Wishing You Well

My card today was inspired by the Ribbon Carousel Challenge Blog.

The papers and stamps are from the Close to my Heart "Lucy Workshop on the Go". This paper is so gorgeous and just perfect for Spring.
The Hand Stitching was done with matching Embroidery Floss.

It's easy to create spring cards right now because here in Pennsylvania, we haven't had winter yet. The temperature today is in the 50's and the spring bulbs are already 6" high through the ground. This is my kind of winter.

Other Challenges for thei card:
2 Sisters - Stitching
All Sorts - Anything Goes

Over the moon in Love With You

Here is the Valentine Card I made for my husband today. I got away from the traditional colors for this to make it look more masculine. However, I forgot myself and started adding pearls and stick pins and then remembered who it was for. But, that's OK. It just made it look romantic looking.

The inspiration for this card started with a Sketch Challenge at Die Cuttin Divas. I used the CTMH exclusive Cricut cartridge called Art Philosophy to cut the doily and a MS paper punch for the side border.

The Papers I used are from the Close to My Heart Sonoma paper pack. I changed around some of the colors of papers to match the flowers. I used the new CTMH Card Word Puzzle Stamp set for the flowers and butterflies. I stamped them with Black Memento ink and colored them with Copic Markers.

The Over the Moon in Love With You is from the December Stamp of the Month, called Mad about you.
I tied a green bow and stuck two stick pins from the Bling Assortment through the back for some added bling.  

Challenges for this card:
Cards for Men - Valentine/Love
The Crazy Challenge - Valentine

FSS Hearts & Roses Valentine Card

I'm finally getting caught up with all of my stamping obligations and it feels so good!!!

Here is a Valentine card made using the Fred She Said Hearts and Roses pre-colored image. I love this set because the pre-colored images come in 7 different colors for any occasion, or a digi that you can color yourself. I added the Happy Valentines Day but you can add any sentiment or non at all.

The inspiration for this card started with the January Verve sketch, week 1, that the Heart worked perfectly with.

The paper I used are all  CTMH from the Roxie Paper Packet, except for the green punched strip. That was left over scrap from a Christmas card but it worked perfectly for this card.

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

Other Challenges for this card:
Wags & Whiskers - Valentine/Love
Stampin with the Dragon - Anything Goes
Allsorts - Needles & Pins
Drunkin Stampers - Love
JUGS - Red, Pink, White
Scrap, Stamp & Doodle - Have a Heart
I Did It - Love
Stampin Sisterhood - Inspiration (roses, heart, pink)
Stampin Sisters in Christ - Make a Heart stand out
Inky Impressions - Heart You

FSS - Hat Tipping Snowman

I think I'm finally back and able to continue creating. My wrist pain is minimal now and I'm starting off slowly. I sure missed not making cards but especially not being able to hand stitch them. So here is my fist card of the new year. I used the Fred She Said Hat Tipping pre-colored Snowman.

The papers are all from the Wonderland paper packet from Close to my Heart. I really think I need to order more of this paper before it is retired  at the end of the month. I really LOVE it for snow cards and layouts.
It's hard to see all of the glitter on this card but it's around the doily and one the snowflakes.

The Handstitching around the card was done using white Embroidery Floss.

The inspiration came from a sketch challenge at Deconstructed Sketch 35.

Other Challenges for this card:
DYSU Challenge Blog - Patterned Paper
DRS Challenge - Snowmen
Terrifically Thrilling Thursday - Anything Goes
Card Makin Mamas - Something Old (Swirls of pearls)
Fussy & Fancy - Let It Snow
Raise the Bar - Ring in the New Year (circles)
Stampin for the weekend - Out with the old. (papers and pearls)
Stamping with the Dragon - Anything Goes
Gingerloft - Let it Snow
Sentimental Sundays - Die Cuts
Stamptacular Sunday - Seeing Spots
Clear it Out - Baby it's cold outside
Ladybug Crafts - Bows

Fred She Said Christmas Tag Blog Hop

Welcome to the Fred She Said Christmas Tag Blog Hop. I'm having a really hard time believeing that Christmas is only 9 days away. Where did this year go!

Fred She Said is having a fun little Christmas Challenge! The theme is " Make a Christmas Tag OR Share a favorite Holiday Recipe "

The PRIZE is a $25 GC to the Fred She Said Store. There will be one winner chosen randomly. Entries will be accepted until Friday DEC 30th midnight EST. ... more details at the Fred She Said BLOG :)

I made a gift tag / Ornament.  Papers are layered on chipboard and decorated with Fred She Said Christmas Wreath. This makes a sturdy tag that can then be used as an ornament.

Fred She Said Winter Blog Hop

Welcome to the Winter Themed Fred She Said Blog Hop.

I’m so glad you dropped in today because our Design Team have some fabulous Fred She Said art work to share with you.

You’ll definitely want to play along because we have some wonderful gifts that THREE of you could win by just collecting the word/s along the way and putting them together for the secret phrase. Entry instructions will be at the FSS Challenge BLOG. Entries will be accepted for 2 weeks - until Friday December 2nd midnight EST. Winners will be announced Saturday December 3rd

PRIZES: 3 random winners. 1 winner for each prize below:
$30 GC for www.cropstop.com
$30 GC for Fred She Said
$30 GC for Fred She Said

If you’ve come here from Carol’s Blog, you are on the right track. If you just happened upon my blog, you will want to start at the very beginning at the FSS Blog so you can collect all the words in the correct order.

My card today was made using the pre-colored Fred She Said newly released Christmas Poinsettia Lantern. Isn’t this just the prettiest image! I used this week’s sketch from Midnight Madness challenge blog. It was just perfect for my lantern.

I added some yellow stickles to the centers of the poinsettias and the candle flame. I also added some red Bling on the ribbon and right hand corners.

The papers are all from Close to my Heart and the Hand Stitching was done with Red Embroidery Floss.
My special words for the phrase are “a Very”.

Now hope on over to Val’s Blog and see the gorgeous artwork from her.

Other Challenges for this card:
Pile it on - Traditional Christmas
Mami Doodles - Christmas
Digital Tuesday - Christmas
Wags n' Whiskers - Christmas
Totally Gorjuss - Christmas Traditions

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.

Vintage Santa Christmas Card

Here is my last post for today. I saved the best for last.

I absolutely LOVE Vintage Christmas cards so I decided to purchase some vintage images. Then I found this fabulous Christmas Paper from Bo Bunny to go with them. I think I should have bought much more of this paper.


The inspiration for this card came from a Verve Sketch Challenge. They have some beautiful sketches every week.


The hand stitching was done using my own design with Embroidery Floss. For the stitching around the green paper, I used a running stitch and Gold Metallic Embroidery Floss.

Other Challenges for this card:
Winter Wonderland - Vintage Christmas
My time to craft - Punches and Dies
ABC Christmas Challenge - Unused Stash (ribbon, gold embroidery floss, and those round circle things the pearls are inside of.)

Hydrandea 4" x 4" Note Cards (set of 6)

Here is my second post for today with a set of Six Hydrangea Note cards. These are also 4" x 4".
I used the pre-colored images from Fred She Said called Hydrangeas. After the image is cut out using a nestability die, I keep the die on and sponge blue around the edge and brown on the bottom. This gives the appearance of it having a white layer underneath.

I cuttle bugged the front of the card and used one of my favorite punches for the corners. I wanted to give it an antique look.
All papers and inks are from Close to my Heart.

Pumpkins and Sunflowers Note Cards

Here is the first of threel posts I may be putting up today. I was going to do one each day but I may just get it all over with today while I have a few extra minutes.

I've been on a note card kick lately. These cards are all 4" x 4". I think what I enjoy about them is the fact that I can make them in sets. This set can be used for Thank You cards or just a note card.

The image is a pre-colored one for Fred She Said called Pumpkins and Sunflowers. Everything else is from Close to my Heart. I just love this blue and orange combination.

Wheelbarrow of flowers

I was on a kick with the 4" x 4" cards. I made a set of note cards with six of the eight pre-colored wheelbarrow images from Fred She Said. I would have made all eight but only 6 fit on my paper to print.
I cuttlebuged the front of each card then sponged around the edges with the same color of ink as the matting. I tried to match up the colores of each wheelbarrow with the colors of Close to my Heart Card Stock.

Sunflower Thank You Cards

I was in the mood for making some small cards. So, I made a set of 6 Thank You Cards using the Sunflower and Thankfullness pre-colored images from Fred She Said. Not much to say about these cute 4" x 4" cards .  I fussy cut a small sunflower for the top and poped it then added some brown faux flower soft to the centers of the sunflowers.

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

Hugging Ghosts - Guest Designer for Delightful Challenges

Last week my card was chosen  1st place over at Delightful Challenges and I received the Guest designer post for this week. The Hugging Ghosts was the image I chose to work with and above is the card I made with it.

Check out this super cute Halloween image from Digital Delights by Louby Loo.  I used the pre-colored version of Hugging Ghosts. 

 I thought this would make such a cute Halloween card to send to my grandchildren so I did minimal hand stitching and since I have to send out so many, the pre-colored image was fabulous.

I was looking for a fairly simple sketch so I could make the image bigger and found the perfect one with Saturday's Card Patterns.

The black and orange cardstock is from CTMH and the dp is from basic grey. I've had this dp lying around for ages and am finally using it.
I hand stitched a very simple running stitch around the card and tied some Mandarin Bakers Twine around the right side of the image.

Other challenge blogs for this card:
2 Sisters - Halloween
Challenge Up Your Life - Halloween
Clear it out - Halloween
Everybody Art - Halloween
Creative Card Crew - Spooky Fun
My time to craft - Orange & Black
Scrap Creations - Halloween
Shopping Our Stash - Spooky or orange/black