OWH Blog Hop Video

This weekend I am joining Operation Write Home for a Memorial Day Weekend blog hop.  If you missed yesterday's post, and the start of the hop please clicky to check out all the deets.

Memorial Day is the day those of us in the USA honor our military men and women who have given their lives while serving in our nation's armed forces.  It is a special day of remembrance and gratitude.   In my own small way I am honoring the memory of those who have fallen by creating cards for our active duty military stationed overseas. Thank you OWH for giving me an outlet to give.

Yesterday I promised to show you I created these inlaid stars on my card.  Today I have that video for you.  Enjoy!

***Note*** If you are reading this post in an email or reader, you may need to go to my blog to view the video below.

Isn't that a fun way to add shapes to your cards?  If you are pressed for time you can always just add your stars on top of your card and skip the inlaid die cutting step like I have done with the card below.

Want to see more?  I have an exclusive video going up on StampNation today showing you how I added vellum to my "Miss You Already" card without any adhesive showing.

StampNation is a membership site dedicated to teaching, inspiring and sharing a love for cards.  At $9 a month it's better than a couple of trips to Starbucks.  :)

See you in the forums!
StampNation members can clicky to go directly to the Vellum Video.


Supplies:Inlaid Die Cutting Card
Paper: Aboard (Authentique), Basic Black, Very Vanilla
Stamps: Hip Notes (Stampin' UP!)
Misc: Banner Framelits (Stampin' UP!), Stitched Stars (Lil' Inker Designs), Versamark, White Embossing Powder

Take 2 Card
Stamp: Year Round Sentiments (HeroArts)

Masculine Monday ~ Think Outside the Box

Have you ever wondered what to do with your leftover holiday themed paper?  If you use muted prints in the background you can often get away with using those papers "out of season".  Often you can trim them down so you don't see the holiday specific icons.  Sometimes you can even use the paper as a focal point for a totally different occasion.

Case in point, this card I made for my son's friend's birthday.   He's a teenage boy whose favorite color is orange. This skull and crossbones paper from the Witches Brew DSP pack for Halloween was perfect!

On the flip side you hardly even notice the spiders until it's pointed out, and it's for a teenage boy.  They like those things.  He even has a pet tarantula.  

The sentiment could have been put on the inside, but I decided to put it on the back of this flip card. Here's a tip for you... guys like cards that move, flip or pop out.  This one was super easy thanks to the Circle Card Framelits.   Yes, I finally used the circle card framelit to make a circle card.  :)

Creative Blessings,
Heather North

Stamps: Gorgeous Grunge, Really Good Greetings
Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White, Witches Brew DSP
Misc.: Circle Card Framelits

Circle Card Framelits

Orange Sunset

The challenge last week at StampNation was to create a card using the color Orange.  To be honest, I don't use the color Orange very often.  When I think of that color I think of my friend Tracy, pumpkins, autumn leaves and blazing sunsets.   I decided to try my hand at an orange sunset.

To make this card I masked off the two sides of my white cardstock, then sponged various colors of yellow and orange.  After I peeled off the mask I stamped the Serene Silhouettes in black staz-on. 

The black mat only partially covers the card base.  I popped up the sentiment from Really Good Greetings using a dimensional.  I punched it out of one of my punches, but didn't like how it looked, so I trimmed it down using my sharp paper snips and layered it on a black decorative label punch.


This card was made with Operation Write Home in mind.  My plan is to include it in the next box I send in to OWH.  Yes, it reminds me of a fall sunset, but it can be sent anytime.

Creative Blessings,
Heather North

P.S.  If you are considering joining the Design Team at StampNation check out THIS POST for all the details.   If I can do it, you can too!

P.P.S.  This isn't the card I ended up submitting for my design team post.  The card I chose was in Monday's post.  I actually made at least 6 Orange cards in the month of October, so I had several to choose from.

A Hero's Birthday

Last weekend my son went to his friend's birthday.  His friend has had a rough year and I wanted to make a personalized card for my son to bring to his party.  Tyler told me his favorite colors (Orange Camo) and we talked about what Dakoda likes.  Together we came up with this card.

At first I was going to make a camo card with torn paper like I did in THIS POST, but I wanted to play with my new Gorgeous Grunge stamp set.  I used the Gorgeous Grunge stamps to do all the background stamping and then I stamped words from a retired stamp set onto 3/4" strips of Whisper White cardstock.  Then I put those pieces on some crisp cantaloupe cardstock and stuck them to my card front.   The stars were stamped with Pumpkin Pie, and come from the same stamp set as the sentiment.

Here is what the inside of the card looks like.  Pretty simple.  Sentiments from Really Good Greetings and Teeny Tiny Wishes.

Happy Birthday Dakoda!!!!  I hope this will be the best year!  Thank you for being such a good friend to our son.

Creative Blessings,
Heather North

Colors: Crisp Cantaloupe, Pumpkin Pie, Smokey Slate, Black Staz-On

Gorgeous Grunge

Really Good Greetings

Teeny Tiny Wishes

Gee, Thanks

This card has been on my "to-do" list since I saw it in a magazine while flying down to CA in early April.   :)  That shows you just how busy my Spring has been.

After I finished the card I went searching for that magazine article and I had to chuckle.  My card isn't even close to being a copy of that card.  I did use graph/grid paper as my background and both cards used banners, but the magazine card had different shapes and sizes for their banners and I completely forgot to add the cute little embellishments they did.   Our colors are different.  My card is a bit "grungy" and their card was "clean".  I'm actually happy mine is different because it gives me a chance to make another card similar to this one, but closer to the original.  ;)

The thing that took the longest on this card was deciding on the greeting.  I wasn't sure whether this would be a birthday card, graduation card or even a Father's Day card.  That is the beauty of this design.  You can make it into whatever you want it to be.  I ended up choosing one of my new stamp sets, Really Good Greetings.

The banners were made using the Hearts A Flutter Framelits.  I used two different banner shapes and layered them with the Soho Subwat  DSP.  Then I strung them across my linen thread with Tombow Mono Multi glue.  That glue has been doing double duty in my house this week.  Monday night my son used it to glue together his Language Arts project.  One of the joys of being a paper crafter is that  I usually have supplies on hand for those "last minute" projects my kids have.

This card goes together so quickly.  Making banners is a great way to use up your scraps of paper, and with these blues, whites and yellows it works for a masculine card, but can be sent to anyone.

Creative Blessings,
Heather North

P.S.  A PERSONAL NOTE:
Life is CRAZY around the North household the past couple of weeks.  School is coming to an end soon, so there are finals, projects, concerts and field trips.  Baseball is in full swing, which means our nights are pretty busy.  The weather has been FABULOUS!!!! so I have spent every free moment while I am home working in our yard.  On top of that I am still working 3 nights a week.  As you can tell my blog posts have reflected the BUSYness of my life.   I am truly hoping it will settle down soon and I can get back to regular blog posts and videos. I haven't forgotten about you.  :)  As soon as my new Magnetic Platform comes in I will be making an Oval card, and I have a fun background making technique I want to share with you too.   Hope you are enjoying the new catalog.  Please let me know if you need anything.  I am still checking my blog comments daily even if I can't post.



Really Good Greetings




Soho Subway



Hearts A Flutter Framelits