FSS Winter Chickadee

Another Thank you card I made using a Fred She Said pre-colored Image, Winter Chickadee, from the Christmas Bird Series.

FSS White Poinsettia Thank You Card

My card today is the White Poinsettia from Fred She Said. Just another Thank you card for a Christmas Gift for my granddaughter Mya's 1st Grade Teacher. 

FSS Red Poinsrttia

Here is another Thank You card I made as a teacher gift. I made three of each style. This card uses the red poinsettia from the Poinsettia and Holly precolored image from Fred She Said.

Emma and the Snowball

I made a set of 24 Thank You cards for my granddaughter Mya's 1st Grade Teacher for a Christmas Gift. I made Eight different cards and three of each. Six of the designs were using Fred She Said images. I will be posting one card each day here. Each card is designed the same. Papers and images were changed.

This fist card uses the Fred She Said image of Emma and the Snowball. The papers inks and burlap ribbon is all from Close to my Heart. The paper is from the Frosted Papers.

FSS - Caroling Angel in Purple

Another Christmas Card today.  This one is made with the pre-colored image of Emma, the Caroling Angel, from Fred She Said. 

The cardstock I used is Gypsy and Sky from CTMH. I also cut a doily in white, from the new CTMH exclusive Cricut Cartridge, Artbooking".  I cut the doily in half and adhered the center cut to the outside edges.

I added clear glitter to the wings and liquid applique and glitter to the white fur around her dress.. 

FSS - Snow Lady - Light Up Your Holidays #2

Here is the last card of my series. It's the Pre-Colored Fred She Said Snow Lady - Light Up Your Holidays.

The background paper was dry embossed. The sentiment if from a new CTMH stamp set called Christmas Village. This set will be released on August 1st. The dark blue circle mat was cut out with the CTMH Exclusive Cricut Artiste Collection.
The scalloped border going down the right side is done using the new border scallop punch from Close to my Heart. Available August 1st.

Other Challenges for this card:
I Did It! - Christmas in July
All Beautiful Cards - Doubly Embossed
Digi Darlas - Christmas in July
Lexi's Creations - Christmas
Merry Mondays - Christmas Anything Goes
Christmas Card - Snowflakes
Sentimental Sunday - Christmas w/Sentiment
Crafty Hazelnut - Christmas Challenge Extra

FSS - Snow Lady - Light Up Your Holidays #1

Continuing on with designing Christmas Cards, here is a card using the pre-colored  Fed She Said SnowLady -  Light Up Your Holidays. I added a touch of MS Colored Glitter to the light bulbs. It's a shame that I only remember this glitter at Christmas Time.

All other products are retired from CTMH except for the red bakers twine and the Twilight Cardstock.

Other Challenges for the card:
Loves Rubber Stamps - Christmas in July
Creative Card Crew - The Great Outdoors
Crealive Belli - Christmas
Crafty Creations - Sparkle
Fab n' Funky - Christmas

FSS - Hat Tipping Snowman #2

Here is card # 2 of my FSS Christmas cards. I figure that if I make at least 5 of each of these different cards, I will have all I need by the time Christmas comes around. I LOVE my Close to my Heart stamps, but they will come later. For right now, while my shoulder is still healing, I will take the easy way of making them. These pre-colored images are colored so beautifully, that they have me spoiled. This card, as the first one, also used the Hat Tipping Snowman , but this time he is wearing a red scarf.

The papers are all old retired papers and colors but I promised my self to use up some of my stash.

FSS - Hat Tipping Snowman #1

I'm trying to keep myself cool today by making Christmas Cards. The temperature is in the high 90's and has been for two weeks now. Well, let me tell you, It doesn't work. 

Actually I'm starting my Christmas cards early this year. Since these will be made in quantities, I'm keeping them rather simple, yet elegant.

My card uses two new stamps from the New Fall/Winter catalog from Close to my Heart. These stamps will be available August 1, 2013. The first one is called Classy Doily, which is behind the snowman. I first cut it out with the Close to my Heart Exclusive Cricut cartridge Artiste. The other is called Single Snowflake, which I used for the background stamped with Juniper Ink on Juniper Cardstock.

The Beautiful Pre-colored image is called Hat Tipping Snowman from Fred She Said. I added dots of liquid Applique and glitter to the dots around the snowman and then to the area under the snowman and heated slightly.

Other challenges with this card:
One Stitch at a time - Use a Digi
Patties Creations - Monochromatic
Card Makin Mamas - Monochromatic
Paper Crafting Journey - Christmas
Southern Girls - No Spoolin
Terrifically Thrilling Thursday  - Christmas

FSS - The Old Truck - Father's Day Card

Fred She Said has some fabulous pre-colored images which allows you to make a card in no time at all.
The image of the Old Blue Truck was already printed and in my stash. When I needed to make a last minute Father's Day card for my daughter, it took me a matter of 5 minutes to throw this together.

The inspiration for this card started with a sketch from Sunday Stamps. I love sketch challenges. The perfect beginning to a fabulous card!

Other Challenges for this card:
One Stitch at a time - Use a digi
Jelly Park - Masculine
Patties Creations - Father's Day
Dutch Dare - For Dad
Charisma Cardz - Digi's
Digi Stamps 4 Joy - Masculine
The Crafters Cafe - Father's Day
Inky Impressions - Father's Day

Fred She Said 5th Anniversary Blog Hop

 

Welcome to the Fred, She Said 5th Birthday Blog Hop!  We've been up and running 5 wonderful years!  The theme for this hop is Fred's FAVES  FLORAL and/or PURPLE!

My card today uses the newly released Floral Surprise Digi papers designed my Bearly Mine for Fred She Said. These papers match perfectly with the pre-colored crocuses in the Spring Flowers set. I actually had the crocus already printed out in my stash and how wonderful to be able to then print matching paper to go with it.
 

If you have arrived from Michelle's Blog,  you are right on track. If you are just happening by, you will want to start on the Fred She Said  Blog. 

Collect a secret word on each blog along the way, leave us some love on our posts and follow the directions at the end of the hop for your chance to win this FABULOUS PRIZE!

One winner will receive ALL of this:

$25 Gift Certificate to the Fred She Said Store
$25 USD equivalent Gift Certificate to any online papercrafting store of winner's choice :)

Your secret word on my blog is BIRTHDAY

Your next stop on the hop is Carolyn's blog.  

Winners will be selected on June 8th 2013 at 12:01 EST.

Fred She Said is also having a sale!

Have Fun & Good Luck!

Hummingbird and Columbine

Happy Memorial Day Weekend! 

We had a warm and beautiful week, last week. Now that the holiday weekend is here, It's cold. I mean cold, like it dipped into the 30's last night. It's suppose to warm up a little by tomorrow so there's still hope for some outside activities without jackets.

I guess it was cold yesterday and today for a reason......so I could get some cards made. I can now do some creating without a sling on my arm so I have more freedom of my left hand. I still have lots of pain, but you don't realize how much you need both arms until you can't use one for a while. 

I have a baggie of pre-colored images already printed out for ages now, so I thought I would match them up with some of the new digi papers from Fred She Said, called Floral Surprise, for this card. This digital paper set was designed by Donna of Bearly Mine Designs using various floral graphics from Fred She Said Designs.

I found the image of the Hummingbird and Columbine and knew it was perfect. As soon as I saw this brown background paper, I fell in love. It just makes the flowers pop so beautifully. I decided to also print the paper in green. Come back next Friday, May 31st for the Fred She Said Blog Hop and see the card I made with the green paper and purple crocuses.
 I tried a technique where I cut may base card 5" x 7". Then the DP was cut 4 3/4" x 6 3/4". From there, I wasn't sure what would happen. I cut a 1" frame from that piece. Then took the piece from the center and cut a 1" frame from that. Then the little piece in the middle was what was left. I then matted each piece with retired CTMH Sunkiss Yellow Cardstock each being 1/4" bigger then the DP.  It was so beautiful that I hated to covert it up. But the image was already printed. Had it not been, I would have made it smaller. 

I used some hot pink seam binding to wrap the top of the second piece and add a bow. I usually like to add more embellishments to my cards, but the background paper is so busy that I didn't think further embellishments were necessary. 
I did however, add some hand stitching with yellow embroidery floss around the edge of the base dp.

FSS Dogwood Branch Birthday Card

I'm trying to get back into the card making mode. It's been three weeks since my shoulder surgery and I can now take my sling off for a short period of time as long as I don't lift my arm. Actually, the doctor didn't say I could do this but as long as I behave myself, I'm not doing any damage. It allows me to use my left hand to help hold the papers. It was very difficult trying to do it all with one hand.

I have several Birthday cards that I am late with so took today to make two of them. This first one is for my Daughter-in-law. I used the newest pre-colored images from Fred She Said, called Dogwood Branch, to create this card. I matched it up with the Chantilly designer papers from Close to my Heart.

Challenges submitted to with this card:
ABC Challenge - 3 or more Embellishments
Crafter's Cafe - For a Woman
Digi Stamps for Joy - Spring Has Sprung
Paper craft Star - Pastels
Sisterhood of Crafters - May Flowers
Stampotique - Anything Goes

Parrot Tulips and Humingbird

Here is my first card I've been able to make after the surgery on my shoulder a week ago. Got some bad news today that I would have to wear the sling and not use the arm for much for the next five weeks. I seemed to have lost my creativity with the pain and pain meds so this card seemed to take me forever to make. Typing this post with one hand will probably take even longer.

The design inspiration started with a sketch challenge over at Hanna and Friends.

For this card, I used the new Barely Mine Designed Digi papers for Fred She Said, called Floral Surprise.
I then printed out a Hummingbird from the Wee Hummingbird and Petunia. There is a whole sheet of Hummingbirds in different colors in this set. Then two of the Dark Pink and one cream colored Parrot Tulips. These I fussy cut and mounted then around the left side of a spellbinders die.

The stamp set I used in the center is called Scrapbook Statements from Close to My Heart.

It's been killing me not to be able to hand stitch my cards but I did manage some here on this card. I just kept it very simple. 

The dark pink gems are are the Pink Glitter gems from CTMH.

I'd also like to submit this card for the following challenges:
Sweet Stampin - Anything but a Birthday 
Pile It On - April Showers Brings May Flowers
Bearly Mine - Anything Goes
Digital Tuesday - Distressing
Party Time Tuesday - Anything Goes
Craft Your Passion - Well Read
Created With Love - Spring

Happy Flowers in Smoothie

I decided to make a four card Inspirational Set for my Etsy Shop. This is the third of the set. The first is the post right before this one and the second one is here. The fourth may be posted tomorrow.  My poor Etsy shop is really lacking new cards.Why is it that the older I get, the less I get done.

This card uses the retired Dottie for you paper pack. I love the bright colored dot papers. It's so Springy looking and I sure need this right now with the COLD weather we are still having.

The Happy Flowers are pre-colored gorgeous flowers that come in an array of different colors or as a digi for you to color yourself. 

The Bakers Twine is from the Paradise collection and the sparkles are the Pink Glitter Gems. 

I decided to try something different for the Hand Stitching on this card. I used the chain stitch. It was very time consuming, but I loved doing it. I matched the embroidery floss up to the Topiary cardstock I used.

Orange Happy Flowers

I needed some cheering up after the snow we had Saturday. We're expecting more today. Friday, there were hundreds of Robins out in our lawn pulling out all the fresh supply of worms. The next day they were all gone. And even though the snow melted, they still haven't returned. I guess the 20° temps have something to do with that. WHERE IS SPRING!!!

The design inspiration for this card came from the week two Verve sketch challenge.

So, I made my card today using the newly released Happy Flowers from Fred She Said. These flowers are just SO PRETTY!  I chose the Orange pre-colored flowers to go with some of my new Claire papers from CTMH. 
I also used one of the new FSS Uplifting Sentiments. 

I punched a piece of Glitter paper from the Brown & Tan collection. Then tied some Sunset Bakers Twine from the Paradise Collection.

I try to keep my hand stitching simple on smaller cards so I tried using the chain stitch on this card using matching embroidery floss. I rather like this stitch and think it frames the card perfectly.

Other challenges for this card:
Just Us Girls - Green, white & orange
One Stop Craft Challenge- Anything Goes

FSS - Easter Chick

Here are my latest cards using the Easter Chick pre-colored image from Fred She Said. I think this is just such a cute image and one I fall back on for Easter or a Baby Card. I am showing you two cards here. Both the same except for the sentiment.

The paper is from Close to my Heart, from the retired  Dotty for You Collection. The flowers were cut from the CTMH exclusive Cricut cartridge "Art Philosophy" and the leaves are from the CTMH exclusive Cricut cartridge, "Artiste". The center of all the flowers are dotted with the Pink Glitz Glitter Gel from CTMH.
The Bakers Twine is from the CTMH Paradise Assortment

Other Challenge Blogs for this card:
Crafty Catz - Dies/Punches
Jelly Park Friends - Lots of different shapes

Marigolds and Morpho Butterfly Birthday

My card today is a Birthday card using another image from the Fed She Said newest Release called Marigolds and Morpho. 

This is a pre-colored image. There are so many different options with this set and they are so gorgeous that I want to make cards with all of them. 

The design inspiration started with a sketch from The Deconstructed Sketch Challenge. I then used a Martha Stewart punch for my top and bottom edges. 

 The image was printed twice and the Butterfly was cut out of the second one and layered for extra dimension. Blue crystals adorn the heard and body of the butterfly. 

I'm finally getting around to using some retired papers from Close to my Heart. Colors are Star Spangled Blue, Sunkiss Yellow and Creme Brulee, along with Star Spangled Blue Grosgrain Ribbon. 

 The Happy Birthday is from a NEW Birthday Set called "Joyful Birthday". The Hand Stitching was done with matching Embroidery Floss.

Other Challenge Blogs for this card"
Broken Box Stock - Birthday
Card Makin' Mamas - Birthday
Crafty Catz - Pearls, Cies/Punch, Ribbon
Daring Cardmakers - Butterflies
Just Add Ink - Blue, yellow, white
All Sorts - Things with Wings

Marigolds and Morpho Mother's Day Card

I just had to make a card last night with the newly released Marigolds and Morpho set from Fred She Said.
The image I used for this card is pre-colored but it also comes in a digi set for you to color yourself.
I fussy cut three of the butterflies out and layered for lots of dimension. 

If you're wondering why I made it for Mother's Day, well, it's because I thought the image was perfect for that. But also because I'm always so far behind in stocking my Etsy shop that I thought I would get a head start.

The crystal flourishes, Color Ready seam binding and retired papers are all from Close to my Heart.

The hand stitching was done with my own unique design in matching Embroidery Floss.

The design for this card started with a sketch from My Time Made Easy Pretty Patterns Sketch Challenge.

Other Challenge Blogs for this card:

Forever Friends - Butterflies

Nolan and the Bull Frog

I hope you all were happy with what ever your ground hog predicted yesterday. Our Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow and predicted an Early Spring. I'm holding him to his word. He'd better be right! I hate this cold weather. We've been lucky with no snow accumulation so far and I'd like to keep it that way.

So, on to my card for today. We had a birthday party to go to yesterday for Erik, a sweet little boy who turned five. I thought the Fred She Said, "Nolan and the Bull Frog" would be perfect for his card. 

The design inspiration for this card came from a Sketch Challenge over at Sketch N' Stash. My stash for this challenge is the Outdoor Denim  twill ribbon that's I've had for years now and hardly ever use and the Pre-colored Digi from Fred She Said that was printed out about a year ago and never used. Also, the four square studs have been with me forever since I make very few masculine cards. The Happy Birthday is a retired stamp set from Close to my Heart called Say it in Style.

The papers were Newly released February 1st from Close to my Heart, called "Later Sk8r".

Other Challenge blogs for this card:
Critter Sketch Challenge - Use metal (square Studs) 
Stampin' Royalty - Birthday
Stampin' for the Weekend - Use some metal

Fred She Said Ground Hog Day Blog Hop

Fred She Said is having a Ground Hog Day Blog Hop.  Tracey, from Fred She Said hails from Wiarton, Ontario, Canada, home of Wiarton Willie, the albino ground hog.  Every February 2nd, Willie emerges from his den to predict whether or not we will have an early Spring.  If he sees his shadow, he will become frightened and scurry back into his den, hailing 6 more weeks of winter.  If he does not see his shadow, he will declare an EARLY SPRING woohoo!  Tracey has asked the Fred She Said DT to make a card - either a "wintery" card ( if they think Willie will predict  a LATE SPRING ) or a "Flowery or Spring" card ( if they think he will predict an EARLY SPRING ).

Your job, dear blog hopper, is to hop along and TALLY up how many DT thought it will be an EARLY SPRING and how many predict a LATE SPRING. Instructions on how to enter will be posted on the last stop at the FSS CHALLENGE BLOG.

ONE LUCKY WINNER WILL RECEIVE:
$30 GC for the Fred She Said Store
$25 GC for Crop Stop ( provided by Tracey )

COUPON TIME!!!
FRED SHE SAID also has a Ground Hog Day WEEKEND SALE COUPON! 
( 25% off any purchase  on or over $10 from Friday FEB 1 UNTIL Sunday FEB 3 midnight EST )
 USE COUPON CODE GROUNDHOG

HERE IS MY PREDICTION: EARLY SPRING

I used the pre-colored Tulip Bouquet in Pink for my card.

The design of my card was inspired by this week's sketch at TechnoStamper. 

The papers used are NEW Close to my Heart paper, Chantilly.

The Hand Stitching was done in my own unique design with matching Embroidery Floss.

Now hop on over to Carolyn's Blog and see what she's predicting.

Here is the blog hop list in case you lose your way!

Blog Hop List:

Tracey
Michelle
Nancy
Carolyn
Crystal
Janet Kay
Karen
Patty
Zehra
FSS CHALLENGE BLOG ( entry instructions )

Good luck and Have Fun

Other challenges I made this card for:
The Color Throwdown - Desert Sand, Cotton Candy, Blush, Olive
Digi Stamps 4 Joy - Anything
Inky Impressions - Bingo - Flowers, Ribbon, Pink/Red
                               Die Cuts, Sentiment, Pink/Red
The Perfect Sentiment - Anything Goes with a Die Cut
Repeat Impressions - Bright colors and Vibrant prints.
Card Crafter's Circle - Spring

Winter Blossom

My card today was made for the Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge which is to use something new. The  Flourishes Stamp set, Winter Blossom, the red velvet ribbon, and the yellow flower soft are all new.

The design inspiration started with a Verve challenge sketch, week one. I did a lot of stamping, coloring and cutting out, and layering with these images to get the dimension I was looking for.I wanted to keep the colors soft pastels except for the splash of red in the berries and ribbon. They were all colored in with Copic Markers.

All of the stitching around the card was done by hand with matching Embroidery Floss. I always prefer the dimension I get with hand stitching over machine stitching. I added some Flower soft to the centers of the flowers.

This card also fits perfectly for this challenge:
Quirky Crafts - New & Pink

Flourishes Love Letter's Challenge

I'm playing a game of Beat the Clock today. I wanted to play along with the Flourishes Love Letter's Challenge but I didn't have any appropriate Flourishes stamps to play.  So I've been waiting for my latest order to come in for the Heartlines stamp set. Well, it just arrived this morning. Just in the nick of time. One  hour left to get this posted.

The design inspiration for this card came from week two of the Viva La Verve Sketch Challenge.
I actually used two different Flourishes stamps, but you can't notice the second one. I stamped the roses from A Year in Flowers 2. second generation onto the die cut that was stamped with the Sentiment.
I ran the pink CS through the cuttlebug, then stamped the roses on that also. The subtle pink lines of the rose is slightly showing on the raised hearts.

The Hand Stitching was done in my own unique design with an off white embroidery floss.