Happy BOO Day!

The artiste, Nolan has made a Halloween poster starring his favourite video game character, Kirby ! LOL. He has been working at this for weeks, all coloured with pencil crayons. I think he started it while in school. Apparently there are 2 hidden "Kirbys"; can you spot them?

I hopefully will have a few cards to post and I'll try to get some goodies up by next week.

Have a grrrrr-eat Day! Boo!

Emma The Hugger

" Try not to hug a snowman too tight... He might melt! "

(Very big grin!) Tuesday night, this idea struck me and I had to run with it! :)

Emma the Hugger can be found in the store :
Emma The Hugger - Snowman Edition



***( 3 products - Digital Stamp, Decoupage, and a Paper Pack)

Have a great day!

Shabby Chic Wedding Card - with flower

Here is another one of the cards I have made over the past month. This card was for my niece and new nephew-in-law. The leaf on this one was an outline that didn't make it to product, but it is growing on me :)

Details:
-Flower is coloured with pencils and OMS.
-Nestabilities scalloped oval die, Fiskars flower border punch
-green FSS-paper yet to be added to product line-up
-Embossed wedding rings I found at a surplus store for a buck - I have 46 left!
-Lime green Stickles glue in center of flower
-I outlined the oval with gold Niji Watercolour Pearlescent Paint - love these paints... just add a touch of water and they are ready instantly.
-**I experimented on the pink backer... I had made a irridescent red wax rub-on paste with pearl ex and Judikins microglaze and rubbed it over card stock, embossed with cuttlebug, then swirled various pinks from the Pepples Pearlescent Chalks... it stuck to the wax finish.

Have a great day!

Emma The Cat - now for sale

Emma the Cat is now for sale at the store.

Emma The Cat - Digital Stamps Set - outlines to print and colour.

Emma The Cat - Decoupage Sheet + extras - coloured decoupage sheet for 3d decoupage/tole.

P.S.*I know Halloween isn't celebrated in many countries but please spread the word to your crafting friends in North America. I'd also be interested to know if Halloween can be found in any other countries besides USA and Canada?*

Have a great day all!

The Plight of a Six Year Old

Our Emma, she does not stand a chance... as she tends to be the focus of my non-flower doodles lately! ( See Emma the Mermaid post and will be available soon ).

Poor Emma... is losing her teeth faster than they are coming in LOL! She has had a dangling tooth at the top for over a month and after it goes, she will be pretty much toothless on top except for the molars LOL. Now the story goes, a few weeks before Emma had the very prestigious honour of being our niece's flower girl at her wedding, I was affectionately joking with Emma that when she smiled, she looked like a jack-o-lantern. How cruel of a mother am I ?! Well, our dear Emma ( who looked so beautiful on the wedding day I will add ) took well over 3 hours of photos with the wedding party smiling but never showing a tooth! Our poor Emma now has a complex. I have tried to tell her that Mommy thinks her nearly toothless grin is gorgeous. Here is the sweet thing in her finery... beautiful!





See? LOL Well last week I started doodling reminiscing about Emma who has enjoyed grabbing our same niece's kitty ears and kitty mits and crawling around the house meowing. LOL! And I just had to add the one wiggling tooth at the top! Also, Emma has a touch of a lisp which is NOT being helped by her tooth situation. And now may I present, Emma the Cat:



Please give Emma soft candy this Halloween... or the ones that will melt in the mouth LOL!

Here is Emma after colouring Emma.... and the tooth for posterity.


Emma is not happy about mommy's one toothed mouth doodle - 'I have more teeth than that, Mom!'. But that is too bad ;) Cuz I love it.

Fred's Flower Card

Hi y'all! Just sharing some cards I have been making over the past month or so. There are a few that need to wait until I get some products finished.

This one uses the v1 Fred's Flowers outline sheets. I thought I'd try out a 24 set of watercolor pencils I bought at Staples. They were under 10 dollars CAD. Staedler makes them I think they are intended for children... they still work great. I didn't use water but used OMS and blending stumps. I merely followed the outlines with the pencils to get a strong line of colour then blended. I used a pink for the large flower, a peachy-yellow for the little flower ( just near center of flower then blended out) followed by outlining a ring in the center with pink then blending outward. The leaves I added an olive color just to the center line and veins and a bit to the base then blended, then added a touch of a pine-green to center vein and blended. On the leaves and pink flower, I lightly shaded over the lighter parts with a regular cream coloured pencil ( prismacolor)- this really adds warmth and a vintage feel- no blending required either. I embellished the leaves and pink flower with this wonderful warm beige colour in the Niji Pearlescent watercolour set - I pinstriped the flower and outlined the leaf. The leaves and flowers were propped with generous helpings of silicon glue - I somehow got a messy bit under the leaf ( see sideview) - remind me to rub that off later ;)

The background was done using Whispers Inkpad - Cherry Red and a foam blending tool - I then ran it through the cuttlebug with Floral Fantasy embossing folder - I added a sheen by going over it with pink Pebbles pearlescent chalks. The dewdrops are Oregon rain drops from Pink Hedgehog Crafts - the pink drops were dyed with a touch of red alcohol ink and some blending solution to lighten the colour. The rain drops in the flower centers look really cool - I added yellow stickles to the bottom and do they glimmer!

I am thinking about recreating these flowers and leaves digitally for a future sheet ( in some other hues as well ). Here it is fall, and I have become obsessed with soft pastel hues LOL! Perhaps I am rebelling to the fact that a six month winter season will soon be upon us ROFL.

Have a great day!

Christmas Poinsettia Packs

Hello, long time no post! LOL! I have been scrambling to finish some projects and lo and behold I have TWO now up at the store :) Some other projects are almost near completion and you will be the first to know when they are done ;)

I have made 2 Christmas Poinsettia Packs - a RED and a BLUE version. They are filled with ready to print sheets ( the cards below are made with them - one sheet for each ), patterned papers, and poinsettia petals and sentiment PNG's with transparent backgrounds so you and go and create your own arrangements.

You can find and purchase the packs HERE. Have a wonderful day and I have missed you all!





EDIT: added close-up:


CARD NOTES: I used Epson Photo Quality InkJet Paper to print these - it is 27 lb matte and coated one side. It is the paper that almost never lets me down when printing some colours... like red! I used Fiskars border punches, Niji Pearlescent watercolours to edge the red poinsettia flower, and 3d pearl paint for the center of the blue poinsettia.

I survived my 40th birthday! LOL

We celebrated my 40th birthday yesterday. Emma and Nolan presented me with this awesome card, both drew the pictures and Nolan inked and coloured it. It was so fun watching them in cahoots, heads together, drawing and collaborating.... freaking out when I would accidentally enter the room LOL! I received some lovely flowers and other things, and I didn't have to cook ( chinese food takout) and a Dairy Queen icecream cake that my hubby went 25 min. out of his way to get.

We do it all again tomorrow, Nolan turns 11! Tacos and video games, here we come.

Still sick and and I have this slimy goober floating around in my left eye, so I am one-eyed blurfing today!!!

Nolan's Monster Card - Round-up

Thanks to all who have shared their monster cards. Nolan has loved everyone of them :) He has also got a kick out of where you are all from in blogland! I am going to keep this post near the top for a bit and will add new cards to the slideshow as we see them. I will keep a tally at the bottom of the post. If your card is not in this slideshow please leave a comment on this post and we will go nab it ;) A few have asked what is this little guys name. Well it is ... Gregrrry! Gre-grrr-y get it!? ha ha ha ha. Gregrry also has a little friend and will show him next week. Nolan is off to eco-adventure day camp with his sister this week but will be back to monster making after its over.

Email and reader subscribers may need to head to my blog to see this slideshow:

CARD TALLY: Drum roll.... 26 (as of OCT 13 - If I have missed yours please let me know)

Monster Verses: 9
'I'm only Goopy 'cos you drive me Loopy'
'I'm only Mushy 'cos you send me Gushy'
'Roses are Red, Violets are blue, I've turned to mush because I love you'

from Celia


"Gooo-d evening my Dear"
"Gooo-d to see you're feeling better"

From Tonniece

"Slime" head over heels for you!
"Slime" wishing you a happy birthday!
"Slime" so happy for you!

from Monica-moenica37


"You make me melty!"

from mel m. m. m.

TOTAL ( will be tallied until SEPT 1 k I lied): 35 last edit OCT 13

CARD - Pastel Blue Flowers

Thought I went missing again didn't ya?! I've been icky sicky...now I have pink eye so please don't get too close to your monitor ... hahaha.

Another week sidelined from getting much done. But here is a card I managed in between naps on the couch.

Backing paper, a design I have doodled and have been playing with... ( I have oodles of colours and combos to decide on) that has been embossed with a grid pattern using the Scor-Pal. The scalloped frame I made digitally then was hand cut and cuttlebug embossed. The flowers were edged with Stickles glue ( waterfall) and leaves as well with lime-green. I punched some ash leaves, painted with a metallic paint then moulded. The Hello is a cuttlebug die ( Everyday Greetings). I completed the flowers with sticky backed pearls. There is so much silicone glue and foam dots on this card that it will never go flat LOL!

another CARD -Fred's Flowers v3 and some stamping

The background was made with the same defective photo paper LOL! 3 shades of Whispers ink were sponged on the paper... the ink takes a while to dry on this paper ( drying is usually quite speedy making this ink hard to work with on most paper I have tried) so the colours blended together very softly. After it dried enough ( this noob must remember to heat set!) I stamped over with a stamp I designed for Stamp Attack Art Stamps ( Doodles - TM Design).

The scalloped rectangle is made using the Fiskars Threading Water border punch but I covered up the holes with the white embossed CS. The flowers were coloured with the Magic Colored Pencil technique and were edged with sunburst Stickles glue.

I plan on putting a sentiment in the middle by printing the text to resemble a thin white strip of "ribbon" on a diagonal between the flower groupings.

******************************

I spent the day playing with my blog and learned alot about creating & adding backgrounds and playing with the margins ( wrappers in html lingo). I nearly gave up and still not sure if I like it but, now I have a very good idea how to tackle another design overhaul. If the design hurts your eyes, please let me know ROFL!

CARD - Fred's Flowers v2 - alcohol inks

I used Fred's Flowers v2 Pointy Petals pack. For the petals I used a deepish blue pencil and used a fairly strong outline of colour from the middle to top of each petal; you work the blending stump ( dipped in OMS) from the coloured outline to the middle in a streak back and forth until you get a faint line, I did streaks for each petal. Then blend the outline out to smooth out the colour. I did a faint ring of colour around flower center and blended a bit. ( NOTE: If you wanted, after blending you can gently shade the whole flower with a lighter colour if you want something other than the white in the flower, example, lightly shading with a pale yellow/cream or light blue. If you use a light touch you won't need to blend with OMS.)

The brad is a navy blue dollar store brad embellished with Stickles ( waterfall). The leaves are moulded by bending and working the center line of the leaf, so the bending follows the line and curves :). I adhered all with silicone glue to lift it off the card. The embossed white is embellished with Pebbles Shimmers chalk- a light blue.

The background is one of my first forrays into alcohol inks! I used Jacquard Pinata inks on this one, the colours are very vibrant and ethereal in real life. I bought the wooden pouncing tool with the velcro, felt pads and the Tim Holtz blending solution... love it! While it is not recommended to use photo paper, I had some defective photo paper with a smooth glossy finish which no longer works in my printer ( the ink starts cracking ewww) but it doesn't seem to buckle or get gooey with the alcohol inks! yey me. I have a box of it ( around 250 sheets) so I think I will run out of inks before I run out of paper LOL!

I will try and post another card tomorrow.

CARD - Fred's Flowers v1 and stamping

Hello peeps! I apologize for my absence. Having 2 lumpy kids home for the summer is like chinese water torture :P But I am now getting back in the swing, slowly but surely.

I have a few things almost ready to go in the store. Not sure yet when I will have them completed but it will be soon ;)

I finally made up some cards. Here is one using the v1 Flowers. I coloured with the magic colouring pencil technique ( pencils and OMS) and I am not exactly sure how I did the backing paper LOL! I know I crumpled some white copy paper... then the fun ensued. I used a combination of applying a purple whispers pad and antique linen distress inkpad using both color dusters and DTP to apply the ink; I also used an ink sweeper for the edging. I stamped one of my flower design stamps ( Stamp Attack Art Stamps - Butterfly Doodledallion sheet ) using Pearlescent Lavender Brilliance pad. The white is Cuttlebug embossed. The flower and leaves are raised with silicone glue. The yellow petals are outlined with yellow stickles and the center is a sugarcoated brad... yeah I found them! ( yes, they were lost for a bit - I blame failing eyesight and bad organizational skills LOL).



I will post another card tomorrow. Have a great day!

I am a bad blogger... Awards

I have received some lovely awards over the last few weeks. I am too ashamed to post them. It is not that I do not love receiving awards, it's the follow up that stresses me out. As you know, I have written before regarding rewards and tags. I really suck at it ( pardon the expression) LOL. I just can't pick the peeps I need to award. I'd love to award everyone I have met - and I hate imposing the choosing on anyone else. Honest, I was going to try it this time... sigh.

Thanks to all who have sent me awards but please next time, send me HUGS, k? I am sending all my awarders hugs ... I like hugging. grin.

I hope I didn't offend anybody... slunking off into the sunset. ....

:)

TUTORIAL: Colouring a Medallion with Gradients in Paint Shop Pro

I finally got the Gradient Flood-Fill Colouring in PSP Tutorial done. I hope it is understandable LOL! You can download it HERE . The tutorial is a PDF so you will need Adobe Reader or equivalent to read it. Sorry, it is on 4shared, I looked at my bandwidth allotment for my regular free file hosting and it was getting up there and may blow over if I use it, that means people are DOWNLOADING... happy dance! If you have any problems with 4shared, you can email me and request the file and I will email it to you. You will need a squarish medallion or flower image to complete this tutorial.

Purchaser's of the Stained Glass Floral Doodledallion outline sheet: please request the single doodledallion image via my email , have your purchasing email handy and/or transaction ID. I will gladly send you the file if you want to try out this tutorial. In the future, if I put up any more medallions, I will be adding a single image as well as the decoupage outline sheet automatically.

Downloading, tutorial soon & Digi-Freebie

Happy Monday! Sorry no monster today and when I get a round tuit, I will tally up some more cards, verses and add some photos :)

But today was a tech support day!!!! LOL E-junkie DID have a hosting server issue yesterday so it was wonky for a bit but all is good now. PayPal... still wonky but won't bother you.... just ME. LOL I have email records of everything thank goodness. If you had issues with your download yesterday, please try again. If you have run out of tries, please email me and I'll fix you up.

I was asked how to colour the Doodledallion in PSP. So alas, a long overdue tutorial is in the works. I'll try to have it up this week. But here is a preview of what you can do by flood-filling with gradients in Paint Shop Pro. I expect you can do the same thing with other graphics editing software. Please feel free to use on your cards. I think you can get 4 to a sheet for printing.

Until we meet again..... :)

Paypal and download problems

PayPal has been acting wonky lately ( past few weeks). 50% of the time I can't log in and if I do, I can't access my account history or transaction details. This is not good for running a business. Also, I tried to do a download link test on a file I have for sale and I kept getting a "service unavailable" through my 5 download attempts. grr... It did eventually work. It might have been a temporary glitch. ... END of rant.

If you have any problems with the shopping cart or with your downloads please let me know, I will try to remedy ASAP.

Have a good day,
Fred, who's on her last frayed nerve with PayPal

Digi-Freebie: Pink & Mellow

Happy Friday! I have been flabbergasted at the goings on at Fred, She Said Designs. Thank you so much for your support. I am just so happy, I made a freebie for you :) To save space, the images are 100 ppi. Just click on each image to get the full size and save.

I threw the paper together as an afterthought, the background for it is a canned doodle pattern in PSP and a bitty doodled flower custom brush I drew many moons ago. This freebie just needed a backing paper to go with it :) Next week, I may continue this mellow flavour and make a set with a few of my favourite mellow colours and some more "thought out" papers LOL, it will also be a larger resolution than these.





If you have downloaded these, I would love it if you would leave a comment that you have "nabbed"! :)

Have a great day.

By Request : Plain Papers Digi-Freebie

A lovely person ( who enjoys Lace [lac-ay] cutting craft ... you know who you are :) ) emailed me and requested some plain papers to go with the Blossom Kits. She wanted to print them on the back-side of the patterned papers. You know, two-sided paper - so when you do your lace cutting, the color coordinates.

EDIT ( July 15 ) Janet Kay( bspruce on CoC ) made an exquisite example of Lace cutting. I am so glad you liked your plain papers, girlfriend (wink).



Anyhoo, maybe you all would like them. The colours coordinate with the Blue, Pink and Purple Fred's Flower v3 Blossom Kits for sale at the store. They are lightly textured and full sized 8.5x11" sheets 200 ppi resolution. Here are the swatches:


EDIT: Here is the new download link for these papers :) Have a lovely day, now get back to your crafting or blurfing!

Monday Monster 2 ( digi-freebie )

Please click image to enlarge and then save.


EDIT - the artist thought blacking out the mouth cavity was more aesthetically appealing ;)


( I don't have a card yet but will edit this post when I do ;) )

OK, peeps. This week's monster is a little gross-ning! ( That was the way us Canadian kids said gross back when I was Nolan's age LOL )

This is not the little friend monster I was refering to in a previous post, note to self - DO NOT ask a grumpy 10 soon to be 11 year old to redraw something he has ALREADY DRAWN bigger cuz it wouldn't scan well LOL!

This guy is "Goopy". He is so disgusting looking, he's cute! All I can think of is:

" When I am near you, I turn to a puddle of goo"

Same applies for this monster, email me or blog a card and Nolan gets 20 cents :) I will add them to the parade of cards at the top of my blog.

Or, if you can think of some witty verses to go with this one, please leave a comment. I will count it as a card ;) ( double cash points if witty saying is on a card LOL)

Thank you so much for all your comments, cards, and support! I am a puddle just like this guy (sniff)

Also, I hope to have something besides monsters to share, I promise. I've been drawing new stuff and colouring with my new Koh-I-Noor woodless pencils ; thanks Gina K!!! They rock. There will be new flowers, some revamped versions for stampers, a mermaid & friends, and some doodledallions I have been meaning to get ready since I started this wild ride!

Have a great day all!