Featured Cardmaker: Patricia S, Spencerport, NY
Posted by JoAnn on Jan 11, 2013 in Featured Friday Cardmaker, Stars and Stamps | 15 commentsThis week’s Friday featured cardmaker is Patricia S, who also has a family member serving in the military. Although she doesn’t have a blog, she does have a flickr account, so you can see more of her work in her gallery there. You can also leave some OWH love for her here in the comments!
How long have you been stamping?
I have been actively using them over the past 3 years, even though I have been collecting them for many, many years.
Do you have a craft room or specific area where you stamp/craft?
Yes, I have a fabulous area in my basement set up with 2 kitchen tables, 10 chairs, 4 bookcases, a dresser, a couple of those rolling plastic storage bins, and enough art supplies to fill all these furniture pieces to overflowing. I have been an amateur artist for 50 years and I am involved in an online international art group where our art is traded, I have an etsy shop, and I used to do a lot of local craft shows. My area in the basement is a sacred spot for my 6 grandchildren when they come to visit. Recentely, I have given them art journals and they bring them when they visit and work on them in our art area.
What are your favorite stamp/craft products?
I really couldn’t live without my paints and brushes, but for OWH cards I find that I love the Staz-on ink pad, and the Tombo adhesive runner.
Do you have a favorite technique?
Right now I am really into using my scrap paper, so I found the instructions on the 5 paper reverse iris fold quite interesting and I just love the results. The blue card shown that has a Miss You in the center is an example of that technique. I actually had to take out one of my very old exacto knifes for these cards.
Do you prefer digis or stamps?
I am very new to the digis idea. I had a sketch that I did for a large painting of my granddaughters on my computer, I printed that on cardstock and I colored it in with markers and colored pencils. It has a patriotic feel, and the large painting hangs in my army wife daughter’s home.
Do you have favorite themes?
I like to make love cards. Hearts are very cool too.
Are there colors you love to include on your cards?
I haven’t met a color I did not like, so I try to use them all.
How did you hear about Operation Write Home?
My daughter received many cards from my son in law while he was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. She showed me them and said, “Ma, you and your friends can make these for other family members.” So I did get a group together and we made them a couple of times a year, then that group lost interest. So, last year, I looked around my craft area and thought I better start making some cards on my own. I found the OWH website and realized how much information was out there. I was astounded, excited and encouraged.
What motivates you to make cards for our heroes?
I know firsthand how much these cards mean to the families and friends that receive them. My daughter cherishes each and every one of them. And, my son in law in the US Army told me how wonderful it was to be able to have cards that they all could share and have on hand.
Wonderful cards, Patricia. I especially like the liberty card, but would love to receive any of them as will our hero’s family members. Thanks for the inspiration today.
What a wonderful set of cards…so colorful! I think the cake card is my fave but it was super hard to chose. Keep up the great work!
Patricia,
Loved seeing your cards. they are so colorful and I like the liberty card. Very vintage. Also nice to see a fellow Upstate NYer.
Loved the cards and there are some great ideas there for using up some of the oodles and oodles of scraps that I have. Thanks for sharing them! (I tried to go to Pat’s gallery but the link in the email didn’t work, nor did the one on the web site. Any suggestions?)
You’ve never met a color you didn’t like?!! LOVE that attitude, and it shows in you great cards!!
I love your comment about how you’ve been collecting rubber stamps “for many, many years”. That’s my attitude as well! Hey, you just never know when that stamp company will go out of business, so you might as well purchase it now. And if it takes you 5 years to use it – oh well! Great cards, BTW.
Nice group of cards. I think Lady Liberty is my favorite. I am like you have collected many stamps over the years — but really just started to use them since making cards for OWH. Thanks for sharing your inspiration with us today.
Congratulations on being the Featured Cardmaker this week! These are all great cards! I like your layouts and your color choices. The most intriquing thing for me was your mention of giving your grandchildren journals to work on. That is wicked awesome! I know from experience how priceless those journals will be in the future. Kudos to you for having the foresight…
Wonderful cards! I love your reverse iris fold.
Great cards!! I love the idea of art journals with grandbabies – I am going to steal that. Thank you!!
Thanks for sharing your beautiful cards. It was also nice to hear again how much families appreciate them. Thanks to your son-in-law for his service.
Bonnie, I think I just fixed the link. Try it now.
Gorgeous cards! I really like the last one, such a cute patriotic card!
Wonderful set of cards! I love the colors and layout of your ‘many thanks’ cards.
Great cards…I really like that birthday cake card.