Freshly Made Sketches 97

Looking for The Alley Way Stamps blog hop?  Click HERE!

It's been a long week (more on that later), but I did manage to get  few cards made over the last few days.  Today, of course is the new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches and it's got flags!  Lovely, lovely flags!  Jennifer Timko is our hostess and without further ado here's my card and the sketch.

For this card I inked up Gorgeous Grunge in the colors for the Sunday Stamps challenge.  I actually made two versions of this card in completely different colors.  The first one was Daffodil Delight and Melon Mambo and although I loved the bright funky colors of that one, when I saw these colors at Sunday Stamps I thought I'd make another version.  I don't know which one I like better!

Don't forget to check out the other Design Team cards at Freshly Made Sketches.  I know you'll find lots of inspiration there!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Gorgeous Grunge (SU); Grunge Me (Papertrey Ink); Washi Patterns (My Favorite Things)

Accessorie:  Washi Tape die (My Favorite Things)

Now, one final word before I go.  Some of you may know that this past week has been hard on my family because my father suddenly became very ill.  He passed away peacefully yesterday afternoon at home surrounded by my mother, one of my sisters, one of his beloved granddaughters and me.  I'm so grateful that we were there to hold his hand as he made that final journey.  And though it was difficult to say goodbye, I know that he's finally at peace.  I thought I'd share a picture of my Dad and my Mom that was taken at their 50th wedding anniversary party in 2006.

Rest in peace Dad.

TAWS August Release Blog Hop!

It' Blog Hop time at The Alley Way Stamps as we celebrate the new release!  One lucky person has a chance to win the entire release, so keep reading to find out how!

I've got some co-workers that are so into zombies that I immediately fell in love with Bump In the Night and especially this fun guy!

Now, how about those stamp sets you can win!  Here are the ways that you can so it.  You can pick and choose the ones you want to do, but the more you comment, the more chances you have to win!

1. Comment on The Alley Way Stamps blog
2. Comment on the Design Team blogs (you'll find links below)
3. Post about the release on Facebook or your own blog
4. Like us on Facebook

Be sure to leave a comment for each that you do.  You have until 9:30 TAWS time to leave them.

And that's not all!  For the month of August this fun mini set, Funky Feet is FREE when you spend $40 or more!  It will be automatically added to your order.  You don't have to do anything but shop!

Here are the links to the rest of the DT.  Be sure to leave some comments as you hop around for your chance to win some free stamps!

Good luck!

Freshly Made Sketches 96

I thought I was done with graduation cards this year, but it turns out that I needed one more.  The young man that this card is intended for graduated from my old alma mater in June but his party isn't until this weekend  so I sat down at my desk the other day and thought about making a card that wasn't the slightest bit girly and used the school colors.  Lo and behold it didn't take me long to realize that Amy's sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches was perfect for what I had in mind!

This is a pretty CAS card but I'm fairly sure that the fellow who will get it is a no-nonsense kind of guy.  The school colors are orange and black so I stuck to those colors for this one.  I didn't ink up a single stamp for the front of this card instead relying on the die-cut numbers to spell out the year this momentous occasion occured.  Coincidentally, the challenge over at CAS-ual Fridays is called Count Me In and requires numbers somewhere on your project so I'll be linking up there as well!

Ok, so we've got a great sketch (gosh I love tags!) at Freshly Made Sketches, the design team has created some fantastic cards to get your creative juices flowing and the only thing missing is you!  So ink up those stamps and join us!  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Paper:  Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White

Accessories:  Small Circle Burst die (Memory Box); By the Numbers die (Papertrey Ink); Traditional Tags Stax die (My Favorite Things); Harvest Corn twine (Maya Road)

Land Ho!

Finally I had some time to make a card for the Feeling Nautical challenge at the Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge!

And what's more nautical than an old-timey pirate ship?  Not much, I say to myself!  Lucky for me the brand new Land Ho set from The Alley Way Stamps was perfect for this challenge (not to mention the Black Beards Loot set that provided the sentiment).  I paired it up with the sketch at Sketch Saturday, although I turned the sketch upside down so that the sails on the ship had a place to fly!

Thanks for stopping by!

colourQ 199

Today I've got another fab color palette to show you from colourQ.  Last week's colors were somewhat challenging for me, but this week's colors are right up my alley and as soon as I saw them I knew exactly what I wanted to create with them.  Yay me!!

I have been seriously into grungy and graphic stamps lately and for this card I inked up my brand new Off the Grid stamp from SU.  But before I did that I stamped the flowers then covered them in a mask so it appears they are embedded in that graph paper stamp.  I was going to add some leaves in Kiwi Kiss but couldn't find any that I liked with my Funky Florals so I used that color on the sentiment instead.

I've based my layout on the latest challenge at CAS(E) This Sketch.  It's a somewhat loose interpretation of the sketch, but I prefer to call it poetic license, LOL!

Now, you know the drill.  Hop on over to colourQ and check out the cards from the design team, which are sure to get your creative juices flowing.  Then ink up your own stamps and join us in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Off the Grid (SU); Funky Florals (Papertrey Ink)

Butterfly Happiness for FM119 and DD#62

I had some time yesterday to stamp for fun so I decided to make a card for the Friday Mashup and Dynamic Duos challenges.

I added in the Dynamic Duos dessert option to use a butterfly theme.  The butterflies and sentiment are from PTI's Beautiful Butterflies stamp and die set.  I added some black rhinestones and now I wish I hadn't.  They're a little crooked and it bugs me (no pun intended) every time I look at it!

Well our seven day heat wave has supposedly broken with a rather wimpy thunderstorm that passed through yesterday afternoon.  It's still pretty hot and sticky but I think the temperatures are finally supposed to dip below 90!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Beautiful Butterflies (Papertrey ink)

Accessories:  Chevron wood veneer (Studio Calico); black rhinestones (KasierCraft); Beautiful Butterflies die (Papertrey Ink)

BE Inspired 33

Today there's a new BE Inspired challenge over at The Alley Way Stamps blog.  The colors and theme are totally fabbo and though my first intention was to make a Christmas card, you can see that I went in the polar opposite direction!

The colors really inspired my card.  Especially the yellow which I have interpreted as Crushed Curry.  I added some black accents and a touch of gray in the hollowed out eyes of this awesome skull from Black Beard's Loot!  The sentiment was made by mixing up a couple of words from Jibber Jabber and Words to Live By.  The layout is courtesy of the latest Deconstructed Sketch.

If you've been here before on BE Inspired day you know that there are prizes to be had at The Alley Way Stamps blog if you participate in the challenge.  You have to use an image from The Alley Way Stamps, and if you don't have any you can find freebies here.

One lucky person will be chosen as the Top Pick and another will be chosen randomly.  Both will win a free stamp set!  You can find more information here so get inky and link up your creation!

Thanks for stopping by!

Freshly Made Sketches 95

This week at Freshly Made Sketches Narelle, she of the lovely layers, is our hostess.  The sketch she designed this week is one that you are going to love!  It's got her signature layers and a design that can be interpreted a number of different ways!

I made my card using some of the brand new SU colors Baked Brown Sugar and Coastal Cabana.  But I've got to tell you that when I first started putting this card together I thought it lacked something.  The colors were pretty together but were definitely missing something.  So that's when I got the bright idea to add layers of black.  And wow, what a pop that gives!  The flower and sentiment are from one of my faves Awesome Blossom and I love how they look stamped in these colors.  

There's no surprise that this week the lovely ladies at Freshly Made Sketches have totally rocked this sketch so be sure to run on over there and check them out.  I hope you can join us in the gallery!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Awesome Blossom (The Alley Way Stamps)

Accessories:  Natural Trim ribbon (SU); kraft vintage button (Papertrey Ink); baker's twine

colourQ 198

I'm not ashamed to say that this week's color palette at colourQ had me stumped!  When I first saw them I knew right away that they were a gorgeous combination, but when I sat at my stamping table and pondered what to do with them I came up empty.

My first card was made using some floral images.  That quickly went in the scrap heap when I couldn't get that to work.  Then I thought these colors might make an unusual Christmas card.  That evolved into a snowman card idea and I actually had that one made, photographed and ready to post before I admitted to myself that I hated it.  So with the clock steadily ticking I thought about what I liked about this image and realized it was the simple, graphic shapes.  So that lead me to this card.

   

I feel like I seriously cheated with this card.  I love the stamp but all I did was stamp it in Smoky Slate and filled in some of the squares with the colors of the challenge.  I hunted around my stamp room for a sentiment that did this cool, graphic image justice but couldn't come up with anything.  Arielle gave me some ideas, but I just don't have anything edgy enough so it will stay like this until I go stamp shopping again!  

Thanks for stopping by!  And don't forget to hop on over to colourQ and check out the inspiration from the design team, who clearly didn't have the same trouble I did with these colors!  Then ink up and join us because I can't wait to see what you create!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Arty (KaiserCraft)

Hello! PDCC190 and CTS36

Whenever I take a few day off from stamping my creativity seems to take a few days off too, so I try to get in my stamp room and poke around as often as I can.  I hadn't been in there since Monday and figured I better get busy!  Last night I thought the colors at The Play Date Cafe looked pretty.  The design team cards and the gallery submissions looked really cool displaying these colors so I wanted to give them a try.  I paired them up with the sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch.

I had a hard time finding shades of yellow far enough apart to get reasonably close to the colors in the palette.  I went with Daffodil Delight (stamped off), More Mustard and the "hello" was cut with my brand spankin' new die in some Lemon Tart cardstock from PTI.  I don't think it shows up all that well in the photo but I think you get the point!

Today has started out a bit rainy, which is good since I need to do some housework this morning, but we're expecting another heat wave.  It's so strange that the summer started out so cool and wet and now that's it's in full swing it's been a real scorcher!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Textures 1 (Florileges Design)

Accessories:  Hello die (The Crafters Workshop)

Yarr a Treasure!

Looking for my Freshly Made Sketches and Color Throwdown post?  Click HERE!

Several days ago I checked out the challenge at Sunday Stamps and said to myself  "oooh."  The blue with the yellow and orange spoke to me and at that time I had no idea what I wanted to do with those colors, I just knew that I wanted to do something.  Well fast forward a week or so and I had an epiphany involving a treasure chest, some colorful sequins and the sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch.

Jack Sparrow notwithstanding, I'm a huge pirate fan.  I know the historical figures were probably bad people who most likely smelled, but boy do they conjure up some fun images!  Take this treasure chest for instance. Who wouldn't love to have that in their closet?  This is just another fun image in the Black Beard's Loot stamp set.  

And of course by now you've realized that I turned the sketch upside down, but I think that's ok.  At least I hope it is!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Black Beard's Loot (The Alley Way Stamps)

Accessories:  Sequins (Studio Calico)