Freshly Made Sketches 605

It took me a bit longer than I wanted, but I finally got my Freshly Made Sketches card done!  Special thanks to my Freshly Made Sketches teammates for putting up with my delays!  Our hostess and sketch designer this week is Karren and her sketch immediately put me in mind of a Christmas card with one of my go-to design elements:  a poinsettia.  We are also joined this week by Cindy Beach - one of our 600th sketch celebration winners.

The circle on the sketch became a poinsettia framed with a circular die cut of tiny dots.  Once that design element was done the trouble started.  I wanted to use white ribbon for the horizontal layer so I started rummaging through my extensive ribbon stash for white ribbon.  I came up empty!  I must have used it all up!  Then, by some miracle, I found a small scrap of white satin ribbon hiding under the eight million rolls of other ribbon that I've got....and it was the perfect length!  It became my horizontal layer and I put a sparkly die-cut sentiment on top of it!

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you check out my fellow Freshly Made Sketches design teammates cards, because they will inspire you for sure to play along with us!

Supplies
Paper:  Kraft (Papertrey Ink); Solar White (Neenah); Champagne Glimmer (Stampin' Up!);velour paper (Hygloss)
Accessories:  Circles die (Little B); Blooming Poinsettias die, Peace Jotted Script die (Memory Box); satin ribbon (Stampin' Up!)

Freshly Made Sketches 589

I had some logistical and technical difficulties this week but I finally got my card for the latest Freshly Made Sketches challenge posted!

Late work meetings this week prevented me from having my card ready on time and then...my phone died.  Ordinarily that wouldn't have any effect on my card-making (and posting), but lately I've been taking pics of my cards on my phone.  No worries, I say to myself, I'll just use my camera to take the picture of the card.  But it's been so long since I've used the camera the battery was dead!  So after some all-day charging of the camera battery I was able to take the picture, edit it, and post it!  

I'm on a full day without a phone, and I've got to say it's a little weird.  I don't have a landline so I am completely unavailable to anyone who needs to "call" me.  I told my sisters if they need to contact me they'll need to use Facebook Messenger or call me during the day while I'm at work.  How weird is that!  I grew up in the generation where if you needed to talk to someone you called them or rode your bike over to their house!  

But on to my card.  Linda is our hostess and her fun sketch got my thinking about long, thin stamps that might fit the verical layer on the sketch.  That lead to this floral image.  Perfect!  The rest of the card came together quickly and the colors were inspired by the challenge at The Color Throwdown.

Thanks for stopping by!  

Supplies
Stamps:  Poppy Field (Rubbernecker Stamps); Scripty Greetings (The Ton)
Paper:  Whisper White (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Smoky Slate (Stampin' Up!); Baby Pink (Altenew); Nocturne (Versafine Clair)
Accessories:  Circles die (Little B); enamel dots (My Mind's Eye)

Fusion - Christmas Chalkboard

Due to some technical difficulties I am ages late in posting my card for our last Fusion challenge.  But at least I made it.  After 9 1/2 years Fusion is ending.  Started by Lesley Croghan and Jackie Rockwell,  and for the last (nearly) six years helmed by the amazing Karren Johnson, Fusion was a great way to mix and match a sketch or an inspiration photo, or both!  It's always sad to see an old favorite challenge end, but the inspiration provided by Fusion is invaluable and I think that sticks with us in our card-making journey well into the future. 

Our last challenge features a chalkboard design and a sketch with a big half-circle on it.  I did a little combination of both on my card.

I opted to go with the sketch and incorporated some of the elements of the inspiration photo.  I had some patterned paper in my stash that was chalkboard-y like so I used that for my background.  The circle ended up being a complete disaster!  I initially wanted to do a shaker with the circle but that involved lining up several circle dies precisely in order to create a blank circle in the center to feature the acetate window and my dancing sequins.  After four, and I do mean four, attempts at lining up the dies and having them shift at the last minute as they were feeding through my die cut machine I gave up and went with a boring white circle with a sentiment stamped on it.  I jazzed it up a bit by stamping some of the words in different colors and popping them up with some foam tape.  Fun!

Thanks for stopping by!  And thanks to everyone who played along with our Fusion challenge over the years.  And a special thanks to Karren who invited me on to the design team and then had to put up with me!

Supplies
Stamps:  Christmas Feeling (Kaiser Craft)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Real Red (Stampin' Up); Heidi Swapp
Ink:  Nocturne (Versafine Clair); Wild Wasabi, Real Red, Baja Breeze (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories:  Circles die (Little B); Festive Mix (Studio Katia)

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)

Fusion - Cloth Bunnies

We've got a fun new challenge for you at Fusion!  I was inspired to use the colors in the photo along with the sketch to create a birthday card.

I love these little bunnies with their rustic colors and fabrics.  But alas I didn't have any suitable bunnies in my stash so I borrowed the colors from the photo and incorporated them into the sketch to make a birthday card!

I used a dotted border circle die for my half-circle layer because I thought it was much more interesting than a plain-old-boring-regular-circle.  Then I took a little dive into my stash and found something called "naturals ivory" from SU.  I used it to die cut the flowers.  It's a little more earthy version of ivory and went perfectly with the kraft colors.

Thanks for stopping by!  Our Fusion design team has got some fabulous cards to inspire you to play along with us!

Supplies
Stamps:  Simple Sentiments 02 (Simon Says Stamp)
Paper:  Desert Storm (Neenah); Night of Navy, Naturals Ivory (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Night of Navy (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories:  Daisy die (La-La Land Crafts); Circles die (Little B); matte sprinkles (Doodlebug Designs)