Freshly Made Sketches 252!

I hope you are not getting tired of seeing me create a Christmas card each week for the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches!  I know I don't make one every week but I seem to be on a roll because this is two weeks in a row I have made one!  Our hostess this week is Karren and when I saw that cluster of circles on her sketch I immediately thought of triangles (the crafty mind works in mysterious ways), which made me think of triangular Christmas tree dies.  And thus my card was born.

I am thrilled to pieces with how this card came out.  Firstly, because I finally used some glitter tape that I bought ages ago and secondly, because I had a vague idea in my head on how I wanted this card to turn out and it actually happened!  I am loving these new triangular-tree dies that I recently got and they were actually the impetus behind my Christmas theme this week.

This is an "anything goes" week at Christmas Card Challenges so I'll be linking this up over there as well.

My teamies at Freshly Made Sketches have got some gorgeous cards to show you this week so be sure to check them out.  I hope to see you in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Sketchy Christmas (Precious Remembrance)
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Old Olive, Real Red (SU); Heidi Swapp patterned paper
Ink:  Early Espresso (SU)
Accessories:  Sapins die (Simply Graphic); glitter washi tape (Scotch)

colourQ 357!

I love the color palette this week at colourQ.  It's so vibrant and makes me think of tropical things.  Of course, I may have been thinking of a tropical theme because I was going through some old cards recently and I came across one I made a long time ago using a toucan.  It was such a fun, colorful card so I really wanted to use that image again.  Then lo and behold our latest colourQ challenge happened!

The Melon Mambo polka dotted background proved to be too over-powering for my little toucan so I cut out a stitched flower petal in white to layer behind him.  Although I was successful in creating a break between the two colors I can't help feeling that this is really an out-take from my favorite Looney Tunes cartoon Duck Amuck - with the part of the duck being played by a toucan!  LOL!  If you've ever seen that cartoon you may remember there is a scene in it where Daffy Duck is walking along and some giant flower petals frame his face.  Every time I look at my little toucan that's all I can think of!

I got my layout from the latest challenge at The Paper Players.  It was perfect for using up some of that old Melon Mambo patterned paper.

Be sure to check out the inspiration from my fellow teamies at colourQ!  I hope to see you in the gallery!  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Tropical Hideaway (The Alley Way Stamps)
Paper:  White (Papertrey Ink); Black (Simon Says Stamp); Melon Mambo, Melon Mambo DSP (SU); X-Press It Blending Card
Ink:  Black Licorice (My Favorite Things); Jet Black (Altenew); Copics
Accessories:  Stitched Sentiment Flag die (Lil' Inker Designs); Flower Petal die (My Creative Time)

Freshly Made Sketches 251!

I am happy to report that I think I have made quite a dent in my Christmas card stash this year.  I'm afraid to count how many I actually have in case it's a lot less than I think it is - I don't want any bad news to spoil my good mood!  The sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches, brought to you by the lovely and very talented Cindy Hall, gave me the opportunity to add another one.  Although, this one is a tag.

The color palette at Christmas Card Challenges inspired the colors of my little elf's suit  and it was easy to create a background with some of the neutral colors.  I actually cut into some very old patterned paper to make one of the background shapes.  Normally I gaze fondly at that paper as I lament that it is just too pretty to cut, but I decided that there's no use staring at that paper anymore when I can put it to good use.  So here it is!  I tried to fit an oval shape on here but I just wasn't loving any of them - the sizes were all wrong.  So out came my Bam Bubble die and I got a cool background for my elf!

I hope you can play along with us this week at Freshly Made Sketches.  Our amazing design team has cooked up some beautiful cards to inspire you!

Supplies
Stamps:  Toy Land (The Alley Way Stamps); Sketchy Christmas (Precious Remembrance)
Paper:  Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Bashful Blue, Holiday Thyme DSP (SU); X-Press It Blending Card
Ink:  Early Espresso (SU); Black Licorice (My Favorite Things); Copics
Accessories:  Traditional Tags STAX, Pierced Traditional Tags STAX (My Favorite Things); Labels Nine die (Spellbinders); Bam Bubbles die (Paper Smooches); Crumb Cake seam binding ribbon, Early Espresso grosgrain ribbon (SU); Winter Wonderland sequins (Neat & Tangled); burlap twine

colourQ 356!

There are some beautiful colors this week for newest challenge at colourQ.  But in the interest of full disclosure I had a hard time putting them together.  I had several different cards started using some current sketch challenges but I just couldn't make the colors work.  Then I started looking through some old cards of mine and found one that I could CASE.

Most of the time when we think of CASE-ing a card it is someone ELSE'S card.  But when I'm stumped I often go through my own library and find a card that I particular like and use it as my launching point for a new card.  Sometimes it's the colors and, more often than not, it's the layout I'm after!

In today's example the element I copied from myself was the square layer with the corresponding little DSP squares which provided the color commentary.  Then I used some leafy die cuts to create a CAS focal point.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to play along with us at colourQ this week!

Supplies
Stamps:  Summer Garden (Simon Says Stamp)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Soft Sky, Old Olive, Melon Mambo, Blackberry Bliss (SU)
Ink:  Blackberry Bliss (SU)
Accessories:  Physalis die, Feuilles Tropicales die (Simply Graphic); Wonky Stitched Square STAX (My Favorite Things)

Tag You're It 54!

So I've been feeling a wee bit French this week.  Or should I say un peu French!  I recently got some new dies from a French company and I've used a couple of of them on some projects that I posted earlier this week.  So I decided to continue the theme by using some stamps from a set called French Foliage on my tag for Tag You're It.  This week our guest designer Michelle Short gave us the inspiration.

I stamped the leaves in red and yellow using a (heavy-handed) rock and roll technique.  I used some masking fluid on the leaves and sponged a blue background.  I flicked a little water on it to replicate the background on Michelle's tag.  My sentiment, of course, is French.

I used the colors from The Paper Players and was totally going to add this at Less is More where the challenge is one layer with "something French" then I remembered that my sentiment was an additional layer.  Rats!  By the way, once I had this all put together I realized that I did this with the tag upside down!  Double rats!

The Tag You're It design team has got some beautiful cards to show you this week so be sure to pop on over to check them out.  I hope to see you in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  French Foliage (SU)
Paper:  Distress Watecolor (Tim Holtz); Basic Black (SU)
Ink:  Salty Ocean (Distress); Real Red, Daffodil Delight (SU)
Accessories:  Basic Bookmark 3 die (Papertrey Ink); baker's twine

CAS(E) This Sketch 186!

Hello, hello!  We've got a new sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch and this one put me in mind of Christmas!  I recently got some new triangular Christmas tree dies and knew they would be perfect for this sketch.

There's a "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" challenge at Jingle Belles and by that they mean your card should be predominately red.  I dug deep in my stash and found this Ruby Red patterned paper so I used that for the majority of my background then added the trees in green.  I briefly thought about adding a sentiment to this but decided I liked the clean and uncluttered look better.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a chance to stop on by CAS(E) This Sketch to see the inspiration from our awesome design team.  We'd love to see you in the gallery!

Supplies
Paper:  Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red, Old Olive, Holiday Treasures DSP (SU)
Accessories:  Sapins die (Simply Graphic)

Freshly Made Sketches 250!

Day two of digging into my stash for the kind of supplies that many years ago I used all the time.  Yesterday I mentioned feeling a bit nostalgic about designing cards with layers, patterned paper, flowers, leaves, and texture - things I don't use very often any more.  So my card this week for Freshly Made Sketches features a few of those things.  Our sketch this week is brought to you by Cécile and it's got this fantastic angled layer that you are going to love!

The colors from the inspiration photo at Just Add Ink gave me the colors for my card (that wooden fence looked a lot more gray when I printed the graphic out, which is why my card has a gray background)!  I used up some really old DSP with a subtle print on it and layered a die cut flower using a new die I recently got.  The leaves are from a new-to-me company located in France called Simply Graphic.  Cécile uses dies from them all the time and she inspired me to do some shopping!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a chance to play along with us at Freshly Made Sketches this week.  Be sure to pop on over there and check out the inspiration from our amazing design team!

Supplies
Stamps:  Thank You Kindly (SU)
Paper:  Fog (Simon Says Stamp); Old Olive, Pretty in Pink, Sweet Pea DSP (SU)
Ink:  Cement Gray (Simon Says Stamp)
Accessories:  Plentiful Petals die (My Favorite Things); petit assortment d'automne die (Simply Graphic)

colourQ 355!

Every once in a while an old card of mine will get a new like or pin on Pinterest and since I've got email notifications turned on, I'll get an email to let me know that someone has expressed a liking, in some fashion, for a card of mine.  Often I'll look at the card and think "oh I remember that one" or "I made THAT?  I forgot about it but I really like it!"  Quite often these old cards feature layers, patterned paper, a flower or two, or texture from something like burlap.  My cards tend to be a bit more austere nowadays, but when I run across one of these oldies-but-goodies I really like how they look and I get a bit nostalgic for yesteryear!

So this week, starting with my colourQ card today, I've dug deep into my card-making soul and made some throwback cards using things like patterned paper, die cut flowers and leaves, and maybe a layer or two.  I'm a bit rusty with these things but I had a lot of fun digging through my stash to see how I could use some long-forgotten supplies.

First up, a layered concoction using these new colors from colourQ and a sketch from Mojo Monday.  I used to play along with the Mojo sketches all the time.  They are fabulous and are easily adaptable to a CAS card-maker like me.  My card-making schedule usually means I miss the Mojo sketch deadline so this week I was happy that I could play along.

I used ribbon (ribbon!) for the horizontal layer.  Originally I had a much wider piece of ribbon on here but while I was editing the picture realized that the ribbon was TOO wide and went back to my stamping desk to carefully pry apart the layers.  I brushed off the dust from a more narrow kind of ribbon and went with that instead.

Thanks for stopping by and for sticking with me for my long narrative!  I hope you get the chance to play along with us at colourQ.  And if you need inspiration with these colors, look no further than our own colourQ design team!  They will wow you for sure!

Supplies
Stamps:  Take Note (Verve)
Paper:  Black (Simon Says Stamp); Poppy Parade, Basic Gray, Whisper White (SU); The Sorbet Collection (Avery Elle)
Ink:  Jet Black (Altenew)
Accessories:  Blueprints 21 die, Pierced Circle STAX, Pierced Rectangle STAX (My Favorite Things); Petite Scallop Circles Small die (Spellbinders); Basic Gray ribbon (SU)