Freshly Made Sketches 361

This week at Freshly Made Sketches yours truly is the sketch designer. I humbly submit this sketch, which on a second (or third) look has an awful lot of rectangles on it.  Good thing at Freshly Made Sketches we aren't too concerned about shapes and you can use whatever shapes take your fancy!  Case in point, I used a circle and some twine to take the place of some of those pesky rectangles.

Happy Halloween!  Since today's the day I thought it would be fun to make a card to celebrate the occasion,  along with challenges  at Creative With Stamps and Stamp Ink Paper.

I hope you have a chance to join us at Freshly Made Sketches this week. The design team has made some terrific cards to inspire you so check them out!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Best Fiends, Bite Me (Stampin' Up!)
Paper:  Black Licorice (My Favorite Things); Solar White (Neenah); Pumpkin Pie (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Black Licorice (My Favorite Things); Fossilized Amber, Spiced Marmalade, Wild Honey (Distress Oxide); Nocturne (Versafine Claire)
Accessories:  Starburst Framelit (Stampin' Up!); Circle STAX (My Favorite Things); Harvest Corn twine (Maya Road)

CAS(E) This Sketch 268

It's time for another sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch!  I'm not afraid to tell you that this sketch had me stumped at first.  I tried a couple of different versions before I settled on this one.

I wish that I had angled my little watercolored panel a bit to mimic the sketch but that didn't occur to me until after I cut it!  And if you could see the previous versions I came up with you would understand that I just wanted to make a card that was pleasing to the eye and basically followed the sketch.  In my eye this one did the trick so I went with it!  And I know that the sentiment is in the wrong direction BUT I wanted to keep it within the layer on the side (a-la the sketch) and the only way I could do that was to turn it so that is was vertical.  At Creative With Stamps they are celebrating 2 years with a challenge that is CAS with a sentiment.  I think this fits the bill!

Thanks for stopping by!  Our amazing CAS(E) This Sketch design team has created some fantastic cards using this sketch so be sure to check them out!

Supplies
Stamps:  Say What (Mama Elephant)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Cool Carribbean (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Broken China, Mustard Seed (Distress); Onyx Black (Versafine)

CAS(E) This Sketch 208!

Since Valentine's Day is only five days away, I took the opportunity to use the latest sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch to make a valentine.

There are a few valentine challenges this week so I'm joining in the fun at AAA Cards, Creative With Stamps, and The Paper Players.  I've made a couple of valentines this year and one thing occurred to me each time:  I have lousy valentine stamps.  The sentiment I used on this card is about the only thing I have that even remotely fits the theme.  I must rectify this, I think!

N@ Ali has brought us this great sketch so be sure to check out the creations from the CAS(E) This Sketch design team this week.  We'd love to see you in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Fancy Word Coordinates (Reverse Confetti)
Paper:  Soft Stone, Pure Poppy (Papertrey Ink); Gingham-Linen Rainbow Petite Prints (Doodlebug Design)
Ink:  Jet Black (Altenew)
Accessories:  Blueprints 21 die, Stitched Rectangle STAX (My Favorite Things); Scribble Heart die (Simon Says Stamp)

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

colourQ 349!

I've just come off a very relaxing three day weekend with 4th of July celebrations to boot, but now it's back to the office and back to reality.  But before I head in to work, I've got a card to show you using the latest palette at colourQ.

The colors are a little patriotic, but after seeing the Christmas in July challenge at The Paper Players I decided those colors would look good on a Christmas card as well.  I used some Diamond Sparkle Medium on the background using a stencil and I can tell you that it looks much better in person.  The sparkle barely shows up here!  The challenge at Creative With Stamps is to use ink splatters and since those can sometimes look like snow too, I inked some behind Santa.  I like how it mimics the snowy background.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope that I'll get to see you in the colourQ gallery this week.  There's a lot of inspiration from the design team at colourQ so be sure to check it out!

Supplies
Stamps:  Jingle All the Way (My Favorite Things); Gorgeous Grunge (SU)
Paper:  White (Papertrey Inkn); Real Red, Island Indigo (SU); X-Press It Blending Card
Ink:  Black Licorice (My Favorite Things); Marina Mist (SU); Copics
Accessories:  Jingle All the Way die, Blueprints 20 die, Traditional Tags STAX, Pierced Traditional Tags STAX, Washi Tape die (My Favorite Things); Falling Snow Stencil (Simon Says Stamp); Diamond Sparkle Medium (Imagination Crafts)