Freshly Made Sketches 45

Happy Wednesday everyone!  Today over at Freshly Made Sketches the wonderfully talented Cindy has got a fantastic sketch for you that is a perfect way to show off all that patterned paper that I know you've been hoarding!  I went into my personal DSP vault and selected some retired paper called Cottage Wall for my card.

It seems like ages since I've used Old Olive, a color that I used a lot in days gone by, so that was a big motivator for me choosing this DSP.  I layered the pretty paper on cardstock then decided it needed a bit of jazzing up so I stitched it with a zig-zag.  I tried to channel my inner Jennifer who has an amazing knack for mixing up patterned DSP for maximum impact, but I'm not sure that I succeeded with my striped layer.  I like the added ribbon and baker's twine, but now that I'm studying it I wish I added a button.  Drat!

The pretty flower is from an old favorite Raining Flowers.  And in a sudden burst of inspiration I decided to substitute the sentiment for a row of brads.  There's just something about a row of brads that I really love and I thought they added some interesting texture.

I hope you have time to join us this week at Freshly Made Sketches.  Be sure to stop by and check out the amazing samples from the design team!

Cindy Hall

Tui Nathan

Jennifer Timko

Allisa Chilton

Jen Sannes

Ann Schach

Linda Suarez

Jennifer Brum 

Freshly Made Sketches 44

Welcome to Wednesday and a new sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.  This week it's a sketch from yours truly!

Now the funny thing is that when I saw this sketch on our design team blog, I thought "holy moly, what was I thinking?"  But once I sat down at my desk to attack this sketch make my card, I figured it wasn't really all that bad.  I did change it up a bit and made a square card instead of a rectangle.

One fun thing about my card is that it is chock-a-block full of sneak peaks from the new mini that is due out August 1st!  The gorgeous leaves and acorn with their rock-and-roll color are from Wonderfall (I can't seem to resist a stamp set with leaves in it) and the lively and colorful DSP is from Orchard Harvest (which I've already used twice in the short time I've had it and that generally means that I really love it).  I even managed to sneak in a Brushed Bronze Designer Button tied with a bit of baker's twine.  I wanted a simple sentiment for this card and waffled a bit about what to use, but ended up with the clean "thank you" from Just Believe.

Now head on on to Freshly Made Sketches and check out the cards from the design team who, judging by the fabulous cards they've made, didn't have nearly as hard a time with this sketch as I did!  Here's a handy-dandy list for you:

Cindy Hall

Tui Nathan

Jennifer Timko

Allisa Chilton

Jen Sannes

Ann Schach

Linda Suarez

Jennifer Brum 

Paper Players 101 and Color Throwdown 197

It seems like forever since I made a card for the Color Throwdown challenge, but the colors this week were too good to pass up so I stayed up late last night in my stamp room to make a card for the challenge.  The sketch at The Paper Players was the perfect pairing for the colors.

And I've just realized that once again I put the sentiment in the wrong place.  Grrrr.  I hate when I do that.  Hopefully the lovely ladies at The Paper Players will be forgiving.  I used some of my Urban Garden DSP for the Kiwi Kiss layer (I swear I'll never use that all up) and for the Cajun Crazer layer I used the Stripes embossing folder.  The sweet flowers and sentiment are Verve.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hand Stamped Sentiments 121 and retro sketches 15

Today, when I should have been mowing the lawn, I went into my stamp room and made a card.  I feel a little guilty, but I got a bunch of new stuff yesterday and I needed to try some of it out!  The lawn will still be there tomorrow, after all.  Not to mention that Hand Stamped Sentiments has a really cool color challenge this week and I didn't want to forget to participate.  Paired with the latest retro sketch I think I made a pretty card.

I used a little old and a little new with this card.  The Daffodil Delight DSP is from Beyond the Garden and that beautiful flower is from the new Stippled Blossoms.  I was pretty sure that flower would look fabulous in yellow and I was right!  I'm a little excited about my bow.  I think it looks nice and I have a new gadget to make them.

I'm a huge fan of ribbon and bows on my cards, I'm just not a huge fan of making bows.  I am able to make a half-way decent one and some of my blogging friends have generously given me tips and tricks to make me better at it.  I've got the Bow Easy, but I don't like using it because I think the "fingers" should be longer so that there's less chance the ribbon slips off it.  I have this huge wooden bow maker that I bought years ago for tying ribbons on my Christmas packages and I realized that what I really wanted was a smaller version of that.  So today, I went down cellar and made this from a scrap of walnut (so fancy!) and dowels.

I've seen other similar bow makers for sale on other's blogs, but I'm cheap and I've got a cellar full of wood and figured it would be pretty easy to put together.  So far I like it.  It's super simple to use and the dowels move around so I can make different sized bows.  Yay me!

Thanks for stopping by!