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