Freshly Made Sketches #670

Hi there!  I'm back today with a card for our latest challenge at Freshly Made Sketches.  Amy is our hostess this week and she's given us a fantastic sketch!

My seasons are a little off because this sunflower is more suited to the end of summer than the dead of winter but I love this image and I thought it would be perfect for this sketch.  I scoured my stash of patterned paper for the perfect backgrounds and found these two SU! beauties.  All of it came together beautifully!

Thanks for stopping by!  

Supplies
Stamps:  Splendid Sunflower (My Favorite Things)
Paper:  Honey Nut (Papertrey Ink); Early Espresso, Old Olive, Whisper White, Spring Shower DSP, Welcome Neighbor DSP (Stampin' Up!)

Ink: Hello Honey, Baked Brown Sugar, Early Espresso (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories:  Splendid Sunflowers die (My Favorite Things); Yana's Sentiments hot foil plates and dies (Spellbinders)

Freshly Made Sketches 615

I'm continuing a mad dash of making enough Christmas cards to mail to friends and family and this week's Freshly Made Sketches provided a great layout.  Our hostess this week is Karren and many thanks to her because the circle on the sketch was a poinsettia no-brainer for me!  We are also joined this week by guest designer Nancy Leppek, one of our 600th sketch challenge winners.  

I used the lovely velvet paper in my stash to create the poinsettia.  It is quite decadent in real life!  I paired it with a textured background and some ancient patterned paper for a quick and easy card.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Peace Love Joy (Right at Home)
Paper:  True Thyme, Early Espresso, Holiday Thyme DSP, Rose Gold (Stampin' Up!); velour paper (Hygloss)
Ink:  Soft Suede (Stampin' Up!)

Accessories:  Layered Poinsettia die (Spellbinders); Rustic Burlap impression plate (Papertrey Ink)

Freshly Made Sketches 600

We are celebrating our 600th challenge at Freshly Made Sketches this week!  That's a lot of inspiration!  It started with our debut sketch on September 7, 2011 and continues strong to this day!  To help us celebrate this milestone we've got some guest designers joining us!  Here is our sketch and my take on it.

I used this gorgeous dahlia stamp as my "circle" on the sketch and decided at the last minute that the horizontal layer should be this lovely burlap ribbon.  I hot foiled the sentiment in gold - and can I just confess that every time I attempt hot foiling I put the foil upside down and I end up foiling the plate and not the cardstock.  I've got a mental block about it apparently!

As I mentioned we are joined for this momentous 600th sketch challenge with some guest designers.  These lovely ladies have featured as our "queens of clean" frequently and we thought it fitting to invite them to play along with us for this anniversary sketch.  You'll find their cards at the top of our Freshly Made Sketches post.

And, of course, our Freshly Made Sketches design team has rocked it out of the park for this challenge.  I hope you are inspired to join us in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Delightful Dahlia Additions (Papertrey Ink)
Paper:  Layering White (Gina K); Solar White (Neenah); Wild Wasabi (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Sea Breeze, Turquoise, Starlight (Altenew)
Accessories:  Yana' Sentiments Hot Foil Plates and Dies (Spellbinders); Burlap ribbon (Stampin' Up!)

Freshly Made Sketches 583

Hi everyone!  We've got a great new sketch for you at Freshly Made Sketches!  Our hostess is Narelle and although my first thought upon seeing the sketch was "rainbow" I ended up with a sunny scene instead.

It's been an age since I've used washi tape on a card so I took the opportunity to use some to make the horizontal layer at the base of my burst of sunshine.  I layered a hot-foiled sentiment over the washi and added a little floral spray.  Fun!

And since I think this card qualifies as CAS I'm going to consider that it qualifies for the challenge at Less is More.

Thanks for stopping by!  My fellow Freshly Made Sketches design teammies have got sone great cards for you to see so be sure to check them out!

Supplies
Stamps:  Kinda Eclectic (Stampin' Up!)
Paper:  Whisper White, Basic Gray (Stampin' Up!); Royal Velvet (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Daffodil Delight (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories:  Curvy Leaves die (Elizabeth Craft Designs); Button Stacks die (Papertrey Ink); Everyday Sentiments II hot foil plate (Spellbinders); washi tape

Pinks & Pearls

I'm excited to share that I am the guest designer at As You See It for their Pinks & Pearls challenge.  It seems that the design team over there liked one of my cards recently and invited me to be a guest designer!  I always get a goosebump or two when I get recognized for one of my cards!

It's no secret that I tend to gravitate towards clean and simple cards so I love a challenge that has got lots of elements to it.  I get to stretch my creative wings!  For my card I embossed the background and sponged on some color to give it a little depth.  Then I added two layers cut with a deckle die set in shades of pink.  The top layer was cut in white with the same deckle die and sponged on the edges to create an aged look.  Then it was stamped with a simple branch.  The blossoms on the branch were colored with different shades of pink.  I added a few pearls and I was done!  I love how this came out!

Thanks again to the design team at As You See It for inviting me to play along with them!

Supplies
Stamps:  Artfully Asian (Stampin' Up!)
Paper:  Whisper White, Rose Red, Pink Pirouette (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Rose Red, Regal Rose, Strawberry Slush, Pink Pirouette (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories:  Weathered embossing folder (Taylored Expressions); Deckled Rectangle dies (Spellbinders); Basic Peals (Stampin' Up!)

Freshly Made Sketches 564

Christmas is in full swing here at my house.  At least for my cards, that is!  And I'm having fun experimenting with my new hot foil machine, as well.  The two things came together for my card for Freshly Made Sketches this week.  Cécile is our hostess and her card inspired a lot of Christmas possibilities for me.

It was hard to capture a decent picture of this card, but the background is a lovely rose-gold foil and I topped it with a scallop circle also cut in rose-gold followed by a vellum poinsettia.  Unfortunately the color of the rose-gold and the poinsettia itself didn't lend well to my not-so-great photography skills.  But the card is very pretty in real life!

I hope you have time to play along with us at Freshly Made Sketches this week.  As usual my fellow design team members have cooked up some fabulous cards to inspire you!

Supplies
Stamps:  Tiny Words Christmas (Simon Says Stamp)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Rose Gold Specialty (Stampin' Up!); vellum (Graphix)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Plaid Tidings Background hot foil plate, Petite Scallop Circles die, Layered Poinsettia die, Rose Gold Shimmer Foil (Spellbinders); Stitched Circles STAX (My Favorite Things); Blooming Poinsettia die (Memory Box); Love Glitter Sprinkles (Doodlebug Designs)

Freshly Made Sketches 558

Hi all.  Today we've got a great new sketch for you at Freshly Made Sketches.  Our hostess is Jacquie and her design got me thinking about snowflakes, of all things!

I opted to go with a square card to mimic the squares on the sketch.  And from there it was a short leap to these square snowflake dies.  The blank space on the bottom was perfect to emboss a fun, scripty, holiday sentiment.

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

Supplies
Stamps:  Peace Love Joy (Right at Home)
Paper:  Enchanted Evening (Papertrey Ink); Silver Glimmer (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Versamark
Accessories:  Snowflake Snippets die (Spellbinders); silver embossing powder

Freshly Made Sketches 520

Hi stamping friends!  It's time for a new challenge at Freshly Made Sketches and yours truly is the hostess this week.  I chose - surprise, surprise - a square card for my sketch.  But, as I always say, you can use another shape if squares aren't your thing.  Here's what I did with the sketch.

I happened to spy this colorful and cheerful patterned paper in my stash the other day and thought it would look super cute for this sketch.  I was right!  The gingham looks so cute with the florals!  I actually attached an entirely different sentiment to this card at first but after looking at it for a bit I thought it was too dark and too big.  So I made this rounded square and stamped a prettier sentiment on it and layered it over the old sentiment.  I hope whoever gets this card doesn't start investigating my crafting techniques and discover the sentiment underneath!

Thanks for stopping by!  My fellow Freshly Made Sketches teammates have, once again, knocked it out of the park with this sketch so be sure to check them out!

Supplies
Stamps:  Posted Note Sentiments (Reverse Confetti)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Pixie (Avery Elle); Vellum (Stampin' Up!); patterned paper (American Crafts)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Classic Scallop dies, Standard Circles dies (Spellbinders)

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)