Freshly Made Sketches 268!

We are finishing up 2016 at Freshly Made Sketches with a sketch designed by yours truly.  And I'll bet you won't be surprised that it's a square one!  Of course, if squares are not your thing feel free to use whatever shape card you like best.  Our challenge will be open longer than usual so you'll have until January 2nd to play along with us.

Don't adjust your sets, folks.  That is indeed a Christmas card you see here.  In fact, it is the first Christmas card that I created for 2017!  Either that or I'm so far behind I'm ahead of myself!  There was a pretty color challenge going on at Cupcake Inspirations and a Christmas challenge at CAS-ual Fridays so I couldn't resist sneaking in one more Christmas card this year.

I've been a bit lazy about crafting this week since a lot of my favorite challenge blogs are on a holiday hiatus.  This is actually the only card I've made all week and I probably won't make any more until after Christmas.  But during my little mini-break I've managed to finish up my Christmas shopping and over the next couple of days I will wrap gifts and then the festivities can begin for real!

I hope that during this busy time of year you can find time to join us at Freshly Made Sketches for our last challenge of the year.  Remember, this challenge will stay open until January 2nd so there's plenty of time to play along with us!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Christmas Carols (CAS-ual Fridays)
Paper:  Classic Ivory (Flourishes); Kraft Core Metallic (Tim Holtz); Pure Poppy (Papertrey Ink)
Ink:  Pure Poppy (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories:  Blooming Poinsettia die (Memory Box); Linen impression plate (Papertrey Ink)

CAS(E) This Sketch 202!

I've had a bokeh stencil in my stash for a long time and had never used it but the latest challenge at CAS(E) This Sketch, designed by Leigh Penner, gave me the perfect opportunity to.

I was a little intimidated by that sketch when I first saw it, but since this is a challenge I figured I better really think about how I could blanket the front of my card with a whole bunch of something.  Then I saw this card by Deepti Malik and thought maybe I could do something similar.  So I dragged out my long neglected Distress inks.

The first background I attempted was in shades of yellow but it was horrible so I scrapped that and went with shades of pink and purple.  I added some deep blue to the edges then went over it all with my bokeh stencils in white pigment ink.

I'm pretty horrible at sponging ink onto backgrounds but this didn't come out half bad.  Usually my attempts are all streaky but I tried to be careful about how I swirled my little spongy pad around and I'm happy to say that there's only one spot where there's a little streak and I stamped the sentiment over it so you can't see it.  There are no mistakes in stamping, right?

My CAS(E) This Sketch teamies have got some very inventive cards for this challenge so be sure to check them out.  I hope we'll see you in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps:  Congratulations (Simon Says Stamp)
Paper:  White (Gina K Pure Luxury)
Ink:  Elegant Eggplant (Stampin' Up!); Victorian Velvet, Seedless Preserves, Dusty Concord, Chipped Sapphire (Distress)
Accessories:  Bekeh Lights stencil (Simon Says Stamp)

Freshly Made Sketches 267!

Welcome back to the all-Christmas all-the-time channel!  Yep, you guessed it - I've got another Christmas card to show you.  This time for the brand new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.  This week our hostess is our intrepid traveler Jen Timko!  Don't you just love the possibilities with this fantastic sketch?

I chose this pretty color combo of purples and silver because I had intended to play along with a particular color challenge, but I wasn't paying attention to the dates of that challenge properly and it closed already!  But the colors are beautiful and the silver gave me an excuse to use this snowflake die again.  Luckily I'm not too late to play along at Stamp Ink Paper where the theme is winter holiday.

I'm still slowly mailing out my Christmas cards and hopefully I'll get them all done by Friday.  That's my plan anyway!  Tomorrow I've got a card to show you that actually has nothing to do with Christmas!  And I even broke out my Distress inks and - dare I say it - actually did some sponging!  {gasp}

Our Freshly Made Sketches design team has some beautiful cards to show you this week so be sure to check them out.  I hope you can take some time to join us in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Jingle All the Way (Technique Tuesday)
Paper:  Elegant Eggplant, Wisteria Wonder (Stampin' Up!); silver foil (Recollections)
Ink:  Elegant Eggplant (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories:  Kate Snowflake die (Simon Says Stamp); Love and Sparkles Mix sequins (Neat & Tangled)

Tag You're It 62!

Friday!  Yay!  The end to a long work-week and the start to a (hopefully) relaxing, yet oddly productive, weekend.  There's a new inspiration challenge at Tag You're It designed by our Guest Featured Artist Laurie Willison.

I've always been a fan of Laurie's clean designs so for sure I love her beautiful Christmas tag.  On my tag I used green and red, and went with a Christmas tree theme too.

The colors at Sunday Stamps were perfect for what I wanted to do with my tag and at Creative With Stamps they are looking for Christmas stamps so I'll enter this over there as well.

Check out all the details about this great Tag You're It challenge where my teamies have made some fantastic tags to inspire you.  I hope we'll get to see you in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Sketchy Christmas (Precious Remembrance); Many Merry Messages (Stampin' Up!)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Real Red (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Certainly Celery, Garden Green (Stampin' Up!); White (WPlus9)
Accessories:  Tag Sale Quilted die (Papertrey Ink); Real Red grosgrain ribbon, Basic Pearls (Stampin' Up!); baker's twine

CAS(E) This Sketch 201!

Years ago Stampin' Up! sold this gorgeous brushed metallic cardstock.  It is wonderful stuff - nice and heavy-weight, plus the colors are so beautiful.  I bought it in silver, gold, and copper and I love it to pieces.  Well, in true hoarder style, I had never opened the copper package.....until the other day.  I almost didn't do it, but quickly realized that was stupid.  And I'd got it in my head to use copper colors on my card for the latest challenge at CAS(E) This Sketch so open the package I did!

The sketch has got some simple elements so I inked up the grungy sunbeams with copper ink and layered on a couple of die cut trees - cut from my precious copper cardstock.  Behind the cutouts on those trees I used some sparkly silver paper.  The sentiment was stamped with the same copper ink and after only about 15 minutes this card was done!  It's been a long time since I've put a card together that quickly!

I'm still playing along with a bunch of Christmas themed challenges so I'm joining Just Us Girls where they are looking for a Christmas tree and Creative With Stamps who want Christmas stamps.

My CAS(E) This Sketch teamies have got some gorgeous cards to show you with this sketch so be sure to check them out.  I hope you can join us in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Jingle All the Way (Technique Tuesday); Grunge Cirque (Tim Holtz)
Paper:  Pure White (Gina K); Brushed Copper (Stampin' Up!); Silver Foil Paper (Recollections)
Accessories:  Sapins die (Simply Graphic)

Freshly Made Sketches 266!

It's time for a new sketch from Freshly Made Sketches!  This week our hostess is our resident color-mix-master Amy O'Neill.  I stumbled upon some snowflake challenges as I perused blogland for ideas for my card so that inspired my take on this fabulous sketch.

I know I sound like a broken record but this is way more sparkly in real life than it appears in this photo!  The snowflakes were both cut with some glimmer paper and I wove a bit of shiny red cross-stitch floss behind the silver one for a little interest.

The challenge at CAS-ual Fridays is for glitter and snowflakes - check - while Creative With Stamps is looking for Christmas stamps - easy peasy - and lo and behold The Paper Players want snowflakes too - double check! 🙌

My Freshly Made Sketches teammates have made some beautiful cards this week so be sure to check them out.  I hope you can join us in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Jingle All the Way (Technique Tuesday)
Paper:  Soft Sky, Basic Gray, Red Glimmer, Wintergreen DSP (Stampin' Up!); Silver Foil paper (Recollections)
Ink:  Cherry Cobbler (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories:  Snowflake Trio die (amuse.studio); Kate Snowflake die (Simon Says Stamp); red crochet floss

Peace on Earth

We're on a little bit of an unanticipated hiatus from colourQ, but we should be back to normal soon.  In the meantime I am continuing my fast and furious pace of churning out Christmas cards.  Luckily some of my favorite challenges have been very accommodating in the sketch and color categories!  Today I've got a card that I made using the sketch at Mojo and the colors at Global Design Project.

I love these earthy colors for Christmas.  And the bit of red makes everything so festive!  I used a texture plate to emboss the Early Espresso layer (can you see it?) and I found some really old Christmas patterned paper to add some pizzazz.  I even used some of my ancient supply of grosgrain ribbon - accented by a bit of sparkly baker's twine!  And to finish this off, I stuck on a few rhinestones.  This went together pretty quickly!

I really need to start mailing out some of these Christmas cards I've been hoarding all these months.  That's my project for the next few days.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Peace on Earth (Verve)
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Real Red, Dashing DSP (Stampin' Up!); Naturals White (Neenah)
Ink:  Real Red, Early Espresso (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories:  Linen impression plate (Papertrey Ink); Real Red grosgrain ribbon, Basic Rhinestones (Stampin' Up!); baker's twine

CAS(E) This Sketch 200!

We are 200 sketches strong at CAS(E) This Sketch!  Boy how time flies.  I've been on the design team since sketch #148 so I'm super excited to reach this milestone alongside our fearless leader Chrissy and all the other supremely talented members of the design team.

Chrissy has got a prize to give away to a lucky someone who plays along with our challenge this week so be sure to check out the details here.  Now on to my card and the sketch.

I have mentioned a time or two (or three) that my photography skills are much lacking so it will come as no surprise to you that is card is actually a silvery-shiny-shimmery feast for the eyes.  Those two vertical stripes are a shiny silver washi tape.  I've got a couple of die cut snowflakes layered together and one of them is a gorgeous silver glimmer paper while the other is an iridescent shimmer.  You'll just have to take my word for it that this looks much better in real life!

Here's a pic from another angle that, I think, shows off the silver a little bit better.  There's a pretty inspiration challenge going on at Just Us Girls this week.  The picture is primarily silver and purple so I added some strategically placed purple sequins on my card to give it a splash of color.  I'll also be adding this to the Christmas challenges at CAS on Sunday and Christmas Card Challenges too.

I sure hope you can celebrate our 200th sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch by playing along with us.  We'd love to see you in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Joyous Noel (Verve)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Silver Foil (Recollections); Dazzling Diamonds (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Silvery Shimmer (Delicata)
Accessories:  Eliza snowflake die, Kate Snowflake die (Simon Says Stamp); Blueprints 13 die (My Favorite Things); Burnished Foil Tape - Silver (The Ton); Love and Sparkles Mix sequins (Neat & Tangled)

Freshly Made Sketches 265!

This is officially Christmas card week on my blog.  I love to make Christmas cards but I hope I snap out of this soon because I'm pretty sure I'll be tired of doing the same theme day after day before long.  But today indulge me as we unveil a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches, designed by the lovely and talented Narelle.  This one made me think of making a shaker card.

I recently got a sequin mix that was full of bits and bobs in Christmas colors and that is what I thought of when I started working on my card for this sketch.  I added a festive sentiment and I was done!  It sounds like I just whipped this thing up but it actually took a while to do - partly because I backed the shaker window with some teeny-tiny thick foam sticky squares that took forever to peel off to reveal the actual sticky stuff.  Note to self:  burn those.

I'm joining a few Christmas challenges around blogland too:  CAS on Sunday and Christmas Card Challenges.

I don't know about you, but I can hardly believe that today is the last day of November.  Nothing like the year whizzing by!  Thanks for stopping by and please pop on over to Freshly Made Sketches to check out the inspiration from the design team.  We hope you've got some time to join us in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Wonderful Words - Holiday (Papertrey Ink)
Paper:  White (Gina K Pure Luxury); Baja Breeze (Stampin' Up!); Pure Poppy (Papertrey Ink); Cryogen White
Ink:  Baja Breeze (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories:  Merry Christmas die (Simon Says Stamp); Circles die (Little B); Blueprints 20 die (My Favorite Things); Christmas Couture Mix (The Ton)

Jingle All the Way

Christmas is in the air, I think!  Now that thanksgiving is behind us the focus to Christmas has begun in earnest.  I've made some good progress this year making my Christmas cards but, as I discovered Monday night when I went looking for a particular card I made a few months ago, I seem to have misplaced some of them!  I'm sure they are around here somewhere!

But today I've got a card that I made for a few challenges:  the sketch at Mojo, the masculine Christmas challenge at Merry Monday, and the anything goes theme at Christmas Card Challenges.

I did add some enamel dots to my card but I still think this is still pretty masculine.  I mean, who's more manly than Santa Claus? Ho Ho Ho!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Jingle All the Way (My Favorite Things)
Paper:  Sahara Sand, Blue Bayou, Cherry Cobbler (Stampin' Up!); Snow Village (Pink Paislee); Heidi Swapp patterned paper
Ink:  Cherry Cobbler (Stampin' Up!); Jet Black (Altenew); Prismacolor Pencils
Accessories:  Jingle All the Way die (My Favorite Things)

Happy Thanksgiving 2016!

Happy thanksgiving to all my American friends!

I had every intention of making a new and fun thanksgiving card to share with you but I just didn't have time the last few days.  So I thought I'd (again) share a card I made last year.

Now that's a sentiment every turkey can get behind.

May your turkey and stuffing be savory, may your potatoes be sweet, and may all the blessings of the season come to you and yours!

Freshly Made Sketches 264!

It's Thanksgiving Eve here in the US.  Visions of turkey are dancing in my head.  How about you?  Thanksgiving is probably my most favorite of holidays primarily because as the dinner is cooking the house is filled with the most delicious scents.  I do love turkey, gravy, stuffing, and mashed potato!  That's a pretty weird reason to love a holiday but there you have it!

Anyway on to our latest challenge at Freshly Made Sketches.  This week our hostess is the talented Karren who has given us one of those classic sketches that will be right up your creative alley, I'm sure.

The inspiration photo at Fusion gave me the idea for the colors for this card and the CAS Christmas challenge at The Paper Players gave me the idea to do another Christmas card.  This is the fourth week in a row that I've made a Christmas card for Freshly Made Sketches and I sincerely hope you're not sick of seeing them!  It's getting to be crunch time in the Christmas card department so every card counts!

By the way I used Liquid Pearls for the little dots on my wreath.  Liquid Pearls!  Talk about digging up some old stuff in the stash!  I stamped the little berry trios in white first but white ink usually fades as it dries and I really wanted those berries to look good so I went over them with the Liquid Pearls.  I also went over the die cut sentiment with Wink of Stella so this has got some sparkle in real life!

To all my American friends I send a heartfelt "happy thanksgiving" to you and your family.  Rest up after your dinner because the Christmas craziness is only just beginning!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have some time to hop on over to Freshly Made Sketches to check out our challenge for this week as well as the inspiration from the design team.  We hope to see you in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Wreath For All Seasons (Papertrey Ink)
Paper:  Basic Gray, Early Espresso (Stampin' Up!); White (Spectrum Noir)
Ink:  Early Espresso (Stampin' Up!); White (WPlus9)
Accessories:  Hand Lettered Holiday die (WPlus9); Liquid Pearls; Wink of Stella

colourQ 368 redux

Colors that keep on giving.  That's our motto this week at colourQ.  Due to some personal issues the challenge at colourQ is open for another week.  Since we're only a few days away from Thanksgiving I decided to use these fall-inspired colors to make a thank you card.

I went back to my patterned paper, layering roots for this one!  I love to dig into my old patterned paper stash (with some exceptions) and I got a double whammy with this one thanks to the Mojo sketch.  These colors are all about autumn and once we get past Thanksgiving in the US these colors take a backseat to Christmas so I really wanted to use them at least one more time in 2016.  

There's still plenty of time to join us at colourQ so I hope you can before the craziness of Black Friday and holiday shopping in general starts.  See you in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Simple Sunflower (Papertrey Ink)
Paper:  Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Vellum (Stampin' Up!); Classic Ivory (Flourishes)
Ink:  Hello Honey, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories:  Thanks Script die (Mama Elephant); Fishtail Flags die (My Favorite Things)

CAS(E) This Sketch 199!

Being on vacation is a wonderful thing!  However, it's really easy to forget what day of the week it is.  Which is why I am late getting my card for the latest challenge at CAS(E) This Sketch posted!  Better late than never!

This card went together amazingly quickly.  I was sitting at my desk making an entirely different card when I was suddenly struck by an idea (helped by the ombre challenge at Addicted to CAS) to layer the word "merry" in varying shades of pink.  I added the Christmas sentiment and I was done.  So easy!

My CAS(E) This Sketch teamies have got some great cards to show you using this sketch so be sure to check them out.  I hope to see you in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Tis the Season (Papertrey Ink)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Pink Pirouette, Pretty in Pink, Rose Red (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Rose Red (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories:  Wonderful Words Holiday die (Papertrey Ink)

Freshly Made Sketches 263!

It's Wednesday so you know that means it's time for a new challenge at Freshly Made Sketches!  We had a bit of a glitch on Monday with the linky tool expiring, but we've got it all sorted now and we are good to go for our new challenge!  Thanks for your patience and thanks to those who "linked" up their cards in the comment section!  Our newest challenge is brought to you by Cécile.  The sketch has circles, but feel free to use whatever shape you'd like.

Now there's a little explanation about why the top of my card is separated from the bottom by a diagonal line when the sketch clearly shows a horizontal line.  I had seen this card from Jane Knudsen and I really liked how she used a die to cut a line of circles then added some colorful patterned paper behind those circles.  I hunted around in my stash and found a similar style die, lined it up carefully on my cardstock horizontally and ran it through my Big Shot.  But the die shifted as it passed through and came out cut on a perfect diagonal.  I'm pretty sure that if I attempted to do that on purpose it would be way off center!  In any event, I liked how it looked and figured this was some sign that I should embrace this "mistake" so I didn't re-do it.  

There's a gray, red, and white challenge going on at Merry Monday and Christmas Card Challenges is looking for glitter.  The red glitter that I used is some paper I've had in my stash for a long time.  I don't know where I got it (or why I got it for that matter) or who makes it but it is VERY thick.  It's useless for dies but I was able to cut it and used it as my layer under those small circles.  The snowflakes were cut from Dazzling Diamonds glimmer paper and you can just imagine how sparkly this is in real life!

Thanks for stopping by and please don't forget to pop on over to Freshly Made Sketches and check out the inspiration from our design team.  I hope to see you in the gallery!

Supplies

Stamps:  Joy (Concord & 9th)

Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Smoky Slate, Dazzling Diamonds glimmer (Stampin' Up!)

Ink:  Ruby Red (Altenew)

Accessories:  Blueprints 20, Blueprints 21 (My Favorite Things); Maryanne Snowflake die (Simon Says Stamp); Make a Snowflake die (Taylored Expressions)