Freshly Made Sketches 654

It's my turn to be the sketch hostess at Freshly Made Sketches and I think I came up with a sketch that has lots of room for interpretation.  Rectangles?  Who cares.  Triangles?  Boring.  The sketch is merely a prompt for you to unleash your creativity.  I can't wait to see what you create!

I, however, did modified triangles in the form of some slim trees. 😉

When I sat down at my desk to turn the sketch into a card I had a vague idea to use some triangular shaped trees, but honestly didn't know exactly how this design was going to go.  Then I looked through my stash of stamps and found these trees already stamped and in the colors that I needed!  Once I had all of those, this card went together pretty quickly. Some pearlescent snowflakes in the background, a bit of colorful paper, and some twine for added texture and my little Christmas card was born!

I've been absent from the Freshly Made Sketches blog for quite a bit this year because my work/life balance is out of whack.  But it felt good to make this card and take back my craft room from my kitties!  They had the last laugh, though, because I used a stencil for the falling snow and when I peeled it back from the card there was a big blob of cat fur stuck to the embossing paste!  

Thanks for visiting and a special thanks to my teammates at Freshly Made Sketches who have been graciously putting up with my absence for many months. 😘 🩷

Supplies
Stamps:  Peaceful Forest (Ink to Paper); Jingle All the Way (Technique Tuesday)
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Merry Moments DSP (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Falling Snow stencil (Simon Says Stamp); Pearlescent embossing paste (Dreamweaver) jute twine

Freshly Made Sketches 494

Hi all!  It's time for a brand new challenge at Freshly Made Sketches!  Our hostess this week is Narelle and she's given us her signature clean design which can be dressed up to your heart's content!  For my card I went clean and simple.

It's July so that means CHRISTMAS right?  Sure it does!  I don't know how the Christmas in July thing started but I like to take advantage of it to add to my holiday card stash.  And of course a couple of other challenges helped me along.  Addicted to CAS and Less is More are both looking for Christmas themes and since all that white space fits their criteria I decided to play along with them too.

This card was super simple to put together because as I was perusing my stash for something to use as the long vertical layer I happened upon these trees that were already stamped and cut.  They were long and slim and fit the design perfectly so it was just a matter of adding a sentiment and I was done.  I think I spent more time cutting out small pieces of foam tape to mount them to my card front than I did creating the design!

Thanks for stopping by!  My fellow teammates at Freshly Made Sketches have some amazing cards to wow you with so be sure to check them out!

Supplies
Stamps:  Peaceful Forest (Ink to Paper); December Typed Words (Papertrey Ink)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah)
Ink:  Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler (Stampin' Up!); Onyx Black (Versafine)

Freshly Made Sketches 459

Hello everyone!  Today is sketch reveal day at Freshly Made Sketches.  Our sketch hostess is Jen Brum and apparently she was determined to confound me with some angled layers!

I set out to do a Christmas card using some pretty patterned paper that was specifically designed for Christmas themes.   I chose some highly contrasted colors and patterns, chose an appropriate holiday sentiment, and was fully prepared to pat myself on the back for a job well done.  But when I got done with it I realized absolutely no one was going to recognize this as a Christmas based solely on some pretty paper.  So I figured I better add something to the mix.  Enter some long skinny trees - obviously Christmas trees  - in complementary colors!  All is right in the world!

My fellow design team members at Freshly Made Sketches have really done some amazing things with this sketch so be sure to check them out.  We hope you'll join us in the gallery!

Supplies
Paper:  Whisper White, Holiday Thyme DSP (Stampin' Up!)
Stamps: Ways to Say It Merry Christmas (Papertrey Ink); Peaceful Forest (Ink to Paper)
Ink:    Cranberry Crisp, Old Olive (Stampin' Up!); Onyx Black (Versafine)

Fusion Christmas

First things first...happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends!  It's a day to be thankful for what we have and for me it's also a day to be thankful that I'm eating out and I don't have to cook or clean!

But on to the real reason for this post:  Today we've got a new challenge with a Christmas theme at Fusion and this time around I sorta kinda combined the sketch with the inspiration photo.

I am mildly obsessed with plaid this Christmas season so I chose to do a rather simple plaid background on my card.  Then I added a layer with some embossed falling snow and some pointy trees that were arranged in a loose interpretation of the circles on the sketch.  See - I kinda sorta used the sketch!

Thanks for stopping by!  My fellow Fusion teammates have made some fantastic cards this week so be sure to check them out.  I hope you can join us in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Peaceful Forest (Ink to Paper); December Typed Words (Papertrey Ink)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Cherry Cobbler, Wrapped in Plaid DSP (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Ripe Avocado (Papertrey Ink); Always Artichoke, Cherry Cobbler (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories:  Snowfall/Speckles embossing folder (Tim Holtz)

Freshly Made Sketches 413

Hello everyone!  We've got a new sketch for you at Freshly Made Sketches!  Our challenge this week is brought to you by Cécile and I absolutely love how it is fluid and abstract.

For the squiggly line I went with a stencil (also with a squiggly shape) that I went over with embossing paste (if you click on the picture you can see the detail better).  Then came the hard part - deciding what to do with the other elements of the sketch.  I thought about snowflakes first but didn't have any that were small enough for the size of the card.  So I started searching through my stash of sequins and found these gold stars.  Then came the bold "peace" sentiment that I die cut with some gold glimmer paper.  For a little dimension I popped up an ending to the sentiment so that the card reads "peace on earth."

Thanks for stopping by!  My fellow Freshly Made Sketches teammates have made some cards that are sure to inspire you to play along with us!  Please join us in our gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Just Sentiments Be Merry (Ink to Paper)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); gold glimmer (Recollections)
Ink:  Versamark
Accessories:  Wonderful Words Holiday die (Papertrey Ink); Graphic Equalizer stencil (Sheena); Gold Star Confetti (Pretty Pink Posh); white embossing paste (Dreamweaver)

Freshly Made Sketches 410

It's been a week since I've posted here!  Last week was one of those where long nights at work were just not conducive to getting crafty.  It's good that this week I am able to slow down and enjoy some time with my ink and paper!  And I'm just in time for our newest challenge at Freshly Made Sketches.  This week Linda is our hostess and her sketch pointed me in the direction of some new Christmas stamps that I got recently.

In addition to the sketch I used the colors at Color Dare to create this Christmas Card.  And at The Paper Players they want me to go into the woods.  Luckily on my trip there I found all these trees!  I wanted the vertical layer at the bottom of the sketch to be kind of subtle so it is made of vellum with a gold embossed sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by!  My fellow Freshly Made Sketches teammates have made some fantastic cards with this sketch which I am sure will inspire you to play along with us.  I hope to see you in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Peace on Earth (Ink to Paper)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Vellum (Stampin' Up!); gold glimmer (Recollections)
Ink:  Jungle (Avery Elle); Sage Shadow (Stampin' Up!); Versamark
Accessories:  gold embossing powder