Freshly Made Sketches 378

It's time for a new sketch from Freshly Made Sketches!  This week our challenge hostess is Amy and her sketch inspired me to bring a little spring-time into my world!

As is well documented here when I see three of something on a sketch I go into full-on panic mode.  I spent many an hour thinking, thinking about what to do with this sketch.  I made a card that was a VERY liberal interpretation of it and after spending a day thinking about it decided it no way was representative of the sketch so I scrapped it in favor of three daisies.  With the plaid background this screamed spring to me, which was fortunate because the challenge this week at The Paper Players is all about spring and at Stamps Ink Paper they want plaid!

Thanks for stopping by!  Our Freshly Made Sketches design team has made some fabulous cards with this sketch so be sure to check them out.  I hope we'll see you in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Sentimental Birthday (Winnie & Walter)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Amethyst Allure (Papertrey Ink); Daffodil Delight (Stampin' Up!); Perfectly Plaid Rainbow (Lawn Fawn)
Ink:  Nocturne (Versafine Clair)
Accessories:  Gerbera Daisy die (My Favorite Things)

Freshly Made Sketches 361

This week at Freshly Made Sketches yours truly is the sketch designer. I humbly submit this sketch, which on a second (or third) look has an awful lot of rectangles on it.  Good thing at Freshly Made Sketches we aren't too concerned about shapes and you can use whatever shapes take your fancy!  Case in point, I used a circle and some twine to take the place of some of those pesky rectangles.

Happy Halloween!  Since today's the day I thought it would be fun to make a card to celebrate the occasion,  along with challenges  at Creative With Stamps and Stamp Ink Paper.

I hope you have a chance to join us at Freshly Made Sketches this week. The design team has made some terrific cards to inspire you so check them out!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Best Fiends, Bite Me (Stampin' Up!)
Paper:  Black Licorice (My Favorite Things); Solar White (Neenah); Pumpkin Pie (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Black Licorice (My Favorite Things); Fossilized Amber, Spiced Marmalade, Wild Honey (Distress Oxide); Nocturne (Versafine Claire)
Accessories:  Starburst Framelit (Stampin' Up!); Circle STAX (My Favorite Things); Harvest Corn twine (Maya Road)

Tag You're It 76

We've got another great challenge for you at Tag You're It.  This fortnight our tag design is brought to you by Emily Midgett.

I based my tag on the colors that Emily used and also managed to incorporate an animal, a deer to her bear.  I didn't have a stamp that mimiced the pinebough swag at the top of her tag so I improvised with some washi tape (so I could play along with the Stamp Ink Paper challenge), some pine tree die cuts, and a sentiment that is generally in the shape of some swag.  I added some sequins to take up some of that white space.   I'm also adding this at the Anything Goes challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.

The stamp and die cut combo that I used here is an inexpensive set that I got at my local Michael's store last year and this is the first time I inked it up.  I can only imagine that I had a coupon or it was on sale for a price that couldn't be beat because I don't usually buy my stamping supplies there.  So long story short, the deer die cut does not match the deer stamped image.  Say what???????  Isn't that the point of having a stamp and die set!  [You might be able to see in the image that the lines of the stamp don't match the lines of the die]  The company that makes these images is a well-established company in the crafting industry and I would have expected that their quality control was a bit better than it is. 

Anyway all this in a way to say how important it is to support the smaller "mom-and-pop" shops that are the backbone of the paper crafting industry that we love so much.  I don't have to mention them by name - you know who they are!  Their quality is impeccable and, in my experience, if there is a problem (and those are rare) they are more than happy to rectify it at their own expense.

Ok.  I'm done with my high horse!  It's time to get back to our latest challenge at Tag You're It.  We'd love to see you play along with us so please check out the inspiration from our design team and join us in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Hampton Art
Paper:  Cloud White (Reverse Confetti); Pool Party (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Soft Suede (Stampin Up!); Versamark
Accessories:  Hampton Art die; Tag Sale Quilted die (Papertrey Ink); sequins (Verve); washi tape; seam binding ribbon; crochet thread

CAS(E) This Sketch 244

Every where I look I see autumn or Halloween themed cards.  I've made a few of those lately myself but today I've got a Christmas card to share.  The calendar reminds me that Christmas is fast approaching and that I need to get a move-on with my Christmas card stash.  So here's another one for the books. 

The latest sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch gave me my layout.  Those layers had me stymied for a bit but I worked out a template using some scrap paper and once that was done this card went together very quickly.

Now, that bottom layer is actually some very pretty glitter cardstock that, in real life, is subtle shades of gold with some silvery-gray streaks shot through.  My photo makes it look very un-inspiring.  It's much prettier in real life.  The poinsettia is a new die that I got recenly and I love how it looks but it didn't come with leaves so I improvised with a die cut and corresponding stamp from another brand's poinsettia.  The sentiment was embossed on a vellum layer.

In an amazing coincidence I found out after I made this card that there is a tic-tac-toe challenge going on at Stamp Ink Paper and one of the verticals is Die Cut, Embossing, and Vellum.  Ahoy!  My card has all three!

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you'll check out our newest challenge at CAS(E) This Sketch.  We love to see you in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Jingle All the Way (Technique Tuesday); Pretty Poinsettia (WPlus9)
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Wild Wasabi, Poppy Parade, Hello Honey, Vellum (Stampin' Up!); glitter cardstock (Reflections)
Ink:  Evergreen (Alentew); Copper Delicata (Tsukineko)
Accessories:  Layered Poinsettia die (Penny Black); Pretty Poinsettia die (WPlus9); copper embossing powder

Tag You're It 74

This is our second week at the Tag You're It challenge after our summer hiatus.  Our tag inspiration comes from Bev - she of Happy Dance fame!  What a fun theme!

I didn't have a bathing suit stamp but I did have this party girl holding a giant glass of champagne.  That's almost the same thing, right?  Actually the dress on this girl is a wide-open, white space so I thought I'd add some black stripes (like the bathing suit) on my tag.  I used a colored pencil and I think I should have sharpened it a bit before "drawing" on my lines because my stripes are a bit sloppy and this girl looks a bit like a jailbird to me!  Oops!

Over at Stamp, Ink, Paper it's an "anything but a card" week so this tag meets that for sure and I almost never remember to check out the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge but this week I did, and as luck would have it, it's "anything goes."

Thanks for stopping by!  There's some great inspiration from the Tag You're It design team so you won't want to miss it.  I hope you'll join us in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:   Cheers (My Favorite Things)
Paper:  Black (Simon Says Stamp); Shimmery White (Stampin' Up!); Bristol Smooth (Strathmore)
Ink:  Black Licorice (My Favorite Things); Jet Black (Altenew); Prismacolor Pencils
Accessories:  Traditional Tags STAX, Pierced Traditional Tags STAX (My Favorite Things); red enamel dots (My Mind's Eye); red satin ribbon (Ellen Hutson); black seam binding ribbon

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

CAS(E) This Sketch 158

Here I go again with a card using my new, favorite heart die.  This time I'm using it on my CAS(E) This Sketch card!

When I sat down at my desk to make this card I fully intended to use some flowers.  But then I saw the glitter challenge at CASology and the colors at Stamp Ink Paper and got distracted!  Those challenges were a great opportunity to use this scribble heart die cut from some gold glimmer paper and it was easy to add some black embossing paste, a red sentiment, and a few red sequins (yes, they are red even though they look black in the photo) to round out this fabbo sketch.

The CAS(E) This Sketch design team has cooked up some great designs with this sketch so hop on over to check them out.  I hope we'll get to see you in the gallery this week!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Everyday Mini Sentiments (Whimsy Stamps)
Paper:  Sweet Tooth (My Favorite Things); Champagne Glimmer (SU)
Ink:  Real Red (SU)
Accessories:  Scribble Heart die (Simon Says Stamp); Graph stencil (Sheena Douglass); black embossing paste (Wendy Vecchi); sequins