Fusion - Typewritten Thanks

 We've got a great new challenge for you at Fusion.  The sketch or the inspiration - you choose!

I chose the sketch and a teeny bit of the inspiration photo.  As I was poking around blogland I saw the color challenge at The Color Throwdown and thought I might have a turkey in my stash that I could color up with the right colors.  In a nod to the typewriter I stamped a background in some type written words.  I wanted to add a "thank you" sentiment but couldn't find anything in my stash that fit without overpowering the turkey!  I'm also going to add this at Retro Rubber and their "fallin' for autumn" challenge.  The text background is from 2003 and the turkey is from 2011.  It pays to not de-stash sometimes!

Thanks for stopping by!  We'd love for you to join us at Fusion.  We've got some great inspiration for you to play along with us!

Supplies
Stamps: It's Fall About You (The Alley Way Stamps); By Definition (Stampin' Up!)
Paper:  Desert (Neenah); Chocolate Chip (Stampin' Up!); X-Press It Blending Card
Ink:  Black Licorice (My Favorite Things); Crumb Cake (Stampin' Up!); Copics

Freshly Made Sketches 476

Hi friends!  It's time for a new challenge at Freshly Made Sketches!  This week our hostess is Linda and I don't mind saying her sketch had me me stumped!

The obvious choice was to layer on some pretty paper in those horizontal lines and finish this with any number of images or shapes for the round part of the sketch.  But I wanted to do something different so I stamped a few images on the diagonal in a couple of shades of soft gray then added the butterfly in blue.  But when I was done I didn't love this at all.  The gray looked green and the butterfly looked too small, so I set it aside and promised myself l'd try something else the next day.

Well sometimes a new perspective is what is needed because when I ventured into my stamp room the next day I decided this didn't look to bad after all.  The "green" had somehow morphed into the gray I was looking for and the butterfly wasn't too small after all.  So I decided to keep the whole thing!

At the Paper Players the challenge is "spring is in the air" and I sincerely hope they are fortune tellers who can foresee the future because I'm SO ready for spring.  My butterfly is a nod to spring.  And in an amazing coincidence my card fits the Retro Rubber tic-tac-toe challenge.  I had already made the card when I checked out the challenge and found the bottom line across fit my card.  My butterfly is punched and the pearls down the back of the blue butterfly add texture (and the stamps are ancient)!

Thanks for stopping by!  Our Freshly Made Sketches design team has got some great cards to inspire you to play along with us!  We hope to see you in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Rugged Edge (Indigo Blu); Papillon Potpourri (Stampin' Up!); Painted Butterflies (Altenew)
Paper:  Whisper White (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Limestone, Silver Stone, Dusk (Altenew); Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Elegant Butterfly punch, Basic Pearls (Stampin' Up!)

Freshly Made Sketches 363

I'm officially in Christmas card mode.  Especially since it's the middle of November and I'm pretty sure that I don't have enough Christmas cards made for this season.  I'm afraid to count how many I have because I don't want to panic if I have way less than I need!  But Freshly Made Sketches to the rescue.  This week our sketch is brought to us by Jen Timko.

As you can see I flipped the sketch on its side and took advantage of all that white space to use up some ancient Stampin' Up! designer paper that I had in my stash.  By the time I put this together I wasn't happy with all that blank space so I cut out a star in some shimmery paper and stuck it to the middle of that space.  The designer paper used colors like old olive, chocolate chip, and real red so that was my inspiration for this color combo.  A little eclectic, but I like it.

There's an anything goes challenge going on at Retro Rubber and this card qualifies on so many levels.  I know they are only interested in aged stamp sets but I've got to share that while the stamp set I used is over a year old as well as the die cut peace sentiment, that designer paper is the real story here.  It's so old I don't remember how long I've had it.  I'm going to guess eighth or nine years at least!  Can you say hoarder?

As usual our Freshly Made Sketches design team has cooked up some wonderful cards to inspire you.  I hope you have some time this week to join us in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Stained Glass Greetings (Simon Says Stamp)
Paper:  Classic Ivory (Flourishes); Real Red, Old Olive, Ski Slope DSP, Merry Moments DSP (Stampin' Up!); glitter paper (Recollections)
Ink:  Chocolate Chip (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories:  Wonderful Words Holiday die (Papertrey Ink); Holy Stars die (Simon Says Stamp); Blueprints 21 die (My Favorite Things)

Freshly Made Sketches 353

This week at Freshly Made Sketches I am the hostess.  I'll be honest, I think it's tough being the hostess because I never know if you will love or hate my sketch!  This week I've given you a square sketch (just because I love doing those despite the fact that square cards cost more to mail here in the US)!!  But don't worry if you want to do a different shape...we're good with that at Freshly Made Sketches. 

And I'm also pleased to announce that the superbly talented Hannelie Bester is joining us this month as our guest designer.  She, of course, needs no introduction...but I will gush that I love how she uses her Silhouette AND designs the most fabulous sentiments and provides them as free digis on her blog!  If you don't know Hannelie I encourage you to pop on over to her blog and be prepared to be wowed!  Now, onto my card and the sketch!

I didn't exactly follow my own sketch because I forgot that I had created a couple of layers, but the spirit of the sketch is there!  I actually never exactly know what kind of card I'm going to create when I design my sketch but I had a vague idea here of filling the bottom of the card with colorful shapes and overlaying that with a bold sentiment.  Then when it came time to sit at my desk and actually make a card I came across the Less is More challenge of black + white + another color.  Yellow is my go to pick for that kind of challenge so I grabbed this pretty outline flower stamp and stamped away.  (It's an oldy but goody I've had in my stash for a few years so that qualifies me for the Anything Goes challenge at Retro Rubber too).  Rather than a bold sentiment, I opted for a small single line that I stamped on a strip of cardstock and adhered with foam tape.

I'm sure you've already checked out the creations from the design team at Freshly Made Sketches but just in case you haven't I encourage you to drop everything and do it now!  They have really created some wonders!  I hope we'll see you in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Blossom (Precious Remembrance)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir)
Ink:  Daisy (Avery Elle); Nocturne (Versafine Clair)

CAS(E) This Sketch 275 Meets Fusion

This week the sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch is going waaayyyyy back in the retro vault.  Yep, all the way back to #3!  Every once in a while we revive an old sketch and if you played along with us the first time around it will surely be fun to play around with us again, don't you think?  That sketch debuted on October 25, 2012 - back when I just just a wee babe 😉- and I had a look at the gallery.  Sadly, I didn't play along with that sketch but I see a lot of familiar names there!

I combined that sketch with the latest Fusion challenge - a floral cupcake one!  I took my cues from the colors of the inspiration photo and on my card dotted some flowers and leaves around that negative circle.  The enamel dots were an add on after I accidently ripped the patterned paper.  There are no mistakes in stamping, I always say, because there's nothing that can't be fixed by an enamel dot, sequin, or some other embellishment!  Right?!

It's been a while since I've played along with Retro Rubber but they've got an "anything goes" challenge going on and I used a sentiment on this set that I've had for many years so play along I did!

Thanks for stopping by!  We've got some great challenges going on at CAS(E) This Sketch and Fusion so I hope you can join us in those galleries!

Supplies
Stamps:  Thanks (Simon Says Stamp)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Pear Pizzazz, Pretty in Pink, Pear Pizzazz DSP (Stampin' Up!); Vellum (Graphix)
Ink:  Nocturne (Versafine Claire)
Accessories:  Button Stax die, Button Stax II die (Papertrey Ink); Curvy Leaves die (Elizabeth Crafts); Matte Sprinkles (Doodlebug Designs)

Freshly Made Sketches 291

It's Wednesday so that means it's time for a new challenge at Freshly Made Sketches.  This week Jen Brum is our hostess and her sketch made me think of patterned paper.....at first.

I totally intended to use some patterned paper for those two rectangle layers and accent them with some flowers (the "circle") but then I stumbled upon an old stamp set with bowling balls and thought "that would work!"  That negated the need for patterned paper and I was able to make a one layer card instead.

I hand-drew the rectangle layers and just drew the bottom one around the bowling pins.  I've had this stamp set since my mother joined a bowling league a few years ago and I think I've only used it once before today.  I'm pretty sure I intended to send her punny cards, but oh well!  Now it's good for the challenge at Retro Rubber.  I think I'll also join the masculine challenge at Stamp Ink Paper.

Thanks for stopping by.  My Freshly Made Sketches teamies have made some beautiful cards with this sketch so be sure to check them out!

Supplies
Stamps:   Balls to You (Unity Stamp Company)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir)
Ink:  Black Licorice (My Favorite Things); Copics

Freshly Made Sketches 280!

This week at Freshly Made Sketches we have this great sketch designed by Linda.  Those may be butterflies on the sketch but you can, of course, use any shape you'd like!

I actually had no idea what shapes I was going to use on my card.  So I started to peruse some of my dies and found these clouds.  Once I saw those I immediately thought of this little flying bunny because what's more natural than an airplane, piloted by a big-eared rabbit, flying through the clouds?  It didn't help that Linda and I were chatting the other day about a Copic coloring class so I had coloring on my mind.  It's been a while since I've used my Copics so it was good to put those to work.

The sentiment on this card is an old one from The Alley Way Stamps, which is no longer in business.  I love how it fits perfectly in the space between the cloud and the plane.  Plus it's a pretty cool sentiment for my little adventurous rabbit.  I'm pretty sure it's about five or six years old so I'm going to add this to the "anything goes" challenge at Retro Rubber.

Thanks for stopping by.  And please join us this week at Freshly Made Sketches where you'll find awesome inspiration from our always-amazing design team!

Supplies
Stamps:  All About You (The Alley Way Stamps); Rabbit Traveler Airplane (Zlatoena Designs)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Blueberry Sky (Papertrey Ink); X-Press It Blending Card; Gingham-Linen Rainbow Petite Prints (Doodlebug Design)
Ink:  Jet Black (Altenew); Copics
Accessories:  Puffy Clouds die (Memory Box)

Freshly Made Sketches 256!

I'm back with a Christmas card for the latest challenge at Freshly Made Sketches.  This week Jen Timko is our hostess and she gave us a big ol' banner that was just screaming for me to use some patterned paper!  That lead me to this really old Christmas DSP I have in my stash and I found an interesting corner of one piece to use as my banner.

I die cut the sentiment out of some champagne glimmer paper and twirled some gold cord behind the poinsettia.  Unfortunately all that sparkle doesn't really show up, despite my stellar photography skills!  There's an "anything goes" challenge this week at Christmas Card Challenges and at Retro Rubber we are to use lace, ribbon, or twine.  The gold cord is my twine and I have had it for years.  It's the first metallic cord that Stampin' Up! introduced many years ago and, lucky me, I have it in gold, silver, and copper.  They are the kinds of supplies in my stash that I'll never get rid of!

Our Freshly Made Sketches design team has really made some beautiful cards this week so be sure to check them out.  I hope to see you in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Champagne Glimmer, Deck the Halls DSP (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories:  Jumbo Fishtail Banner STAX (My Favorite Things); Blooming Poinsettia die (Memory Box); Hand Lettered Holiday die (WPlus9); gold cord (Stampin' Up!)

Freshly Made Sketches 254!

Hello Wednesday!  It's time for a new sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.  This week our hostess is our resident queen of layers Narelle!  I always get a big kick out of her sketches because they appear so simple.  Everyone knows that she loves to layer it on and every week she shows me how to take a simple layout and kick it up a notch or two with layers, color, and texture.

The color challenge at The Paper Players got me thinking of fall, even though the weather around here has been anything but fall-like.  I grabbed some leafy dies and cut out some leaves in the colors of the challenge and arranged them to resemble the circle in the sketch.  I even broke out some washi tape I've had for ages that is a dead-ringer for Cajun Craze and used it for one of the vertical layers.  The challenge this week at Retro Rubber is "anything goes" so I'm adding this over there as well.  At Retro Rubber they challenge us to use stamps that are older than one year on our projects.  I was pretty sure that I had the stamps that I used for a while but I was curious about how long I've had them so I checked back on my blog and I first used the slash border image in October of 2013 and the hashtag sentiment (LOVE this set) in April of 2014.  I love it when I can take some oldies but goodies from my stash and show them some love!

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you have some time to check out our latest sketch at Freshly Made Sketches!  We'd love to have you play along with us!

Supplies
Stamps:  Hashtags (Tim Holtz); Slash Border (Impression Obsession)
Paper:  Ivory (Flourishes); Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, Pear Pizzazz (SU)
Ink:  Early Espresso, Crushed Curry (SU)
Accessories:  Blueprints 21 die (My Favorite Things); Feuilles Asymétriques die, Petit Assortment d'automne die (Simply Graphic); Festive Fall sequins (Neat & Tangled); washi tape

Freshly Made Sketches 193

Hello!  Wednesday is, of course, Freshly Made Sketches day around here and this week our hostess is Rita.  Her sketch is both a great way to use up some patterned paper scraps and also a great way to think outside the box when contemplating those rectangles!  Here's my card:

I had been thinking about making a 4th of July card for a while and last week attempted one for this very same challenge but failed miserably.  So this week I tried it again and I love how it came out.  I stamped all the images onto a rectangular piece of card stock then cut it vertically and took out a small sliver to make a little void between the pieces.  I love that look but don't ask me to explain why!

Coincidentally the challenge at Retro Rubber is 4th of July too so I'll be adding this over there.  The stamps I used have been in my stash for a while, but maybe not a year as they like to see, so I dug out my crimper for one of the layers.  Nothing says early 21st century like a crimper I like to say!

Once again the design team at Freshly Made Sketches will knock your socks off with their interpretations of this sketch.  I hope you check them out and join us in the gallery!  We love to see you there!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:
Stamps:  USA 1776 (Waltzingmouse Stamps)
Paper:  Pure Luxury White (Gina K); Night of Navy, Whisper White (SU)
Ink:  Night of Navy, Real Red (SU); Silvery Shimmer (Delicata)
Accessories:  Real Red button (SU); baker's twine; enamel dots (My Mind's Eye)

Tag You're It 22

Thank goodness it's Friday!  And thank goodness it's a long weekend!  But before I get to that we've got a new challenge up at Tag You're It.  This week our inspiration comes from a very colorful, fruit-filled tag from Lynn Put.

Well, I didn't have any fruit but I was inspired by the colors and the way Lynn layered two tags together.  The floral stamp is quite artsy and I had a grand idea to add some splashes of color to the petals leaving lots of white space and generally making a grand statement.  But, as expected, things didn't quite pan out the way I wanted so I ended up coloring in the petals instead.

The challenge at Retro Rubber is May Flowers so I thought I'd add this over there too.  The sentiment I used is one I've had in my stash for a while and they like us to use stuff that's at least a year old over there.  I'm pretty sure I've had this for a year, but just in case my memory is faulty I used some ancient Stampin' Up! red gingham ribbon that is probably about 10 years old!

The Tag You're It design team has made some great tags to inspire you this week, so be sure to check them out.  We love to see your tags or your tags on cards or whatever other clever ways you can think of to use them!  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Blossom (Precious Remembrance); Hello You (My Creative Time)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Cherry (Avery Elle); Old Olive (SU)
Ink:  Black Licorice (My Favorite Things); Old Olive (SU); Copics
Accessories:  Tag Die, Tag Layers Die (My Creative Time); red gingham ribbon (SU); washi tape

Thank You

Today I'm playing along with three challenges that are new for me.  The Challenge had a nifty sketch with some layers that are askew (and who can resist an askew layer), City Crafter is looking for burlap and Retro Rubber is looking for the crimping tool that I'm sure hasn't seen the light of day in a long time.  So I put all this together and this is what I came up with.

I love to use burlap and since the color is so close to kraft I used that as my card base and then accented it with some bright yellow and black.  I stamped a simple zig zag pattern on white which I hoped wouldn't detract from the die cut sentiment that I layered over it.  All this is layered over a crimped layer and as I was busy crimping my card stock I remembered why I don't use that tool:  it's really difficult to get that card stock to stay straight as it's passing through.  The longer the paper is the worse the effect gets.  It's a cool tool, but better equipped for small pieces I think.

It's very cold here.  And I mean really cold.  There's no snow, which is a good thing in my book, and I'll take a cold day over a snowy day any time.  But I'm dreaming of spring.  I keep telling myself that it will be here soon!  Stay safe if you live in a cold place too!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Borders and Backgrounds 4 (WPlus9)

Paper:  Kraft (Papertrey Ink); Basic Black, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White (SU)

Ink:  Daffodil Delight (SU)

Accessories:  Pierced Square STAX (My Favorite Things); Thanks Script die (Mama Elephant); Small Circle Burst die (Simon Says Stamp); enamel dots (My Mind's Eye); burlap