House Mouse - Midnight Madness Challenge

I wanted to play along with the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge from last week with a House Mouse Stamp that I have had for at least 10 years and have never used it. So, here it is.
I'm also submitting this for the House Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge. I'd LOVE to win some new HM Stamps.

I normally do fancy hand stitching around the card, but I'm getting this card in at the very lasy minute so I did a small amount of hand stitching on it with brown embroidery floss.

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.

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

Purple Roses - Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge

8.

Good Morning to you all on this Sunny Gorgeous Frigid day. The groundhog said we'd have an early Spring. I'm just wondering how early. It can't come soon enough for me. We had snow Tuesday and Freezing rain and Ice yesterday. It's times like this when I wished I didn't have a really LONG driveway!!!

I always love playing along with the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge every Tuesday. And when I saw this week's sketch, I knew exactly what I wanted to make.


I LOVE purple and I have this gorgoeus paper left over from some bulk papers from Close to my Heart from several years ago and knew it was perfect to go with these fabulous pre-colored roses from Fred She Said. These roses are from the set called Hearts and Roses. You can get them as Digi's or as pre-colored images. The roses come in 7 different colors and I'm determined to keep making cards with them until I use every color. Only four more to go!!!


The Hand Stitching was done with matching Embroidery Floss.
The green cardstock was sanded in a cross hatch ddesign to make it look like linen.


I've had these Nesties for ages and finally had the perfect sketch and images to use them. The pearls going down the left side were colored a light lavender with a copic marker because they were placed on white paper. All the other pearls were left white.


Other Challenge Blogs this card was made for:
Belli Challenge -  Pearls
Creative Craft World - Love
Creative Cottage - Words of Love
Digi Stamps 4 Joy - Flower Power
For Fun - Spring Card
Crazy 4 Challenges - Vintage or Shabby Chic
Stamps, Scrap & Doodle - Use Punches
Totallt Gorjuss - As you like it.
Creative Card Crew - Pink & Purple (Pink is in the DP)
My Time to Craft - Flourishes
Papertake weekly - Anything Goes + Flowers
Tuesday Throwdown - Stitching
Fresh Brewed - Anniversary

Christmas Rose - Fred She Said Blog Hop

Good Morning and welcome to the Fred She Said Blog Hop. This is my first blog hop as a New Design Team Member and I'm so excited to show you some of my artwork with these fantastic Images.

 If you came here from Tracey Lynn's blog, then you are on the right track. If you just happened upon my blog, please go back to Tracey's blog so you start from the beginning. You want to follow in order and collect a word from each of our blogs to make a sentence. You will get instruction on the last blog as to what to do with your sentence and  be entered into a random drawing to win $20 CAD from FSS Store AND $20 GC for CropStop.  What a fantastic Prize!!!

We love to hear from you so please leave a comment on each blog before moving to the next. Your input is greatly appreciated.

My card was inspired by a sketch from Midnight Madness.

I used the Digi image called Christmas Rose. It contains Christmas Rose and Christmas Rose & Candles digis, 4 Ready-to-print sheets, and BONUS Christmas Sentiments Set.

My image was colored with Copic Markers. However, if you prefer, you can also purchase the colored image pack. The rose and leaves were printed two extra time, colored, cut out and layered with foam tape for more dimension

The DP is from the Mistletoe collection from Close to my Heart.

The Hand Stitching was done with Matching Embroidery Floss

Now hop on over to Shelly's Blog. But before you do, my word is FOR. 

Emma in the Leaves - MMSC70

Even though the temperature was almost 90° yesterday, Fall is right around the corner.

This card was made with a Digi image from Fred She Said called “Emma in the Leaves.” This image is on sale until Monday at 30% off. This reminds me of my 3 yr old granddaughter. Like I said, the temperature yesterday was 89° and she wore her snow boots to my house.

The card was also inspired by the sketch challenge from Midnight Madness. I have honestly never used so many brads on one cards in my life. But, I didn't have enough bitty brads nor tiny pearls for it so I used mini brads. The Fall Leaf Buttons I had in my stash for at least 8 years.

The papers are from a new paper pack from Close to my Heart called “Olivia”. This is the prettiest fall paper CTMH has had in the past few years.

The Hand Stitching was done with matching Embroidery Floss.

Other challenge blogs for this card:
Fab 'n' Funky - What 'eva
Freshly Brewed - Some Brown
Paper Pretties - Brads or Eyelets
Wild Flower Patch - Scallops & Buttons
Tuesday Throwdown - Celebrate Fall

An Apple for Teacher - MMSC-69

Happy Labor Day Weekend!!!

Since this is Labor Day Weekend and my creations are all a Labor Of My Love for card making, I thought it only fitting to announce a new addition to my stamping family. I have been invited to design for “Fred She Said” Digital Designs. I am so excited about this because I have been a huge fan of this company’s images for almost a year now. And what an honor it is to be on this team.

For those of you that follow my blog, you know that I have a passion for flower images. And Tracey Miller, owner of Fred She Said, designs the most beautiful flowers, most of which also come pre-colored. It doesn’t get much simpler than that.

So, onto my card. I used a newly released Digi Image from Fred She Said called An Apple for Teacher. This is a fabulous image for that favorite teacher in your life. This card can be used for any occasion, Birthday, Thinking of You, Get Well, Congratulation, or any other time you’d send a card to someone who’s a teacher in anyway.

This image comes with images to print six different ways.

I printed this image once, then printed just the book and apple twice, colored them with Copic Markers, cut them out and layered with foam tape.

The Hand Stitching was done with matching Embroidery Floss.

The inspiration for this card came from a sketch From Midnight Madness. I love playing along with their fabulous sketches every Tuesday.

I hope you all have a SAFE and wonderful Holiday Weekend. We're having the family here for a picnic tomorrow, providing we get the railing on our deck finished by them. After 32 years, we finally decided to add a roof to our deck.
Here's what it looks like right now. It's a long way down if you fall off!!!

Other Challenge Blogs for this card:

Speedy-The-Cat's-Friends Challenge - 5 of anything

Allsorts - New Beginnings

Crazy 4 Challenges - Books

Corrosive Challenge - Color challenge - Olive and Red

Cowgirl's Sunday Challenge - Anything Goes

Just Scraps - Back to School

Pixie Dust Studio - Back to School

Christmas Rose and Candles

Well, I’m finally back to creating. I LOVE making Christmas projects and every year it seems that I wait too long to start. So, this year, I’m starting in the midst of a heat wave.

I’m finally getting around to using this fantastic digi stamp from Fred She Said. I got this image last year, but it was too close to the end of the year and I never got around to using it. This is my favorite style of card making so look out. There are lots more images that goes with this set. Maybe I’ll have another card finished by tomorrow night! *Ü*

The inspiration for this card came form a Sketch from Midnight Madness Sketch Blog.

I also used the paper piercing pattern on the corners of the green cardstock. The pattern for this came from Fred’s Fall Flowers and Paper Pricking Template.

I colored the image with Copic Markers and added a little glitz with stickles. The Big Brad gathering the ribbon is from the Mistletoe assortment from Close to my Heart.

Then hand stitching is done with matching Embroidery Floss.

Other Challenges with this card:
All Sorts - Paper Piercing
Sweet Stampin Challenge Blog - Use your favorite stamp or image.
Christmas Card Challenge - Use Border Punch
The Crafty Pad - Glitz and Glitter
Just Scraps - Anything Goes 
Kaboodles Doodles - Add a little Metal (BIG Brad)
Pollycraft - In Stitches
The Pink Elephant - Ribbon and Sparkle
A Spoonful Of Sugar - Christmas in August

Poppies - Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #52

Good Morning and Happy Thursday!!!

Today is Digi Day for Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps over at SNR and Paper Craft Planet. The theme for this week is "Let's Get Lacey." So, if you like challenges and want to pick up a FREE Digi Stamp then head on over to one of these places and play along before midnight tonight. You will also get a coupon for 25% off of anything in their store if you play along before Midnight Wednesday May 12th.

The inspiration for my card today came from Midnight Madness Sketch Challeng #52. Priscilla gives you a choice of two sketches and of course I used the more elaborate one. When I finished my card, I could have kicked myself because I covered up all the gorgeous paper from K & Co.

The Digi Image I used is called "Poppies", from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps.
I printed my first image three times so I could cut and layer the flowers for a 3D affect. I then made the image smaller and printed it again with a mirror image. This was cut out and mounted with foam tape for more dimension. This is the two smaller poppies towards the bottom. I just eanted to give it a fuller look and by printing a mirrow image, it ballances out the focal point.  They were all colored with Copic Markers.

The tag was dry embossed and is not removable. It's just there to be decorative.
I followed the theme of lace for todays digi challenge by using a Martha Stewart border punch and also some lace ribbon from Close to my Heart. I think the corners I added also add a lacy feel.

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

Other Challenges for this Card:
Creative Belli Blog - Birthday
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge 49 -Wedding/Birthday
Delightful Sketches - Punches

Sweet Violets

Please excuse the photo of my card. I had to scan it rather than take a picture as I normally do and the scan makes it look like I layered my papers crooked. That's what I get for not finishing the card while it was still daylight to get a good picture. But, I had a migraine headache today and wasn't allowed to take anything for it because of going for a Colonoscopy tomorrow.

My card was inspired by this gorgeous stamped image called Sweet Violets, from Flourishes. You see, I won one of their sketch challenges and this was one of the stamp sets I got. So, today, in spite of my headache, I just had to ink up this stamp and try it out.


I also found the perfect sketch challenge this week from Midnight Madness. I couldn't do the three bows as on the sketch because it just didn't work with this image.


This card was also made for the Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge #61. We are to use things we bought and never used. That was easy for me because I've got tons of product that I hoard. Paper being one of them. So, here I'm using some beautiful paper that retired last year from Close to my Heart and Grape Sherbet grosgrain ribbon that retired several years ago. And, I can forget my Nesties. I tend to use the same ones all the time so this is the first time I've used this set.

The hand stitching around the card was done with matching embroidery floss.

Waltzing Mouse Blog Hop

HAPPY ST. PATRICK"S DAY!!!

I've been sitting in waiting rooms having test done for the past three days and am really behind with my card. I've been looking forward to this blog hop, but life has a way of messing up the best plans.
So, with only about an hour tho throw this card together, this is not one of my best creactions but it has to do.
I was in such a hurry to post that I forgot to add a Wee Bit of Stickles to me Shamrocks!

The image was a Freebie from Waltzing Mouse. So, I thought the perfect sketch to use would be this one from Midnight Madness.

The Designer paper is a combination of Close to my Heart and Basic Grey.
The stitching was done by hand with embroidery floss. I like the dimension of hand sewing and find it very relaxing.

To follow along, please jump into our very own Waltzingmouse House Forum and look for the threads in The Play Room for the March St. Pat's Day Blog HopI will try and fill in more important information on this post when I get back home. So, if you are looking for the sketch or links, please come back later.

Here are some other challenges that work with my card:
Cupcake Inspiration Challenge #50 - Shamrock cupcake
Fussy & Fancy - Green
Stamp Something - Cream & Green
Cup Cake Craft Challenge  82 - Going Green
Digital Tuesday - Lots of Green
Little Red Wagon #20 - Use Copics
Bee Crafty - Spring
Ooh-La-La- Creations Challenge 49 - Anything goes
Secret Crafter Challenge 74 - Anything goes
The Pixie Cottage - Green
Paper Play - Good Luck
Pixie Dust Challenge 14 - Power of 3

Tulips and Butterflies - MMSC43

My card for today is one of those cards that, no matter how much snow you have on the ground, it shouts SPRING!!! The weather here in NE Pennsylvania is a sunny 56 °. And even though we have huge snow piles still around, it's going away!!! YEAH!!

The inspiration for this card cam from a Sketch Challenge over at Midnight Madness. I literally followed it to a "T".
The Digi Stamp, "Fluttering By", from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps, was used for this card.

I never thought I could get used to Digi Stamps, but WOW, how easy they make card creating. Well, I shouldn't say easy, because making this card, even though it looks very simple, took a lot of maneuvering with that one image of the tulips and butterfly. I cropped out the butterfly, then copied it and re sized it 9 times. Then colored each with Copic Markers and cut each one out. I added a little blue glitter to each Butterfly for a little extra glitz. The Stamen of each flower has yellow glitter.

Other Challenges with this card:
One Stop Craft Challenge - Sew Simple.
Digital Tuesday Challenge 48 - Scallops.

The Designer Papers are from The Caboodle Paper Pack from Close to my Heart.
The Hand Stitching was all done with matching Embroidery Floss.

Purple Iris - MMSC-40

Good morning on this Beautiful Sunny Presidents Day. After getting 2 feet of snow last Wednesday, they are calling for another 6" later today. Joy of Joys.
Well, here is a Spring card for you to enjoy if you also have snow you don't know where to go with.  I wanted to post this yesterday, since I am trying to make a card a day, however, this one seemed to take me forever to make.

The inspiration for this one came from Midnight Madness Sketch 40. I just love their sketch again this week. They actually give you a choice of two sketches. One simple and one more dramatic. Yes, I always go for dramatic.

I drew the left hand side piece free hand and then used the swiss dots embossing folder on it. It started out as a monochromatic card in Amethyst, but once I added that touch of yellow to the Iris, I decided to even it out with more yellow.

Other Challenges for this card:
 Incy Wincy Designs Challenge 30 to use punches. I used four differnt punches for my card.
C.R.A.F.T Challenge 37 - Digi Coloring
Pile It On Challenge #6 - Flowers.

I used a Digi image from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps called February Iris. I printed it out and colored it twice. Then cut the second one including all of the tiny inside parts. Gee, maybe that's why it took me forever to make this cards! Then I mounted it on top of the first colored image with foam tape fore a 3D affect.

The The cardstock is Amethyst & the DP is from a retired pack from Close to my Heart.  The flowers and leaves were made with punches.
The Hand stitching around the card was done with matching Amethyst Embroidery Floss.

Forget-Me-Nots - Midnight Madness #36

Today is another great day for getting creative. Besides the fact that it's Friday, the weather outside is really gorgeous for January. It's sunny and the temperature is expected to reach 50°. And for the middles of January in Pennsylvania, that's wonderful!!!

As soon as I saw this sketch #36 over ast Midnight Madness Blog I knew I had to design with it. It's been a while since I used the Forget-Me-Not Stamp Set  from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps and knew this sketch was just perfect for it. AND, I just love the colors in this new paper pack from Close to my Heart called "Caboodle".

It has such gorgeous spring colors. The Happy Birthday is from the "For Every Occasion" stamp set form Close to my Heart,

This card was also made for:
The Pink Elephant Challenge #49 - Birthday
And Paper Makeup Stamps - Birthday.

You can't see it in the photo, but I coated eachn of the flowers with Liquid Glass so they shine and it adds so much dimension. The flowers were stamped with Memento Black Ink and colored with Copic Markers. They were actually stamped three times, colored, cut out and layered for a 3D affect.

The hand stitching around the card was done with matching Embroidery Floss.
The Half pearls were colored to match with Copic Markers.
A Martha Stewart punch was used on the CS down the left side and a Spellbinders Pendant die was used behind the main image.

SNSS - Trees of the Field - MMSC30

I'm sorry the scan of this card is so bad.  It was a very cloudy, dreary day here and I like taking pictures with natural light. When that didn't work, I scanned it. However, I don't like scans and when glitter is on the card, I like it less.

I hope you all got a chance to see all of the Awesome artwork in the slide show at Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Blog on Tuesday for their new release. If you didn't happen to catch it, go to the link above and check it out.

Here is another card from the Trees of the Field Stamp Set.

For this card, I used a great sketch from Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #30.

I just turned it 1/4 turn to accommodate the stamps I was using.

The DP is Basic Grey and the CS, and Bigger Brads are from Close to my Heart.

I also used the holly from another Sweet 'n Sassy stamp set called Christmas Owl Add-ons. I guess you can tell this is my favorite stamp in the set. I seem to use it on all on my cards lately.

SNSS- Oh Christmas Tree - MMSC27

My card today is made using the Gorgeous Digi image from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps called Oh Christmas Tree designed by the ever so talented Leah Cornelius.   Isn't it just the cutest thing!  Too bad you can't see all of the sparkle from the glitter.  The little birdie is putting the star on the top and the bunny is putting the balls on. You can pick up this image along with another tree and two sayings for the fantastic price of only $3.75.

This weeks sketch from Midnight Madness  is just perfect for this image 

This card is also a Cute Card Thursday "Glitter Me Silly" Challenge 86.

The DP I used is Eskimo Kisses from Basic Grey.

The image was printed on my computer and colored with Copic Markers.

The sky was chalked with Blue.

Yellow Glitter was applied to the star in the Bird's mouth and Red Stickles was used on the balls.

Matching green embroidery floss was used for the hand stitching around the card.

White Liquid applique was used for the snow on the ground and Diamond Dust glitter was applied before heating.

White Liquid applique was used on the tree and Prisma Glitter added after heating.

The snowflake is a Spellbinders Die and Prisma Glitter was added to it.

White Half pearls used in the corners and center of snowflake.

Red Grosgrain ribbon runs across the middle of the card.

The white corner pieces is a Spellbinders Medallion square that I cut in half.

Tee Time-CTMH; MMSC12

I needed a card today for my husband's birthday so I used this fantastic sketch from this weeks Midnight Madness Sketch #12. This is one time I can actually say I love this card. That's sometimes not the easiest thing for me to do. I'm my worst critic. It looks much better in person. I couldn't lighten it up enough to look natural. I normally take a picture rather then scan it. I like using natural light and it was dark when I finished it.


Anyway, I followed this sketch to the "TEE". A little late night humor there. I must be overly tired.

I used a paper pack from Close to my Heart called "A Guy Thing", and stamp sets called "Tee Time" & "For Every Occasion."

Colors of ink used were Barn Red, Olive and Black.
The grosgrain ribbon and Big Decorative Brad is also from CTMH.

All stitching on the card was done by hand using embroidery floss.

Extreme Happiness-CTMH - MMSC11

I Loved this sketch #11 on Midnight Madness and wanted to play along. This card worked out great in my mind, however, now that I have it on paper, I'm not crazy about it. But, I spent way too much time on it so it will just have to grow on me.

The card size is 5"x7"

I used paper from the Moon Doggie paper pack from Close to my Heart.

Also used the stamp set Extreme Happiness, also from CTMH.

I used a Martha Stewart Border Punch.

The stitching around the three sides was done by hand using embroidery floss. I make up my own stitch designs. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. I got lucky with this one.

The yellow part of the flowers has stickles on them for a little added glitz.

Baby Blessings, MMSC10,

This has to be the fastest card I've ever made. Really, I take forever to design one and then to finally say OK, I'm done. I usually just keep adding things.

Well with this one, just a few hours ago, a design team member, Teresa, told us about The Pink Elephant Challenge Blog. This weeks Challenge is to create a card with an animal theme.

I thought the Midnight Madness sketch 10 would be perfect for it. However, the deadline for submitting that sketch was in 1 1/2 hours from then. So, I scrambled to get my thought together and promised myself that I would keep it simple.

So, here is the sketch and the fastest card I've ever made.

The stamps are Sweet 'n Sassy "Baby Blessings"

All papers are from Close to my Heart.

Image is colored in with Copic Markers.

Stitching was done by hand with embroidery Floss.

So, what do you think. Quick and easy!

MMSC5 - You've Got Flair

Here is my card for the Midnight Madness Sketch #5 OK, I'm posting this card here not because I like it or am proud of it, but only because I spent two days making it and still wasn't pleased with it. The only way I could forget about it and move on was to post it. I'm hoping that it may be like trash. You know, one mans trash is another mans treasure. Well, just maybe someone would see it and like it. *Ü*

This is the July Stamp of the Month from Close to my Heart. So, I wanted to start playing with it. I'm a Technique Junkie, and last month, one of the techniques was called Bandanna. It's just white dot doodles with a white gel pen. I knew this stamp set would be perfect for it, however, trying to work it into this sketch was a challenge for me. I think I just have the card too busy!

The red top portion is embossed with a Cuttlebug folder. It matches this stamp set so well!!!!
Glitter was added here and there on some of the white portions of the cutout images.

The center image is stamped three times, embossed, colored with copic markers and cut out and layered for a 3D affect.