Freshly Made Sketches 605

It took me a bit longer than I wanted, but I finally got my Freshly Made Sketches card done!  Special thanks to my Freshly Made Sketches teammates for putting up with my delays!  Our hostess and sketch designer this week is Karren and her sketch immediately put me in mind of a Christmas card with one of my go-to design elements:  a poinsettia.  We are also joined this week by Cindy Beach - one of our 600th sketch celebration winners.

The circle on the sketch became a poinsettia framed with a circular die cut of tiny dots.  Once that design element was done the trouble started.  I wanted to use white ribbon for the horizontal layer so I started rummaging through my extensive ribbon stash for white ribbon.  I came up empty!  I must have used it all up!  Then, by some miracle, I found a small scrap of white satin ribbon hiding under the eight million rolls of other ribbon that I've got....and it was the perfect length!  It became my horizontal layer and I put a sparkly die-cut sentiment on top of it!

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you check out my fellow Freshly Made Sketches design teammates cards, because they will inspire you for sure to play along with us!

Supplies
Paper:  Kraft (Papertrey Ink); Solar White (Neenah); Champagne Glimmer (Stampin' Up!);velour paper (Hygloss)
Accessories:  Circles die (Little B); Blooming Poinsettias die, Peace Jotted Script die (Memory Box); satin ribbon (Stampin' Up!)

Freshly Made Sketches 604

We've got a great new sketch for you at Freshly Made Sketches this week!  Our designer is Cécile, and as always when she's given us a sketch I try to channel my inner CAS soul.

When I first saw the sketch I was pretty sure what stamp set I wanted to use for the two splashy background images, but I wasn't sure what the final image on top was going to be.  Then my sister asked me if had any cards with dragonflies on them, as she needed a thank you card for someone who was crazy about dragonflies.  Well I didn't have one, but I knew I could make one.  That was the perfect image I was looking for so this card was born!

Thanks for stopping by!  As always my Freshly Made Sketches design teammates have got some amazing cards to inspire you to play along with us!  

Supplies
Stamps: Abstract Art (My Favorite Things); Tiny Words (Simon Says Stamp)
Paper:  White (Gina K); Island Indigo (Stampin' Up!); vellum (Papertrey Ink)
Ink:  Sea Glass, Ocean Waves (Altenew); Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Libellules die (4enscrap)

Freshly Made Sketches 603

We've got a great new sketch for you at Freshly Made Sketches this week.  Our hostess is Jen Brum and her design incorporates three circles.  Well documented here - three of anything gives me the heebie-jeebies!  I have no idea why, it just does!  But her design is perfect for these ho-ho-ho die cuts.  So I cut them from some sparkly red paper and layered them on top of some really old-school holiday paper from Stampin' Up!

After I made this card I realized there are a few things I would change about it!  But it's my Mona Lisa this week and I've already moved on to the next card!  Even still it's full of sparkly goodness!

Thanks for stopping by!  My fellow Freshly Made Sketches design team members have sone amazing cards to show you, so check them out!  

Supplies
Paper:  Old Olive, Holiday Treasures DSP (Stampin' Up!); Foil Paper (Recollections)
Accessories:  Ho Ho Ho die (My Favorite Things); Festive Mix enamel dots (Studio Katia)

Freshly Made Sketches 602

So, the Monday holiday here in the US got me all messed up.  I woke up this morning thinking that it was Tuesday.  I was going to do this blog post when I got home from work - plenty of time before the Freshly Made Sketches post went live on Wednesday.  But after puttering around the kitchen getting ready for work I realized it was actually Wednesday!  So I'm a bit late with this post!

Kim is our hostess this week at Freshly Made Sketches and she's given us a fun sketch.  I didn't immediately think of a tag for that layer on the top half of the card, but once I saw the AAA Cards Challenge I realized a tag would work really well.  I used some bright washi tape on the tag and completed the decoration with a colorful sunflower.

Thanks for stopping by!  We've got some great inspiration for you at Freshly Made Sketches so I hope you check us out and join us in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Tons of Type (The Stamp Market)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Daffodil Delight, Garden Green, Early Espresso (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Tag Sale #5 die (Papertrey Ink); Sunflower die (My Favorite Things); Stitched Leaves die (My Creative Time); washi tape (Stampin' Up!); crochet thread

Freshly Made Sketches 600

We are celebrating our 600th challenge at Freshly Made Sketches this week!  That's a lot of inspiration!  It started with our debut sketch on September 7, 2011 and continues strong to this day!  To help us celebrate this milestone we've got some guest designers joining us!  Here is our sketch and my take on it.

I used this gorgeous dahlia stamp as my "circle" on the sketch and decided at the last minute that the horizontal layer should be this lovely burlap ribbon.  I hot foiled the sentiment in gold - and can I just confess that every time I attempt hot foiling I put the foil upside down and I end up foiling the plate and not the cardstock.  I've got a mental block about it apparently!

As I mentioned we are joined for this momentous 600th sketch challenge with some guest designers.  These lovely ladies have featured as our "queens of clean" frequently and we thought it fitting to invite them to play along with us for this anniversary sketch.  You'll find their cards at the top of our Freshly Made Sketches post.

And, of course, our Freshly Made Sketches design team has rocked it out of the park for this challenge.  I hope you are inspired to join us in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Delightful Dahlia Additions (Papertrey Ink)
Paper:  Layering White (Gina K); Solar White (Neenah); Wild Wasabi (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Sea Breeze, Turquoise, Starlight (Altenew)
Accessories:  Yana' Sentiments Hot Foil Plates and Dies (Spellbinders); Burlap ribbon (Stampin' Up!)

Freshly Made Sketches 599

Hi everyone!  It's my turn to be the sketch hostess at Freshly Made Sketches this week.  I tried my hand at a design with a few layers - I can't be clean-and-simple all the time!  Sometimes I just get a hankering to make a card with some weight to it!

I love this color combo of kraft, black, white, and yellow and for no particular reason picked it to use on my card.  The yellow then inspired sunflowers so I die-cut a couple of those from a daisy die (ssshhh don't tell) and layered them over this fun gingham paper.  I wanted a bold sentiment and chose this one from the now-closed Reverse Confetti.  

Thanks for stopping by!  Of course, my fellow Freshly Made Sketches design teammates have made some amazing cards with my sketch!  I hope you'll check them out.

And next week we'll be celebrating 600 sketches at Freshly Made Sketches.  We've got some fun surprises so I hope you will join us!

Supplies
Stamps:  Posted Notes Sentiments (Reverse Confetti)
Paper:  Desert Storm (Neenah); Black Licorice (My Favorite Things); Crushed Curry, Wild Wasabi, Whisper White (Stampin' Up!); True Black Gingham (Papertrey Ink)
Ink:  Nocturne (Versafine Clair)
Accessories:  Upsy Daisy die, Vertical Greetings II die (My Favorite Things); enamel dots (My Mind's Eye)

Freshly Made Sketches 598

When I saw our latest Freshly Made Sketch challenge I was pretty sure that I wanted to use flowers to be the design elements in the corners.  Since it's summertime I thought sunflowers would be a good choice.  Jen Timko is our challenge hostess this week and her sketch inspired some fabulous cards from our design team!

I'm not at all sure that I like the placement of the images on this card, but it's my "Mona Lisa" this week so I'm going with it.  That's the great thing about creativity - it's fluid and sometimes you get it right, sometimes you get it sort-of-right, and sometimes things go horribly wrong.  This one is in the sort-of-right category!

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you can join us in the Freshly Made Sketches gallery this week!

Supplies
Stamps:  Painted Harvest (Stampin' Up!); Words of Wisdom (Verve)
Paper:  Whisper White (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Daffodil Delight, Crushed Curry, Chocolate Chip (Stampin' Up!); Fallen Leaves (Versafine Clair)

Freshly Made Sketches 597

We've got a great new challenge for you at Freshly Made Sketches this week.  Our hostess is Jacquie and she gave us this great landscape-oriented sketch that I accidentally turned to portrait!  Oops!

I'm pretty sure at one point I knew this card was supposed to be landscape, but somehow I turned it around in my head.  I didn't even realize my mistake until I went to add this card to our design team blog.  By then it was too late to fix, but I think it works anyway!  My flowers represent the two vertical layers and for the horizontal layer I used washi tape and a thin sentiment strip.  These fun colors are inspired by the Cupcake Inspiration challenge.

 

Thanks for stopping by!  As always our Freshly Made Sketches design team has cooked up some amazing cards to inspire you to play along with us!

Supplies
Stamps:  Simple Sentiments (Avery Elle); Truth Is (CAS-ual Friday Stamps)
Paper:  Lemon Grass, The Everyday Collection (Avery Elle); Taken With Teal, Whisper White (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Nocturne (Versafine Clair)
Accessories:  washi tape