Freshly Made Sketches 463

Once again, our latest sketch at Freshly Made Sketches has inspired me to make a Christmas card.  Our sketch designer this week is Amy, and I fell in love with her design!

I'm always intrigued with the one layer challenge at Less is More because I like to try and take a sketch that seems to have layers and make a card without them.  For this card I started with a pierced square die and embossed the center of the card with it (click on the pic to see the detail).  Then I took some rectangular scrap pieces and drew them on the sketch with a black pen "behind" the square.  The square ended up looking a bit lost, so I outlined it in the same black pen.  Then I colored in every other stripe on the H in red to add some color!

Thanks for stopping by!  My fellow Freshly Made Sketches design team members have made some great cards with sketch so be sure to check them out!

Supplies

Stamps:  Santa's Greeting (Close to My Heart)

Paper:  Whisper White (Stampin' Up!)

Ink:  Black Licorice (My Favorite Things); Pentel red pen; Copic Multiliner 3mm

Accessories:  Pierced Square STAX (My Favorite Things)

Freshly Made Sketches 272!

It's Wednesday so that means it's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.  This week our hostess is Cécile and if you love circles you will love her sketch!  Let's get to it.

You say circles, I say anemones!  I had forgotten all about this die that I bought a couple of months ago and stumbled on it when I was looking for something completely different.  Since the petals of the die cut flowers layer together into an approximate circular shape I thought they would be perfect for this sketch.  The bright yellow, plus the green banner, were inspired by the photo at Fusion and at The Paper Players they are looking for CAS with a flower.

I think it's a bit difficult to see in the photo but I used white embossing paste with a stencil to add a scripty texture to the background of my card.  I love how it adds a little tactile interest!

I seem to be on a birthday card kick lately but not so my Freshly Made Sketches teammates.  The cards this week feature an assortment of sentiments and styles so make sure you check them out.  I hope we'll see you in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Just a Number (Close to My Heart)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Daffodil Delight, Basic Black, Garden Green, Vellum, Daffodil Delight DSP (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Jet Black (Altenew)
Accessories:  Anémones die (4enscrap); Blueprints 21 die (My Favorite Things); Banner Trio die (WPlus9); Scribble Script stencil (Donna Downey); white embossing paste (Wendy Vecchi)

colourQ 282

And here we are at Tuesday again!  Why is it that time moves along at a glacial pace Monday to Friday but then when the weekend comes all of a sudden it's like a Nascar race!  Well, the good thing about it being Tuesday again is that there's a new palette at colourQ.  There's some newsprint again (loved seeing how you all incorporated newsprint into you projects a couple of weeks ago) and some pretty blues inspired by this scarf.

The sketch at As You See It provided the layout for my card.  I just loved all those layers, especially the circle.  I almost added a flower as the focal point then I spied this feather in my stash and thought it would look better.  I just wish I had done two of them!

There are some wonderful shades of blue on display from the colourQ design team so make sure you check them out.  I hope to see you in the gallery!  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Feather Finery (Papertrey Ink); Label Love (Altenew); Stitched Together (Close to My Heart)

Paper:  Classic Ivory (Flourishes); Natural White (Neenah); Basic Black, Buckaroo Blue, Soft Sky, Vellum (SU)

Ink:  White (WPllus9); Onyx Black (Versafine)

Accessories:  Vertical Stitched Strips die (My Favorite Things); Circles die (Little B); clear matte embossing powder (Wow); black embossing powder

Ho Ho Ho

Today is officially the last day of my vacation (insert loud sigh here).  It's been a fun and relaxing two weeks, but all good things must come to an end.  I was quite prolific in my stamp room yesterday and today I'll show you the first of what I made.  You'll have to come back on Tuesday and Wednesday to see what else I got up to {wink}.

I've really been trying to use some patterned paper lately, especially since two small pads of paper jumped into my cart when I was at TJMaxx recently.  In order to do all this paper justice I need to make cards with layers.  Since I like to start my cards with a sketch I've been searching sketch challenges for ones that have some layers.  For this card I chose the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge and added in the tic-tac-toe challenge at The Paper Players.  (I did the left column of Tree, Patterned Paper and Star).

P.S.  Any Walking Dead fans out there?  I'm still in a bit of a daze after last night's mid-season finale.  How about you?

Well that's it for me - I'm off to the grocery store.  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Modern Christmas (Clearly Besotted); Santa's Greeting (Close to My Heart)

Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Solar White (Neenah); Smokey Shadow, Ripe Avocado (Papertrey Ink); Riding Hood Red (SU); Heidi Swapp patterned paper (there's no name on the pack - grrr)

Ink:  Riding Hood Red (SU); True Black (Papertrey Ink)

Accessories:  Pierced Fishtail Flags STAX, Fishtail Flags Layers STAX (My Favorite Things); gold embossing powder

Cardabilities 95 and Dynamic Duos 95

I'm back from my recent Scottish adventure and figured I better get back into my craft room before I forgot how to make a card!  Cardabilities is on sketch 95 and coincidentally Dynamic Duos is on their 95th challenge too so I thought that was a very good reason to put them together.

Cardabilities sketches always make me wish I was a different kind of card-maker.  While I tend to a more clean and simple style their sketches make me want to grunge and layer it all up!  I did a little bit of that here with some sponged and stamped images plus some added leaf and butterfly dies.

I feel like I'm all turned around since I got home from my trip.  Yesterday I basically got nothing done except a quick trip to the grocery store.  Today I've got to get my act together and then it's back to work tomorrow.  It's so hard to come back to reality after vacation!  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Take Note (Verve); Stitched Together (Close to My Heart); JM16 (Jofy)

Paper:  Classic White (Flourishes); Neenah Solar White; Rich Razzleberry (SU); Lavender Moon (Papertrey Ink)

Ink:  Soft Sky, Rich Razzleberry (SU)

Accessories:  Dot Fade stencil (Tim Holtz); Lorelai Leaf die, Lorelai Outline Leaf die (Poppystamps); Leanna Butterfly die (Simon Says Stamp); Banner Trio die (WPlus9); Metallic Art pencils (SU)

Butterfly Birthday for STB19 and PDCC186

I had some time last night to play around in my stamp room.  The Bruins were off, the Red Sox were tied, and the rain was coming down endlessly.  Perfect ingredients for crafting!  I was really struck by the colors at The Play Date Cafe and thought they were perfect for the sketch at Seize The Birthday.

I almost never take pictures of my cards from this angle, but it was the only way I could show that I layered the pink butterfly on top of a black cut out of the same butterfly.  I love how this looks in real life, especially with the line of black rhinestones down the center of the butterfly.  They are sparkly, which doesn't show up on the photo at all!

Well as I mentioned above it is raining here AGAIN.  This has got to be the worst spring I can ever remember because mother nature gives us one beautiful day followed by a week of cold, wet ones.  I'm worried that my annuals and vegetables will not be able to withstand all this rain and I'm worried that I'll never get a tan!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Extreme Elements, Papillon Potpourri (SU); Just A Number (Close To My Heart)

Accessories:  Elegant Butterfly Punch (SU); black rhinestones (KaiserCraft)

CAS(E) This Sketch 15 and Dynamic Duos 40

I'd been eye-balling the latest challenge at CAS(E) This Sketch since I first saw it on Thursday, but I couldn't seem to figure out how to make a card for it.  I had this vague idea in my head of a pennant of chevrons but as I perused my stash of stamps I couldn't find anything that matched my vague idea. Then miracle of miracles, I realized that I was thinking of the chevrons from Border Banter and my vague idea started to take shape.

Once I decided on the stamps, it was a very short leap to the awesome color challenge at Dynamic Duos.  My only regret with this card is that the images are too close to the right side of my cardstock.  Rats!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Border Banter (SU), Thank You Kindly (SU), Stitched Together (Close To My Heart)