Freshly Made Sketches 616

We've got a fun new sketch for you at Freshly Made Sketches.  Our hostess and sketch designer this week is Amy.  I discovered I'm a bit low on my Christmas cards this year 😳 so I took the opportunity to use the sketch to add to my Christmas card stash.  Gotta get those cards in the mail!

In addition to the pretty patterned paper I wanted to use snowflakes on my card. And since I've got about 8-million snowflake dies I thought this would be easy to do.  Alas, the dies proved to be difficult to cut and punch out  all the little pieces.  The one on this card is the only one that I managed to do properly.  But I love how it looks!

The colors of my card were inspired by the Christmas Card Throwdown challenge.  

Thanks for stopping by!  My fellow Freshly Made Sketches have made some fantastic cards with this sketch so be sure to check them out!

Supplies
Paper:  Concord Crush, Champagne Glimmer, Lap of Luxury DSP (Stampin' Up!); Silver Foil (Recollections)
Accessories:  Snowflake Cluster Fancy Die (Hero Arts); cold cord (Stampin' Up!)

Freshly Made Sketches 615

I'm continuing a mad dash of making enough Christmas cards to mail to friends and family and this week's Freshly Made Sketches provided a great layout.  Our hostess this week is Karren and many thanks to her because the circle on the sketch was a poinsettia no-brainer for me!  We are also joined this week by guest designer Nancy Leppek, one of our 600th sketch challenge winners.  

I used the lovely velvet paper in my stash to create the poinsettia.  It is quite decadent in real life!  I paired it with a textured background and some ancient patterned paper for a quick and easy card.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Peace Love Joy (Right at Home)
Paper:  True Thyme, Early Espresso, Holiday Thyme DSP, Rose Gold (Stampin' Up!); velour paper (Hygloss)
Ink:  Soft Suede (Stampin' Up!)

Accessories:  Layered Poinsettia die (Spellbinders); Rustic Burlap impression plate (Papertrey Ink)

Freshly Made Sketches 614

I've been a bit under the weather and missed last week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge, but I managed to make a card for this week with our new sketch designed by Jen Brum!

Our design team had a bit of a laugh when we saw Jen's sketch -  because she is a self-proclaimed circle-hater!  And this sketch is just chock full of them!  But kudos to her for facing her fears!  I decided to use a bokeh stencil to create the circles on my card.  I added a horizontal vellum layer and a die cut sentiment cut from red foil cardstock.  It's a super simple design and pretty much all my pneumonia-fogged brain could come up with!

We are joined this week by Nancy Elrick, one of our 600th sketch winners.  So be sure to check out her design and the designs of our design team.  Amazing!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Paper:  Lost Lagoon, Vellum (Stampin' Up!); Watercolor Wash (My Favorite Things); Red Foil (Recollections)
Ink:  Frost White (Colorbox)
Accessories:  Bokeh Lights stencil (Simon Says Stamp); Merry Christmas die (Dee's Distinctively)

Freshly Made Sketches 612

We've got another fun sketch challenge for you at Freshly Made Sketches!  This week our hostess is Linda and her sketch got me thinking about layering some patterned paper and making a Christmas card.

 

This card is almost entirely made from patterned paper.  Despite my reputation as a CAS card-maker I do love layers once in a while.  😉  And patterned paper is my favorite way to create layers.  Once I settled on the layers for this card I added a die cut "JOY" sentiment plus another small sentiment to finish the thought.

Once again my Sketchbook from Trinity Stamps was a huge help when I was designing my card.  I love that I can sketch out different ideas before I actually start cutting into my precious paper stash.  (And I use a pencil when I'm sketching out my ideas so I can easily erase something that turns out to be the wrong idea).

Thanks for stopping by!  As always my fellow Freshly Made Sketches design team members have made some smashingly good cards with this sketch!

Supplies

Stamps:  Joy Stamp (The Stamp Market)

Paper:  Ruby Red, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Real Red, Silver Glimmer, Holiday Treasures DSP (Stampin' Up!); Solar White (Neenah)

Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)

Accessories:  Large Joy die (Simon Says Stamp); Glitter Drops: Leaf (PinkFresh Studio)

Freshly Made Sketches 611

I'm the hostess this week at Freshly Made Sketches...insert nail biting here.  I went with a layered design -not something I usually do.  But I like to challenge myself.  I hope you do too!

I'm at the point in the year when I start to worry that I don't have enough Christmas cards in my stash so that's my main focus when I make a new card.  This card uses a pretty plaid with gold and silver accents.  

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Paper:  Night of Navy, Gold Foil, Wrapped in Plaid (Stampin' Up!); vellum (Graphix); Christmas Overlay (Marisa Lerin);
Accessories:  Tag Sale #5 die (Papertrey Ink); RyLynn snowflake die (Simon Says Stamp); Let it Snowflake Too die (My Favorite Things); Metallic Gold Rhinestone (Pretty Pink Posh); Shine Gold Twine Cording (Maya Road)

Freshly Made Sketches #610

I am a day late and a dollar short with this card!  I still had Halloween on my mind when I made this card for our newest Freshly Made Sketches challenge not realizing that by the time the card was posted Halloween would be over!  But Halloween it is!  This week our hostess is Jen Timko and we are joined by our guest designer Patti Brunter, one of our FMS600 challenge winners!

I was inspired by the color challenge at Addicted To CAS.  I'm not sure that this card fits the CAS mold, but I love it all the same!  The stenciled clouds were a last minute addition and I'm glad I thought of them!

Thanks for stopping by!  I don't have to tell you that our Freshly Made Sketches design team has made some fabulous cards with this sketch, but I will!

Supplies
Stamps:  Autumn Apparitions (Stampin' Up!)
Paper:  White (Pure Luxury Gina K); Basic Black, Vintage Violet (Stampin' Up!); Simply Chartreuse (Papertrey Ink)
Ink:  Vintage Violet (Stampin' Up!); Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Mini Cloud Edges stencil (My Favorite Things)

Freshly Made Sketches 609

At Freshly Made Sketches this week our sketch is designed by Judy and we are joined by a new guest designer, Donna Mikasa, who was one of our 600th sketch challenge winners!  Check out the fun sketch!

The proportions of my card is a little off from the sketch 😬 but this card was born out of the scrap heap!  I had this panel with the pinecones hanging around on my desk for a while.  I had made it for a card that ended up not being made (!) and thought it might work nicely for this sketch.  I wanted the background to be bold so I used a dark indigo for the card base and layered on some nice tartan paper too.  There are lots of gold accents too!

Thanks for stopping by!  Of course, the Freshly Made Sketches design team has some fabbo cards to share with you, so I hope you check them out!

Supplies
Stamps:  Stained Glass Greetings (Simon Says Stamp)
Paper:  Dark Indigo (Papertrey Ink); Gold Foil, Whisper White, Wrapped in Plaid DSP, Champagne Glimmer (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Dark Indigo (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories:  Classic Pine stencil (Altenew); Peace Jotted Script die (Memory Box)

Freshly Made Sketches 608

We've got a great new sketch for you at Freshly Made Sketches!  Our hostess this week is Jacquie and we are joined once again with one of our winners from our 600th sketch celebration, Melissa Grant.

I got an idea in my head to combine kraft, yellow, and black together for my card and this is what came out.  And I've got to say that the concept looked way better in my head than what I managed to make!  Fun fact:  the upside down triangles are from a set of "fir trees" dies.  I do love when I get to use something with a particular them in a completely different way!

Thanks for stopping by!  My Freshly Made Sketches design team friends have made some way better cards than mine, so be sure to check them out!

Supplies

Stamps:  Scripted Bold Sentiments 2 (Pinkfresh Studio)
Paper:  Desert Storm, Solar White (Neenah); Basic Black, Daffodil Delight (Stampin' Up!)

Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)

Accessories:  Sapins die (Simply Graphic); washi tape (Stampin' Up!)

Freshly Made Sketches 607

I'm pretty sure that I took some liberties with our Freshly Made Sketches challenge this week!  My bats have been substituted for the circles, but at least I managed to make the focal point a square....with my favorite skull.

We're only a few weeks away from Halloween so I thought I'd better get cracking on those cards!  I don't send out a lot of Halloween cards, but I do enjoy making them.  This skull is one of my favorite images and I love to pair the images with unexpected colors.  Pink and gray?  Yes, please!

Thanks for stopping by.  My Freshly Made Sketches teammates have made some fabulous cards to inspire you to play along with us, so I hope you do!

Supplies:
Stamps:  From the Crypt (Stampin' Up!)
Paper:  Basic Black, Basic Gray, Pretty in Pink, Sweet Pea DSP (Stampin' Up!); Pure Luxury White (Gina K)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  black embossing powder

Freshly Made Sketches #606

It's Wednesday so that means we've got a new challenge for you at Freshly Made Sketches.  Our hostess this week is Narelle.  She's given us a fun sketch with three circles (three of anything is my fave 😂 - just kidding).  But I'm always up for a challenge!  We're also joined this week by another guest designer from our 600th challenge-palooza - Claire!

This was the second card I made for this challenge.  The first one had pretty flowers but they were from a stencil and were too far apart to be believable for the sketch so I had to do some re-thinking.  I thought it would be a fun interpretation of the sketch to use chunky letters that spelled out "JOY" so that's what I did.  I cut them from gold foil and layered them on top of some holiday-themed patterned paper.  I thought the patterned paper was a bit too bright for the look I wanted, so I added a vellum layer over it to soften it up a bit.

Thanks for stopping by!  Be sure to check out the inspiration from the Freshly Made Sketches design team!

Supplies
Stamps:  Peace Love Joy (Right at Home)
Paper:  Pretty Peacock, Gold Foil (Stampin' Up!); Vellum (Graphix); Snow Village (Pink Paislee)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Joy die (Pinkfresh Studio)

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

Freshly Made Sketches 596

Hold on to your hats folks, because we've got a fun new challenging sketch for you at Freshly Made Sketches!  Our hostess this week is Judy and she has challenged us to keep the bottom part of our sketch completely BLANK!  Say what???!!!

I flipped my card to horizontal to accommodate these mountain dies.  I stumbled across them as I was searching my stash to find something suitable for the sketch.  I feel like this card is a tribute to my fellow design team member Jen as she is a bad-ass mountain climber!  Check out her Instagram and you'll see what I mean.  And at Just Us Girls they are looking for three of something and I've got three mountain ranges here, so I'm going to add this to their challenge as well.

At Freshly Made Sketches there's lots of inspiration so I hope you'll play along with us!

Supplies
Stamps:  For the Graduate (SugarPea Designs)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Gray Granite, Buckaroo Blue, Midnight Muse (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Mountain Landscape Layers die (Impression Obsession)

Freshly Made Sketches 595

I've really been into making Christmas cards lately.  I don't know if it's the "Christmas in July" phenomena or just general panic that I'll end up short at the end of the year!  But another Christmas card is on tap for our new challenge at Freshly Made Sketches.  Amy is our hostess and I think her layered design called for some patterned paper in the background.

Poinsettias are one of my favorite elements to use on a Christmas card and I paired one with this patterned paper that combines SU! Crumb Cake, Always Artichoke, and Cherry Cobbler.  The poinsettia and leaves were die cut using two of the same colors and I jazzed the card up a bit with some gold glimmer on the die cut sentiment and the center of the flower.  The "peace" sentiment is intended to replicate the rectangular layer on the sketch and I was able to tuck in a complementary sentiment next to the tail of the "P."  

Thanks for stopping by!  

Supplies
Stamps:  Stained Glass Greetings (Simon Says Stamp)
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler, Always Artichoke (Stampin' Up!); gold glimmer (Recollections)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Blooming Poinsettia die, Peace die (Memory Box)

Freshly Made Sketches 594

It's Wednesday so that means there's a great new sketch challenge for you at Freshly Made Sketches!  Our hostess this week is Narelle and those circles put me in mind of these fun (and new to me) fireworks images.

I bought the matching die for these stamps and I've got to say that trying to match up the die with the stamped image was very challenging.  I think the key might be to cut out each die cut onto plain paper and then use that as a registration mark on the stamped image.  I realized this, of course, after many attempts to line up the die with the image, and a few choice words when it wasn't working!

But in the end I'm happy with the result and thanks to Sunday Stamps Challenge for the colors!

Thanks for stopping by!  My Freshly Made Sketches teammates have some creative cards to inspire you to play along with us, too, so be sure to check them out! 

Freshly Made Sketches 593

I've got Christmas on my mind again for my Freshly Made Sketches card.  Karren has given us a great sketch inspired by a "bridge" card and I'm not ashamed to say I had no idea what a bridge card was!  Luckily the sketch can be interpreted in other ways, but I was intrigued by the concept so I watched the video link on Freshly Made Sketches and loved the idea!  I can't wait to try my own variation of a bridge card!  Here's how I interpreted the sketch.

This funky Christmas paper formed the background of my card and inspired the gold snowflake swoosh.  I stamped the slim sentiment in gold and added some golden gems for a little added bling.

Thanks for stopping by!  Our Freshly Made Sketches design team have some marvelous interpretations of this sketch so definitely check them out!

Supplies
Stamps:  Triangle Trees (Reverse Confetti)
Paper:  Whisper White, Sahara Sand, Holiday Lounge DSP (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Gold (Encore)
Accessories:  Snowflake Cluster Fancy Die (Hero Arts); metallic gold jewels (Pretty Pink Posh)