Busy, Busy, Busy around here!

Well, it has sure been busy around my house the last couple days!  I am having some work done on my house and they are working like gang busters!  I can't believe how fast the work is going!  I am having a roof put over most of my front deck (mostly to stop some water that is going into my basement, but I will LOVE the extra shade!)  They are also going to be doing some other stuff to stop the leaking too, but this is the first step.  Here are pictures of the work in progress so far.

I've been real busy myself, getting ready for a friend who is going to be visiting me next week for a whole week.  We are going to have SO much fun when she gets here!  We have a Craft Show that we will be doing together and then on another day we are going to do some SERIOUS retail therapy at Hobby Lobby, Joann's and the Bead Haven!  I've been making up a bunch of cards too, getting ready for the show.

Here is one that I made up using Fred She Said's Emma in Her Frills for a lovely lady going through a terrible time right now.  Her husband was in a terrible motorcycle accident.  My prayers and wishes for a full recovery went out in the mail with this card.

I used Prismacolor Color Pencils to colro this one and then dry blended most of it.  I cut Emma out with the Nestabilities Labels 4 die, then inked the edges while it was still in the die.  The paper behind Emma is cut with the same die and is actually a piece of white embossed paper that I completely rubbed over with ink.  Th edge of the green card has been punched with a Martha Stewart Edge Punch and layered on the card blank which has been cut on the edge with a Deckle Blade and then inked with 2 shades of purple.  I then used Aleene's Tack-it Over & Over inside the cutouts and added glitter.  The sentiment is done the same way with the inks.  A beautiful organdy bow, peel-off corners and lots of bling finish of this card.

Mobile Card Display

Have you ever wanted to have some kind of Display that you could carry your cards in?  One that you could just open and show your cards to potential customers?  Well, I have.  I've been carrying them around for years in boxes and people interested in my cards had to sort through the cards in the boxes to find what they were looking for.  Well NO longer!  I have had this Artist Portfolio for years (literally!)  I got it when I went to college, right out of High School...and I'm NOT telling you how long ago THAT was!  lol  Well, all it was being used for was to store my College Portfolio in that I never take anywhere, so I had this BRILLIANT idea to use it as a Mobile Card Display!  I went to Home Depot and bought 2 Ceiling Tiles.  I cut them to fit inside the Portfolio.  I spray painted 1 of them black and glued it to both sides of the Portfolio with Construction Adhesive.  The other one I left plain, but glued both halves back to back.  I thne covered the raw edges on this one with some very wide binding (Quilt Binding) using a very tacky glue (Aleene's Jewel-It)  Now it was ready for my cards!  Granted, I can't take EVERY single card I  have made, but I can take a good representation of what I have done and keep swapping them out for different ones, depending on the time of year.
Now for the pictures of my Mobile Display.

Here it is, Closed.  I know it is kind of "ratty" looking, but Hey, what do you expect for being as old as it is?  lol  It will get the job done and that is what counts, right?

Here is the Mobile Display opened up flat.

Opened Tented for better viewing.

One side of the Display.

The other side of the Display.

Here is one side of the Extra Display.  Can you see the Binding around the edges here?

The other side of the Extra Display.

Here is the Mobile Display, ready to close and go out "on the road"

I would LOVE to hear YOUR ideas!

A Special Request Design

I had a special request yesterday to make a card for a little girl that is being adopted into a family. I thought that was so wonderful that the family wanted to give the little girl a special card to welcome her to the family that I made a special sheet from the design as well.

The sheet is called Welcome to Our Family Adoption Card & 3-D. All Graphics are from FolkArtDesigns.com.

I made this card by printing it out on Heavy White Textured Cardstock and layered it on Textured Foil Cardstock from AC Specialty Paper which has been punched with a Martha Stewart Doily Punch. I layered the 3-D with foam tape. The hearts have been glittered with Aleene's Tack-it Over and Over and Glamour Dust.

Emma in Her Frills with a TB medallion

As a Challenge card on Circle of Crafters in the Tea Bag Room, I decided to use one of the tiles I printed out recently from the new set I made for Valentine's Day (available on CUP), but I didn't need another Valentine's card, so I made this a Thinking of You card. The fold is the Funky Star by one of the ladies from the Circle of Crafters. I used one of Fred She Said's Emma images. This one is Emma with Her Frills On - Digi. I cut her out with the Mega Curved Rectangle Nestabilities and used my Color Box ink pads to color the edges. I colored Emma with Prismacolor color pencils and blended her with Baby Oil with my version of the Gamsol Technique. Emma's frills are glittered with Aleene's Tack-it Over and Over and Glamour Dust. The sentiment is done with a CB die. The ferns are some that were given to me in a RAK. The little white flowers I made with 2 little punches I have and a pearl in the center.

Fred She Said and Mosaic Punching

One of the ladies from Cicle of Crafters posted directions for using the Mosaic Punches and I finally managed to get one figured out! A bit more math involved than I normally like when making a card, but I really DO like the finished effect! lol I did my punching on plain white cardstock, then taped off the punched area and sponged the rest of the cardstock with 2 different colors of blue pearl and a white pearl acrylic paint, added a bit of bling to the punched areas and layered it on top of some textured blue metallic cardstock. I also layered a piece of vellum that had been embossed with the Snowflake CB folder in the center of the punched area. I used some metallic chalks on the vellum piece.




















For the main image on the card, I used Fred She Said's
Emma the Snow Angel - Digi which I printed out on Water Color paper. Emma is colored with markers. Some of the coloring is done with a brush and watered down marker though. I colored the marker on a Ceramic Tile, and used a paint brush to add water and then paint where I wanted the diluted colors.
I used a different kind of glue this time for the glitter and I have to say I'm not very happy with it. I will be going back to the Aleene's as I really like the results I get with that much more than this one!

A Combination of Techniques

For this card, I have used an image by Fred She Said called Emma with Her Frills On - Digi . Emma is colored with both Prismacolor Watercolor Pencils as well as Prismacolor Pencils and Dry Blended. I used the regular pencils on Emma's face, hands and feet as I don't have a "skin tone" pencil I like in my Watercolor set.
Papers used are a purple textured metallic paper that I picked up at Walmart as well as a Purple Mirri Board, both have been cut with the Spellbinders Nestabilities Large Labels die. The whole thing is mounted on Textured White Cardstock.
Martha Stewart Deep Edge Punch was used on the metallic purple cardstock and the Martha Stewart Lattice Punch was used on a bit of green cardstock for the "grass" under Emma's feet.





















Here is a closer look at Emma. She has Bling flowers with Peel-off waste used to make a Bow and Ribbons for her bouquet. The lace on Emma's dress has also been "blinged" with Aleene's Tack-it Over and Over and Glamour Dust.

For those interested in Tea Bag Folding, the medallion on my card is done using the Variation of Carol's Crazy Zig-Zag Fold and a tile by my good friend Marie B. I have included the fold directions for those who would like to try their hand at folding....more of my Tea Bag directions to follow in future posts, so keep your eyes peeled. ;-) (just click on the directions to bring them up full screen.)

First Fred She Said Challenge!

Oh Wow! Tracey, from Fred She Said has a New Blog! It is a Challenge Blog and you can find it here! Be sure to check it out for Challenge Card Qualifications and be sure to enter for a chance to win some GREAT PRIZES!

Today is the start of the very first Challenge on the FSS Challenge Blog, so be sure to check out all the work from the DST Members and keep checking back to see all the lovely work posted by Challenge Entrants!

OK, here is my card. I have used 3 Different sets of Tracey's to come up with this card. :-O

The first two layers have been Digitally Layered in Photoshop. The only 3-D elements on the card are the Flowers, the ribbon and pearls. The Lime Green Strips is from the Pinstripe Paper Freebies, the Purple and Yellow Stripe with the Green Leaves is from Fred's Flowers v3 - Purple Blossoms Kit, and the rest is from the Brand New set Fred's Flowers v6-Daisies with Bracket Borders. I colored the pieces with Prismacolor Colored Pencils and used Baby Oil, in my version of the Gamsol Technique to blend the piece behind the flowers. The flowers I did Dry Blending on. The flowers are shaped and layered with regular glue and little yellow 1/2 pearls put in the center of each. I used Double Sided Sticky Tape behind my ribbon to hold it in place and stuck a sprig of pearls in the knot of the ribbon with Aleene's Jewel-It.

Hurry Up Spring! lol

In my desire to see the end of snow, I have been working on Spring cards! Here is my latest Spring card.

I have used an image from Fred She Said called FSS- Bunneh! - Easter Bunny Digital Stamp. I have done my coloring with Prismacolor Watercolor Pencils and added just a touch of Aleene's Tack-it Over and Over to the spots on the Eggs and some Glamour Dust. I cut out the Bunneh with the Spellbinders Nestabilities Large Labels. The paper behind Bunneh is some Lime Green Mirri Board. The punch along the edge is one of Martha Stewart's Deep Edge punches, the Buttons along the bottom are a Cuttlebug Embossing folder and inked with Color Box ink in Lime Green. I have edged the Bunneh and the edging strip as well as the sentiment tag with marker (see my Tutorial here). A bit of Bling and a Double Bow and the card is finished.

Here is a close-up of the Bunneh, so hopefully, you can see where I have put the Glamour Dust on the eggs.







If you haven't checked out the Blog Hop that is going on RIGHT NOW, be sure to check out this post for a chance to win some great prizes!

My First Penny Slider Design

Well, I have been totally intrigued by these Penny Slider cards, so I decided to design one and make it. ;-) Here is my Birthday Cake Penny Slider. This was SO much fun making, watch for more of them! I added glitter to the flames on the candles with Aleene's Tack-it Over and Over (do you notice, I use an aweful lot of that stuff? :-O lol) It looks realllly cool when it is spinning with the glitter! The brown cardstock in back is some Pearl cardstock I picked up at Walmart that I punched with a Martha Stewart edging punch. All mounted on Textured Cream cardstock purchased at Paper and More.

Edging Markers

Here is a really neat technique that I learned from one of the ladies from Circle of Crafters. Have you ever tried making straight, smooth lines around the very edge of a card or apperature? Well, if you have hands anywhere near as steady as MINE, that is NOT going to happen! :-O Enter this realllllly cool technique!

First, you will need a set (or one or two) metallic markers. It is best to start out with Brand New ones as the tips won't already be pressed on from writing.

Next, take a pair of Scissor (yes, really!) and using the Edge of one of the blades, press DOWN into the tip of the marker until you get a nice V.

Now, to use them, you just place your card in the V and slide the marker along the edge of the card....Voilá....you have the perfect edge on your card!

Here is a complete set of the markers...colors for all occassions! Have fun! (this is the technique I referred to in my last card...I added Aleene's Tack-it Over and Over on top of the marker and then glitter...the possibilites are ENDLESS!)

More Flip Flop Cards

I am having SO much fun making these Flip Flop cards! I decided to see if I could make the work with the size card I normally like making (5.5 x 8.5" ) and found they work great! The first one is another Emma the Snow Angel - Digi, by Fred, She Said. This time Emma is colored with Prismacolor Watercolor pencils. the rest of the card is made pretty much the same way I made yesterday's card, with the exception of the border on Emma. That is done with a technique I will be writing a tutorial for later today (I hope! ;-) )

This second card is for an order that I had for a Birthday card for a Totally Blind lady! :-O You can see the texture on the blue and pink panels from the Cuddlebug folders used to emboss them. What you may not be able to tell though is that the "flip flop" part of the card is textured too with glitter! On the Argyle, it is the white dashes. On the Circle paper, it is all the Dashed circles. This was a very fun card to make! The Tea Bag fold is by Penny Wessenauer and is the Floating Diamonds & Popping Squares fold. The tile is by a friend of mine. Thanks Marie! I used a dot of Aleene's Tack-it Over and Over to keep the Flip Flop part of the card closed. Another neat thing for the lady to feel....lol

Wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas

With this card I made today, I wish you ALL a Very Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year. May you have more Joy and less Troubles in the coming year than the one leaving.

I used Emma the Snow Angel - Digi from Fred, She Said. Emma is cut out with the Classic Scallop Oval Large Nestabilities and is colored with Prismacolor pencils and blended with Baby Oil in my version of the Gamsol Technique as I'm allergic to the Mineral Spirits. ;-) For the glitter around Emma, I used Aleene's Tack-it Over and Over and Martha Stewart Crystal Coarse Glitter and Glamour Dust. The style of card is called a Flip Flop Card and the blue papers are bits left from last weeks cards. ;-) The pearl card behind Emma is some metallic pearl cardstock from Paper and More. I used a small dot of Aleene's Tack-it Over and Over to keep the card closed. It will open and close without tearing the paper! Cool, huh!?

New FSS for my Mother's Birthday

I was struggling with coming up with an idea for the card to make for my Mother's Birthday next Monday. Well when I saw Tracey's (Fred, She Said), I knew right away this was what I was going to use for my Mother's card! The image is just SO perfect!

The red paper is actually the Green paper from FSS - Christmas Papers 1 - 2009, just recolored. ;-) The punch along the edge is a Martha Stewart Punch. The black paper is a strip of Core'dinations Black Magic paper that has been run through the CB Snowflake embossing folder, then sanded with an emery board. The green paper behind the roses is a Pearl Cardstock that has been cut with the Spellbinders Mega Curved Rectangle Nestabilities, then run through the CB Textile embossing folder. I dabbed a bit of Chianti Color Box ink onto the raised portions of the embossing. The glitter on the Christmas Rose Coloured & Digi Sets is done with Aleene's Tack-it Over and Over and Martha Stewart glitter in Green. The ribbon is from my stash.

I just had to show you this Celtic Snowflake that I tatted for my Mother as well. The pattern is by Mark Myers and I did it in size 10 thread because the beads I wanted to use were 4mm. The beads are actually Arora Borealis Pearls, but they are difficult to photograph. :-( The finished snowflake is about 5.5" accross

Emma the Snow Angel

This is Tracey's (Fred, She Said) newest release of Emma. What an adorable Snow Angel! I colored her in with Prismacolor Colored Pencils and blended with Baby Oil. Inked the edge and used Aleene's Tack-it Over and Over on the edges of the Snow Angel, then when it was dry used Glamour Dust.

The blue card behind Emma is Blue Pearl Cardstock, cut out with the Mega Rectangle Nestablities, then run through the Cuddle Bug Swirl folder. Then I added some glue from a pad (still not getting the hang of this right!) and put on some Silver Dust from Duncan (leftovers from my Ceramic days...lol) I also sanded the tops of the embossing down a bit with an emery board to give it a more snowy feel.

The main cardstock used on this card is an embossed metallic cardstock that I just HAVE to get more of! It is a dream to work with!

Support the Samaritan's Purse with FSS!

Here are 2 cards I have made with Fred, She Said's Poinsettia & Pineboughs Digi. For every single sale of this Digi set, Tracey will donate $2 to the Samaritan's Purse (Canadian Division). To read more about the wonderful work they do, check them out here: Samaritan's Purse

Punch used on this card is the Martha Stewart Lattice Arches I believe it is called. I also used the Mega Curved Rectangle Nestabilities Dies from Spellbinder. The Gold and Green papers are some that I just picked up from Hobby Lobby this past week. Green is a self sticking holographic sheet by Paper Studio. Gold is from the Paper Company. The Ho Ho Ho paper is from my stash as is the wonderful gold ribbon. I used Aleene's Tack-it Over and Over on the edge of the Poinsettia Pine Bough cut out and then used some of Martha Stewart's Micro Glitter for bling.


For this card, I used the remainder of the Gold paper left from the first card for the backing. The polka dot papers are from my paper stash. I used the Classic Scalloped Circle Small Nestabilities Dies by Spellbinders to cut out the Poinsettia Pine Bough on this card. I used the largest, then the next smallest. For the resulting ring, I covered it with Aleeene's Tack-it Over and Over, then after it had dried, used both Martha Stewart's Crystal Coarse Glitter and Glamour Dust. I added some very tiny gems to the outer edge of the green polka dot circle. The ribbons are from my stash.

I can't get enough of this set! ;-)

Here is another of Tracey's (Fred, She Said) wonderful Lovely Blossom & Butterfly Coloured Decoupage Kit. This time I did the Blue one. Again, the Topper is NOT made up into a card. I am sending it with the card to a friend to thank her for a recent gift. The black paper on both the card and topper is again Core'dinations new Black Magic Color Core cardstock embossed with the CB and sanded to bring out the inside color of the cardstock. The butterflies have been glittered with Glamour Dust and Aleene's Tack-It Over & Over.

1 card, 1 topper, 1 sheet!

Here are a card and card topper that I have made using just ONE of Tracey's (Fred, She Said) sheets! I used the Yellow version of the Lovely Blossom & Butterfly Coloured Decoupage Kit. I made the card first, then using the leftovers, made the card topper. The black paper on both card and topper is Core'dinations new Black Magic Color Core cardstock. I glittered the Butterfly using Aleene's Tack-it Over and Over and Glamour Dust. The Scroll was cut out with a Sizzix die and the other shapes were all cut out with Spellbinders Nestabilities Dies and a Deckle Blade in a Fiskar's Rotary Paper Trimmer.

More of Fred, She Said's New Designs

Well, I just love working (ok, playing...lol) with Tracey's (Fred, She Said) designs! This is another of her new ones. This is from the Christmas Flower Doodledallions Digi Set. I used Photoshop to do the coloring and made a 3-D out of the image as well. The bottom layer has been edged with a Gold marker. I used Aleene's Tack-it Over & Over with a very fine tip and followed the scrolls and some of the circles on the second layer and added Blue Micro Glitter. Then I did the rest of the circles and filled in the outlined circles with Glamour Dust. The layers have been raised with thin foam tape. The ribbon is some I bought on my very first trip to Hobby Lobby and the backing paper is from my first Backing Paper CD.

This style card is what I call a Self Easel card. I have shown a Front view, side view and a close-up of the Dallion.

Little Miss Bitty Flitting to make a friend feel better....

Well, when I saw the Challenge on DTC, I just knew I had to make this card for a friend who is going through some health issues right now. ;-)

Miss Bitty is from Fred, She Said and is digitally colored in Photoshop. The glitter on the card is Glamour Dust and is applied with Aleene's Tack-it Over and Over as are the 1/2 Pearls and Tatted Lace Flowers and Lace Ribbon Bow. I hope it brings some cheer to my friend. ;-)