World Card Making Day and a Giveaway!

Happy Thursday everyone! The card making world is abuzz  with preparations for World Card Making Day this Saturday, October 5th. Seeing as I've been known to make a card or two, I thought it would be fun to get involved. But how, hmmm...

And then it came to me. You guys all like a giveaway, right? And making cards? So let's combine the two!

Up for grabs is a $10 gift certificate to Caffeinated Papercuts and all you have to do is make a card and send it to me.

Yes, that's it.

I, in turn, will turn around and send in all of the cards, plus some of my own, to Operation Write Home.

For those of you unfamiliar with the program, Operation Write Home sends the cards we make to our troops so that they, in turn, have cards they can send to their families. It's a wonderful program that needs cards year-round, and the deadline for holiday cards is quickly approaching.

So, your mission this World Card Making Day is to make a card (or two...or ten!) that falls into one of the following categories:

• Holiday (Christmas, Hanukkah, etc.)
• General Fall (no turkeys, ghosts, or pilgrims please)
• Valentines
• General Winter
• Birthday
• Love
• Thank You
• Missing You
• Thinking of You
• Blank (no sentiment)

You will notice that Halloween and Thanksgiving are not on the list; the deadlines for those holidays have already past and they are not collecting them for next year yet.

There are also guidelines that Operation Write Home asks card makers to follow when creating these little treasures.  Please follow the link for the full list of do & do nots; I've highlighted most of them below:

• No glitter! None! Stickles or glitter pens that will not rub off can be acceptable and they suggest rubbing it against a sweater to be sure that it will not flake off. That said, I think it's simpler to just leave the Stickles on the shelf this time.
• A2 sized cards only and please include an envelope.
• Line cards made with dark cardstock. Often all our troops have to write with is a pencil and that will not show up on the darker cardstocks.
• Some dimension is ok, and loved. They ask that we please save the "big vintage buttons and deep 3D embellishments" for another time or to use on AnyHero mail that doesn't go through the post office.
• Use quality supplies. Computer paper or thin designer paper is not adequate for letterwriting when a hero might be using the sand as a “table” . . . so please use good, heavy cardstock for your card bases. Do not use foamies, ittybitty stickers, or gluesticks – they don’t hold up to the rigors of the battlefront.
• Card Recipients. Typically these are to adults, from adults, and they ask that we stay away from 'mommy' & 'daddy' cards and the like.
• No handwritten sentiments
• No storebought cards
• No photo cards

 Nothing too horrible, right? ;)

Giveaway details:

• make a card following the guidelines above
• send me the card - I need it to be here, in New York, by Friday, October 11th to make the holiday deadline!
• your name goes into the drawing for the $10 gift certificate to Caffeinated Papercuts
• winner will be announced Friday, October 18th here on the blog

Our mailing address is:
Caffeinated Papercuts
10997 Mariaville Road
Pattersonville, NY 12137

Since we all love crafting with friends, feel free to invite them to join you!
Tweet it: http://clicktotweet.com/SkH8d
Post it on Facebook by sharing this blog article!
Feel free to tag us on Instagram - @caffeinatedpapercuts - while you're creating; we'll happily share your creativity with everyone!

I cannot wait to see the beautiful cards you create! Feel free to give a shout-out in the comments if you plan on participating. Happy Crafting!

Two Cards for the June Unity Challenges

Hi again everyone! I'm having some serious fun playing along with several challenges this week. Today I'm showing off what I came up with for both the color challenge and the card sketch challenge over at the Unity Stamp Challenge blog.

For the colors, I had some fun with several of the Unity stamps:

Yes, that might be the bird/french fry stamp...again...

I've had the idea of making a pile of notes for a bit now, like a messy desk. I stamped up several notes to self, then added on various sayings from several of the stamp sets. To tie in the gray, I made a little "don't forget" reminder and popped it up to give the card some height.

Side view

View from above

I like how it came out. The patterned papers add interest and the wood grain embossing on the chocolate brown gives a nod to the desk feeling I was going for.

For the card sketch challenge, I pulled out one of the older SotW sets - butterfly kisses.

You can never have enough butterflies

I pulled out one of my MME 6x6 paper pads and found this lovely butterfly print. The pink banner is actually the reverse of the butterflies. I love it when I can use an entire 6x6 for a card. Less waste! A little ribbon trim and some shimmery punched butterflies finished off the card. Here's a fun trick - to keep the ribbon from fraying, I squeezed some Glossy Accents onto my finger and used it to seal the edges. It works great!

Side view of the butterflies taking flight

View from above

I'm also linking the butterfly kisses up to:
CAS-ual Fridays CFC104, banners and/or flags
Simon Says Stamp Challenge, Simon Says...Transport

Happy Crafting!