OWH Fourth of July Card Challenge Party!

There is a virtual cardmaking party going on over at Operation Write Home this weekend.  Every 2 hours they have another blog posting a challenge and since we have no plans today and it's almost 95 degrees outside I thought it'd be a great day to spend some time in the cool (actually very chilly) basement at my craft table and get some cards made for OWH!

This was the 2nd challenge posted today by Sheila over at 2 Paw Prints.  Her challenge was to make a card using a fishbowl.  How fun!!!  I cut the fishbowl out from my cricut using the Create A Critter cart at 3 3/4".  Aren't the fish just adorable, they are from Unity Stamp Company and I colored them with my copics and cut them out (just a wee bit of time).  The sentiment is from Hero Arts.  You can't tell from the photo but I used some transparent packaging to cover the fishbowl to make it look shiny like a glass fishbowl would be.

The second card I made today was actually for the 1st challenge posted.  Brenda at Brenda's Stamping Corner posted a challenge to use camouflage creatively.  Here is my take on creative camouflage!  All Stamps are Unity Stamps.  I used a white gel pen to accent the cake because it was hard to see the details of the stamp on the dark paper (camouflage at work for ya).  :)

Stay tuned for more cards from the challenge and have a Happy 4th of July weekend everyone!

Alrighty, here is my 3rd card made for the 3rd challenge!  This challenge was posted by Tanya at Tinkerin In Ink and is a color challenge.  The challenge is called Tie a Yellow Ribbon and the colors to be used are yellow, white, peach and espresso (yellow ribbon not required).  I sat at my craft table stumped for a few minutes on this one.  Color challenges are usually tough for me, weird huh?  Well thankfully my craft block cleared up after just a couple of minutes (they can often last for days or even weeks).  I simply looked down at my pile of Unity stamps that I hadn't cleaned up from the last challenge and saw a kit on the top that had yet to be inked up and thought that I really should set a personal challenge to myself to use a yet unused stampset.  I just happened to pull out this particular stamp and "play" around with it to see if it could be a contender for this challenge.  I honestly thought while I was "inking" (used brush markers to color the stamp) the stamp up that it would probably turn out to be horrible and I'd have to scrap it.  Turned out I liked it, so yay, an idea was born!

The stamp is Unity (Just be you), the scalloped square is a Spellbinders die, the embossing folder is Cuttlebug.  I know there is a tiny bit of green in the card as well but otherwise I think it sticks to the color challenge very well!
Here is my card for challenge #16 All About Animals over at Mouse Print Creations.  I'm so not going in order here!  I do have the intention of playing along with all of the challenges and making a card for each but I know there is no way with all we've got going on this weekend that I'll get them done by tomorrow night.  Oh well, the important thing is that they all get sent to OWH for the soldiers!

This cute little stamp and sentiment are by Stampendous.  I colored it in with my copics and used glossy accents on the bubbles.

I only got 2 cards made today for the challenge but it was a beautiful 4th of July and we went out on the boat with my husbands family and then back to the in-laws for a BBQ.  Lots of fun!  It was my daughters first time out on the boat and she had a blast, especially when we dropped anchor and just played in the water!  But I diverge, back to the cards!
The first card is for the bears and hearts challenge #13 over at Scrappinbear's Studio.  I used my Cricut to cut the bear at 3 1/2" from the Baby Steps cart.  The heart is a stamp from Unity and I used some alphabet stamps to make the sentiment.  The paper is Sassafras Lass.

The second card I made today was for the 4th challenge What does Freedom mean to you? over at Our Little Inspirations.  All stamps are from Unity.

I've had a lot of fun with these challenges and will get them all done within the next few days (the house really doesn't need to be cleaned, right?)!  I know there's less than an hour left to link up to the challengers blogs to have them count but oh, well, it's been a great weekend!  Happy Birthday America!!!