Friends of Sweet 'n Sassy Birthday Blog Hop

Good Morning Sweet 'n Sassy Fans. Welcome to their 5th Birthday Blog Hop. It's so hard for me to believe that it's been 5 years already.

I had been on the Sweet 'n Sassy Design Team for about 2 years before my life got crazy. I was so thrilled to have been asked to participate in this blog hop.

Korin and I have been dear friends for probably 10 years now. I have to tell you a story about our relationship because it makes me smile just thinking about it and is quite funny. I am a Close to my Heart Consultant and about 10 years ago I did a home gathering for Korin's sister Casey. Korin told me right out that she was only there for her sister and she had no intention of getting into another hobby. 2 hours later, I had her hooked!!! A year later she became a CTMH consultant. She loved what she did so much that she decided to leave CTMH & design her own clear stamps. And, here she  is 5 years later with an extremely successful and growing business.

My card today is using one of my favorite SNSS stamp sets, Chritsmas Joy. I actually purchased this set last winter and never got around to using it until now.  I then decided to use this weeks Sweet Stop Challenge Sketch and make an Easel Card with it.  I find it fascinating how sometimes paper, a sketch and a stamp just fall right into place. This sketch reminded me of a window frame. So, I used some old papers with trees and gifts for the background which makes it look like you are looking through the window with the Cardinal outside.  The Cardinal was colored with Copic Markers.
Even though I own 2 sewing machines, I LOVE the look of hand stitching since the embroidery floss seems to give it a bit more dimension. Actually, I LOVE doing the stitching by hand. It's therapeutic for me.

Make sure you leave me a little lovin in the comments for a chance to win a supper prize.

There will be 4 random participants from whom I will choose 1 commenter to receive a $15 store credit. 
 
To be included in the drawings, comments must be left by midnight EST Friday, November 30th.

The winners will be announced on the SNSS Blog on December 1st at 8am EST

Other Challenges for this Card:
Cards for Men - Christmas
Scrap Creations - Christmas
Use It Tuesday - Ink it up-Finally
Tuesday Throwdown - Lots of Layers

Fred She Said 30% off Black Friday Sale

FABULOUS BLACK FRIDAY Weekend SALE

Get your Christmas cards made in record time with Fred She Said GORGEOUS Pre-colored images. So many to choose from, but for 30% off, you can buy them ALL!!!

If you do prefer to color them yourself. the same Digi's are available too. 

Flourishes New Release Challenge

I decided at the last minute to play along with the Flourishes New Release challenge since I love to have the chance to win some free stamps.  My chances have always been slim to non, However, it gave me the incentive to make another Christmas card. 

There are four different challenges with this one card.
1.  a sketch challenge
2. Make it Monochromatic
3. Use designer paper
4. Add Bling.

This was such a gorgeous sketch that I couldn't pass it up. I'm a sketch junkie.
Then I stamped the Poinsettia and Pine Stamp set with Memento Black Ink and used clear detail embossing powder to just give it a little more dimension. I also stamped the Joy! from the same set with black and heat embossed it also with clear EP.
I then colored it in with Copic Markers. 
I love to do hand stitching on my cards but didn't have much time today so I just added some hand stitching in two of the corners. 
I flip flopped my designer papers on the background and the circle.
I then added lots of pearls and pearl swirls along with pink crystals around the red part of the circle for the bling.

Fred She Said Winter Blog Hop

Good morning all you Fred She Said fans and those of you who have never experienced the fabulous FSS artwork. The design team is featuring newly released winter images today.
This card is a little simpler then I usually make because this is one I used for my card workshop this month. 

Welcome to the Fred, She Said Winter 2012 Blog Hop! The flakes will be flying in earnest soon...grab yourself a cuppa something warm and spend a while checking out the new Fred, She Said Winter images!   

If you have arrived from Tracey Lynn's blog,  you are right on track. If you are just happening by, you will want to go back to Tracey Lynn's blog since her's is the beginning and you wouldn't want to miss any of the fabulous artwork nor miss a secret word.

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:

PRIZE:
£15 gift voucher -Bearly Mine Designs- 

$25 GC to CropStop (provided by Fred She Said)
$25 GC to Fred She Said Store

If you get lost along the way, here is the order of the hop.

Tracey Lynn

                      Nancy - You are here
Zehra
Crystal 
GUEST DT Donna 

Janet Kay 

Patricia

Carolyn

Michelle  

FSS Challenge Blog 

The design inspiration for this card started with a sketch from "Seems a Little Sketchy."

For my card, I used the pre-colored image of Snow Lady - Light Up Your Holidays. Isn't she just the cutest!!! I used a narrow embossing folder with snowflakes in Heavenly Blue cardstock then sanded over the raised images. 

The "Season's Greetings" is from PaperTrey Ink.

With a Ball Point Glue Pen I added dots of glue for the snow in the sky with prisma glitter. I used the glue pen on each of the lights and used coordinating MS glitter.

Your secret word on my blog is "is"

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

Winners will be selected on November 23, 2012 at 12:01 EST.

Other Challenge Blogs for this card:
Fussy & Fancy - Feeling Blue

Sunflowers and Pumpkins

I love the Fred She Said pre-colored images so much that I actually printed them out and used them for my card class last night. This is one card and the other will be shown for the FSS Blog Hop on Friday.

For my card I used the Pumpkins and Sunflowers for the main image and then the Sunflowers and Thankfulness set. I omitted a sentiment so they could use it for any occasion this fall.

The inspiration for the design of this card came from a Sketch and Stash sketch #53. Their challenge this week is to use any sketch from their catalog. They have so many gorgeous sketches there that I had a hard time choosing.

All papers are from Close to my Heart. I used two spellbinder dies and a MS border punch. The background paper was made with a Fall embossing folder then sanded lightly.

Other Challenge Blogs for this card:
Die Cuttin Divas - Brown, yellow, orange + one other (green)