Stamp Something Challenge Blog

If you are looking for another challenge to win "some Fred" ( grin ) please check out the Stamp Something Challenge Blog today!!!! I am so honoured to be a sponsor for this awesome blog! Check it out... right now! ;)



ohhhh, I see their DT team made some awesome cards!

I reserve the right to add a card to this post. In keeping with the awesome theme they have going on there.... now if I can only find my desk to work on; it's under this mess somewhere LOL!

:)* Fred

A Lovely Blossom & Butterfly Card

I used "A Lovely Blossom & Butterfly" Flowers Set and the "Flutterbies for Your Flowers 1". I made the background paper in the last post. The blossoms and leaves were coloured with pencils and OMS and adhered with much silicone glue. The foliage is 3 leaf sprigs cut-up and placed here and there. I am in love with the new Spellbinder Nesties Pendant Dies'this one is Lattice. I had to support my local LSS and got the Fiskars Apron Lace Punch a few days ago... ok I really like it :) I used Gold Ice Stickles here and there and gold dewdrops.

I am showing a side-view to show how I bent and moulded each petal; I used a shaping tool to get the leaves to curl up.


I hope you check out the Freebie Challenge going on at my blog, or just nab a freebie and say Hi! But hey we will have 3 winners who will win pretties. Why not give it a go? ( Monday July 27th midnight deadline ). The DT's been busy too, please check them out for some awesome eye candy :)

:)* Fred

Flutterby paper, Distress Inks and the Flowerpot Freebie

Ranger should soooo hire me ROFL! I am in love with distress inks, and the blender tool, and the stickles, and the alcoholic inks... they are all just FAB. I wanted to show you some sample papers I made using the Flutterbies for your Flowers 1 background paper tool or digi-stamp or whatever you want to call it. To the very left is the paper, ( black butterflies on white) straight out of the printer and cut.

The next from left was made with the same paper by blending distress inks with the blending tool on a non-stick craft sheet - a highly recommended tool. (Spiced Marmalade, Antique Linen and Walnut Stain) Timmeh has an awesome video on this technique ( about 4:00 into the video)

Tim Holtz "Ranger Distress Ink Techniques"

THEN I embossed the distressed paper with a Sizzix embossing Folder (Medallions, Frame & Damask) and then picked up some more distress ink ( walnut stain) and lightly blended over the embossing... so cool!

The middle paper is the butterfly paper where I changed the colour from black to a teal blue. I plan to show you how with Artweaver by the end of the week. It is very easy. I blended Scattered Straw and Broken China distress inks then added Gold Ice Stickles to the butterflies.
The blue and white paper was made digitally by putting the White Flutterby paper( on transparent background) PNG over a light blue"sheet"... kind of like "stamping" with white ink ;) The possibilities are almost endless with the background paper tools.

Here is my go at the Flower pot Digi-Freebie. Tip: I know it is bad to hoard, but the little blue butterflies were punched from a scrap of leftover blue paper I had printed, you never know when a scrap bit of paper could come in handy LOL! Another Tip: my gold paper is CS sprayed with gold paint ;). I edged the image and butterflies with gold Lumiere paint and added dots to the flowers by dipping the end of my brush into the paint. The image is coloured with Pencils and OMS.



Don't forget to try out the Freebie Challenge ;) I have another freebie for you later but I am not tellin'!

:)*

NEW RELEASES

Hi peeps! It's Happy Multi-Posting Day for little ol' me! First things first, I have FOUR new releases for you!

Some "Dancing Daises" ( one will be familiar to some of you ;) but it needed a home and had to complete this set:


Some " Flutterbies for Your Flowers":

Here is a sample:

This one introduces a new background paper stamp tool I will be showing you how to use soon.

New Fred's Flowers: "A Lovely Blossom & Butterfly":

These are so beautiful, I have more planned for these and have a few DT's jumping at the bit to show it to you LOL!

And last but not least is "Little Miss Bitty"!

Oh she is so cute, I just wanna eat her up! There are 14 versions of Miss Bitty, some as a bug, some as a fairy and some as a sweet girl. I call her "quick change" Bitty LOL!

**All the releases have single PNG stamps and ready-to-print sheets so you can get rolling right away.

**In the flower and butterfly products, I've been messing with different PNG versions so, for some, you can layer them on coloured backgrounds while the image stays white for colouring later.

I recruited the DT's to show us some eye candy using the new designs. I let them choose what they wanted to use so I have no idea what they have up their talented sleeves, let's see shall we?! We'd be oh so happy if you would check them out:

Donna
Erin
Jen
Lora
Lisa C.
Maria
Michelle
True
Carol L.

Please check out the next posting, Fred's Freebie Challenge for a fun challenge, a digi-freebie, and prizes!!!! woohoo.

:)* Fred

Check out Stampin' For The Weekend & News!

Tomorrow, I am sponsoring the July 17th edition of the Stampin' For the Weekend Challenge Blog. The prize will be a $25 Gift Certificate to the FSS Store. The challenge sounds fun but I won't tell you what it is, you will have to check tomorrow! (grin )



PLEASE CHECK OUT STAMPIN' FOR THE WEEKEND JULY 17 !!! :) !!!

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

woo hoo woo hoo woo hoo!

Guess what? I have some new releases coming your way!!!!! Please check the blog on MONDAY for info, fun & mayhem... and a freebie challenge! :)

Here are some sneeker peekers:

Good Luck Robin

Robin W. on our Design Team has had to resign but I can fully understand why. She has a new full time job keeping her quite busy; congratulations Robin! We will miss you and will continue to see what wonderful crafty projects you come up with in your free time :)

:)*
Fred

Saving INK using MS Paint

Hi everyone!

Please meet Carol Lepard! I have recruited her as a guest DT to help introduce ideas to help you get more out of using your digital designs.

"Let's Get Digital" people! LOL This week Carol would like to introduce a simple way of saving your precious inkjet ink ;) She has decided to use MS Paint ( that poor neglected app that came with your Windows operating system).

CAROL's TUTORIAL

But you can use this technique with just about any graphics editing software. Mac users, feel free to chime in on what you use, is there something free that came with your Mac?

Next time, in two weeks, I would like to show you how to save PAPER. Only want to print a few flowers, or put images from different products on one sheet to print? Hopefully I can take care of that!

Have a great day!

:)* Fred

Red Polka Dotty Flower Card & Digi-Freebie

Here is a card I made for my BFF. I used the Polka Dotty Flowers Set, in red. The leaves are from the set, but ( HERE's a TIP :) ) I coloured over them with prismacolor pencils ( kelp green and sage green) to deepen the colours. I actually blended with the sage green pushing it back and forth into the darker colour. So if you want your leaves ( you will always have extra leaves from the sheets ;) ) to match or work better with what you are doing, try colouring over them, with pencils or copics or whatever! The ribbon stems is May Arts 3/16 stitched ribbon I got from Pink Hedgehog Paper Crafts. I also used black dew drops for the flower centers.

I am adding the digi paper I used here as a freebie. I love this one as it goes with everything, especially the coloured flowers :) Please click the sheet below to enlarge then right-click and save to your hard drive ( I meant it to be 5"x7" at 200 ppi but you can resize larger if needed).


:)* Fred

Emma the Mermaid Coloured Set

After a few more gray hairs and panic attacks, I have finally finished Emma the Mermaid & Friends in all their technocolour glory! I am so sorry for the delay ( like really sorry!)... I will just say this, this one was a struggle for me but I think it all came together in the end so nicely :)

You can find them HERE.

Now I am working on more flowery and fluttery things and a couple of sets I am long overdue in completing.

:)* Fred

Goodie Bags on the Cheap

Hi Everyone! I thought I'd post so you would know I am still alive and kicking LOL. Actually I hope this is a multi-posting day heehee!

Here is a quick project I resorted to at 9 PM the eve before dear Emma's 7th birthday. I didn't have time to head to the "big city" to grab supplies so I did my shopping locally and usually that means, you don't find what you want or at the price you want. I overpaid on most of the goodies to put in the goody bags ( but I don't mind, God bless the store owners as I know the taxes and rents they pay in our small town - yikes). ... and I couldn't find any decent gift bags that were cheap. And, come on, these little princesses are 6 & 7 LOL, they care more about the goodies inside ;) Well I thought I'd try to make quick toppers to put on brown lunch bags. They were a hit! I had a few extra cut-out FLOWERS in my to do box ( who am I kidding... a ton of extra flowers LOL). I scored and bent them, added some Stickles to the centers. While they were drying, I made thin strips of coloured copy paper and curled them with the edge of my scissors. I punched out a few branches with a MS punch, and used a Martha embossing border punch on some white paper. After assembling, I stapled the bags shut and added the toppers with some double sided adhesive.



Here's Emma with some new adoptees! Have a great day!

:)* Fred

Busy Design Team!

I must say, the Fred, She Said Design Team has been churning out beautiful project after beautiful project. I have put together a listing ( Shared Items Listing in my blog side bar) with the DT's posts. Please check it out :)

Also, if you go here, you can view the listing as a new web page, complete with pictures :)

Edited for correct link:
FSS-DT-TEAM Projects Listing


Also, if you have recently made a project with my designs and you have posted it on your blog, please let me know and I will feature it in a new reader listing!


I have spinned the "project-o-matic" ( LOL) and am bringing you this lovely take-out box from Sonya ! All I can say, is Oh My Goodness!



I hope to get back to the regular grind starting this week! I've missed you :) It has been crazy here, but know I have been at my drawing board and I hope to have some new stuff to play with soon. I have also promised some readers a precoloured Mermaid set. I hope to have it up by Friday/Saturday.

Have a wonderful day!

:)* Fred

DESIGN TEAM announcement

To all who applied, I apologize for the delay. I spent the past 2 days of every scrap of free time deliberating. It was brutal! Everyone is so talented. Thank you so much to all the 30 applicants, you all made it really tough to choose, you are an amazing bunch! I couldn't narrow it down to 10 so I opted for 12.

So here is the Fred, She Said charter design team :)

in alphabetical order:

Bonnie Rose "A Life Unrehearsed"

Donna "Bearly Mine Designs"

Erin B "Scrap, Stamp and be Merry"

Jen Young "Pieces of Me"

Lisa Cook "Stamped Art by Lisa"

Lora "Lora's Cards"

LORi "by LORi Designs"

Maria Matter "Joyful Stamper"

Michelle "Inspiration Blooms"

Robin "Robin's Artful Musings"

Sonya Appel "Appel Quilling Garden"

Trudy aka True "True's Gifts from the Heart"

Congratulations ladies. I look forward to working with you :) I will be in touch next week with info and details for all the DT members.

Have a good weekend!

:)*
Fred

DT call - thank you

Thanks to everyone who has submitted applications for my DT call. I have received 30 ( wow ) from an amazing group of talented people. It will be hard to choose... ack! I have been asked to do double duty at my catering assistant job so my free time has been unexpectedly limited. I hope to review all the submissions, make my decisions and have an announcement by Saturday. I am sorry for the delay and for keeping all these wonderful people "hanging" a bit longer.

:)*
Fred

who is off to work... hi ho hi ho...

OPERATION: Spread the Fred DT CALL

Happy Birthday To Fred, She Said! It has been a whole year since I opened the Fred, She Said Store. Wow, time flies when you are having fun!!! Thanks so much for all your support and friendship. Stayed tuned this week for some freebies!

In honour of our birthday, I am putting out a Design Team Call so here it is:

DESIGN TEAM CALL for FRED, SHE SAID DESIGNS

-I am looking for 10 designers.
-The term will be for the months of JUNE, JULY & AUGUST.
-The call will be open for entries until May 25th Midnight EDT.

-Exclusivity? NO :) You may be part of other design teams but make sure you are open to be on another team and have the time for another committment.
-Exclusivity of Fred, She Said Designs on your design submissions? NO, but they should be the main focus.

-For this term, we will be in "Spread the Fred" mode which means all items currently in the store as well as items released during your term are up for grabs, all I ask is that you design at least 3 cards or paper crafted items per product you want to use ( there will be a bit of lee way if you use multiple products on one crafted item). There will be a minimum of 2 products to design for per month.
-A side-bar button for the FRED, SHE SAID STORE will be required on your blog plus a small special design team button that will link to a list of the Current DT Members I will have on my blog.

-Please EMAIL ME with Subject DT CALL with your name, blog, any communities/forums/challenge blogs you haunt( LOL), any design work you might have done, attach 2 or 3 of your cards that you feel would best suit my designs and add a bit of what types of cards you would like to make, what techniques are you focused on ( eg digi-image colouring or stamping ... pencils? copics?, decoupage, floral punchcraft, etc)

- I will have a ratio of spots based on techniques. I need designers for digi-images with focus on colouring ( flowers and/or digi-stamps), designers who are interested in incorporating my designs, especially flowers with floral punchcraft/quilling/dutch papercrafts like dry embossing/cutting, embroidery and paperpricking. I am also open to any with unique ideas on the frou-frou prettified side LOL! Good photography skills are a must.

DT Members will be announced between May 27 and 29th depending on the amount of submissions to be reviewed.


Thank you in advance for any submissions and good luck!

Flower card

Playing with my pastels and pencils again :) I added some Tuscan Red pencil to the leaves that I also used on the flower. Flower and leaves from Fred's Flowers v2 Pointy Petals Pack.


:)*
Fred

Blue Floral Card

I am feeling "Blue" today! :D I used Fred's Flowers V1 edition A precoloured flowers. I added plenty of Stickles ( Waterfall on most of card and Lime Green on the leaves ) The verse ( computer generated) is one that just speaks to me at the moment :) I am feeling a tad overwhelmed and boy, this one gets you through ;)
The background is art pastels and versamark, I love it so much, I hope I can replicate what I did again LOL. The blue ink on the nestie frame is Broken China distress ink sweeped on, nestie used as a stencil. I can't believe how I lucked out on the matching!

I am posting the verse I used, and an alternate I made. Feel free to snag if you like. Just click on images to enlarge and save to your hard drive.




Digital GEEK TIP: I coloured the verse in Paint Shop Pro by adding a Flood-filled layer over top the text in my chosen colour with layer set to "Screen"; Photoshop, Artweaver & other similar programs should do the same thing. I am pretty sure you can change the colour in WORD and other word processing programs as well.

Big Hugs,
Fred

Digital Tuesday Challenge Blog

Please check out the Digital Tuesday Challenge blog! I am sponsoring this week . More details on the prizes over at the challenge! This weeks challenge is TAGS. And here is my card I designed for the challenge.



Details:
Products used:
Viney Flourish 1
Fred's Flowers v4 - Dahlias - Outline Sheets

Flower and leaves coloured with Pencils and OMS, I used my own digital patterned papers for the scalloped frame and the punched flowers. Robin's Nest Pearl Dewdrops, Crystal Stickles on the buds, alcohol inks background, Dollarama riboon, and a Nestabilities Ribbon Tag. Greeting is computer generated.

Have a great day!
:)*

the Nolan... just an update and a freebie

"the NOLAN"




Nolan ( 11 yrs ) made me this cute Mother's Day card, while he was at Sunday School. He wanted me to mention he that his supplies weren't the best ( dried up markers and dull pencil crayons) LOL! But his little version of himself is so cute... inside it says " ... From your Little Clone"... love it. There is also the obligatory blurb about promising to wash dishes, bathroom, making bed, putting away stuff and helping his sister. THEN he puts in parentheses ( results may vary, depending on amount of time required). ha ha.

Between his mad fits of Lego building " up in his room", he is working on character development, creating characters for another comic. He has taken to doing much of it on his digital tablet he received for Christmas. He continually gets better with his hand/monitor coordination... it takes a while, I know! He will have a blank page and an hour later... there will be about 15 cute little creatures on it. I keep needling him to make me some for digital stamps. I am HOPING LOL.

Here is the Nolan



Last month I asked Nolan to make an illustration for his Grandad's birthday card. This is what he thought up LOL! This is Nolan's freebie to you ;) If you like it, please click on the image to enlarge then save to your hard drive.



From Nolan & Me... Have a great day!

:)*

Emma and Flowers Card

I made this card for my mom, for her birthday, I hope she's not looking! The image and flowers were coloured with prismacolor pencils and OMS. I also used a bit of blue distress stickles and waterfall stickles.

I apologize for the lack of posts and freebies I posted about. I've been a bit out of sorts, really tired... not sure if its allergies or stress. Don't take much to mess me up LOL! :P I hope to get some freebies out next week.

I will be sponsoring the Digital Tuesday Challenge this Tuesday :D. Please check it out on Tuesday, May 19th for a great fun challenge using your digital images!

Tomorrow I will post about the Nolan, his mother's day card and some things he has done.

Later Gator...

:)*
Fred

Emma & the Butterfly

Announcing Emma & the Butterfly digital stamp :) At the STORE.



This is a little older more lady-like Emma. She is growing up too fast before my eyes! She still has the same free spirit and looks ready to twirl or make a get-away just like the butterfly she is admiring LOL!

Card Details:
Emma and the flower/leaves are coloured with pencils and OMS ( actually Emma is coloured with Goo Gone. It has a lemony smell that reminds you to colour in a ventilated place! LOL - yes OMS has nasty fumes... you just can't smell them ;) ). I was miserly and made the blue matte by cutting white CS to size and colouring the edges with the same denim blue pencil I used on the dress sash and blended with Goo Gone, I love the effect. Another miserly trick is that I took the cuttings made from trimming my bow and tucked them behind my flower ;) The background was made by doodling with pastel pencils ( blue, green, yellow) all over white paper then gently smudging with a tissue but trying not to blend the colours together.

Have a great day!

:)*
Fred