Freshly Made Sketches 642

Well it sure has been a while since I've posted here.  I won't go into the gory details, but suffice it to say that life gets in the way.....of so many things!  But it's my week to be the hostess at Freshly Made Sketches and hostess I will.  My sketch is square and it's got a wavy layer, but as you all know by now, neither is necessary in Freshly Made Sketches Land.  It's all about how YOU interpret the sketch!

I decided to use the gorgeous colors at the Just Us Girls challenge to make a square birthday card.  Blue flowers are hard to come by in my neck of the woods, but they are easy to find when you are the architect!  I love these pops of color!

Thanks for stopping by!  As usual my Freshly Made Sketches teammates have made some amazing cards with this sketch!

Supplies
Stamps:  Birthday Messages (Mama Elephant)
Paper:  Midnight Muse, More Mustard, Bermuda Bay (Stampin' Up!); vellum (Papertrey Ink); Watercolor Wash (My Favorite Things)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Upsy Daisy die (My Favorite Things); Curvy Leaves die (Elizabeth Craft Designs)

Freshly Made Sketches 596

Hold on to your hats folks, because we've got a fun new challenging sketch for you at Freshly Made Sketches!  Our hostess this week is Judy and she has challenged us to keep the bottom part of our sketch completely BLANK!  Say what???!!!

I flipped my card to horizontal to accommodate these mountain dies.  I stumbled across them as I was searching my stash to find something suitable for the sketch.  I feel like this card is a tribute to my fellow design team member Jen as she is a bad-ass mountain climber!  Check out her Instagram and you'll see what I mean.  And at Just Us Girls they are looking for three of something and I've got three mountain ranges here, so I'm going to add this to their challenge as well.

At Freshly Made Sketches there's lots of inspiration so I hope you'll play along with us!

Supplies
Stamps:  For the Graduate (SugarPea Designs)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Gray Granite, Buckaroo Blue, Midnight Muse (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Mountain Landscape Layers die (Impression Obsession)

Freshly Made Sketches 550

Happy Wednesday!  We've got a new sketch for you at Freshly Made Sketches and this week I am the hostess!  I chose a square design with some fun panels that can be used a bunch of different ways.

I loved the colors at Just Us Girls so incorporated those into my card.  Not surprisingly I had some patterned paper in my stash that were the right colors and I put a big fluffy flower front and center.  I love how this came out!  

My Freshly Made Sketches teammates have made some fun and clever cards with the sketch so hop on over to check them out.  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Simple Sentiments (Avery Elle)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Basic Black, Sahara Sand, So Saffron, Taken With Teal, Sweet Pea DSP (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Plentiful Petals die (My Favorite Things)

Freshly Made Sketches 548

Hi friends!  Our latest sketch challenge from Freshly Made Sketches features a straight, vertical layer.  That got me thinking about a stamp set featuring a line of butterflies.  Butterflies seem to abound lately in some of my favorite challenges so I decided to combine my Freshly Made Sketches card with a couple of them.  Our sketch this week is brought to you by Jacquie.  I love her minimalist design.

I wanted to do something simple with my card so I stamped the line of butterflies in a fun color then added a "layer" by drawing a vertical line down the card, being careful to go around the butterflies.  It's a one layer card and so much fun!  There are butterfly challenges at Just Us Girls as well as Less Is More so I'm adding my card to those challenges too!

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you'll play along with our Freshly Made Sketches challenge!  Our design team will surely inspire you so check out their cards.

Supplies
Stamps:  Butterflies and Moths (Tim Holtz); Tiny Words (Simon Says Stamp)
Paper:  Whisper White (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Simply Chartreuse (Papertrey Ink); Onyx Black (Versafine); Copic Multiliner

Freshly Made Sketches 546

We've got a great new sketch for you this week at Freshly Made Sketches!  Our hostess this week is Amy and she's cooked up a great sketch for you.  I can see lots of fun interpretations with this one.

The photo challenge at Just Us Girls provided some additional inspiration for this sketch.  The color of those falling leaves got me reaching for this leafy image which I stamped in a couple of shades of green.  I then popped up the middle part of the stamp with a circle die cut and finished off the circles on the sketch by stamping a couple of actual circles northwest and southeast of the middle one.  Follow me for more geography lessons!  😂

Thanks for stopping by!  My Freshly Made Sketches teammies have made some fantastic cards which will, for sure, inspire you to play along with us!  

Supplies
Stamps:  Dot Botanicals (Altenew); Simple Shapes (Stampin' Up!); Simple Sentiments (Avery Elle)
Paper:  Whisper White (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Minty Mint, Sweet Leaf (Altenew); Nocturne (Versafine Clair)
Accessories:  Circles die (Little B); Shamrock jewels (Pretty Pink Posh)

Freshly Made Sketches 545

Hi everyone.  It's time for a new challenge at Freshly Made Sketches.  This week our sketch was designed by Narelle.  She says she threw this sketch together, but I don't believe her!  It's too awesome!

I'm 💯 in to the Christmas in July thing!  This time around I used the colors at Just Us Girls - unusual for a Christmas card - and used my favorite poinsettia die to create this card.  

Thanks for stopping by!  My Freshly Made Sketches teammates have some fantastic cards to inspire you to play along with us, so be sure to check them out.  I hope you join us in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Joy Stamp (The Stamp Market)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Going Gray, Calypso Coral, gold foil (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Blooming Poinsettia die (Memory Box); Blueprints 15 die, Stitched Rectangle die (My Favorite Things)

Freshly Made Sketches 538

I know the calendar says June, but the weather says April.  😕 After some spectacular weather lately a cold front has moved in and the temperatures are now back into the sixties and it's raining today.  Blah.  But luckily it's Wednesday so there's a brand new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches which cheers me up immensely!  Our hostess this week is Jacquie and in between cooking up fabulous meals she manages to cook up some fabulous cards too!

I decided immediately that washi tape would be perfect for the vertical layers.  My washi collection has been sitting idle for a while now so it was good to dig through it and find something to use here.  The inspiration photo at Just Us Girls gave me some color cues so the baskets became the washi and the different shades of pink flowers became my arrangement of funky flowers.

Thanks for stopping by!  Of course my Freshly Made Sketches design team members have made some gorgeous cards for you to see.  

Supplies
Funky Flowers (Papetrey Ink); Simple Sentiments (Avery Elle)
Paper:  Sea Glass (Avery Elle); Whisper White (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Frosty Pink, Coral Berry, Ruby Red, Pink Diamond, Pinkalicious, Rubelite (Altenew); Chocolate Chip (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories:  washi tape

Freshly Made Sketches 535

Hi all!  I'm a wee bit late with my card for the latest challenge at Freshly Made Sketches but here it finally is!  Our hostess this week is Amy and I love the banner she incorporated into the sketch.  So many possibilities!  

I chose to use the colors from The Paper Players and the flowers challenge from Just Us Girls and combine them with the sketch to create a CAS thank you card.  The banner was die cut with some parchment-style vellum and I stamped the sentiment on it using my go-to ink for crisp images.  But by the next day the sentiment was a fuzzy, blurry mess.  This looks cute as long as you don't look too close!  😂

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you can join us at Freshly Made Sketches! Our fabulous design team has made some cards that will surely inspire you to play along with us so check them out!

Supplies
Stamps:  Celebration of Thanks (Verve)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Lavender Moon, Green Parakeet (Papertrey Ink); Night of Navy (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Weathered embossing folder (Taylored Expressions); Pierced Fishtail Flags die, Plentiful Petals die (My Favorite Things)

Freshly Made Sketches 532

Hi all!  It's Wednesday so that means we have a great new sketch for you at Freshly Made Sketches!  Our hostess this week is Kim and I know her sketch will inspire so many designs!

I love to take a sketch that looks like it has layers and make a card that has none.  So I stamped a sentiment, masked it off, then stamped the floral design over it.  I drew a box around the whole thing and voila!  I made a card using the sketch!  My colors were inspired by the Just Us Girls challenge and the one layer design was inspired by Addicted to CAS.

Thanks for stopping by!  My fellow Freshly Made Sketches design team members have made some great cards to inspire you to play along with us so be sure to check them out.

Supplies

Stamps:  Botanical Silhouettes (Papertrey Ink)
Paper:  Whisper White (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Nocturne (Versafine Clair); Crimson (Altenew)

Freshly Made Sketches 519

Apologies again for being late to post my card for our newest challenge at Freshly Made Sketches.  Blame it on Wordle.  I've been busy planning my strategy for tomorrow!  😂 Have you heard of it?  Are you hooked?  If you're not currently I predict you will be!

Anyway on to my card.  It didn't take long into the new year for me to get a hankering to make a Christmas card.  Jen Timko's sketch provided the perfect layout and the colors at Just Us Girls provided the soft, sparkly palette.

I embossed the background of the blue layer and then cut this snowflake square out of silver sparkly paper.  The paper is very thin and prone to tearing when trying to pick the small parts out after being cut with a die so it took a while to get all those little bits and bobs removed, but the end result is so worth it.  It's super sparkly in real life!  

Thanks for stopping by!  My Freshly Made Sketches teammates have some fabulous cards to show you with this sketch so be sure to check them out!

Supplies
Stamps:  Fa La La (Simon Says Stamp)
Paper:  Soft Sky (Stampin' Up!); Solar White (Neenah); silver glimmer (Recollections)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Guide Lines Impression Plate (Papertrey Ink); Snowflake Snippets die (Spellbinders)

Fusion - Triangle Balls

It's a holiday here in the United States - Veteran's Day - where we honor those who have served in the armed services.  🇺🇸  My Dad was a very proud Marine and served in Korea during the conflict there.  Many years later he chose the same day to marry my Mom.  💕  I have great respect to those who make the courageous decision to serve their country. 

And today we also have a new challenge for you at Fusion.  The challenge prompt is about Christmas and I chose to use the colors from the photo and I took a little poetic license with the sketch.

I flipped the sketch and using the triangle theme from the inspiration photo used triangle Christmas trees on my card instead of circles.  And I also crowded them into one corner of the card rather than spreading them out per the sketch.  The "merry" dotted die cut is meant to mimic the thin layer on the sketch.  I wasn't kidding when I said I took some poetic license with the sketch too!

I'm also playing along with the challenge at Just Us Girls, where the challenge is the word prompt "Merry!"  Fun!

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you can join us at Fusion - use the sketch or the inspiration or both!  Our design team will give you lots of inspiration so check us out!

Supplies
Stamps:  Triangle Trees (Reverse Confetti)
Paper:  Whisper White, Blue Bayou (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Nimbus (Altenew); Versamark
Accessories:  Merry Dots die (Poppystamps); Cherry Cobbler embossing powder (Stampin' Up!); Clear Sparkle embossing powder (WOW!); clear embossing powder

Freshly Made Sketches 509

We've got a great new sketch for you at Freshly Made Sketches this week.  Our hostess this week is the incomparable Jen Timko!  Her sketch inspired me to make a slimline card.

Halloween is around the corner so that was a big inspiration plus I added in a couple of other challenges.  I took my color cues from the challenge at Just Us Girls and had some fun with the Halloween Fun challenge at Cupcake Inspiration.  

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you can join us at Freshly Made Sketches!  Our design team has some great cards to inspire you to play along!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Ghouls & Goblins (Inkadinkado Stamps); Bite Me, Autumn Apparations (Stampin' Up!)

Paper:  Smoky Slate, Peach Parfait, Whisper White (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Black Licorice (My Favorite Things); Nocturne (Versamark Clair); Smoky Slate (Stampin' Up!); Copics

Accessories:  Pierced Nested die (The Ton)

Freshly Made Sketches 506

I decided to dig into my Halloween stash for my Freshly Made Sketches card this week.  Our hostess this week is Amy and her sketch put many ideas into my head!

The challenge at The Paper Players was a moody-spooky Halloween board which put me in mind of this skull stamp that's been in my stash for ages.  I embossed the image with silver embossing powder and added a few touches of silver cardstock on the card to break up the more somber blacks and blues that I also used.  I was going to add a Halloween sentiment on the bottom black layer but changed my mind at the last minute because I was going to have to heat-emboss it so that it showed up but since I had already assembled and glued the diagonal layers I was afraid I'd get stray embossing powder everywhere.  I should have embossed first and then assembled the layers!  And they've also got a Halloween challenge at Just Us Girls so I'm playing along there as well.

Thanks for stopping by!  My fellow Freshly Made Sketches teammates have made some fabulous cards with this sketch so be sure to check them out!

Supplies
Stamps:  From the Crypt (Stampin' Up!)
Paper:  Whisper White, Basic Black, Night of Navy (Stampin' Up!); foil paper (Recollections); Watercolor Wash Brights (My Favorite Things)
Ink:  Versamark
Accessories:  Petite Scallop Circles Small die, Standard Circles Small die, Standard Circles Large die (Spellbinders); Dotted Borders die (Avery Elle); silver embossing powder

Freshly Made Sketches 504

Hi everyone!  It's Wednesday so that means it's time for a new challenge at Freshly Made Sketches!  This week our hostess is Karren and she's designed a slimline!  I love those!

I started with a slimline rectangle die then made a card base to accommodate it.  Initially I had a vague idea to stamp some leafy images - maybe even with a Christmas theme -  in the corners but when I started poking around some of my favorite challenge sites for inspiration I found lots that are in an autumn theme mood.  So I switched gears, grabbed a stencil, and inked it up in the corners using the colors from Just Us Girls.  I then went over it with some sparkly embossing glitter for a little pizzazz.  I didn't want to cover up the leaves entirely with a horizontal layer across the bottom as per the sketch so I used vellum.  Apologies if it's hard to see in the photo.  You'll have to believe me that it's there!  Then I added a slim horizontal layer in a yellow that is complementary to the ink and a sentiment die cut in black.  Easy peasy!

Thanks for stopping by!  My fellow Freshly Made Sketches teammates have some great cards to inspire you to play along with us!

Supplies
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Crushed Curry, Basic Black (Stampin' Up!); vellum (Graphix)
Ink:  Dried Marigold, Fossilized Amber, Candied Apple (Distress Oxide); Versamark
Accessories:  Tumbling Leaves stencil (Simon Says Stamp); The Big the Bold and You die (Winnie & Walter); Slim Diagonal Stitched Rectangle die (Pinkfresh Studio); clear sparkle embossing glitter (WOW)

Fusion - Peach Birthday

This week at Fusion our inspiration features a birthday party that I definitely want to be invited to!  Peach features predominantly in the color scheme as well as lots and lots of balloons!  I've never gone to a party with such fun decorations!  

I chose to feature some peach on my card, followed the sketch, and used a birthday sentiment.  Instead of balloons I went with a shaker accent - combining inspiration from the latest Just Us Girls challenge.  And it felt good to use up some old SU designer paper from my never-ending stash.  😊

Thanks for stopping by!  My Fusion teammates have got some great cards to inspire you to play along with us, so check them out!

Supplies
Stamps:  Scripty Sayings (Gina K)
Paper:  Whisper White, Peach Parfait (Stampin' Up!); Clear (Flourishes)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Rectangle STAX (My Favorite Things)

Freshly Made Sketches 488

Hi friends!  It's my time to be the hostess at Freshly Made Sketches - always a nail-biter for me!  This time around I made a no-frills sketch, but it's still got some room for your clever interpretation.

When I make a sketch I don't work backwards, meaning I don't make a card and then draw up the sketch based on the card.  I just come up with the sketch and hope for divine inspiration when it comes to actually making a card with it. 😊 This time around when I sat at my desk to make my card I was lucky enough to have some extra inspiration in the form of the dots challenge at Just Us Girls and the Tic-Tac-Toe challenge at The Paper Players (middle row across). 

Originally the ribbon and sentiment layers were a bit longer and I tried to add a few staples on the right side of them to be interesting, but my stapler wouldn't cooperate (read:  user error) and I made a big mess and had to cut down both layers to get rid of said big mess.  However, since I firmly believe in the old adage "there are no mistakes in stamping" I forged ahead with my modified version and all is right in the world.

Thanks for stopping by!  My Freshly Made Sketches teammates have made some awesome cards with my sketch so please stop on by to check them out.  I hope we'll see you in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Tons of Type (The Stamp Market)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Poppy Parade, Wild Wasabi, Basic Black (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versfine)
Accessories:  Subtle embossing folder (Stampin' Up!); enamel dew drop (Freckled Fawn); seam binding ribbon