Vintage Father Christmas Card - 2

I purchased some jpeg's of actual vintage Christmas cards and postcards some time ago and finally found the papers I needed to use them. These Bo Bunny Chrismas papers are just perfect.  I think you may be seeing a few more in the next few days.

The inspiration for this card started with last Tuesday's Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge. 

The ribbon was 3/8" satin ribbon that I hand stitched a zig zag parrern is then pulled the threads to ruffle it together. I thought this looked more vintage then just using the ribbon. The white pointsettia flower brad was in some stash that I had from last years embellishment assortment called Mistletoe from Close to my Heart . I distressed it then attached it to pointsettia leaves from an old CTMH stamp set.

The Hand stitching was done with new England Ivy Embroidery Floss up the sides and top of the cards.

Vintage Santa Christmas Card

Here is my last post for today. I saved the best for last.

I absolutely LOVE Vintage Christmas cards so I decided to purchase some vintage images. Then I found this fabulous Christmas Paper from Bo Bunny to go with them. I think I should have bought much more of this paper.


The inspiration for this card came from a Verve Sketch Challenge. They have some beautiful sketches every week.


The hand stitching was done using my own design with Embroidery Floss. For the stitching around the green paper, I used a running stitch and Gold Metallic Embroidery Floss.

Other Challenges for this card:
Winter Wonderland - Vintage Christmas
My time to craft - Punches and Dies
ABC Christmas Challenge - Unused Stash (ribbon, gold embroidery floss, and those round circle things the pearls are inside of.)

Hydrandea 4" x 4" Note Cards (set of 6)

Here is my second post for today with a set of Six Hydrangea Note cards. These are also 4" x 4".
I used the pre-colored images from Fred She Said called Hydrangeas. After the image is cut out using a nestability die, I keep the die on and sponge blue around the edge and brown on the bottom. This gives the appearance of it having a white layer underneath.

I cuttle bugged the front of the card and used one of my favorite punches for the corners. I wanted to give it an antique look.
All papers and inks are from Close to my Heart.

Pumpkins and Sunflowers Note Cards

Here is the first of threel posts I may be putting up today. I was going to do one each day but I may just get it all over with today while I have a few extra minutes.

I've been on a note card kick lately. These cards are all 4" x 4". I think what I enjoy about them is the fact that I can make them in sets. This set can be used for Thank You cards or just a note card.

The image is a pre-colored one for Fred She Said called Pumpkins and Sunflowers. Everything else is from Close to my Heart. I just love this blue and orange combination.

Wheelbarrow of flowers

I was on a kick with the 4" x 4" cards. I made a set of note cards with six of the eight pre-colored wheelbarrow images from Fred She Said. I would have made all eight but only 6 fit on my paper to print.
I cuttlebuged the front of each card then sponged around the edges with the same color of ink as the matting. I tried to match up the colores of each wheelbarrow with the colors of Close to my Heart Card Stock.

Sunflower Thank You Cards

I was in the mood for making some small cards. So, I made a set of 6 Thank You Cards using the Sunflower and Thankfullness pre-colored images from Fred She Said. Not much to say about these cute 4" x 4" cards .  I fussy cut a small sunflower for the top and poped it then added some brown faux flower soft to the centers of the sunflowers.

The Old Truck Birthday Card

I just finished this Birthday Card for my Son-in-law using the Colored Version of The Old truck from Fred She Said. I’m horrible at making masculine cards and thought this image would be perfect.

After printing out the image, I scouted around for a Sketch Challenge to use it on and decided on this week’s Midnight Madness sketch. They always have such gorgeous sketches there. At first I wasn’t going to use the fancy sketch because of the flag pennants across the top but then remembered that there were flag pennants on the Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge from Close to my Heart. Then back in August, there was a FREE alphabet stamp set I got that I thought I would never use. (I’m not an alphabet stamp person). This set was perfect for the space I had and added his name. I’m in love with the finished look of Easel cards so the bottom portion of the sketch is on the bottom of it.

The papers are from the Roxie Paper pack from Close to my Heart as well as the mocha pearls I added for a little bling. Can’t bling up a masculine card too much.

I added my own unique design of Hand Stitching to both inside and outside of the card.

Other Challenge Blogs I'm submitting this card for:
Bearly Mine- Easel Card
Digital Tuesday - Fall colors
Paper and Such - Inspiration picture color challenge
Papertake weekly - 3 different shapes on card
Fab 'n' Funky - Fall Colors
Fresh Brewed - Fancy Folds
Repeat Impression - Fall or Halloween
Sisterhood of Crafters - Birthday
Truly Scrumptious - Distressing
Charisma Cardz - In Stitches
Terrifically Thrilling Thursday - at least 4 layers
Sweet Srampin' - For Men

Hugging Ghosts - Guest Designer for Delightful Challenges

Last week my card was chosen  1st place over at Delightful Challenges and I received the Guest designer post for this week. The Hugging Ghosts was the image I chose to work with and above is the card I made with it.

Check out this super cute Halloween image from Digital Delights by Louby Loo.  I used the pre-colored version of Hugging Ghosts. 

 I thought this would make such a cute Halloween card to send to my grandchildren so I did minimal hand stitching and since I have to send out so many, the pre-colored image was fabulous.

I was looking for a fairly simple sketch so I could make the image bigger and found the perfect one with Saturday's Card Patterns.

The black and orange cardstock is from CTMH and the dp is from basic grey. I've had this dp lying around for ages and am finally using it.
I hand stitched a very simple running stitch around the card and tied some Mandarin Bakers Twine around the right side of the image.

Other challenge blogs for this card:
2 Sisters - Halloween
Challenge Up Your Life - Halloween
Clear it out - Halloween
Everybody Art - Halloween
Creative Card Crew - Spooky Fun
My time to craft - Orange & Black
Scrap Creations - Halloween
Shopping Our Stash - Spooky or orange/black

Candle and Sunflowers Easel Card

Fall has definitely been in the air lately her in PA. Even though the days have been warm, the nights have been in the 30’s and 40’s. But, that’s what we need to change the leaves the magnificent colors of autumn. They are a little late changing this year but it won’t be too long now.

So, this is the inspiration for making my card for today. I love Candles and Sunflowers so I combined two Digi sets from Fred She Said for this card. I used the Sunflowers and Thankfulness pre-colored set to start off. I selected just the three sunflowers and printed up a whole sheet of them. I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do with them yet but just knew I LOVED them. Then I thought about a candle. So, I went scouring through all of my FSS Digis and came across the Rose spray and candle, which was just what I was looking for. I actually made the candle wider so it looked like one of those "Fat" candles. So, I printed that digi out several times and colored just the candle with Copic Markers. I actually used two candles here. One was cut out and layered with foam tape on top for more dimension. Then I Fussy cut out a bunch of the sunflower images and layered them also.

Since I love to play along with sketch challenges and I save many of them each week. I looked for one that would fit the images I was using. I usually start with the sketch but this time I did that last. I found this great one from Monday’s Sketch and Stash Challenge Blog with optional 3 dp’s and 3 embellishments. Just perfect!!!

After coming home from a business meeting at which some friends mentioned that they love my easel cards, I decided to make this into one so who ever receives this card could set it out as a fall decoration. I’m so grateful for their encouragement because I love it now even though there was a lot more Hand Stitching on this card. This was done with matching Embroidery floss in my own unique design. I think I need to add some yellow and orange stitckes glitter to the candle flame yet.


Other Challenges with this card:
Gingerloft - Orange
One Stitch at a Time - Use a Digi
Paper Sundaes - Lots of Layers
Sentimental Sundays - Stitching
Stamptacular Sunday Challenge - Fall inspiration photo
Cupcake Inspirations - Fall colors
Daisy Doodles Creative Challenge - Use a digi, fall colors, give thanks
Sweet Stampin - Stitching

FSS - Blue Jay & Raspberries

Today's card is using a beautiful pre-colored image from Fred She Said called Blue Jay and Raspberries.  The set contains both red and  black raspberries. I chose to use the black raspberries because of the papers I wanted to use. This also comes in a Digi version if you want to color it yourself.

The image was printed and cut out using the out of the box technique. Then another set of berries and a Blue Jay were also fussy cut and layered with foam tape for lots of dimesnion.

The papers and half pearls are from Close to my Heart.

The Hand Stitching around the card was done with matching Embroidery Floss. 

Other Challenge Blogs this card was made for:
Anything Goes - Die Cuts or Punches,
Papertake Weekly - Anything goes with option of using punches
Ribbon Carousel - Anything Goes
Crafty Cardmaker - Anything Goes
Craft Your Passion - Anything Goes and use Ribbon

FSS - Emma the Cat - Halloween Card

It's really hard for me to believe that Halloween is right around the corner already.

The inspiration for my card started with this week's sketch challenge from Eat, Sleep, & Stamp Blog.

I then chose this fun decoupage image from Fred She Said called Emma the Cat. This really was so fun to make because it is an entire decoupage sheet. The Purple background sheet and the orange plaid stripe were also included.  Then there is the pre-colored images of Emma and layered pieces printed several times for fussy cutting and layering.  You really can't see all the layers in the photo, so here is a close up of the many layers.

I love Hand stitching on my cards but this one was a little too busy for that so I just hand stitched around the edge of the card with a simple back-stitch.

The leaves were cut using a sizzix die then shadded with some copic markers for a little dimension. The flower was cut using the Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge exclusively through Close to my Heaert. I added some purple faux flower soft to the center of the flower.

The Trick or Treat sign is held up with a Foundry Pin Clip also from Close to my Heart. I added a small bow with purple bakery twine.

Other Challenges for this card:

Secret Crafter - Halloween

Wee Memories - Favorite Technique - Hand Stitching,Shading within Nestie Die, Decoupage

Frosted Designs - Fussy Cutting

Really Reasonable Ribbon - Halloween

Srampin for the Weekend - What a Cutie

If the shoe fits...Scrap it! - Inspiration Photo

Stampin' Bee's - Halloween

Stamp Insanity - Photo inspiration

Come and Get It - Halloween

Corrosive Challenge - Purple Passion

My Grafico - Halloween

One Stitch at a Time - Use a Digi

Paper Sundaes - Lots of Layers

Pile it On! - Do it for Fun

Sentimentsl Sunday - Stitching + a sentiment

Paper Creation Ink - Black and/or Orange

Stamp with Fun - Halloween

The Pink Elephant - Trick or Treat

Victorine Stamps - Halloween

Anything Goes - Die Cuts or Punches

Clear It Out - Halloween

Colorful Creations Sketch Challenge - Pumpkins and Sunflowers

I have a fabulous sketch challenge and card to share with you today. I had been asked to be a Guest Designer this week at Colorful Creations Sketch Challenge. I feel so honored to be asked to be a  part of the  fabulous designers of this group today. Here is the sketch. Come on over and play with us.

For my card, I used a gorgeous pre-colored image from Fred SheSaidcalled Pumpkins and Sunflowers.  The pumpkin image was printed three times then two of them were fussy cut and layered with foam tape for lots of dimension.  The sunflower at the bottom was actually from a scrap left over from a card I made a few days ago. That was also fussy cut and layered with foam tape.

The papers, ribbon and pearls are from Close to my Heart.

The green swirlies at the bottom of the card were cut with the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge which is exclusive to CTMH.

The worrd "Thankful", also from the pumpkins and sunflowers digi set is attached to the card using a "Foundry Pin Clip" from CTMH.

The Hand Stitching around the card was done with matching Embroidery Floss.

A few other challenges this card was made for:
Crafts 4 eternity - Anything Goes
Frosted Designs - Fussy cutting
Delightful Challenges - Pearls and Swirls
Dolce Stamps and Cards - Fall Colors
Dutch Dare - Bingo - Ribbon, Flowers, Die Cuts
Paper-Crafting Journey - Die Cuts
Southern Girls - Anything Goes
Die Cuttin Divas - Vintage or Shabby Chic
Stamping Boutique - Change of the Seasons
Creative Craft World - Autumn/Fall
Digi Stamps 4 Joy - Anything Goes
Fab 'N' Funky - 1 ribbon, 2 dp's, 3 gems
Freshly Brewed - Fall/Autumn
Inky Impressions - Punches or Dies
All Sorts - At least 5 flowers