colourQ 322!

Hello, hello!  I'm back after a bit of a blogging vacation to bring you a new color palette from colourQ!  I can hardly believe that it's been 12 whole days since I've posted anything here and I'm feeling a bit rusty in the ol' craft department.  But here goes!

I liked the celebratory feel of these colorful mason jars so I thought some stars would be a good idea to carry out that theme on my card.  I really need thank you cards after Christmas so I used an old favorite "thank you" sentiment instead of something a little more festive.  Duty calls, after all!

I'm also playing along with the 100th challenge at Can You Case It!  What a fantastic milestone and congratulations to them!

As you can imagine the colourQ design team has made some beautiful cards with these colors so I hope you have a chance to check them out and join us in the gallery with your own creation!  We'd love to see you there!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Much Appreciated (SU)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Coastal Cabana, Gold Foil, Vellum (SU)
Ink:  Black Stazon
Accessories:  Starry Nights stencil (Memory Box); white embossing paste (Dreamweaver); 3 Stitched Star die (My Creative Time); Pierced Rectangle STAX (My Favorite Things)

CAS(E) This Sketch 153!

I think this may be my last Christmas card.  But I'm not 100% sure.  It may be the last Christmas card you see on my blog until 2016 but there's an outside chance, just a slim chance really, that I will have to make one or two for mailing purposes only.  You'd think I'd be prepared since I've known for a whole year that this holiday is coming.  You'd think....

Anyway, this is officially my last Christmas card in 2015 and I made it for the awesome new sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch designed by Chrissy Larson.

I knew when I saw it that I wanted a big and bold sentiment and spent a day or so figuring out what to put behind it.  I ended up with these sketchy trees that were stamped off a few times for some faded images plus one first generation image.  Then I stamped the sentiment in black over the top.  I don't think I've put together a card so quickly in quite a while!

The challenge this week at Can You Case It is to use a favorite Christmas color combo and for me simple colors, like these shades of green, and a black sentiment are faves of mine.

This is our last challenge of 2015 at CAS(E) This Sketch and the challenge will remain open until January 7th so you've got loads of time to play along with us!  We'll see you back live then too!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Sketchy Christmas (Precious Remembrance); Handwritten Holidays 1 (Tim Holtz)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir)
Ink:  Ripe Avocado (Papertrey Ink); Onyx Black (Versafine)

Freshly Made Sketches 217

I think I am officially over Christmas cards.  I feel like I've been doing nothing but churning them out even though I'm pretty sure that last week I made two cards that had nothing to do with Christmas!  I'm glad the season is winding down but I've got another one to show you for this week's Freshly Made Sketches card.  And I might have another one tomorrow :)  This week our hostess is the fabulous Linda Callahan and she's given us a classic sketch!

As tempting as it was to put a big ol' snowflake on my card and call it a day, I chose to use some favorite modern Christmas tree images in the colors of the Just Add Ink challenge.  My horizontal banner became this "merry" die cut that I cut three times and glued together to give it some dimension.  I glued it to the card crooked, but we won't talk about that.

This our last challenge of 2015 at Freshly Made Sketches.  We're taking a little break and the linky for this challenge will stay open until January 4th so you've got plenty of time to play along with us.  We'll be back live with a new challenge on January 6th.  Hopefully you can squeeze us in during the next couple of weeks and then we'll see you all bright eyed and bushy tailed for the new year!

Thanks to everyone who played along with us this year at Freshly Made Sketches.  We're looking forward to a very crafty 2016 with you!

Supplies
Stamps:  Modern Christmas (Clearly Besotted)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Sea Glass (Avery Elle); Bermuda Bay (SU)
Ink:  Silvery Shimmer Delicata; Aquamarine (Avery Elle)
Accessories:  Hand Lettered Holiday die (WPlus9); Pierced Rectangle STAX (My Favorite Things)

colourQ 321!

There are no mistakes in stamping.  This is a mantra that has been a part of my card-making world since I started playing around with paper and ink many years ago.  This card that I made for the latest colourQ challenge tested that belief!

I won't go into all the gory details but I had trouble with the inlaid circles and with the sketchy tree image.  After my trouble with the tree I really wanted to scrap the whole card and start from scratch but the inlaid circles took so long to do and even though I messed those up too I didn't want to start all over again!  So I took a chance that some white embossing powder would make everything better.  My save was not too bad!  The layout here is from the latest sketch at retro sketches and I'm also playing along with the challenge at Just Us Girls to use sequins.

We're taking a little break at colourQ so this challenge will stay up for two weeks!  Check out all the details at colourQ and while you're there you can see all the beautiful cards from the design team.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Sketchy Christmas (Precious Remembrance)
Paper:  Basic Black, Crumb Cake, Kiwi Kiss, Real Red, Whisper White (SU)
Ink:  Versamark
Accessories:  Blueprints 13 die, Horizontal Stitched dies, Stitched Circle STAX (My Favorite Things); Wet Paint Holiday die (Papertrey Ink); white embossing powder

CAS(E) This Sketch 152

This week is just flying by!  I almost never say that about a week when I'm working (!) but it's true!  I can hardly believe it's Thursday already, but being Thursday that means there's a brand new sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch.  This week our sketch was designed by N@  Ali.

I took a little poetic license with the sentiment because I just couldn't bring myself to stamp over the middle of the flower.  I've used a couple of brand new stamp sets on this card and I'm taking a break from the all-things-Christmas theme I have been on lately.  I think I needed a break!  Yesterday it was snowflakes and today it's flowers.  It's nice to mix things up once in a while!

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out the beautiful cards that the CAS(E) This Sketch design team has made.  We are joined this week by our guest designer Joyce so pop on over to say hello!

Supplies
Stamps:  Layered Lily (Altenew); Grateful (Concord & 9th)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir)
Ink:  Pink Pirouette, Regal Rose, Rose Red, Bravo Burgundy, Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Mossy Meadow (SU)

Freshly Made Sketches 216!

It's time for another new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches!  This week our sketch is designed by Rita.  She always throws the most interesting details on her sketches.  This time it's a little scalloped layer.

Of course you don't necessarily need to use a scalloped design but I did because it's been a long time since I've used this particular die and I was feeling nostalgic!  I cut some glimmer paper with it to give my card some sparkle and shine.

The colors for my card come from the latest color challenge at Sunday Stamps. I took a little break from all the Christmas cards I've been making lately to use the colors to make a winter themed card.  And I added a thank you sentiment because I always seem to need a lot of thank you cards at the end of the year.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a chance to check out the challenge at Freshly Made Sketches.  We'd love to see you in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Fab Flakes (Papertrey Ink); Hand Lettered Thanks (WPlus9)
Paper:  Soft Sky, Basic Gray, Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer (SU); Neenah Solar White
Ink:  Soft Sky, Bermuda Bay, Basic Gray
Accessories:  Stitched Rectangle STAX (My Favorite Things); Scallop Border die (The Stamps of Life); sequins

Elegant Christmas

So, it's official.  My brain is still on vacation.  I was supposed to have this post and written and scheduled so that it would post at 7 AM today and instead I'm typing it at 4 PM.  Oops!  Better late than never.

This is my last week as a guest over at the Precious Remembrance blog showing a card I made using the new Sketchy Christmas stamp set.  I love the images in this set and wanted to show how elegant they look embossed in gold.  The latest challenge at Color Throwdown inspired my colors and I love how all that blank space just draws the eye to the images at the bottom.

I have not yet begun to mail out my Christmas cards and I'm a little afraid to count the ones I have to see if I have enough.  That's definitely on my to-do list for the next couple of days - as well as putting up the Christmas tree.  *Sigh* I wish there were enough hours in the day to do all that I need to do!  #dayjobproblems

Thanks for stopping by!  And special thanks to Dyane at Precious Remembrance for inviting me to play along with her these past few weeks.  I had a lot of fun creating cards and tags with this Sketchy Christmas stamp set!

Supplies
Stamps:  Sketchy Christmas (Precious Remembrance)
Paper:  Basic Black (SU); Solar White (Neenah)
Ink:  Versamark
Accessories:  Blueprints 13 (My Favorite Things); gold embossing powder

Tag You're It 36

Well all I can say is thank goodness it's Friday!  I went back to work this past Tuesday after two weeks off and boy did the week drag on.  I'm glad the weekend is just about here so I can relax!

And since it's Friday there's a new inspiration challenge at Tag You're It.  Our tag inspiration this week is designed by Joyce.

I am SO pleased at how my tag came out I can hardly contain myself!  I have long aspired to be a better card-maker by using many different techniques but the one thing that has eluded me the most is watercoloring.  A few months ago I bought some good quality watercolors but haven't really played with them all that much.  Joyce's tag inspired me to try to use them to color a sky for my cityscape.

At first it seemed like my watercoloring was going to look horrible as usual, but after it dried I actually liked what I had done.  Then I took a chance and flicked some water on it and was surprised that my little droplets gave this a bit of a bokeh look.  The only thing I don't like about this tag is the shape of the star.  I wanted a star with a shape that is traditionally seen for the Christmas season but this was the only shape I had.  Not exactly what I had in mind, but it will do!

At Tag You're It our talented design team has made some beautiful tags this week so be sure to check them out.  It's that time of year when you might need a tag or two for gift giving so we've got lots of inspiration for you!  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Holiday Wishes (Papertrey Ink)
Paper:  watercolor paper; Hello Honey, Basic Black (SU)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine); watercolors (Kuretake)
Accessories:  Tag You're It die (My Favorite Things); Cityscape Silhouette die, Cityscape Nightline die (Memory Box); seam binding ribbon; black crochet thread; gold cord, rhinestone brad (SU)

CAS(E) This Sketch 151

We're back after a little American Thanksgiving hiatus with a new sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch.  I'm not ashamed to say that this was a bit of a stumper for me!

I went around and around in my head with ideas for this card and rejected a ton of them before I pulled out this new stamp set and got to work.  Then I had a heck of a time making sure that this little guy was somewhat evenly spaced all over the front of the card!  I'm sure if you look closely (and please don't) you'll find the spacing is off in a few places!

This week we are joined by my friend Linda as a guest designer.  Her card will knock your socks off - as will the cards by the rest of the design team.  It's fun to see everyone's interpretation of these dots!  I hope you've got some time to squeeze CAS(E) This Sketch into your crafty goals this week!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Holiday Grumplings (Taylored Expressions)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir)
Ink:  Black Licorice (My Favorite Things); Garden Green, Real Red (SU); Copics

Freshly Made Sketches 215

Happy Wednesday!  Today is the day when we reveal a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.  This week I am the hostess!

I'm in full-on Christmas mode so just about everything that I make lately has got a Christmas theme.  I recently got this stamp set with matching dies and I hadn't inked them up yet when it occurred to me that this was the perfect sketch for them!  I found the musical patterned paper in my stash so I added a sentiment that is also a song to sort of tie those things together.

There is a weird optical illusion going on with this card.  I die cut the scalloped banner and for some reason the banner ended up with a curved shape.  I've never had that happen before but I decided to stick it on my card anyway.  It looks a little weird in real life but looks really weird in the picture!  I can't decide if the banner looks crooked or if it makes it look as if the card is cupped.

My fellow Freshly Made Sketches teamies have done my sketch proud so be sure to pop on over there to see their beautiful cards.  I hope you have some time to join us this week!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Spruce & Sprigs, Signature Christmas (Papertrey Ink)
Paper:  Sweet Tooth (My Favorite Things); Kraft, Ripe Avocado, Pure Poppy (Papertrey Ink); Whisper White, Brushed Gold (SU)
Ink:  Ripe Avocado, Pure Poppy, Kraft (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories:  Dotted Borders die (Avery Elle); Pierced Fishtail Flags STAX, Fishtail Flags Layers STAX (My Favorite Things); Spruce & Sprigs die (Papertrey Ink); Bubbles stencil (Tim Holtz); translucent embossing paste (Dreamweaver)

colourQ 319

I've got Christmas on the brain so even though the colors this week at colourQ are anything but Christmas-y I wanted to use them for another Christmas card anyway!

And in a strange twist of fate The Challenge wants us to make "non-traditional" Christmas card.  Yay!  A little help from the sketch at Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge and I was off.  I didn't actually have any real wood in my stash so I used the next best thing - woodgrain patterned paper!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to play along with us at colourQ!  The design team has made some amazing cards so be sure to check them out!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Holiday Greetings (Amy R Stamps)
Paper:  Sweet Tooth (My Favorite Things); Chocolate Chip, Summer Starfruit, Blushing Bride, Melon Mambo, Woodland Walk DSP (SU)
Ink:  White (WPlus9)
Accessories:  Blueprints 15 die Favorite Things); Blooming Poinsettia die (Memory Box); white embossing powder; enamel dots (My Mind's Eye)

Sketchy Christmas Tag

It seems like I've been focusing on Christmas a lot lately!  I've been making some tags but I think I need to go and count the number I've got because I think I'm a little short!  LOL!  That being said, I've got another tag for you today.

It's my third project as a guest designer at Precious Remembrance showing the new Sketchy Christmas stamp set.  Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone I'm feeling the pressure to get those Christmas gift tags done!  Today I've this nice square tag with lots of white space to show off these images.  I stamped a sketchy tree first in a bright aqua color then stamped over it with another tree in a dark, mossy green.  I added a few sequins and the sentiment in red to complete the classic Christmas color scheme.

I can't take credit for these colors - they are the latest challenge at As You See It - but I loved them and couldn't resist using them on this tag!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Sketchy Christmas (Precious Remembrance)
Paper:  Real Red,  Mossy Meadow, Whisper White (SU)
Ink:  Real Red, Mossy Meadow, Bermuda Bay (SU)
Accessories:  Tag Sale Quilted die (Papertrey Ink); Classic Christmas Mix sequins (Neat & Tangled); seam binding ribbon, baker's twine

Freshly Made Sketches 214

Here we are at another Wednesday which means it's time for a new sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.  This week we've got a classic from Jen Timko!

This is not the first card I started making for this challenge.  But my first attempt looked like an exact copy of the sketch and I wanted something a bit different.  So back to the drawing board I went.  On my second attempt I was going to use a poinsettia instead of a snowflake but I ended up not liking that either.  So I went with a big "peace" die cut along with a snowflake cut from some really sparkly paper and added some pearlescent snow to the background.  I know the photo does not give this justice but it is super sparkly in real life!  I even added some sparkly enamel dots which I think are hard to see, but trust me they are there!

The colors for my card are inspired by the latest challenge at Merry Monday to use blue, white, and texture.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to pop on over to Freshly Made Sketches to check out the amazing cards from our design team.  I hope we get to see you in the gallery this week!

Supplies:
Paper:  Sweet Tooth (My Favorite Things); Pacific Point, Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper (SU)
Accessories:  Snowflake Trio die (amuse studio); Wonderful Words Holiday die (Papertrey Ink); Falling Snow stencil (Simon Says Stamp); pearlescent embossing paste (Dreamweaver); enamel dots (Doodlebug)

colourQ 318!

Since we're only a couple of days away from Thanksgiving I decided to have one more go at a card for that holiday.  I've actually made a very similar card to this before but I couldn't resist making it again one using these so-appropriate colors from colourQ!

What every turkey is thinking around this time of year don't you think?  The layout for my card comes from the sketch at Can You Case It and it was just dumb luck that it was perfect for how I like to show off my little turkey friend - CAS with no fuss!  I did take a little poetic license with the sketch by putting my sentiment on the opposite side but I really wanted my feathered friend to be facing the sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by and please head on over to colourQ and check out the cards the design team has made with these colors.  I hope to see you in the gallery!

Supplies:
Stamps:  My Peeps, Alphadot (Paper Smooches)
Paper:  Sweet Tooth (My Favorite Things)
Ink:  Hot Fudge (My Favorite Things); Early Espresso (SU); Copics
Accessories:  Autumn Harvest sequins (Pretty Pink Posh)

Merry Christmas Tag

I'm back with another project that I made guest designing for Precious Remembrance using the new Sketchy Christmas stamp set.

I love to use non-traditional colors on my Christmas projects sometimes so today I've made a gift tag using some shades of pink, courtesy of the color challenge at Stampin' Royalty.  I started with a base of kraft and white then stamped a sketchy tree a couple of times in a vibrant pink.  Then I glammed it up a bit with some shimmery golden ink for one more tree plus the sentiment.  A little gold cord tied around my seam binding ribbon ties all those gold touches together nicely.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Sketchy Christmas (Precious Remembrance)
Paper:  Crumbcake (SU); Sweet Tooth (My Favorite Things)
Ink:  Berry Sorbet (Papertrey Ink); Golden Glitz Delicata
Accessories:  Traditional Tags STAX, Pierced Traditional Tags STAX (My Favorite Things); Crumb Cake seam binding ribbon, gold cord (SU); Sugar Blend sequins (Avery Elle)

Tag You're It 35

Happy Friday!  I've actually been on vacation from work this week and I can hardly believe that it's Friday already.  One week down, another to go.  Hopefully the next one will go a little slower!

Today there's a new challenge at Tag You're It.  And this week we are joining the amazing Tracey McNeely for her 25 Days of Christmas Tags.

I don't have one of those big old-fashioned Christmas lights but I do have holly leaves and I do have polka dots so I used both of those on my tag.  And I kept the sentiment the same because "joy" is really what that season is all about!

The challenge this week at Simon Says Stamp is Christmas so I'm going to enter this over there as well.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to pop on by Tag You're It and Tracey's 25 Days of Christmas Tags for loads of inspiration!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Spruce & Sprigs (Papertrey Ink)
Paper:  Naturals White (Neenah); Pure Poppy (Papertrey Ink); Gold Foil (SU)
Ink:  Ripe Avocado, Pure Poppy (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories:  Basic Bookmark II die, Wet Paint hholidaly die (Papertrey Ink); Grove Branch die (Memory Box)

CAS(E) This Sketch 150

Hello!  And welcome to a new edition of CAS(E) This Sketch!   This sketch made me think of snowflakes!

Many years ago, when I first started stamping, I made silver and navy card at a workshop featuring a big embossed snowflake.  To this day it's one of my favorite cards and I try to re-design it every so often.  For this card I tried embossing the snowflakes but they were too small and the embossing powder muddied the details so I die cut some snowflakes instead with some silver glimmer paper.  I did emboss the sentiment, though.  And I added the silver cord, just because!

I'm also playing along with The Paper Players where we are challenged to make a clean and simple Christmas card.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to pop on by CAS(E) This Sketch and check out the design team cards.  They're pretty amazing, just sayin'!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Jingle All the Way (Technique Tuesday)
Paper:  Midnight Muse, Brushed Silver, Silver Glimmer (SU)
Ink:  Silver Shimmer Delicata
Accessories:  Blueprints 20 die (My Favorite Things); Make a Snowflake die (Taylored Expressions); silver cord (SU)

Time Out Challenges

I'm back again with another card for Time Out Challenges where I'm guest designing!  Our inspiration comes from Karen.

Karen's card (on the right) featured a sponged stencil design so that's what I did with my card.  I used some yellow and green ink to sponge the rays of that grungy sun stencil.  Then I stamped over it in black with this long, subway-style sentiment.  I thought that it sort of echoed the theme of Karen's.

Once again, I want to send a big thank you to everyone at Time Out Challenges for inviting me to play along with them for this challenge!

And thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Going Somewhere (Tim Holtz)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir)
Ink:  Squeezed Lemonade, Crushed Olive (Distress); Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Urban Insiders Square Stencil (Stencil Girl Products)