Melonie Mouse

Good Morning and HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all!!!

I can't tell you how strange it is to be making Christmas Cards last week and a Valentine today.

My term with the Sweet 'n Sassy DT is coming to an end today after 21 months. I find it hard to believe that it's been that long. As my final DT card, I used a soon-to-be released Pre-colored Digi called Melanie Mouse. 
The papers are all from a Close to my Heart paper pack called That's Amore.

The hand stitching was done with Ecru Embroidery Floss.

Snow Friends - SSS87

Well, here we are just one week until Christmas! 
I'm not wishing my life away, BUT, I hop the winter goes as fast as the rest of this year went. I hate this cold weather.I guess if I never had to leave the house until Spring, I'd be fine.

My card today is a combination of a special swap card I had to make and the Sketch challenge over at The Sweet Stop Sketch Blog. I LOVE the sketches that Korin has each week. So, if you've never played along and you need some inspiration to get your mojo going, I suggest you play along sometime.

This time of year, I really need to kill two birds with one stone and this worked out perfectly. It should have been finished last night, but I did a really stupid thing. I tried to scan the card when I thought all of the liquid applique, that I used for the snow, was dry. Well, it wasn't completely dry and when I took it from the scanner, I had quite a mess on the card and the scanner. So, I had to make another image and try again. This time I left the LA dry before heating. I like this appearance much better. It doesn't get as bumpy and has a smoother appearance. However, I didn't make it in time to post on the challenge blog along with the other DT cards.

The papers I used are from the Magnifique Paper Collection from Close to my Heart. The image is called Snow Friends, also from CTMH. 

One of the requirements of the swap is to use two embellishments togeher. So, I took a clear button, punched a small circle in white and a snowflake in blue and glued them to the back of the clear button (also from CTMH), then I added a blue sparkle to the center.  Lots of sparkle on this card.

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

FSS - Winter Chickadee - SSS86

Well, here it is Saturday already and only two more weeks until Christmas. I've been having an issue with tendonitis in my thumb for the past week so I don't even have my Christmas cards made yet.  I'm hoping it feels better by Monday and then I'm spending the whole week making them. But I guarantee you one thing, they won't have hand stitching on them! *Ü*

My card today was inspired by a sketch at The Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge. Korin always has the greatest sketches so if you need some inspiration too, hope on over and play along with us this week.

The papers and Ribbon are all from the Mistletoe collection from Close to my Heart.

The Chickadee is from the Christmas Birds Series from Fred She Said. This image is one of three birds that comes in digi or pre-colored format.
The Hand Stitching was done with matching Embroidery Floss.

Other Challenge Blogs this card was made for:
Digi's With Attitude - Anything Goes

FSS - Wreath &Christmas Rose

I love playing along with the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge. For this card, I used the Fred She Said Christmas Wreath and the Christmas Rose. Both come in Digi or pre-colored. As much as I love coloring with Copic Markers, I chose the pre-colored images for my card just to get it done faster.

I love this wreath and I love the candles and roses so I decided to combine the two. This is the beauty of Digi's. You can make them what ever size you need. I think I may have to make a similar card in a 5.5 x 5.5 card so I can make the wreath bigger. Christmas card making may be coming to an end, but I think these images would make beautiful Winter Birthday Cards too.

I used Red Embroidery Floss for the Hand Stitching.

Other Challenge Blogs this card was mae for:
A Spoonful of Sugar - A Christmas Card
Tuesday Taggers - Deck the Halls
Creative Card Crew - Anything Goes

Jeffrey with Santa

I don't have a card to share today so I thought I would post a picture of my Grandson on his first visit with Santa. He's almost 17 months old and didn't like sitting on a strangers lap. This picture makes me smile!!!
His sister wasn't along that day so I hope we can get a picture of her with Santa too. 

Paperwhites - MMSC82

I thought I'd never get this card finished. I kept changing it because there was always something I didn't like about it. I have to tell you though that it looks so much better in person. It's night time and I had to scan it rather then take a picture of it.

I made this card for Two of the Flourishes Challenges. The first is the Timeless Tuesday Challenge to make a Christmas card with a flower other than a Poinsettia.  However, I must have missed the deadline for my submission to this one. But, I used the Flourishes Paperwhites Stamp set.  Their second challenge was The Winter White Challenge.
It's hard to tell from the photo but the image was stamped with Detail Gold Embossing Powder as was  some of the paper panel edges. The Ribbon is gold and the matting behind the image is gold.

The card was inspired also by a Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #82 I usually go with the fancy sketch but this time it just didn't work with my stamped image.

The Hand Stitching around the card was done with Gold Metalic Embroidery Floss. This was one of the thing that was giving me a problem. It is very hard to work with. 

Winter Basket - SSS85

Here is one of my favorite Sweet 'n Sassy Digi Images. It's called Winter Basket.  I printed it the size I needed and colored it with Copic Markers.

The inspiration for this card came from this weeks sketch over at The Sweet Stop. If you need some weekly inspiration, try the sketches there. They are some of the best.

The papers I used are some retired Christmas papers from Close to my Heart.
I also used one of my new Nesties called Beaded Ovals.
The Hand Stitching was done with Red Embroidery Floss.

Other Challenge Blogs this card was made for:
ABC Christmas Challenge - "Y" is for Yuletide
AI FActory - Winter
Glitterbabes - Buttons
Twisted Thursday - Holidays with Buttons and Bow

FSS Ornament #2

This week Fred She Said Store if sponsoring the Betty Bee’s Buzz Challenge Blog. You can pick up a freebie from Fred, so, why not play along and get a chance at winning a $20 gift certificate for the Fred She Said Store. You will be amazed at how much you can get for so little money.

My card today was inspired by this weeks sketch over at The Critter Sketch Challenge Blog. But the main inspiration came from this gorgeous Christmas Ornament #2. The image comes with or without the Holly.

I printed the ornament twice, colored them with Copic Markers then cut the ornament out of the one, used foam tape and layered it for more dimension. I added some red stickles to the red part of the ornament so it looks like little red beads.

Cocoa's Stocking - SC309

I hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving. I actually can't believe that it's December 1st already. The time is just flying by and I hardly have any Christmas cards made. I think I'm going to have to concentrate on them for the next two weeks.

I was so excited to get this card made today to try out my new camera that Santa brought me early. Don't you just love Black Friday specials!!! I've been wanting a Digital SLR camera for years now. And of course I have to learn how to use all the bells and whistles before Christmas, right!!! My old camera was only 6 years old but very obsolete. It only had 3.1 MP and hasn’t been taking very good pictures of my cards lately. My new baby has 18 MP. Woo Hoo!!! Anyway, enough about my camera. Onto my card.

I played along with the Splitcoast Stampers Wednesday Sketch Challenge.

The Digi Image I used is called Cocoa’s Stocking. This is a new release today from Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps. You may want to head on over and check out all the new digi releases for this month. I printed him out and colored him with Copic Markers.

I punched out several pine sprigs in white, glittered them, and used them as embellishments to finish off the focal point.

I used some Basic Grey paper for the base and then used my cuttlebug embossing folders for the next two layers. I thought the brick wall looked cute behind Cocoa.
I also used my new Labels 15 Nesties

I added liquid appliqué and glitter to the top of the stocking and yellow glitter to the star.

The hand stitching was done with red Embroidery Floss.

Other Challenge Blogs this card was made for:
Digital Tuesday - Animals at Christmas
A Crafty Little Place - Anything Goes
Cards For Men - Christmas

Emma the Caroling Angel

My card for today was inspired by a sketch challenge at The Pink Elephant. I loveds this sketch and had been planning all week to play along but life just seemed to get in the way.

I forgot to add the ribbon and bow. I've added it but there's no daylight to take a good picture, so maybe I'll change out the picture tomorrow.

The image I used is Emma the Caroling Angel from  Fred She Said. It comes as  digi that you can color with your favorite medium or the pre-colored images that come in 8 different colors. Click on the link to check out these gorgeous images.

The papers I used are retired papers from Close to my Heart.

The Hand Stitching was done with  matching Embroidery Floss.

Other Challenge Blogs this card was made for:

Crazy 4 Challenges - Circles

Speedy the Cat's Friends' Challenge - Circle on Card

Wee Memories - A little PInk

Die cut Dreams Christmas Club - Christmas Anything Goes

Country Snowman & Oh Christmas Tree - SSS83

Oh My, we're in the home stretch for Thanksgiving. I'm not ready for this. I always have my house cleaning done and my house sparkles for the holidays. I only have today and tomorrow to get it all done so I may have to sprinkle glitter all over if I want it to sparkle. *Ü*
As a matter of fact, I was so engrossed in washing curtains that I forgot it was Friday and I needed to make this card.

My card today uses two Digi images from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps called Country Snowman and Oh Christmas Tree. They were colored with Copic Markers.

Korin is having a Black Friday Sale going on from now until the end of the month for a whopping 20% off. So, you may want to check out all the fabulous clear stamps and Digi images she has in her store.

I was pressed for time and kept messing up the coloring on my tree that I finally decided to see what it looked like with Faux Flower Soft on it. I then added red pearls where the ornaments are on the tree.

The papers and the Poinsettia flower are from Close to my Heart.
The Hand Stitching was done with White Embroidery Floss.

Another Smiley Snowman - SC307

There's just something about this image that I can't get away from. He just makes me smile.

I played along with the Splitcoast Stampers sketch challenge from yesterday.

The Digi Image is from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps and is called Smiley Snowman. There is also a Clear Stamp version of this also and comes with sentiments.

I love using the chunky Diamond Dust on my snowmen. This product is so sparkly but yet doesn't cover up all of the linework.
The snow is a combination of liquid Applique, faux flower Soft and Fine glitter. I sponged blue chalk on the background, then dotted it with white liquid applique and heated it.

I used som old Basic Grey papers.
The snowflakes are die cuts from A Spellbinders Die mand then I coated them with glitter. You can never have too much glitter for wintere of Christmas cards.

The Hand Stitching was done with White Embroidery Floss in my snowflake pattern.

Other Challenge Blogs this card was made for:
Speedy the Cat's Friends - Snowflakes
ABC Christmas Challenge - X is for Christmas

Winner of the Sweet 'n Sassy Blog Hop

Hi Ladies,
Sorry for the delay on this but I've been having some major computer problems.

The winner from comments left on my blog for the sweet 'n Sassy Birthday Blog hop is #19 Auntie Lisa. This was picked at Random out of 60 comments.

If this is you, please email me for your prise.

Congratulations to all of the winners. If you won a free Digi, Id love to see you use it for the Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge on Saturdays!  Our Sketch Challenge DT Love to see your artwork and really love seeing you use your SNSS images.

FSS - Emma The Hugger

I've been so busy with an upcoming Christmas Card Workshop that I totally forgot to post this card this morning. 

This is my week to host the Fred She Said blog for the Digi of the week special. I chose Emma the Hugger. The Digi image or the pre-colored sheets are all on sale at 30% off until Monday Midnight, Novemebr 22nd. You really need to check out the incredible discounted price on this.
Which ever you choose, it's such an adorable image. It's hard to see in the pictures of the many layers on the image by using the decopage All Sorts Challenge Blog.sheet.

The design for this card came from a fabulous sketch challenge over at
I added Chunky Diamond Dust to the snowman and liquid applique, heated and then added Fine glitter for snow. The backgrounds were done using two different embossing folders. I lightly sanded the embossed snowflakes to make them pop.

I used an extra row of my Hand Stitching to make the stitches resemble snowflakes.

Other Challenge Blogs this card was made for:
Anything Goes - Emboss it!
Flourishes Timeless Tuesday - Christmas
Delightful Challenges - Glitter It Up!

Winter Basket - SSS82

Have your bodies adjusted to the end of Daylight Savings Time yet? Mine hasn't and that's a good thing. Now I'm awake by 6:30 and able to get some exercise in before the grandkids get here at 7:45.  Now, if I could only go to bed before Midnight!!!

My card today was inspired by a card at The Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge Blog. They have a beautiful sketch to work with this week so why not hop on over there and play along. You have until next Friday evening.  
Did you ever notice how you start out with such pretty papers and then end up covering it up. That's what happened to me on this card. So, I made the small strip smaller then on the sketch so you could see more of the pretty flowers underneath. I was almost tempted to eliminate it all together.

The Digi Image I used is from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps and is called "Winter Basket".  I love Digi Stamps because you can make them any size you need. It was printed then colored with Copic Markers.
The Ribbon is some old Hostess rewards ribbon from Close to my Heart.

The Hand Stitching was done with matching Embroidery Floss.

Other Challenge Blogs this card was made for:
A Crafty Little Place - Red, White & Green
Anything Goes - Emboss It!
Caardvark - Holiday card & Die Cuts
Digital Tuesday - Never Used Stash + Digi
Charater Cafe - Embossing
Christmas Stampin' All Year - Stripes
Digi's with Attitude - Sparkle, Ribbon, & two DP's
Stamp Something - Use a Digi