Hello Friends, Welcome to the Mama Elephant and the Operation Write Home BLOG HOP!! I am super excited to be included in this hop especially because it’s for an amazing cause! Before we go further you should be arriving from the blog of the talented Joni Andaya and to start at the beginning of the hop go to the Mama Elephant blog. Mama Elephant sums up what the hop is all about. Here is what they said, “We’re so excited to be partnering this summer with Operation Write Home – they are a nonprofit that sends beautiful handmade cards to our service members so that they can write home to their families. Isn’t that just the best? There’s no Hallmark store in the desert, so this is a pretty important gift we can give them as crafters!
Our “In My heart” set was inspired by the mission of OWH; we know that many of those serving overseas have little kiddos at home that they write to. So we designed cute little kids and sentiments to express just how much those little folks are missed! The drawings are done in such a way that they can be adapted to different ethnicities too, making this a really flexible set. We’ll be donating 20% of the proceeds of the stamp sets sold on our retail site from now until July 31st – we really want to help them fundraise for all their efforts!
We also know you’ll want to join in on the mission to serve the troops – be sure you visit the OWH website and read all the guidelines carefully….you’ll learn about why glitter is dangerous to send, so leave the stickles behind when making cards for heroes! Lots more information is available on their Welcome page – tons of questions are answered there! And they have a fun YouTube show each weekday with project info, tutorials, and more – check it out HERE.
I have so much fun coloring and stamping with this adorable and versatile stamp set and you will be happy to know that there are coordinating die cuts!! Here’s what I created for the hop.
The little boy in overalls was just to cute to pass up but, I wanted to color a girl so ….
I used the cluster OF GRASS in the stamp set to give him pigtails turning him into her! I tried some other variations above… a side ponytail, a bushy pigtail and a crown.
I cut some free form rocks from some white scrap paper, colored them with copic markers. The background is distress ink. Super fun stamping the pig tails with the grass stamp 🙂 Glossy accents were added to the boots and hair ties. The perfect white ink was stamped on vellum and white accents with a gel pen were added.
My second card was simple and easy with a few little details.
The sentiment was manipulated into a curve on my acrylic block to form some grassy hills. The grass and background were colored with copic markers. Have some fun and give her some stripes to her tights.
A little “Various Ink” with a textured rag can give some quick coloring a lot of texture on your background or clothes.
Often I add enamel accents to the eyes but, don’t try this unless you practice first on some scrap paper. When you lift the tip up after dotting the eye…do it slow. If you mess up add google eyes.
Now it’s time to hop to one of my stamping idols Laura Bassen. Thanks so much for your visit today and have a wonderful week. Hugs,Kathy
P.S. Scroll to the bottom of the post if you want to see the supply list:)
CARD SUPPLIES AND LINKS: click on any thumbnail below.
Peace…the last day and a NEW giveaway to thank YOU!
Day 13. Nooks & Crannies
Day 19. Power Poppy,Video& Giveaway
Great little cards! I love the little rocks you made for her to stand on, so cute! Thank you for sharing with us OWH’ers. 🙂
OMG another cute and clever way to make a different use of a stamp! I would never have thought of turning the grass into extra hair! ADORBS! TFS and supporting OWH! Big hugs from a new subbie, Kristina
awesome as always Kathy!! TFS
So cute! Thanks for sharing your creative techniques.
You are so darn creative and talented!!! No one but you would EVER think to take the grass and use it for pigtails – ACK – so cute! Both cards are fantastic, Kathy!
Oh my gosh – so many fun tips and techniques for these precious cards! Gotta pin these to my card techniques board for sure!
These are sooo cute Kathy, really beautiful cards as usual.
I love the way you made pigtails from grass! So clever. These cards are so sweet!
How adorable are these stamps and I’m loving the sentiments. What a great job you did on these cards. Turning the boy into a girl by adding “grass” pigtails is GENIUS. TFS.
LOVE it!
WOW!! Such amazing coloring with this set!! I love the added extra with the pony tails to the boy image and the rocks!! Thanks for the great post! 🙂
Very cute cards. I love that you modified the little boy and made it a girl – Great Idea! Thanks for sharing!
Super adorable and precious cards. You really did one awesome clever and creative job with these super cute stamp sets. You really did one fantastic job with coloring WOW!!
You just amaze me time after time! Thanks so much for sharing all of your techniques with us.
I love both of your cards! You colored them both beautifully! Thanks for helping out OWH!
Thank you for showing how versatile these little people can be used. I love the little girl on the hill. Thanks for helping out OWH!!
GReat cards! Even more awesome tips!!
great cards. love the adaptations.
Great cards. Love the pigtails.
You offer so many great tips! The rocks. The grass for pigtails. The curved sentiment. Using only the ‘hero’ part of the other sentiment. The little flower between the words. Thanks so much for the inspiration!
Great tips and just love how you made the boy image into a girl with the grass!
What WONDERFUL cards Kathy!!! 🙂 AND BEAUTIFUL coloring! You’re SO GOOD at what you do!!!!! I’m SURE anyone who gets these cards with the Operation Write Home will love using them! OH, & the person is doubly blessed, because whoever receives them from the Service men/women will LOVE THEM TOO!!!!!!!!!!:D HOW FABULOUS!!!!!:)
Hi Kathy,
I just LOVE what you’ve done with this adorable set and am so excited because I ordered it and the matching dies, last week and now cant’ wait to have it color up those cuties.
Thanks for the fabulous hints and tips too and also for all the new things you are sharing on your blog. I’m so happy to find everything easily and am always smiling when you daily updates arrive in my email.
And lastly, I’m one of the many OWH cardmakers and was thrilled to see them doing this fundraiser for Sandy and the group…kind and generous!
Hugs,
Lisa
How cute are these cards! Love the rocks – great coloring job! Thanks for being part of the OWH bloghop.
Beautiful cards, love the added ponytails 🙂
Beautiful cards – great tips, love the pigtails!!
Love your cards. Those kids are so cute. Thanks for your great tips too.
Cute cards and great tips!
These are both so darling, Miss Kathy, and that grass as a ponytail is genius!
When I originally left a comment I seem to have clicked the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox
and from now on each time a comment is added I receive 4 emails with the same comment.
There has to be a means you can remove me from that
service? Thanks a lot!
Sorry you are getting all of the replies. I will ask my blog creator how to uncheck that for you. Crossing my fingers that I can help you. Thanks, Kathy
Very cute scenes you created.
Ohmygosh. Those pigtails make me wanna SQUEEEEEEEE!!!!!!! Darling!!!!!
Hey Kathy! Grass as pigtails….brilliant, just brilliant!! Your eye for detail is amazing!! TFS!! Hugs!!
so cute! <3
Your cards are priceless! What a great idea, grass for pony tails. They worked out perfectly. Love the curves on the grass where the little girl is sitting. Darling.
Super cute cards. I like the way the sentiment rolled along the hills on the second one.
Both cards are adorable, love the scenes you created. And pure genius to change the boy image to a girl image. And rocks, who would of thought of adding rocks to a card. Awesome job!
The way you created the light as if she is the light of the world to the person she is getting the card from is perfect. Just inspirational, as always.
LOVE the idea of using the grass as hair. Super cute!
What adorable cards! I love all of the fun details you added to all of the adorable focal images! So nicely done!
sweet cards my fave is the little girl on the rocks love it
Darling card…. I love the boy turned into a girl…how creative is that…super cute cards..
good luck everyone 🙂
What adorable cards!! I especially love the idea of using the grass to make pigtails–so cute! Neat tips, too. Definitely pinning this post for future reference. Tfs!
Pigtails from grass, curved sentiments, texture to backgrounds and so much more I learned from clicking your page. Wowsa!
So clever to use the grass as pigtails!!
Using grass for the pigtails is awesome! Your cards rock!
Cute! cute!