Freshly Made Sketches 516

It's our last sketch challenge of the year at Freshly Made Sketches!  It's been so much fun creating alongside my FMS design team members this past year, not to mention all of you who joined us along the way.  I'm sure that one or two of you who made a card with one of our sketches inspired me to buy a stamp or a die or two, or three over the course of the year.  And for that alone I thank you.  But I also thank you for joining us week after week.  We wouldn't be here without you. 💖Our challenge this week is designed by Narelle and I surprised myself with another Christmas card.

I took some poetic license with the circles on the sketch and used stars instead.  I strung some gold cord from them to the top of the card to mimic hanging ornaments.  Then I tucked a sentiment in between the stars and embossed it in gold.  And to create a little contrast I sponged some ink in an arc around the left side of the card.

Thanks for stopping by!  Our Freshly Made Sketches challenge will be open until January 3rd so I hope we'll see you in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Jingle All the Way (Technique Tuesday)
Paper:  Night of Navy (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Night of Navy (Stampin' Up!); Versamark
Accessories:  Stitched Stars die (Lil' Inker Designs); Gold Glitter embossing powder (Hero Arts)

Freshly Made Sketches 514

I'm late again for a blog post!  😢 I was up bright and early this morning so that I could get some work done (I'm on vacation from said work, but still find myself working from time to time) and get this blog post ready.  I was doing some dishes when I turned the faucet to the left a bit and out it popped and practically fell into the sink!  Uh oh!  Turns out the lock nut that secures the faucet to the counter had completely rotted away and today was the day that it decided to fall over.  So I spent the majority of the day trying to fix it.  (I didn't by the way and I'm picking up a new faucet tomorrow).  Good times...

But the show must go on so here I am a few hours late with my card for Freshly Made Sketches.  Our hostess this week is Cécile and as always her sketch has me dreaming that I can design cards the same way she does!

Those silver blobs in the center are pinecones, by the way.  I thought for sure that I had a pinecone stamp in my stash somewhere but apparently not, so I had to use this pinecone die cut, which is too small for what I wanted, but did the trick anyway.

The inspiration for this design came from a catalog that I got at work which has bulk Christmas cards with custom printing for companies to send to their customers.  The catalog is chock full of inspiration, which I knew would come in handy, so I brought it home and it now resides in my craft room.  I found an eye-catching card done in silver and black with green leaves and a pinecone and modified the design a bit to fit the sketch.  

Thanks for stopping by!  My Freshly Made Sketches teammies have some fabulous cards to inspire you to play along with us so be sure to check them out!

Supplies
Stamps:  Holiday Messages (Mama Elephant)
Paper:  Basic Black, Whisper White, Wild Wasabi (Stampin' Up!); Pinefeather (Papertrey Ink); foil paper (Recollections)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Festive Greenery Sizzlit (Tim Holtz); Pine Sprig Cluster die (Impression Obsession); Subtle Dynamic embossing folder (Stampin' Up!); silver cord (Stampin' Up!)

Fusion - Gray and White Christmas

Happy thanksgiving to all my American friends!

Thanksgiving festivities apparently got the better of me because I completely blanked on posting my card for the latest Fusion challenge.  Better late than never!  It's the last one of the year and despite today's Thanksgiving holiday I made a Christmas card!

The theme is gray and white Christmas and I mostly stuck to that theme as I created a little fusion and combined the sketch with the inspiration photo.  There was some greenery in the photo so I picked up on that for my holly leaves, but the red I added all on my own.  I was going to do white berries instead of red ones but they didn't look as good!

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you can create some Fusion of your own by joining us!

Supplies
Stamps:  Spruce & Sprigs (Papertrey Ink); Handwritten Holidays (Tim Holtz)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Smokey Shadow (Papertrey Ink); Smoky Slate (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Evergreen, Crimson (Altenew); Smokey Shadow (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories:  Spruce & Sprigs die (Papertrey Ink)

Freshly Made Sketches 513

It's almost Thanksgiving day here in the United States and I'm celebrating by being on vacation and making a Christmas card for our newest challenge at Freshly Made Sketches!  Our hostess is Jen Brum and her sketch is a classic one that you are going to love!

All of a sudden winter has arrived here in Massachusetts and I'm not ready.  😬 I've been spoiled by unseasonably warm weather this fall and then whammo - it's freezing outside!  The cold weather inspired another Christmas card and I went with a white poinsettia so that it would show up against the plaid background.  And in true fashion, once I had the card done, photographed, and ready to post I realized I forgot the sentiment.  I hate when I do that!  Apologies to Jen and her pretty sketch!

I'm also playing along with the latest Tic Tac Toe challenge where I'm using plaid, layers, and a die cut.

Thanks for stopping by!  And don't forget to check out Freshly Made Sketches for a great sketch and some design inspiration!

Supplies

Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Cherry Cobbler, Gold Foil, Wrapped in Plaid DSP (Stampin' Up!)

Accessories:  Blooming Poinsettia die (Memory Box)

Freshly Made Sketches 512

I'm excited to share our newest challenge at Freshly Made Sketches with you!  Our hostess this week is Kim and her design gave me the perfect opportunity to challenge myself with an unusual color combo for a Christmas card.

The color challenge at The Paper Players is so pretty so I challenged myself to create a Christmas card with it.  It would have been easy to incorporate the black with the sentiment but I wanted to see if I could pull it off using some sparkly black paper.  So I used said sparkly paper for the stripes, stamped a tiny sentiment in between them, and added a layered snowflake which I die cut in silver sparkly paper and white.  To finish off the snowflakes I put a little bit of white Nuvo drops in the center.  I love how it turned out!

Thanks for stopping by!  My fellow Freshly Made Sketches teammates have made some fabulous card with this sketch so be sure to check them out!

Supplies
Stamps:  Pure Florals Poinsettia (Uniko)
Paper:  Soft Stone (Papertrey Ink); Solar White (Neenah); black glimmer, silver glimmer (Recollections)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Rylynn Snowflake die (Simon Says Stamp); Let it Snowflake Too die (My Favorite Things); Gloss White Nuvo Drops

Fusion - Triangle Balls

It's a holiday here in the United States - Veteran's Day - where we honor those who have served in the armed services.  🇺🇸  My Dad was a very proud Marine and served in Korea during the conflict there.  Many years later he chose the same day to marry my Mom.  💕  I have great respect to those who make the courageous decision to serve their country. 

And today we also have a new challenge for you at Fusion.  The challenge prompt is about Christmas and I chose to use the colors from the photo and I took a little poetic license with the sketch.

I flipped the sketch and using the triangle theme from the inspiration photo used triangle Christmas trees on my card instead of circles.  And I also crowded them into one corner of the card rather than spreading them out per the sketch.  The "merry" dotted die cut is meant to mimic the thin layer on the sketch.  I wasn't kidding when I said I took some poetic license with the sketch too!

I'm also playing along with the challenge at Just Us Girls, where the challenge is the word prompt "Merry!"  Fun!

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you can join us at Fusion - use the sketch or the inspiration or both!  Our design team will give you lots of inspiration so check us out!

Supplies
Stamps:  Triangle Trees (Reverse Confetti)
Paper:  Whisper White, Blue Bayou (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Nimbus (Altenew); Versamark
Accessories:  Merry Dots die (Poppystamps); Cherry Cobbler embossing powder (Stampin' Up!); Clear Sparkle embossing powder (WOW!); clear embossing powder

Freshly Made Sketches 511

Hi friends.  I'm back with a card for our newest sketch challenge at Freshly Made Sketches.  Our hostess this week is Linda and I love her classic sketch.

The space on the smaller layer was perfect for this turnabout wreath stamp that I inked up in traditional Christmas colors.  The stamp creates this awesome circular design that was just the thing for the "circle" challenge at Addicted to CAS.  I love it when challenges collide into a beautiful card!

Thanks for stopping by!  My Freshly Made Sketches teammates have some beautiful cards to show you so hop on over to check them out!

Supplies
Stamps:  Wreath Turnabout (Concord & 9th); Fa La La (Simon Says Stamp)
Paper:  Whisper White, Mossy Meadow (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Pear Pizzazz, Old Olive, Mossy Meadow, Real Red (Stampin' Up!); Onyx Black (Versafine)

Freshly Made Sketches 510

Hi everyone!  We've got a new sketch for you at Freshly Made Sketches and I am the hostess!  Woo Hoo!  I went with a traditional design with lots of room for layers.  Sometimes I like to make a card with layers - there's something about the weight and heft of a card with layers that pleases me. 😊

I went with a Christmas design, using up some old Stampin' Up! designer paper that's been in my stash forever plus a layered snowflake and a simple slim sentiment.  I made this card on Sunday so I was pleased to see that, quite by coincidence, the colors, the poinsettia elements, and the Christmas theme are also on tap for the challenge at Global Design Project (which doesn't go live until Monday).  Somehow I was channelling their challenge before I even knew about it!

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope that you will play along with us at Freshly Made Sketches!  And special thanks to my FMS teamies who have totally rocked this sketch and who will certainly inspire you to play along!

Supplies
Stamps:  Holiday Messages (Mama Elephant)
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Always Artichoke, Cherry Cobbler, vellum, Deck the Halls DSP (Stampin' Up!); glitter paper (Recollections)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Stitched Mini Scallop Rectangle die (My Favorite Things); Snowflake Trio die (amuse.studio); Lindemon Snowflake die (Memory Box)