Freshly Made Sketches 496

My card for Freshly Made Sketches this week is a study in coincidence and serendipity.  The layout is brought to you by our hostess this week, Judy, and I love her design.

So I made a card for this challenge on Sunday but I wasn't really happy with it.  With no shame, I can say it was quite boring.  So Monday I decided to scrap it and sat at my desk looking for some inspiration.  I stumbled on the Color Hues challenge and loved the colors.  I scrolled down to look at their design team cards and found this beauty by Sheri.  I loved her design and what a coincidence that it had some colorful blocks, just like our FMS challenge.  So borrowing her idea I cut some blocks of cardstock in the colors of the challenge and then pondered whether to add a sentiment or some other focal point.  

And then - out. of. nowhere. - this layered snowflake literally appeared in the middle of my desk.  I actually know where it came from.  It was on a card I made a few weeks ago and put aside on my desk.  It was no where near the area where I was working and I have no explanation as to how it unattached itself from that card and appeared in the middle of my work space.  But since one of the snowflakes was in a color compatible with the challenge I knew right away that I needed to use it on this card.  Serendipity, I say!

Thanks for stopping by!  We'd love to see you at Freshly Made Sketches - our design team has some great cards to inspire you to play along with us!

Supplies
Stamps:  Tiny Words Christmas (Simon Says Stamp)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Aqua Mist, Simply Chartreuse (Papertrey Ink); Sea Glass (Avery Elle); Vellum (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Snowflake Trio die (amuse.studio); Let it Snowflake Too die (My Favorite Things)

Freshly Made Sketches 494

Hi all!  It's time for a brand new challenge at Freshly Made Sketches!  Our hostess this week is Narelle and she's given us her signature clean design which can be dressed up to your heart's content!  For my card I went clean and simple.

It's July so that means CHRISTMAS right?  Sure it does!  I don't know how the Christmas in July thing started but I like to take advantage of it to add to my holiday card stash.  And of course a couple of other challenges helped me along.  Addicted to CAS and Less is More are both looking for Christmas themes and since all that white space fits their criteria I decided to play along with them too.

This card was super simple to put together because as I was perusing my stash for something to use as the long vertical layer I happened upon these trees that were already stamped and cut.  They were long and slim and fit the design perfectly so it was just a matter of adding a sentiment and I was done.  I think I spent more time cutting out small pieces of foam tape to mount them to my card front than I did creating the design!

Thanks for stopping by!  My fellow teammates at Freshly Made Sketches have some amazing cards to wow you with so be sure to check them out!

Supplies
Stamps:  Peaceful Forest (Ink to Paper); December Typed Words (Papertrey Ink)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah)
Ink:  Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler (Stampin' Up!); Onyx Black (Versafine)

Fusion - Blue Decor

It's time for a brand new challenge from your friends at Fusion.  After a few weeks of playing along with just the sketch, I decided to create some Fusion this time around and combine the sketch with the inspiration photo.  As you will see I interpreted that photo quite literally!

I really liked the geometric shapes in the photo so loosely following them I added a few to my card front.  I chose Not Quite Navy cardstock from Stampin' Up! as the blue background and in real life it looks very close to the dark blue wall in the photo but in my pic it looks quite bright.  Not what I intended!

I liked the idea of a pop of a different color to break up the shades of blue so I took my cue from the red ottoman and the circular shapes that make up the tall pineapple stand in the photo and added a line of small red circles.  I hemmed and hawed about whether to add a big sentiment to all that blue space but couldn't decide on one that didn't detract from the clean, geometric lines of the card so I left this one blank.  I can always add one later!

Thanks for stopping by!  My Fusion teammates have made some great cards for this challenge so be sure to check them out!

Supplies
Paper:  Soft Sky, Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy (Stampin' Up!); Cherry (Avery Elle)
Accessories:  Blueprints 21 die (My Favorite Things); 1 1/2-inch circle punch

Freshly Made Sketches 493

I've apparently got Christmas on my mind because for the second sketch in a row at Freshly Made Sketches I incorporated another Christmas theme.  Our hostess is Karren and she's given us a great sketch that I broadly interpretated.  😉

In the interest of full disclosure I ask that you don't look too closely at the birch tree on the left!  This is the first time I used this layered stamp set and they are long and a bit unwieldy when trying to use a stamp positioner to get good placement.  I was doing ok until I got to the final stamp when it came out a bit off to the left.  Ugh.  So I put it aside and attempted the layout all over again.  BUT I DID IT AGAIN!!!  Version number one looked better than version number two so that's what I went with and covered up the worst of my transgressions with the sentiment and a sweet cardinal.

My fellow Freshly Made Sketches teammates had no such problems with their cards so be sure to check them out!  I hope you can join us in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Birch Impressionism (Altenew); Joy (The Stamp Market)
Paper:  Whisper White, Real Red (Stampin' Up!); Smokey Shadow (Papertrey Ink)
Ink:  Limestone, Silver Stone, Industrial Diamonds, Pure Graphite (Altenew); Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Forest Majesty die (Whimy Stamps); Branch punch (Martha Stewart)