Oh the Convenience of Fred, She Said colored Images!

I recently needed a card for a friend that was having a low moment in her life...something feminine,  soft colored, delicate, uplifting...I found just the right image at my favorite shop, Fred, She Said.   This digi called Tulip Bouquet comes in a variety of colors but I thought the lavender was soothing.  I used an oval beaded Spellbinder die, pop-dotted for dimension.  I used an embossed card front that I put through my CuttleBug.  The 1" scalloped lace is adorned with a purple Stickles dot in the center.   I stamped the "Thinking of You" sentiment in purple ink. Thanks Fred for coming to my rescue..again!

Fred, She Said makes it so easy for Christmas!

There's something about a beautiful Tartan plaid and Christmas...can't put my finger on it but when I saw Tracy's(aka Fred) newest Christmas pre-colored digital image called Kiss Me Scottie, I knew what my card would look like!  She is always drawing very creative images for us-the shading and coloring is amazing!  I added an aged looking cardstock accent square on top of a printed Twill Ribbon that says "Happy Holidays" that has a pine bough on it. On Scottie, I put red Stickles on the bow and used white puffy paint on the Mistletoe Berries so they'd stick out.  While the image was in the SpellBinder die, I used a paint dauber with Tim Holtz's Distress Ink (faded jeans) and put Diamond glaze on his nose and eyes so they'd look moist.  She has a whole series of Scotties in white, tan, brown and black at Fred, She Said so I say bring on the Plaid--I've got a lot of cards to make!

Football is in the air with Hambo Stamps

Hut**Hut** it's time to Toss the Ball into the Fall Season at Hambo Stamps!  I love the crisp, fresh air and the turning leaves and ones' thoughts turn to many things-one of which is kids and their youth sports teams!  This rubber stamp I've used is called Football Boy - 3702 and he's adorable! The neat thing about Hambo Stamps is that they have both digital AND rubber stamps on cling backing; also featured are sentiments and what they call "Fractured Funnies" which give you hilarious sentiment options.
I had several pages of Football DP destined for some Manly cards but the strange thing is there were no mfg. marks on the back so I can't share with you who makes the paper! This was a great time to use them~attached a ribbon from my stash, the image and sentiment from Hambo, some dew drops and voila~a great card!  Thanks for looking, Carolyn

Bugaboo Sponsored Challenge #25 on Seems a Little Sketchy!

I love this digi from Bugaboo Stamps call Guy-Car--That just says it all with Men and their Machines doesn't it?  Our son recently got a new car that he's been dreaming about for a long time so I will send him this Congrats Card and make his day!  The background paper is directional arrows that go every which way and   it seemed right to use a gray piece of cardstock as the road with Galaxy marker lines down the middle.  The rusty metal sign is attached by 3 brads and I wrote on it with a White Souffle marker.  I also used silver metallic marker on several accent points on the car.  I'm hoping that this Seems a Little Sketchy card will be special to him~~He's been on my mind today as the huge storm on the coast is barreling down on New Jersey where he and his family live. I'm saying a few prayers that everyone, including my DIL's family that live 1 hour from the coast, will be safe and sound during this possible disaster.  Thanks for understanding my post here about that-all prayers would be welcome.

Watch out for the CROWS at HAMBO's HOGtoberfest

The Crows might make a meal of the corn around my Hambo rubber stamped image, Pig Scarecrow-3801  .  I just LUV this image and thought it would be the perfect companion for the newest event at the Hambo Hoedown and I can't wait to tell everyone about HOGTOBERFEST!!!  

This is Hambo's annual sale, where ALL of the stamps on our website (including digis) will be discounted by 30% --with even an additional discount applied to our retiring stamps. (Cling
cushion is NOT included in this sale.)  The sale starts October 25th and here is the link that will tell you all the details.  This might be your last opportunity to buy wood-mounted Hambos because when the inventory is gone, they will no longer be offering them in the store.  This will also be the last week for purchase of Asela's Hop Art digi designs, before they're officially retired.

The recipe for my card: A2 card blank, Cloud paper from My Minds Eye, Grass/weed paper from stash, adorable image, new FLAT circle adhesive backed shaker box filled with popcorn, and Hambo sentiment How's It Growin'-2716.  

Hope you enjoyed the card and will join us Bacon Bits at the great sale at Hambo Stamps!  Thanks for looking~ CAW CAW~~

2 of my Favorite things~FLOWERS & Hambo Stamps

This stamped image, Flower Pot Girl by Hambo Stamps could be ME!  I love all seasons for planting and nurturing flowers and when I stamped this cutie, I just fell in love with her, colored her with copics and pop dotted her for dimension.  What a gorgeous backdrop paper for her with all the pink zinnias, lilies, mums.  


This Sentiment is just the perfect accent for the card-I used my fishtail dies for the banner and then used my favorite embellishments~Buttons!!  The Hambo Stamp store  offers a wide variety of themed rubber stamps and digitals and many sentiments that are sure to be perfect for any occasion.  Be sure and check them out!  Thanks for looking!  Carolyn

Seems a Little Sketchy and Squiggle Fly join Forces

What a great Partnership between 2 great groups!    This challenge we are sponsored by Squiggle Fly -a wonderful place with many artists images to choose from and weekly challenges.  When you use one of their images, you are eligible for free digis!  Apples and Pumpkins by Lynne Stansbery-she does such great shading on her images that it makes the coloring fool proof!  Seems a Little Sketchy is a perfect place to get your card sketch/layout ideas and the one you see here is the current challenge #24.  SALS posts challenges 2x a month and always has great sponsors.  You can use any digital or stamped image to create your masterpiece.  Join us for some great ideas and opportunity to add to your digital libraries.

Another New design from Fred, She Said~Leaves

Time to play around with the digis!  A great feature of using them is that they can be resized and altered somewhat with effects.  Using the Falling Leaf  found at Fred, She Said  , I changed the coloring to sepia so that I could show an older leaf and with another one changed the size.  Then I curled the leaves for dimension.  The card picture has a glare from the angle taken-I just couldn't get a good one to save my life!  I grouped them with a hemp string in a cluster.  The fun embossed leaf paper is from  Imaginisce called Apple Cider*Changing Leaves.  Printed twill from my stash and a touch of bling put the finishing touches on the card.
The beauty of the pre-colored digital is that the artist has created a wonderful masterpiece for you to use and makes that last minute project quick and "polished".  With Tracey (aka Fred) she also gives you the clear version so that you can use your favorite coloring medium with a totally different look.  Thanks for looking, hope you become a follower of mine and look forward to seeing you in the future!

Challenge #55-Tie A Ribbon Round It-Southern Girls Challenge

There's A Surprise from Southern Girls Challenge~ME!

That's right- In the middle of September, I was asked to join the group as a Design Team member and was thrilled to accept!  I'm a member of Team Lou and once a month, we create a theme card~This week we want to see ribbons on your projects, well ribbon, bakers twine, twine etc you get the idea, as long as it comes on a spool it is all good :)

Our Awesome sponsors are:

  

This is the card I designed for the Challenge.  I used the Blocks-Hummingbird image from Bugaboo!  isn't it gorgeous?  These flowers almost remind me of the purple asters that you see in the Fall of the year so I put a few Autumn Leaves mixed in with leaves.  The feathers are such a fun accent~I thought the yellow, pink, and deep purple colors gave some dimension to the card and  

really set off the handmade flower that was given to me by a dear friend-thanks Mel! Then, I used a heavy crocheted cotton ribbon to anchor all the elements.

Back to the Nuts & Bolts of the Challenges here 

on SGC:

The Challenges will be posted fortnightly on a Thursday and are open to crafters worldwide.  they close at 12:01 pm on the Tuesday of the second week.  Each week there will be 2 prizes, One for Australian/New Zealand entries and another for entrants  from the rest of the world.  Only 1 entry per person.  The idea is to have fun and play along, the bonus is the prizes!  Prize winners are chosen by Random.Org and the top 5 are chosen by the Design Team.

I would love to have you join us and see all the great creations-there are TONS of people playing and it's very interesting to see the creations from all over the world!  Thanks for looking and come back and visit real soon!

Carolyn

New Card for Hambo Stamps-Happy Fall Ya'll!

What do a pile of leaves, a little boy, a basket and a rake add up to??  A great Fall rubber stamp image from Hambo stamps called Raking Leaves #3722 and I paired it together with Festive Fall  sentiment to create an neat card for any Fall occasion~Thanksgiving Day, a Fall Visit to Friends, Etc.  I took 4 of my favorite papers and created a split panel with 4 sections. Added a pumpkin satin ribbon, the two rubber stamped images and 2 leaf brads in burnished gold and bronze.  The real highlight is the adorable little boy in the leaf basket. I also did a tri-color blend on the Fall Lettering to compliment the theme. One nice thing as I start on Team Squeal working in rubber stamps is that the design is cut so accurately into the rubber-deep groves with sharp edges make your prints so crisp and clean.  A great print to color on!  I hope you'll check out the store and the Hambo site-I'm sure you will get inspired too!  

New Play Toy for Fred, She Said and Another DT Term

I just received some oval and round Shaker Card Pouches called Shake It from Impression Obsession.  I couldn't wait to use it on a card with the pre-colored Blue Jay from Fred, She Said.  These Jay's come on branches for all the seasons but I wanted to use the one with snow for my first
Christmas card of the year~I know Yikes!
The unique thing about the shakers is that they are very low profile and have a strong adhesive around the edge.  That makes them perfect for cards!  I piled the material on top of the image and then pressed down the edge of the pouch.  Success! No Leaks! I covered the flared edge with a heavy lace, attached a cardstock sticker and have my card!  It was fun to create this-had been a very long since I had done one so I put a little too much iridescent snow and multi-colored blue beads in the pouch but a little extra bling bling shouldn't hurt, right?  Thanks for looking-hopefully this will inspire me to get a move on my Christmas cards!

Also received the news that I will start my second term on this great Fred, She Said Team and I couldn't be happier~Tracey (aka Fred) creates wonderful digis for us to color as well as gives us the options for her pre-colored images.  Boy, has that saved me when I needed a card fast.  So keep an eye on my blog for new images and hopefully inspiring ideas! Carolyn

Meet the Newest Member of Hambo Stamps Design Team!

I've been invited to join Team Squeal on the Hambo's Bacon Bits Design Team and am very excited!  I've played at the Hambo Hoedown often in the past few months and like their whimsical Characters and funny sentiments~they make for a great card! 
The blog hops offer many great ideas and prizes so you'll have to be sure to watch for announcements so you don't miss out on anything!  It's a new challenge every week.  The neat thing is that you can use either their digital or rubber stamps for your entry.  
One of the  characters that they have is Bailey, the Labrador Mascot of Hambo Stamps~he has his own set of adorable digital images, drawn by Tim Hunter.  

For our Teams "Debut" as a Bacon Bit, we were given the digital, Bailey Devil-digital image by Hambo stamps.  We were to use Bailey Devil and one of the sentiments on a project that shows Sparkle and Shine. I had such fun creating a Halloween house for him to go Trick or Treating at~a concrete step, some grass with pumpkins outside, a door that I placed yellow vellum inside the panes to look like a lit house/brass brad for a doorknob, dp that looks like bricks or siding, a brass ribbon slide that with yellow vellum and yellow copic around it becomes a light!
The MAIN ATTRACTION is of course BAILEY--he's all dressed up in his Devil costume, complete with a black cape with red trim. He has Red Stickle Horns and a pitchfork covered with Platinum Stickles...I'd be afraid to keep the Treats from him!  
Well, thanks for joining me here as I start this exciting new venture on Team Squeal!  Have a safe Holiday and don't eat too many candies!

Challenge Sketch #23 for Seems a Little Sketchy

For this 2 week challenge from Seems a Little Sketchy, the DT would like you to use this Sketch, shown here.  You can turn it, as I did, or use as is as long as we can get the feel of the Sketch.  Our Sponsor for this challenge is Digi Doodles and they have provided me with adorable image called Pushing a Turtle.  The Design Team also has used these other images:  Birdie Birdie, Hanging on, and Weighin' In.  These Digi Images will be the actual prizes for the winners.  Check them out on our Blog to see the neat cards that they have come up with using them.
Recipe for my card:

• Paper-blue wood/My Mind's Eye, blue strip/Imaginisce,Circle-Colorbok/Sailor Icon Glitter
• Title-Colorbok/Sailor Glitter (has many different sayings & shapes-Nostalgia)
• Buttons & Baker's Twine from Stash
• Color-Copics

Scrapbook Place Blog Challenge~Pumpkin Theme

For the next 2 weeks, The Scrapbook Place Blog will be having a Sketch challenge with the theme of "Pumpkins".  Perfect for this time of year and a great time to introduce the launch of our new Challenge Blog.  The Cool crisp Fall air is settling down around us and soon we will be smelling the yummy fragrance of Pumpkin pies and see haunting Jack-O-Lanterns on peoples front porches.
I've chosen to use a pre-colored image from Fred, She Said that I dearly love and some great embossed word paper in the Fall theme.  The background paper has rich Fall leaves with gold veins and I used a paper Indian Corn ribbon on the side.  The dew drops in rust give this card a little sparkle.  Be sure to check us out-there are a couple of digis that will be awarded as prizes!  We want to see your great entries~Carolyn,DT