Freshly Made Sketches 176

Are you ready for a fun sketch from Freshly Made Sketches?  This week our hostess is Cindy Hall and she created a long and skinny sketch for us!  Once upon a time I made a long and skinny card sized to fit a standard #10 business envelope and honestly it is one of my favorite cards.  The size is unexpected and it gives you lots of room to work!

But don't think you need to make a card that big!  A2s are welcome as well as any other size that you are comfortable working with.  My card is 3 x 6 and is sized to fit in some old SU envelopes that they sold way back when.

Of course my bunny ears extend beyond the three inch margin of my card so I'll probably have to make my own envelope for this one!  It's been a while since I've used this cute guy on a card and somehow the fun size of this sketch made me want to use this fun image.

Our wonderful Freshly Made Sketches design team have got some great cards to show you - in all different sizes so check them out!  Then play along with us!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Birthday Bunny (The Cat's Pajamas)

Paper:  Kraft (Papertrey Ink); Basic Black, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White (SU); X-Press It Blending Card

Ink:  Black Licorice (My Favorite Things); Onyx Black (Versafine); Copics

Accessories:  Dotted Borders die (Avery Elle); Pretty in Pink button (SU); sequins (Winnie & Walter); baker's twine (American Crafts)

colourQ 282

And here we are at Tuesday again!  Why is it that time moves along at a glacial pace Monday to Friday but then when the weekend comes all of a sudden it's like a Nascar race!  Well, the good thing about it being Tuesday again is that there's a new palette at colourQ.  There's some newsprint again (loved seeing how you all incorporated newsprint into you projects a couple of weeks ago) and some pretty blues inspired by this scarf.

The sketch at As You See It provided the layout for my card.  I just loved all those layers, especially the circle.  I almost added a flower as the focal point then I spied this feather in my stash and thought it would look better.  I just wish I had done two of them!

There are some wonderful shades of blue on display from the colourQ design team so make sure you check them out.  I hope to see you in the gallery!  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Feather Finery (Papertrey Ink); Label Love (Altenew); Stitched Together (Close to My Heart)

Paper:  Classic Ivory (Flourishes); Natural White (Neenah); Basic Black, Buckaroo Blue, Soft Sky, Vellum (SU)

Ink:  White (WPllus9); Onyx Black (Versafine)

Accessories:  Vertical Stitched Strips die (My Favorite Things); Circles die (Little B); clear matte embossing powder (Wow); black embossing powder

Tag You're It 16

Thank goodness it's Friday for two reasons.  It's the start of the weekend where I can forget about work for a couple of days and relax and it's start of a new challenge from Tag You're It!  This week Marybeth Lopez is our hostess and the inspiration she has given us is actually a card!  Yep, you heard that right! Take a card and turn it into a tag!

I was inspired by the leafy cluster of flowers so I die cut a leafy flourish then pondered my stash for the perfect flowers to layer over it.  I tried a bunch of different flowers and none of them were quite right for the look I wanted to achieve.  I can't believe I'm saying this "out loud" but I think I might need a few more flower images!  I've got a lot of flower stamps but they're not all suited for fussy cutting and many are just too big for a tag so I think I need to do some shopping!

In the end I settled on this little flower die that I embellished with some black rhinestones in the center.  And for good measure I stuck a few more down randomly.

I had a dickens of a time photographing this because of the pointy end.  I hope it doesn't look too strange tilted on its side!

My teamies at Tag You're It have created some beautiful tags for you to see and be inspired by so be sure you check them out.  And I hope you find some time to join us in the gallery!  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Words of Wisdom (Verve)

Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Pear Pizzazz, Everyday Enchantment DSP (SU)

Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)

Accessories:  Basic Bookmark 3 die (Papertrey Ink); Leaf Filled Flourish die (My Favorite Things); 4 Petal Set die (CAS-ual Fridays); black rhinestones (KaiserCraft)

Freshly Made Sketches 175

I don't usually keep sympathy cards on hand but every once in a while I unfortunately need one and as I was creating my card for this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge it occurred to me that it made a nice one.  Our sketch this week is brought to you by Jen Brum who is currently freezing her you-know-what off in eastern Canada.  But that didn't stop her from creating this great sketch!

Look at all that space to unleash your creativity!  I used the space to show off this beautiful poppy stamp.  First I inked it up in Tangerine Tango then splashed some Pure Poppy on with a marker in random spots.  I love how it came out.  And the sentiment fit perfectly tucked down next to the stem.

Ok, you know the drill.  Being Wednesday your first order of business is to go to Freshly Made Sketches and check out the inspiration from our amazing design team.  Then you need to play along with us!  Simple!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Poppy Field (Rubbernecker Stamps); Fancy Feathers (Clearly Besotted)

Paper:  Dove Grey (WPlus9); Basic Black, Whisper White (SU)

Ink:  Tangerine Tango, Pure Poppy (SU); Onyx Black (Versafine)

Accessories:  Stitched Rounded Rectangle STAX (My Favorite Things); crochet thread  

colourQ 281

Happy Tuesday!  Today is the reveal of a new palette at colourQ inspired by this whimsical windchime.  Hold on to your hats because this color combo might make you think outside the box!

I puzzled over this for a bit then focused on the green, which usually means I can use it for leaves.  From there it was a short leap to a peach flower against a wisteria wonder background and a few cool caribbean loop-de-loops thrown in for good measure.  

My design is based on the sketch at The Paper Players.  Instead of a circle I've substituted the grid background, mostly because I wanted to do something a bit different!  

My colourQ teamies have created some BEAUTIFUL cards with these colors so run right over there and check them out!  You won't be disappointed!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you make time to join us in the colourQ gallery this week!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Off the Grid (SU); Hennah Elements (Altenew); Hashtags (Tim Holtz)

Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); X-Press It Blending Card

Ink:  Black Licorice (My Favorite Things); Onyx Black (Versafine); Wisteria Wonder, Cool Caribbean (SU); Copics

Hello JUGS281 and rs154

I'm in the middle of doing housework (blech) and needed a little break so I thought I'd pop in here and show you a card I made using the colors at Just Us Girls and the sketch from retro sketches.

I just love a square card.  Too bad they cost extra to mail.  I usually try to keep mine 4 1/4 x 4 1/4 so I can still fit them in an A2 envelope and avoid the surcharge but my favorite size is about a half inch bigger.

It's been a while since I used this whimsical flower and it somehow seemed appropriate for this fun layout.  I scribbled on it with some colored pencils but I couldn't seem to get the color as dark as I wanted to I ended up going over some areas with my Regal Rose marker.  I love the scribbled look of these flowers.

Well that's it for me.  Back to vacuuming for a bit then I'm off to the grocery store.  I wish the weekends weren't so jam packed with chores!  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Jofy 12 (Paper Artsy); Label Love (Altenew)

Paper:  Crumb Cake, Midnight Muse, Soft Sky, Whisper White (SU)

Ink:  Midnight Muse, Regal Rose (SU); Jet Black (Archival)

Accessories:  Pierced Square STAX, Fishtail Flags Layers STAX, Pierced Fishtail Flags STAX (My Favorite Things); Button Stacks II die (Papertrey Ink); enamel dots (My Mind's Eye)

Orange You an Inspiration

I've been trying to dip my toes more often in some of the inspiration challenges out there and this week the one at Stampin' Royalty caught my eye.  I find that I tend to lean towards inspiration challenges that have a clearly defined color or certain shapes and I think that's ok for me.  For this challenge the orange jumped out at me and I like how it was offset with the pale gray.

I decided to forgo the obvious floral theme of the photo in favor of using a new butterfly die that I recently got.  Plus I can hardly ever give up the chance to stick a butterfly somewhere on my cards!  My friend Linda inspired me to play along with the Pals Paper Arts sketch and to do some inlaid circles like she did on her card!  I was going to do one of them orange than thought better of it because I think it would have competed with my orange butterfly.  So I inked up some splatters in both gray and orange instead to give some definition between the two.

The sun is shining, the snow is slowly melting but there's some rain on the way so what's a girl to do other than to hang out in her craft room?  So that's just where I'm headed.  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Gorgeous Grunge (SU); Grunge Me (Papertrey Ink); Thanks (Simon Says Stamp)

Paper:  Smoky Slate, Tangerine Tango (SU); Neenah Solar White

Ink:  Smoky Slate, Tangerine Tango (SU)

Accessories:  Vertical Stitched Strips, Stitched Circle STAX (My Favorite Things); Vivienne Butterfly die (Simon Says Stamp); Midnight Blend sequins (Avery Elle)

Freshly Made Sketches 174

Hello!  It's Wednesday so it's time to bring you a new sketch from Freshly Made Sketches!  This week our sketch is brought to you all the way from Germany from our hostess Cindy Lovell.  It's a classic sketch that can be interpreted a bunch of different ways.

I'm pretty sure I've made a card very similar to this before.  It's a formula I like.  I see a diagonal layer and it makes me want to break out a bunch of colors and put them all together rainbow style.  I had been kicking around the idea of playing along with the Fusion challenge because I really loved the colors in the inspiration photo.  I had an aborted attempt at following along last weekend and though that card didn't pan out I was determined to use those colors somehow.  My little rainbow was perfect for them!

My friend Sylvia mentioned a daisy die from Sizzix recently and since I had forgotten that I even owned it decided it was high time it saw the light of day.  For the center I used the old build-a-brad from SU.  At least I think that's what it is called.  The glare from the light is obscuring the center of it, but it's actually a button image.  

Speaking of glare from the light, my new bulb has arrived so lighting my cards should be MUCH easier now.  I had no idea how much I relied on the white light from my photography bulbs until one of them bit the dust.  I can't even describe all the gyrations I went through this past week trying to get decent light.  I'll make sure I've always got an extra on hand now.

My friends at Freshly Made Sketches have made some beauties this week so I hope you check them out and join us in the gallery with your own take on the sketch!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Thank You (Heidi Swapp); Sunny Days (Verve)

Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Dark Chocolate, Hawaiian Shores, Terracotta Tile (Papertrey Ink)

Ink:  Dark Chocolate, Hawaiin Shores (Papertrey Ink)

Accessories:  Daisies #2 die (Sizzix); Build A Brad (SU)