! If you do, then it's a win-win situation for everyone!

Here is the blog order:
Amber
Michele (by belle)
Brenna
Julie
Brittany
Nina - hopefully you arrived from here
Miwa (you are here!)
Kathy - your next destination!
Jenni
Chris

Canadian crafters can still participate by sending their cards to:

Corinne Braun
6-300-108th St
Saskatoon, SK S7N 1P8


My challenge to you - should you choose to accept it - is to use up your scraps! We all have at least one box of paper scraps kicking around - let's try to use some of it up! I've created three different card sketches (each with an example) as a launching point for inspiration. Other than the background paper, everything else should be a small scrap of paper. As you can see, I absolutely love the MME Lime Twist collection!

Sketch #1

 

 

Sketch #2

 

 

Sketch #3

 

 

If you're still looking for inspiration, please visit the home of OWH - there are tons of tutorials and more sketches! You don't have to use my sketches, or anyone else's for that matter, but my challenge is to use paper scraps. As far as card themes are concerned... each of the 3 main OWH shippers have a short list of requested themes, which you can view here. There is also a list of "Deadlines and Themes" posted here. Cards created during this blog hop will probably NOT make the holiday card deadline, so cards involving: birthday, love, thank you, missing you, thinking of you, and blank (without sentiment) might be the most appreciated.

Once you've finished your cards, please review the guidelines once again before sending your creations off to an OWH shipper - you can also view their video on "the OWH mailroom" to see what goes on there! The OWH volunteers donate a lot of their time making sure our heroes get these great cars - please do everything you can to make sure your cards processed quickly so they can be appreciated! Don't forget your packing slip here!

And don't forget! I'd love to see your creations, so please post them and hook them up to Mr. Linky here. Thanks so much for participating and helping our troops! Now, it's time for you to move on and visit the amazing Kathy Clayton's blog here!

CC Challenge #32 - Easel Card

MM Vintage Findings Mat Stack,Bazzill cardstock, white cardstock (the Paper Company), FP Happy Together Quotes & Accents (HC), Prima Say It In Crystals bling, red rhinestones (Scrappin' Supplies), MM Wedding pins, MME Lush trim, TH distress ink (tea dye), adhesive (Scrappin' Supplies), Pop dots (All Night Media), stamp (Autumn Leaves)

Challenge #32 this week was to construct an easel card. I've never made one before, so I was grateful when somebody posted a link to this website, which has some lovely tutorials.

Looking to hang onto summer a bit longer?

Then you'll want to check out this post!

 

 

Fellow CC'ers know by belle (aka Michelle)  as an amazing artist. I'm also privileged to serve on the Cropchocolate.com Design Team with her! You can check out her blog here, but in the meantime, her 3D project is currently being featured on The Crop (isn't that the coolest paper lantern ever?!).

Next week, the CC Design Team will begin our OWH card blog hop - so get your A2 cards ready and order your (free) OWH stamp! The hop will run through October 8th, so you'll have plenty of time to join in! What a great cause!!!

CC Challenge #31

EP Apothecary Collection Pack, EP Apothecary Cardstock, MM Glitter die-cuts, MM Spooky Alley Trims & Treats (bling), MM Toil & Trouble Trims, MM Toil & Trouble Wordfetti stickers, Scrappin’ Supplies Permanent Adhesive by Snake Tape, Snake Tape, chipboard, tacky glue, staple 

This week's challenge was a little trickier - you had to use 3 different types of patterned paper/color, 3 different sizes of circles, and at least 3 paper folds. Since I'd been working on my October Design Team project (Halloween!), I decided to make a Halloween card (based on a sketch from Card Sketches for Paper Crafters)...

Paper Bowl Project

Wow, I'm really falling behind! Coaching both girls' soccer teams is really exhausting me - more on that later - that I'm having to budget my time very carefully to get my CC projects done! A few days ago, my September DT project appeared on the CC blog. Here it is!

 

Paper bowl project (by Miwa)

I used to be a straight-laced layout/card-making girl until this year – now, I find myself making home décor projects, which forces me to think outside my comfortable little box. For this particular 3-D challenge, I wanted to create something that I could display AND use. Naturally, I went surfing on Pinterest and eventually stumbled upon a picture of a magazine bowl. I really liked the concept of “building a bowl” so I decided to give it a whirl. Perhaps one of the most rewarding side benefits of this project was being able to use up a lot of my paper scraps! 

You’ll need strips of paper, 1” wide and anywhere from 3” to 12” long. It’s totally up to you! The longer the strip, the larger the paper coil will be. You could use paper strips of the same size, but I think using variable sizes helps to add interest to the bowl. I selected papers from the MME Lime Twist collection because of the bright and distinctive colors. Other supplies you’ll need are: tacky glue, Mod Podge, a foam brush, a bone folder, and rubber bands (optional).

Once you have a nice pile of paper strips, you’ll have to fold the paper. Thick scrapbook paper is a lot harder to fold than thin magazine paper, so you’ll have to prepare the fold lines with a bone folder or scorer. I also found it useful to use the scoring edge of my 12”-Fiskars paper cutter. You don’t have to be exactly when folding, so don’t worry about being too precise!

 

Score the paper strip lengthwise, right down the middle (0.5”). Make another score to the right and left of the center fold (approximately ¼”). After scoring, fold both sides of the paper to the midline and then fold the paer in half lengthwise. Holding the paper firmly, coil the paper into a tight roll, adding tacky glue as needed. I found it helped to secure the coil with a rubber band for a few minutes while the adhesive dried. This is a good time to watch TV or listen to music, while you create a pile of paper coils. Set this mound aside until you have created the bottom section of the bowl.

 

The best way to create a flat surface to the bowl bottom is to make one big paper coil. For this, you’ll need to use 12” paper strips. Once again, you’ll have to score and fold the paper strips.

Begin by coiling the first paper strip, as you did for an individual paper coil. However, at the end of the coil, add some tacky glue to the inside of the fold and slide the next paper strip inside – and continue rolling the strip. Continue the process until you have made a paper coil of the desired size; glue the ends shut.

Finally, it’s time to start building the bowl! Think about the angle that you want the bowl to have and begin adding the coils layer by layer to slowly build the sides. A little bit of tacky glue will help secure the coils to each other. You can also try using Mod Podge as your adhesive, but you have to be really patient (tacky glue dries faster). Make sure that the sides of the bowl are relatively even before you run out of paper coils!

Once you’ve finished building the bowl, you will need to apply a few layers of Mod Podge all over the bowl (it helps to work over wax paper!). This helps the coils to bond to each other and gives your bowl a nice finished look.

For those of you with Etsy shops, there’s yet another benefit to making these bowls – you can sell your creations! Personally, I think the bowls made from scrapbook paper are much prettier than those from magazines…

Happy paper rolling! J

Challenge #30 and an Enabler Alert!

12x12 Authentique "Blissful" aper, AC mini brads, MM pewter brads, Crop-A-Dile; tacky glue, googly eyes

Challenge #30 this week at CC was to create a 3-D embellishment or project. I decided to break open some "new" paper and make a movable 3D snake. Do you remember those cheap plastic snakes you had as a kid, that would sway back and forth if you held it by the tail? Basically, it's that - just made out of paper and brads. This Authentique paper was great for this project, because it's such high quality and very thick. I found a picture of some directions here on pinterest, but wasn't sure what was going on at the tail-end (literally), so I made up my own. The picture on the left was photographed at dusk (high ISO, no flash) while the one on the right is with flash - so you can see the nice colors of this paper.

And looky here! Time for another warehouse sale! You're probably all swimming in embellishments, but the one I went to (about 5 years ago) had rockin' prices on albums (which are good quality). It's too bad they can't have a warehouse sale on the same day as Sizzix, so I'd only have to drive out there once!

CC Challenge #29

 

Cardstock (Bazzill), Basic Grey Tree Hugger stamps, American Crafts white ZING! embossing powder, MME Lush NAVY trim, Crate Paper letter stickers, MM white gems; Versamark embossing ink [card based on sketch from CARD SKETCHES FOR PAPER CRAFTERS]

This week's challenge at cropchocolate.com was to make a monochromatic project (white and black did not count). Thank you cards are my favorite to make because you always need to have a few on hand!