Freshly Made Sketches 89

I've got to admit that I let out a little "squeeeeeee" when I saw this awesome sketch by Rita for Freshly Made Sketches.  Sometimes a sketch just grabs me and makes me say yay!  This is one of those sketches.

First of all I love square cards so that was a given that I would love this card.  But add in the rectangle that offers so manly possibilities and the fun little flags peeking from the bottom of the rectangle and I was in heaven.  I realized pretty soon after I saw the yellow challenge at Catered Crop that these two challenges would be perfect for each other.

I don't often use yellow, but Catered Crop story board was so bright and inspiring that I wanted to see if I could make something with yellow that I was happy with.  I used kraft and black to add some neutrals to the brightness and I love how these colors all look together.

The Freshly Made Sketches design team have got some great cards to inspire you this week so hop on over there to check them out.  Then join us in the gallery, because we love to see you there!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Dot Spot, Beautiful Butterflies (Papertrey Ink)

Accessories:  Stitched Sentiment Flag die (Lil Inker Designs); black button (amuse studio); baker's twine

Time To Make a Change

Last week I was very busy at work and had no energy to stamp in the evenings.  The project that I was working on was nearly done by Friday, so it was a relief to put all that stress aside and get inky in my stamp room this weekend.

I have a friend that hinted to me recently that she wants to make a career change.  She was not ready to reveal the details to me, but I figured that's no reason not to support her so I made this fun card that I think she'll get a kick out of.

I used the sketch from the Fusion #7 challenge and this adorable stamp set, aptly called Change.  And this stamp set is particularly appropriate because my friend has been in the banking business for many years!  (The stamp set is available during the month of May for FREE at The Alley Way Stamps store.  Stop by and check out the details).

After my long week, I was looking forward to getting down and dirty in my vegetable garden this weekend.  I bought some of the plants and some compost, and was just getting ready to go outside when I got a call from my father that he needed some help ASAP with some of his VFW work.  Duty calls, so the veggies will have to wait another week.  Good thing we've got a long weekend coming up!

Thanks for stopping by!

Muse #15 Guest Designer!

I've been nervous and anxious for a few weeks now.  Why you ask?  Well, ever since I was asked to be the guest designer at Muse this week!

I had no trouble accepting the offer.  After all, the design team over there is top-notch and I was beyond honored that they even asked me to join them.  But once the initial euphoria wore off, I realized that I was now responsible for providing the members of Muse with a card that had to be inspiring in some way.  Wow.  This was taking my card-making to a whole new level!

So I sat down and thought about what sorts of things inspired me and the first thing I came up with was color.  So I picked out some colors that were complimentary and threw in some black because I love the contrast that always provides.  The next thing I thought of was texture, so I embossed one layer and used some baker's twine on another.  Then I thought of embellishments and used a button and some fun math washi tape.  And that's how my card was born!

If you're not familiar with the Muse challenge, the rules are really quite simple.

1. Use the Muse card as inspiration for your project.  Explain your inspiration and link back to Muse.
2. Provide supportive comments to at least three of your fellow member's submissions.
3. Vote for three of your fellow member's submissions that you find inspiring.

So now all that's left is for me to offer huge thanks to Ardyth and the entire Muse team for asking me to join them and to hope that I've left you with a little something that inspires you to get into your crafty space!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Papillon Potpourri (SU)

Accessories:  Polka Dots embossing folder (Lifestyle Crafts); Pool Party baker's twine, Pool Party button, White baker's twine (SU); washi tape

colourQ 183

It's Tuesday and that means it's time for another beautiful color challenge from colourQ!.  This week Arielle has given us another palette that I think is perfect for a spring-time card full of flowers.

I was inspired by the sketch at Create With Connie and Mary so I inked up the very pretty leaf and flower images from Secret Garden for the focal image on the sketch.  Then I thought that some baker's twine would be a fun twist to the scalloped horizontal layer.  I very nearly forgot the Daffodil Delight from the color palette but luckily I had these wee buttons in my stash and since buttons make the very best centers on flowers, I added it!  

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to pop on over to colourQ and check out the cards from the design team.  They're pretty terrific!  

Supplies:

Stamps:  Secret Garden, Kind & Caring Thoughts (SU)

Accessories:  Daffodil Delight button (SU); Calypso Coral baker's twine (SU), crochet thread

Freshly Made Sketches 77

Wednesday, of course, means there's a new sketch up at Freshly Made Sketches!  This week Jennifer Timko is our hostess and she created this great sketch for your inspiration.

Lately, I've been itching to use some flower stamps (probably because it keeps snowing where I live and I really want spring to arrive) so for this sketch I grabbed Secret Garden and went to work.  And the color challenge at The Paper Players was perfect for what I had in mind so I just had to incorporate that challenge into my card as well.

Every week, each of us on the Freshly Made Sketches design team are overwhelmed at the response we get to our challenge.  We love to see you in the gallery and hopefully this week you can carve out some time from your undoubtedly busy crafting schedule to join us again!  

And a big heartfelt thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Secret Garden (SU)

Accessories:  Deckled Rectangle die (Spellbinders), Secret Garden die, Pool Party baker's twine, Pool Party button, Basic Pearl (SU)

Peace - CFC90 and FTL228

I thought that the color challenge of Black & White Plus One at CAS-ual Fridays was too good to pass up so when I saw it I started to troll blogland for an appropriate sketch.  I settled on a beauty from clean&simple.

I felt like I was somewhat limited on what I wanted to do for the middle "word" portion of my card.  Despite owning an electronic cutter which would have allowed me to cut any sentiment I wanted, I was being kind of lazy when I made this and didn't feel like firing it up for this card.  Instead I relied on one of the sentiments from the Wonderful Words Holiday die from Papertrey Ink.  I punched it in Basic Black then added some Lucky Limeade behind it.  I added a small punched star and wound some baker's twine around the Basic Black layer and called it a night.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Accessories:  Wonderful Word Holiday Die (Papertrey Ink), Star Punch (SU), Lucky Limeade baker's twine (SU)

Less is More and Unscripted Sketches 196

Less is More is celebrating their 2nd anniversary!  That's quite an accomplishment so I wanted to carve out some time to participate.  The theme this week is Kraft & Kreme so I got right to it with some help from Unscripted Sketches.  

I had some washi tape in my stash that I think is supposed to be sort of coppery in color, but it looks an awful lot like Kraft to me so I stuck it on my cardstock and happily found out that I was right!  Then I cut some beautiful butterflies using the Beautiful Wings embosslit out of Very Vanilla and I was done.....almost.  I thought it looked a bit naked so I added a birthday sentiment stamped in Crumb Cake.

As I'm typing this the Superbowl has resumed after the weird power outage, so I'm off to my comfy sofa to finish watching the game.  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  WTF (CAS-ual Fridays)

Accessories:  Beautiful Wings Embosslit (SU), washi tape

Two Cards and Some News!

I'm super excited today because Alison has asked me to be the February Guest Designer over at The Alley Way Stamps and today I'm showing two cards I made for the TAWS blog!  I'm such a huge fan of her stamps that it was a no-brainer for me to accept!  

My first card uses one of my all-time favorite flowers from Awesome Blossom and the sentiment from Jibber Jabber.  These yummy colors are from a new (to me) challenge called still addINKtive.

My second card is a nod to winter, which is still making itself known around here since I woke up today to find a bit of snow on the ground.  Not enough to make a snowman, though, so I had to make my own with this cute image from Jolly Holiday.  He's been captured perfectly in the Polaroid from Framed!  I colored his scarf up with a bit of Lucky Limeade and Island Indigo, which is just about one of my favorite color combos.

Well I'm off to run some errands before I hunker down in the craft cave for some well-deserved crafting fun. Tonight, of course, is the Superbowl and although I don't know which team to root for, I always enjoy the funny commercials!

Freshly Made Sketches 71

Happy Wednesday everyone!  Today over at Freshly Made Sketches, we've got a great sketch created by the oh-so talented Linda Callahan!  I decided to do a valentine.

I pretty much followed the sketch to a "T" but added a few little embellishments along the way.  I stitched some Crumb Cake cardstock onto a layer of Pool Party, then crimped the Cherry Cobbler tag with the Chevron embossing folder.  I finished that off with a big eyelet, some seam binding ribbon and a little baker's twine.  The big heart is from an old set called Love You Much and the sentiment is from P.S. I Love You.

I made this card thinking that I was following a particular color challenge only to find out that I was supposed to use Very Vanilla instead of Whisper White.  Rats!  But I still think it looks pretty cute!

So pop on over to Freshly Made Sketches and check out this fab sketch and the cards from the DT.  Rita and I must have been on a subconscious link because our cards are eerily similar!

Thanks for stopping by!

colourQ 172

If you love a good challenge I highly recommend that you high-tail it over to colourQ and check out the colors this week.  The combo is, in the plainest language I can think of, a doozie.

See what I mean?  These colors make a wonderful tank top.  But when I sat down to try and make a card I ran into a bit of trouble.  (Translation:  I had no idea what to do)!  The challenge at Deconstructed Sketch gave me some inspiration, but this was hard for me!

I think it was the Poppy Parade that was giving me so much trouble.  I ended up using a small square of Everyday Enchantment DSP to take care of that.  Tucked behind the main image layer, it's sort of hoping that no one notices it back there wondering what in the world it's doing.  The rest is ok.  I used up some more of my Urban Oasis DSP and tried out my new Lorelai Leaf and Lorelai Outline Leaf dies.  The flowers are, of course, from one of my favorite new-ish stamp sets, Summer Silhouettes.  

Judging by the colourQ design team, they didn't have nearly as much trouble with these colors as I did, because their project are all amazing!  Head on over to check them out, then I suggest you hunker down in your crafting space and create along with us!

Freshly Made Sketches 68

This week it's my turn to be the hostess at Freshly Made Sketches and I actually ended up with two slightly (and I do mean slightly) different versions of my card!

I used a bit of texture on one of the Very Vanilla layers then created a stamped layer using the background stamp Canvas and Summer Silhouettes.  I added a bit of Natural ribbon and a strip of Lucky Limeade cardstock.  I found some Earth's Elements eyelets in my stash and although I'm sure these are supposed to be Old Olive they are an EXACT match to the Lucky Limeade cardstock.  I wound some baker's twine through they eyelets and thought I was done. 

Then I photographed the card and realized that something didn't look right.  I don't know about you but sometimes it's not until I see the card through the filter of my lens that I see the "true" card and am able to critique it in a whole new way.  For this card I wasn't happy with the transition from the stamped layer and the natural ribbon so I went back and added a thin strip of cardstock between the two.

Although I like it better I think I should have added some color behind the larger embossed layer.  I think the adhesive is stuck fast though, so it's not going anywhere and this card is staying as is!

Don't forget to stop by Freshly Made Sketches and check out the DT cards.  They are amazing, as usual, and sure to give you loads of inspiration!

Freshly Made Sketches 67

Happy new year and welcome to a whole new crafting year at Freshly Made Sketches!

As much as I like the Christmas season, it's nice to hang up those holiday stamps create something without a santa, snowman, or snowflake on it!  It is winter after all, so I'm sure I'm not done with snowmen or snowflakes, but I did take out a pretty flower for my card this week at Freshly Made Sketches.

The incredibly talented Jennifer Timko created this beautiful sketch for us.  It's got lots of great things that I love like layers, fun shapes, room for ribbon and lots of interpretation.  In keeping with my non-holiday theme, I layered some flowers and leaves for a thank you card.  The sentiment is from Made For You and after I put the flower together, I thought it needed a little pizzazz so I added an Antique Brad to the center.

I dug into my precious stash of Kiwi Kiss for this card and used a small strip across the bottom of the card and accented it with some Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine.

The Freshly Made Sketches design team have made some beautiful cards this week, so be sure to stop by and check them out.  I hope you have time to join us this week!

Friday Mashup 90 and Unscripted Sketches 191

The post holiday season always finds me in need of some thank you cards, so I took advantage of the color challenge of Midnight Muse, Pool Party, Basic Black and Whisper White at Friday Mashup and the sketch at Unscripted Sketches to make a simple card.

I can't believe that it's December 31st and that 2012 has come to a close in what seems like record fashion.  I'm looking forward to the new year and whatever mysteries it has in store and I hope that you are too!  For right now I'd like to send you heartfelt wishes for a fun and safe new year celebration, as well as a happy and healthy new year.  

And I'd also like to thank everyone who takes the time to visit my little corner of the blogging world and leaves kind words and encouraging comments.  I'm so thankful to be a part of this marvelous crafting world populated with generous, kind people who give me so much inspiration.  I learn something new each and every day and I look forward to a fantastic, crafty 2013 with you!

Christmas Tags!

I think it's a sign of the season that the challenges this week at CAS-ual Fridays and Stampin' Royalty were to create a gift tag or to use a tag on a project.  I've been trying to stay on top of my Christmas projects this year and I was already in tag-making mode so it was kind of fun to be able to share one of my tags on a challenge site.  To keep things interesting I used the colors from Color Throwdown and the sketch at iSpy.

The Tempting Turquoise with the obvious Christmas colors of Lucky Limeade and Cherry Cobbler threw me for a bit of a loop and I considered a couple of different images on my tag before I thought it might be fun to combine the red and green with some blue snowflakes.  There are actually two snowflakes here layered together and the top one has been covered in Dazzling Diamonds to add some glitz.  At the last minute I added an Ice Circles Rhinestone Brad, which looks way better in person that it appears here.

The holiday season is truly upon us because later today I'm off to Borderland State Park to help out at a holiday concert.  Time to Jingle Those Bells!

Christmas Has Gone to the Dogs!

So the challenge this week at The Friday Mashup was to use a stamp that has nothing to do with the holidays and make a holiday card with it.  Heidi encouraged us to get a cup of coffee and think about the challenge before grabbing a stamp set, so that's exactly what I did.  It was good advice because after a bit I remembered I had a punny stamp set that was pretty much tailor-made for this challenge.  I liked the sketch at iSpy so I used that as my layout.

My sister and her family recently adopted a pooch, so I think I'm going to send this to them!  I used some Holiday Treasures DSP to create this fun houndstooth and striped background.  The row of "buttons" at the top were stamped with the aptly named Button, Button and sort of resemble candy to me more than buttons.  (Think sugar plums dancing in my head)!

I'm so glad that I remembered this stamp because it's always fun to make non-traditional cards!  Thanks for stopping by!