The last time I did anything for the soldiers was embarrasingly way back in 2004. I raised money to buy soccer equipment for some Iraqi school children. A then co-worker of mine was stationed there and when I pitched him the idea he knew just who to call. We even had press coverage!

I decided it was time I step up to the plate again. This time I’m not spearheading it, I’m just contributing handmade cards to a project on the Cricut messageboard. They are trying to get to 100,000 cards for the year and only have about 7,000 to go. When is the last time you did something for the soldiers? You can contact me to find out how to join in!

I wanted something I could do in an assembly line fashion, so I bought some adorable family character stamps, they will star on every card design.  I chose the new Debbie Mumm glitter mat stack, which is just as cute as the new DCWV fall glitter stack. First I cut a solid sheet of cardstock 8.5 x 11 (DCWV Heritage) in half. Then I trimmed the top off of a patterned sheet from the mat stack and about an inch off the side, setting that piece aside for use on another card. This first card has a standard 5 1/4 x 2 5/8 tag with the end slightly trimmed to fit. I sprayed it with Tim Holtz’s Butterscotch Color Wash then stamped the starring characters with opaque carnelian (orange) embossing powder. The Prima flowers have “skittles” in the center. All of the ribbon is from Joanne’s and this edge was done with Tim Holtz’s Vintage Photo distress ink.

You’ll have to excuse the girls on the purple bat card, I smeared lavendar Perfect Pearls on the tag before embossing the gals in midnight black, and it was evidently not dry enough! I’ll do that part the night before next time around. But, you still get the idea, isn’t it cute!  This time the tag was cut and embossed with a Nestabilities long rectangle and the edges are accented with a Colorbox hot pink cat eye. The background was distressed with black soot ink.

I think my favorite is the football card, I used the amazing Inkessentials pen to make a sparkly smile! The tag is cardstock, cut and embossed with round Nestabilities, distressed with Vintage Photo and accented with a Martha Stewart brown pen. The image was colored with my Bic markers as I’m patiently waiting for the Copics we ordered at CHA.

I’ll be posting more designs, I have 6 weeks to get 15 done…but I hope to do at least 30 by then.

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