Freshly Made Sketches #668

Hello stamping friends!  We've got a great new sketch for you at Freshly Made Sketches and this week our design is brought to you by Karren.  The sketch looked like it had layers to me so I dug into my stash of patterned paper and made a valentine.

The color challenge at Color Hues helped to inspire my valentine.  Kraft + {insert color here} is always a favorite combination of mine.  The contrast is fun and so versatile.  In this case the vertical layers on the sketch lent themselves perfectly to a couple of different pieces of patterned paper which created the perfect background to my heart.  I added some gold Wink of Stella to the "love" die cut, but it looks very blah in this picture.  In real life it's quite zazzy!

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you can join us at Freshly Made Sketches.  🩷

Supplies
Stamps:  Love Stamp (Hero Arts)
Paper:  Kraft (Papertrey Ink); Real Red (Stampin' Up!); Gingham-Linen Rainbow Petite Prints (Doodlebug Designs)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Love die (Hero Arts); Scallop Border die (The Stamps of Life); Wink of Stella

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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!)

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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)

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Hi all!  We've got a great new sketch for you at Freshly Made Sketches!  Our hostess is the lovely Jen Brum and she's given us a great sketch!

I've had enough of making Christmas cards for now so I thought it would be a good idea to make a Valentine.  The two circles on either ends of the sketch got me thinking about hearts so I went deep into my stash and found an oldie-but-goodie Valentine set and inked up a couple of hearts from it.  I put those on one corner and for the opposite end I opted for a small tag with a heart on it.  Cute!  The big "love" sentiment is the real star, though!

Thanks for stopping by!  As usual my teammates at Freshly Made Sketches have made some amazing cards with this sketch so be sure to check them out!

Supplies

Stamps:  Love (Hero Arts); I {Heart} Heart (Stampin' Up!)

Paper:  Whisper White, Real Red (Stampin' Up!)

Ink:  Real Red (Stampin' Up!); Onyx Black (Versafine)

Accessories:  Love die (Hero Arts)

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I'm full on Christmas nowadays!  And this week the sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch gave me a reason to use this fun Santa bursting through the front of my card!

I broke out my beloved stash of Stampin' Up! Baja Breeze for this card so that I could play along with the challenge at Color Throwdown.  I even managed to dig up some old designer series paper in the same color.  My Santa is a nod to the Christmas Kickstart Challenge.

Thanks for stopping by!  My fellow teammates at CAS(E) This Sketch have some fantastic cards this week so be sure to check them out.  They will inspire you for sure!

Supplies
Stamps:  Be Jolly (Your Next Stamp); Kelly's Fa La La La La (Hero Arts)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Basic Gray, Baja Breeze, Real Red, Ski Slope DSP (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Black Licorice (My Favorite Things); Basic Gray (Stampin' Up!); Copics

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I learned a new word just in time for this week's Freshly Made Sketch challenge.  It's trypophobia and it is the fear of shapes!  This is relevant because our sketch hostess this week is the very talented Jen Brum and, as is well documented, she does not like circles.  So what does she do?  She faces those fears head on and designs a sketch with about a billion circles on it!  Way to go Jen!

For my part, I thought bokeh dots were the way to go...

There are love themed challenges all around blogland this week so I was able to play along with a few of them such as The Paper Players, AAA Cards, and Just Us Girls.  I'm not that confidant in my ability to do a decent watercolor background so I used some patterned paper that did the work for me.  I added my bokeh dots with some stencils and stamped a big old sentiment in the middle.  The idea for this card came to me when I was out walking on my lunch hour on Monday.  The temperatures were near 60-degrees which is a nice bonus in what are normally the coldest winter days around here.  I'm pretty sure the warm temperatures and the sunshine inspired my creativity!

Our Freshly Made Sketches design team have made some fantastic cards this week with this sketch.  I'm always amazed at where these sketches take us!  I hope you can play along with us this week!

Supplies
Stamps:  Love (Hero Arts)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Watercolor Wash Brights (My Favorite Things)
Ink:  Frost White (Colorbox); Nocturne (Versafine Clair)
Accessories:  Bokeh Lights stencil (Simon Says Stamp)

Tag You're It 80

A little over a year ago at Tag You're It Challenge we said goodbye....but not for good!  I'm so happy to say that with challenge #80 WE ARE BACK!

Tags are such fun projects to make.  You can use them as tags on gifts or you can add them to a card front to make a great card.  For our comeback challenge we've got a valentine - love is in the air - theme!

For sure I wanted to incorporate some hearts onto my tag.  I found an old stamp set that had a few heart images with various patterns so I stamped a couple of them in red and pink.  To my tag I added a die cut "love" sentiment and a couple of those stamped hearts along with a sentiment on an angle.  At Time Out Challenges their inspiration photo had a lot of hearts so I wanted to play along with them as well!

It's so great to be back at Tag You're It Challenge!  Our design team has got some great tags to inspire you to play along with us!

Supplies
Stamps:  I {Heart} Hearts ( Stampin' Up!); Love (Hero Arts)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Real Red (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Real Red, Pretty in Pink (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories:  Love die (Hero Arts)

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It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches!  Our sketch this week is designed by Kim and I thought it would make a nice valentine.

Inspired by the colors at Sunday Stamps I created an ombre design with the angled stripes and then dug out a very ancient Stampin' Up! set and stamped the big heart.  And an obvious choice was this valentine sentiment that followed the diagonal perfectly.

The battery died on my camera just as I was about to take the pic of this card.  Not wanting to delay I took the pic on my mobile phone instead.  It is so dark!  I'm embarrassed to show it but didn't have enough time to wait for the battery to charge and take a better one.  So there you have it!

The Freshly Made Sketches design team has created some great cards for this challenge so be sure to check them out for inspiration.  I hope you'll join us in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Love You Much (Stampin' Up); Love (Hero Arts)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Rose Red (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Rose Red, Regal Rose (Stampin' Up!)

CAS(E) This Sketch Meets Fusion

It's that day when I get to combine the sketch challenge from CAS(E) This Sketch with the inspiration at Fusion.  This week love is in the air!

I love penguins (especially the Macaroni ones) but I didn't have one single penguin in my stamping stash.  So Etsy to the rescue!  I found this adorable digital stamp and since that little guy (girl?) was surrounded by hearts I knew it was the perfect image for the Fusion inspiration.  I added some cute patterned paper in layers a-la the sketch and my little valentine was born!  Lucky for me valentines abound because the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge is Have a Heart so this fits well over there too!

Thanks for stopping by!  We've got a great sketch for you at CAS(E) This Sketch and at Fusion you can follow the sketch or the inspiration or both!  I hope you'll join us!

Supplies
Stamps:  Penguin Bundle of Love (Conie Fong); Love (Hero Arts)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); X-Press It Blending Card; Cherry (Avery Elle)
Ink:  Nocturne (Versafine Clair); Copics
Accessories:  Love die (Hero Arts)

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Happy Wednesday!  It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.  This week our sketch is brought to you by Cécile and it is simplicity at it's finest!  Let your imagination be your guide!

I made another Valentine!  I think it's because the color challenge at Cupcake Inspiration inspired my theme.  I liked the idea of a bit of black accenting the cream and pink and I thought it would make an interesting Valentine.  My card actually ended up being a postcard.  I made this card over the course of two days.  My only task on Day 2 was to stamp the sentiment.  Well, I wasn't paying very good attention because this top-fold card was bottoms up when I stamped the sentiment so it would have opened bottom side up.  Oops!  No problem, though.  I cut the card along the fold and I'll attach it to another card base - there are no mistakes in staming, right!!??!!

Thanks for stopping by!  And don't forget to check out the inspiration from our always-amazing design team at Freshly Made Sketches.  I hope to see you in our gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Love (Hero Arts)
Paper:  Classic Ivory (Flourishes); Black Licorice (My Favorite Things); Pink Pirouette, Regal Rose (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Regal Rose (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories:  Love die (Hero Arts); Pierced Rectangle STAX, Rectangle STAX (My Favorite Things); Pink & Pepper Couture sequin mix (The Ton); Wink of Stella

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It's a month until Valentine's Day and our latest challenge at Freshly Made Sketches is just the thing to put you in the love-mood!  Our hostess this week is Kim and I think you are going to love her sketch!  We've also got some exciting news.  Teresa Kline will be joining us at a guest designer for the next two months.  We are thrilled to have her as a part of our team!

Have I mentioned that I love to make shaker cards?  I made one that I posted yesterday and here I am again with another one.  They're just so darn FUN!  This one is jam-packed with Valentine colored sequins (and even a few hearts).  I got this little sequin pack from my Tag You're It teammate Susan for my birthday and they were just what I needed to make this Valentine perfect!  There's a Valentine challenge at CAS on Friday so I think I'll add this over there too!

Thanks for stopping by.  We'd love to see you in our gallery at Freshly Made Sketches so please join us.  There's loads of inspiration there for you to see from our always-amazing design team!

Supplies
Stamps:  Love (Hero Arts)
Paper:  Cloud White (Reverse  Confetti); Cherry (Avery Elle); Pretty in Pink (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Cherry (Avery Elle)
Accessories:  Love die (Hero Arts); stitched heart die (White Lotus)