Freshly Made Sketches 165

Oh, what a wonderful sketch we have for you this week at Freshly Made Sketches!  This week our hostess is Cindy Lovell who always makes the most amazing cards.  They're so colorful, full of details and still so fresh and clean.  Every time I visit her blog my wish list grows a bit longer!

I'm sure I seem like a broken record lately because I've been making so many Christmas cards but we're approaching D-Day in the Christmas card world and aside from a few deviations lately, Christmas cards are all I can think about.  For this card I was also inspired by the last challenge of the year from Festive Friday.  I've always loved making Christmas cards from non-traditional colors and the pinks and gold in this challenge are what drove my card today.

I don't need to tell you that the Freshly Made Sketches design team have created some beautiful cards to inspire you this week. So I hope that you'll check them out.  And I thank you for taking the time to visit me here!

Supplies:

Paper:  Soft Stone (Papertrey Ink); Regal Rose, Basic Black, Gold Foil (SU)

Accessories:  Blooming Poinsettia die (Memory Box); Wet Paint Holiday die (Papertrey Ink); Blueprints 13 die (My Favorite Things); Speckles stencil (Tim Holtz); gold embossing paste (Wendi Vecchi)

Poinsettia Christmas

Day one of my vacation finds me toiling away at my Christmas cards.  I like this one a lot and it wasn't overly complicated so it may make my mass produce list!

The colors are inspired by the Festive Friday challenge as well as the poinsettia.  The photo has a wreath but to me poinsettias are a quintessential Christmas image too.  The layout is from Cardabilities and the circle on the sketch was a great excuse to use this Patio Stone stamp which I bought ages ago and have never inked up.

Well that's it for me today.  It's raining outside which gives me the perfect excuse to say instead getting crafty!  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Peace on Earth (Verve); Patio Stone (Designs by Ryn); Grunge Me (Papertrey Ink)

Paper:  Classic Ivory (Flourishes); Chocolate Chip, Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green, Champagne Glimmer (SU)

Ink:  Hot Fudge (My Favorite Things); Crumb Cake (SU)

Accessories:  Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables (Lawn Fawn); Blooming Poinsettia die (Memory Box); Banner Trio Die (WPlus9)

Merry Tag

Rainy days are apparently good for the crafting soul.  Yesterday was quite rainy and windy and even though I needed to run some errands, the weather convinced me to stay home and get busy in my craft room.  I'm happy to report that I was very productive in there.  The first thing I made was a tag combining the challenges at Festive Friday and Tag You're It.

I usually stay away from inspiration challenges because they kind of freak me out.  I never know exactly what I'm supposed to be inspired by.  But the Festive Friday inspiration photo jumped out at me because of all that red and the patterns on the wrapping paper reminded me of some of the patterned paper in my stash that never seems to get used.  So I grabbed some shades of red, plus some gray because I can see one gray gift in that pile, and made this fun tag.

The tag is actually bigger than it needs to be and if I CASE myself later, I'll definitely shrink it down and make the patterned paper triangle bigger.

Today promises to be rainy and windy again, but I can't afford another whole day neglecting the house in favor of some quality crafting time.  The cupboards are nearly bare and I need to get to the grocery store in plenty of time to watch late afternoon football and later The Walking Dead.  There just aren't enough hours in the day to accomplish what I want to do!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Paper:  Basic Gray, Real Red, Ski Slope DSP (SU)

Accessories:  Hand Lettered Holiday die (WPlus9); Traditional Tags STAX, Pierced Traditional Tags STAX (My Favorite Things); silver organdy ribbon, real red grosgrain ribbon, silver cord, jumbo eyelet, frosted sequins (SU); Wink of Stella pen  

Peace

Aside from one rainy day this past week we have had some fantastic weather here in Massachusetts.  The sun has been shining, the temperatures have been more like June than October and it's been truly wonderful.   And it's all coming to and end.  Starting today fall is back and while fall is nice, it really just means that winter is not that far behind.  Good news for some, but bad news for a snow hater like me.

One thing I do like about this time of year is making Christmas cards.  I've been meaning to make a card for the Festive Friday challenge and finally found some time on Saturday to get in my craft room.  The Sketch Saturday provided a nice layout for my idea too.

I was inspired by the colors, the red ribbon and the greenery so I fussy cut some pine branches then added some red circles to simulate berries.  A little ribbon, a simple sentiment and I was done.  The white chairs sure give an impression of white space, so I made sure to leave lots on my card.

Well that's it for me.  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Fantastic Foliage (SU); Joyous Noel (Verve)

Paper:  Early Espresso, Real Red, Whisper White (SU)

Ink:  Garden Green, Early Espresso (SU)

Accessories:  Pierced Square STAX (My Favorite Things); Real Red grosgrain ribbon (SU)

Tis the Season

It's been a while since I've added a Christmas card to my collection so I was feeling in a festive mood as I checked out some of my favorite challenges last night.  It just so happens that the flower challenge at Merry Monday, the inspiration photo at Festive Friday and the week four sketch at Viva la Verve all went together in my mind.

For some reason I make a lot of Christmas cards using kraft cardstock.  I like how it gives warmth to a design.  And the inspiration photo from Festive Friday definitely had some warm colors to my eye, like kraft, off white, and red.  I added some silver glimmer paper too because that little deer looked kind of shimmery to me.

Today is the start of a nice long weekend here and I am really looking forward to that extra day off from work.  I've got tons to do outside and so far it looks like the weather will cooperate!

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Memorial Day to all my US friends!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Think Big Favorites #8 (Papertrey Ink)

Paper:  Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler, Silver Glimmer, Deck the Halls DSP (SU); Natural White (Neenah)

Ink:  Dark Chocolate (Papertrey Ink)

Accessories:  Pierced Oval STAX (My Favorite Things); Banner Bundle die (Verve); Blooming Poinsettia die (Memory  Box); Berry Blend sequins (Avery Elle)

Good Tidings

I don't know why but I obsessed over this card for way too long.  I finally just decided to post it and move on.

This is my somewhat liberal take on the Deconstructed Sketch using colors from the Festive Friday challenge.  I wanted to use stamps to mimic the flags in the sketch so I grabbed some of my favorite textural stamps, added the sentiment, some washi and sequins and thought I was done.  But then I realized that I missed the little circle element on the sketch so I went back and added a snowflake.  I still wasn't happy though.  There wasn't really anything festive about my card, an essential element of the Festive Friday challenge.  So I put it aside and went to bed.

By the time I got back in my stamp room I had spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about this card.  In order to add the festive I pulled apart a bunch of stuff, added a Christmas tree shape and a star.  I'm still not entirely happy with it, but it is what it is!

Lots of rain yesterday (yuck).  The weeds are going crazy in the garden and I've no time to pull them out.  Should be a fun adventure out there when the sun comes out!  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Textures 1 (Florileges Design); Abstract Art (My Favorite Things); Jingle All the Way (Technique Tuesday); Playful Christmas 2 (Kitchen Sink Stamps)

Paper:  Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Real Red, Very Vanilla (SU)

Ink:  Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Garden Green (SU)

Accessories:  Stitched Stars die (Lil' Inker Designs); Berry Blend sequins (Avery Elle); washi tape

Christmas Cheer

I've been lucky the last couple of days to find myself with some extra time so I've been putting it to good use in the old craft cave.  Today I've got a card to share that I made for the inspiration challenge at Festive Friday using the sketch at Cardabilities.

The antique mirror coupled with all that white in the inspiration photo made me think of vellum and the brown from the twigs made me bring in some natural colors so I used Crumb Cake as my card base and added some Chocolate Chip for depth.  Although it might not look like it, the vellum is not an ordinary flower but is actually a poinsettia (my nod to festive).  The sketch made me, once again, lament that I don't own any doilies so I improvised the big lacy circle by using a stamp instead.

This Christmas card may be a bit over the top for some on my mailing list since not everyone will understand why I put images of a coffee stain and some ink splatters with my poinsettia!  But that's what I saw in my head when I found the sketch so that is what I made!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Dot Spot (Papertrey Ink); Java Spills (Stamping Bella), DIY (Precious Remembrance); Jingle All the Way (Technique Tuesday)

Paper:  Crumb Cake, Vellum, Champagne Glimmer (SU)

Ink:  Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, Garden Green (SU)

Accessories:  Blooming Poinsettia die (Memory Box); Sentiment Strips 2 die (My Favorite Things)

Freshly Made Sketches 130

Hello everyone!  We are halfway through the work-week and thank goodness for that!  Work has been crazy and I'm especially grateful when I can come home and escape to my stamp room.  Nothing like playing around with paper and ink to soothe the soul.  Today, of course, is the sketch reveal at Freshly Made Sketches and this week our sketch is designed by the incomparable Linda Callahan.

t occurred to me that it had been a while since I made a Christmas card.  And since one of  my resolutions for the new year was to make Christmas cards regularly throughout the year I figured I better hop to.  The inspiration at Festive Friday was right up my alley for this resolution.  There's lots of white, a bit of brown and green, and some beautiful natural twine.  These colors inspired my card where I used a die cut pine bough and some burlap and jute twine.

As always, the Freshly Made Sketches design team has created some awesome cards this week so make sure you head on over there to check them out.  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Christmas Quotes (KaiserCraft); Distressed Grid (Creative Embellishments)

Ink:  Crumb Cake, Early Espresso (SU)

Paper:  Kraft (Avery Elle); Chocolate Chip, Garden Green, Whisper White (SU)

Accessories:  Pine Branch die (Impression Obsession); Kraft vintage button (PTI); Chocolate Iridescent sequins (Ellen Hutson); jute twine, burlap

Sparkly Stuff

I am very happy to say that here it is February 3rd and I already have three Christmas cards made for 2014.  Yay me!  Last season I was so far behind making cards that I had myself all stressed out as it got closer to the middle of December.  I was frantically making cards and I don't like to work under pressure like that so I promised myself that this year I would do things differently.

Today I've got a card for the Festive Friday challenge where I was inspired by all the glitter in the inspiration photo as well as the Sketch For You to Try challenge.

I used the super pretty glimmer paper from SU.  I thought it was gold but I think it's really a cross between copper and gold.  I first inked up the sentiment in gold and it didn't look right so I did it again in copper and it matched fine.  But the cord is gold and the organdy ribbon is gold and I think they match too so I don't know what color this is!

I used some embossing paste to jazz up the tag with raised circles then I dusted some Perfect Pearls on them for a little shimmer.  It doesn't show up in the photo, but it's there!

As I'm writing this blog post I'm watching the Super Bowl.  I hope your team won (as long as it's not the Broncos)!  LOL!  I know I'm in the minority rooting for the Seahawks (as I'm reminded all the time by my fellow blogging friends on Facebook) but being from Boston I couldn't possibly root for them!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  tinsel 'n trim (Reverse Confetti)

Paper:  Ultra Smooth Pure White (Avery Elle); White Linen (Ellen Hutston); Champagne Glimmer (SU); Neenah Solar White

Accessories:  Tag Me die (Reverse Confetti); Bubble stencil (Tim Holtz); embossing paste (dreamweaver); Kraft Blend sequins (Avery Elle)

Freshly Made Sketches 106

Welcome to a gorgeous day in New England and another fabulous sketch from Freshly Made Sketches!  The sun is shining, the air is warm and I can almost forget that winter is just around the corner!  But better than all that is a new sketch from Amy, our hostess, who has created a fantastic sketch for you!

There was quite a discussion about the use of doilies for this sketch among the design team, but since I don't own any doilies I had to come up with something else.  After some deliberation I got the bright idea to paper pierce some circles but after I had done it I had second thoughts.  They're kind of  hard to see in the photo, but if you look closely I think you'll see them.  I used some of the super fantastic silver glimmer paper for the "merry" die cut as well as the stars and then I heat embossed the sentiment in silver.  It's quite sparkly in real life which does not show up well here.  The Festive Friday challenge was to use a star so I think this fits the bill there too!

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out the design team inspiration at Freshly Made Sketches!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Wonderful Words:  Holiday (Papertrey Ink)

Paper:  Nightshift Blue (My Favorite Things), Silver Glimmer (SU)

Ink:  Versamark

Accessories:  Stars #2 die (Sizzix), Wonderful Words: Holiday die (Papertrey Ink), silver embossing powder, Dimensionals (SU)