Fred She Said Valentine Blog Hop

Welcome to the Fred, She Said Valentine Blog Hop!  We've got two great prizes to be won:  one $25 certificate to the Fred, She Said Store and one $25 certificate to CropStop.  If you've arrived here from Danielle's blog then you've come to the right place.  If not, you're going to want to go back to Tracy-Lynn's blog and hop along from the start!  Tracy has come up with some gorgeous new ideas for Valentines Day, quite a few of them are great for all sorts of occasions, not just Valentines.  I hope you're enjoying the hop so far.

I've got a couple of projects to show you; the first is a clean & simple card made with a Cuttlebug folder that cuts and embosses a 5 x 7" card.  The DP inside the frame is from Bearly Mine Designs.  I've used the pre-coloured Hearts and Roses set of digis and added Distress Ink to the heart so that it shows up against the white card.  I decoupaged an extra layer of roses onto the heart and put one half under and half over the frame and added some Stickles to both.
The second project I've got to show you is close to my heart - because it contains chocolate! I made a treat holder from a great tutorial at Splitcoaststampers by Beate Johns, using the pre-coloured "Better than chocolate" set from Fred, She Said.  The main image has the text added to it and it's matted onto a Nestie and then attached to the band around the gift box, which has a border punched with my new MS punch.



Pull on the ribbon, without undoing it, and out comes the chocolate, which has the punch line on it.
 I layered 3 copies of the image to decoupage it, you can see the layers here:








 Thanks for looking at my projects, I need to give you your word to make the magic phrase so you can enter the draw - my word is life.  Now it's time for you to see what fabulous creations the talented Marlena has to show you.  You have until midnight on Friday, 4th February to complete the hop.
My card and/or my gift box are for the following challenges:
Delightful Challenges - have a heart
Meljen's Designs - create something with hearts
Paper Play - layer it up
Charisma Cardz - Valentine/love
A Spoonful of Sugar - Valentine
Cupcake Craft - food for thought
Craft Your Passion - use 2 patterned papers (chocolate treat box)

Phindy's Place Challenge #38 - Valentine or loved one

Good morning, it's Friday - hooray - so it is time for a new Phindy's Place Challenge.  This week we're making cards for Valentines Day or for a loved one. I've used the adorable image "We meet again" from the Phindy's Place store.  This image is very evocative of my marriage:  two people with a terrier constantly doing its best to get between us lol!  Don't forget we also have a Design Team Call at Phindy's Place, you need to let us know by 22 January if you'd like to joni the fabulous Phindy team, check out the details here.

I tried something new with my digi, printing onto glossy cardstock so that I could try brushing inks around to get shading to the ice.  I found my image printed just fine onto glossy cardstock but it was tricky to get the ink really dry so it didn't smudge.  I used the heat gun for ages on this one before I inked it with Distress and Memento inks in a variety of colours.  Then I was worried it looked too grey, so I gave it too coats of iridiscent glitter spray and now it's full of sparkle:).  The figures are decoupaged onto the glossy card, after colouring with Copics.  I didn't have big enough pieces of mirri card to mat my scene so I rubbed my embossing inkpad over the deges and covered them with silver embossing powder, it doesn't look the same but it's a really nice effect.  I saw this on Stamp TV first and it's a great idea, thanks Gina!  The red DP is from an Artylicious CD, elegant brocade I think,  the background is Cuttlebugged and the sentiment has been inked, it is from Craftwork Cards.

My card is for the following challenges:
Card Patterns -sketch
Papertake Weekly - cold and frosty morning
CD Sunday - something new - 2 new to me techniques.  Also THANK YOU for my prize from last week!

Meljens Designs - square or round cards
Do you stack up? - distress it
Pals Paper Arts - Valentine
Some Odd Girl - embossed
Bunny Zoe - love is in the air
Woodware USA - hearts
One Stitch at a Time - love and Valentines
Wags n Whiskers - with love
Crafty Cardmakers - red and a die cut
Cupcake Craft  -something new - techniques
Sweet Stampin - try something different

DT Posting - Cooking it up with Katie #27 - Furry friend, buttons and patchwork

Good Morning and welcome to a new Cooking it up With Katie Challenge!  This week's recipe for your project is:
Patchwork
Buttons
Furry Friend

and we are sponsored by Meljen's Designs. 

My image is called Apple Beary and she's coloured with Copics and edged with Distress Inks. The border strip is patchworked, though you can't see it too well, I've stitched in a quilty design to try to emphasise it, and there is a pretty purple lace under the strip too, shows up much more in real life.

 I've followed the Sketch & Stash Challenge  using new stash - my Nestie was bought with prize money from the Simon Says Challenge - woo hoo! - and neglected stash - Basic Grey Wisteria papers, which I fell in love with when I bought them and used them a little, then somehow they got put to one side when more delicious DPs came out.  My card is also for the Basic Grey Challenge to include fabric (lace).

1st DT Posting - Cooking it up with Katie

Good Morning!  My first DT posting for the Cooking it up With Katie Challenge is a bright and summery one, using an image from this week's sponsor, Meljen Designs.  Your challenge is to use the following three "ingredients" as you cook up your card:

 Use something yellow
Use a sketch from any current challenge
Add some stitching, real or faux

Ive coloured with Copics, Stickles and Glossy Accents, using two images to get lots of dimension, I popped up my leaf and flower with silicon glue.  The DP is Papermania, I used my Martha Stewart hydrangea punch down the side of the stripe.  I Cuttlebugged the cardstock, stitched round the image, the sentiment and the embossed card.  The sentiment is a freebie from TLCCreations. 

Oh, the sketch that I worked with is from the Friday Sketchers Challenge.