When a Door Closes....

Hi, everyone! Happy weekend!

So, today was a bittersweet day. I sent my last box of cards to Operation Write Home.

In addition to the cards I had made, I mailed over 60 Any Hero cards that were made by local children during an Arts in the Afternoon session at the public library. The theme of this summer's reading program has been Super Heroes. When our librarians learned that I make cards for our deployed troops, they suggested we have a card-making activity at the library.

Thanks so much, Cathy and Grace!

Opening Doors

With the closing of OWH, I've done some thinking about card-making and blogging. So, I've come to a couple of decisions.

• Starting today, I am going to focus on making cards for family, friends, and kids -- supporting the efforts of Send a Smile 4 Kids. Today's card is my first card SAS card.  :)
• Starting August 1, I will be blogging at Chapter Three. My Chapter Three is retirement. And, since beginning my Chapter Three, I have expanded my interests to areas other than card-making. So, "Cards 'N Things" will be one of several pages on my new blog. I sure hope my Scrappin' with Purpose and Cards by Sybrina friends check out my new Web home.

My Very First SAS4Kids Card

 

Today's card was inspired in part by the cards made by the children at our library. One of the kits I prepared was a patriotic pinwheel-like card. Since the current SAS4Kids Challenge is to make a brightly-colored card. Sounded like a perfect pinwheel opportunity to me! Then I found this wonderful tutorial.... and the rest is history.  :)

 

SU retired (garage-sale find) dp; Distress Ink core; Cardstock Warehouse white
SU word window and owl builder (for pinwheel center) punches
SU brad; computer-generated sentiment in Comic Sans
SU/Sizzix embossing folder
adhesives: Scotch ATG; Glue Dots; Recollections foam squares

 

According to the video, there was a Stampin' Up! pinwheel sizzlit a few years ago. Well, unfortunately that was before my SU days. So, I pieced together several pieces of retired SU paper and some solid cardstock. I then cut and scored a 2-inch square to create the pinwheel shown above.

 
Not only do I love the colors of the pinwheel, I'm thrilled that this is a penny slider card! And, following the tutorial, this card came together much quicker than I anticipated.  :)

I was amazed at how easy it was to make the slider channel using the Word Window punch three times. I actually punched the left and right sides first and then lined up the center punch to create the channel.

Next, foam square adhesives were used to mount the blue-on-white cardstock on the red base. As described in the tutorial, double layers of foam were used around the channel to allow for easier sliding.

In addition to the SAS4Kids challenge, think I'm going to link this card up to:

• the current Simon Says Stamp Monday Blog's Anything Goes challenge and
• the Shopping Our Stash Paper Piecing challenge (for the paper-pieced pinwheel).

Parting Thoughts

There are still a few days to enter the Cards in Envy Just Beachy challenge before a new challenge starts on Monday.

And, the Words 2 Scrap By Friend in Chocolate, which has a $20 Simon Says Stamp gift certificate up for grabs, is still going on.

Have a great weekend! Thanks for stopping and happy scrappin'!