Paper Players 72 and FTL166

I spent the better part of last night and part of today trying to make a card for a particular color challenge, but I couldn't seem to make something that I was happy with.  So I abandoned what I was working on and instead focused on LeAnne's color challenge at The Paper Players.  These Christmas colors went perfectly with what I had in mind for the FTL sketch challenge.

This color challenge gave me an excuse to use my retired Wintergreen DSP and I also used my Artichoke Denim Jean Ribbon for the first time.  I inked up the sentiment stamp from Season of Joy colored with my River Rock, Riding Hood Red, and Always Artichoke markers.  And I have quite a bit of Riding Hood Red taffeta ribbon so I made a little bow for the top of my tag.  As I was putting this card together, I realized that my Bow-Easy has disappeared, along with one of my sanding blocks.  (I suspect the kittens are behind this).  So as a result I had to tie this bow by hand (oh the horror)!  I could have used a fork to tie this one (as suggested by my blogging friend Jen Timko), but I was too lazy to go downstairs and get one!

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CCMC175 and Stamping 411 229

I recently (unintentionally) conducted an experiment.  I have spent several days away from my stamp room and have concluded that this is a mojo killer.  Earlier today I sat down at my table with the intention of making a card combing the Create With Connie and Mary color challenge and the Stamping 411 sketch challenge.

I wasted a lot of time staring at my stamps and wondering what in the world I was going to make.  I couldn't seem to make a decision.  So I stepped away for a couple of hours because this usually helps to clear my head.  I don't think it did.  I'm still feeling out of sorts.

But I persevered and I used my old favorite French Foliage to make this poinsettia from the small leaf in that set.  I stamped it in Craft White onto some Cherry Cobbler cardstock.  I added some Basic Pearls in the center which looks nice and covers up the messy part where the ends of the leaves meet.  The sentiment is from Four the Holidays.


I'm off to get back to my stamp room to get my creative juices flowing.  I've seen some nice challenges that I'd like to participate so I better get cracking!  Thanks for stopping by today!

MOJO214 and ColourQ110

A great sketch from MOJO combined with a fabulous color challenge from ColourQ make for some fine inspiration!

Oh, I wish I could make cookies like that!  Alas, I have to settle for making cards out of in-edible cardstock!

I do like how the card turned out, I just don't like how the photography turned out.  Recently my fellow FMS design team friend Linda lamented about how hard it is to take photos of white or very vanilla cards.  No matter what I do the card always appears to have the wrong color.  I use a light tent and although the card seems well-lighted, my camera always seems to have other ideas!  Some day I'll figure it out!

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Freshly Made Sketches 10

It snowed here last week, so I guess I had snowflakes on the brain when I finally settled on an idea for Rita's fabulous sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches.

Oh, the possibilities with this sketch!  I had a thousand thoughts running around my head as I contemplated the card I was going to make this week.  Finally, I settled down and made this one.

It had suddenly occurred to me that Not Quite Navy and Brushed Silver would look fabulous for the layers on this sketch.  So I dug out my retired stamp set, Snowflakes and heat embossed the biggest snowflake and the sentiment in silver embossing powder.  I added a little bit of silver cord and ta-da, my snow-inspired, winter wishes card was born!

So, don't forget to check out the samples from our amazing design team for loads of inspiration, then head on over to Freshly Made Sketches and show us how you have interpreted this sketch!

LesleyCroghan

LindaCallahan

CindyHall

Lauri Ingram

TuiNathan

Christy Q

JenniferTimko

Rita Wright

PPA118 and CCMC174

The last few days have been very hectic.  Between my sick father and a sick kitten, I haven't had much time to get my fingers all inky.  But tonight after visiting my father at the hospital and seeing that the kitten seems to be on the road to recovery, I was determined to get in my stamp room for a little while.  I decided to make a card for the Pals Paper Arts color challenge combined with the sketch from Create with Connie and Mary.

I love the idea of the monochramatic color scheme of the PPA challenge.  My first thought was that it would make an interesting Christmas card, then I thought I would make an autumn-themed card.  I ended up going back to the Christmas theme.

In the end, I'm not sure it's Christmas-y enough, but it has a certain appeal, I suppose.  It's clean and not fussy, plus the colors are somewhat unusual for a Christmas card which makes for something visually interesting.  I used a few scraps from the Christmas Cocoa designer series paper and the sentiment is from Perfect Punches.  I'm also happy to say that I got to use one of those big Spice Cake buttons.  When I first saw those buttons in the Holiday Mini I wasn't interested in them at all until I saw that the 1 1/4-inch punch fits perfectly on the inside.  I thought that was interesting enough to get them and although this is the first time I've used one, I am determined to use them more often.  (Ha. Ha.  How often have I said something like that)?

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MOJO 213 and ColorQ 109

Well, I have been struggling with the MOJO sketch since Monday.

I just couldn't settle on a design that I liked.  I thought the interesting color combo at ColourQ would help.

Even combining these two fabulous challenges, I still struggled.  I finally ended up with this.

I think I had the most trouble with that small vertical layer behind the flower in the graphic.  I just couldn't decide what to do there and I tried a few variations before I used a bit of striped grosgrain ribbon gathered in the center.  The polka-dotted designer paper is from Jolly Holiday, the flower is Verve, and the sentiment is from Tagtastic and Vintage Labels.  I topped the flower with a pumpkin pie corduroy button.

I'm not entirely sure that I like the end result and if I have time I might try something else with this interesting color combo.

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Freshly Made Sketches 9

This week at Freshly Made Sketches we've got a wonderful sketch designed by Tui.  There are so many possibilities with this sketch, I can't wait to see how everyone interprets it!  And this month we are joined by two fabulous stampers, Lauri Ingram and Christy Q as our guest designers.

I've been anxiously awaiting the perfect opportunity to ink up my brand new Field Flower stamp set, and this sketch is absolutely perfect for it.  I had been seeing a whole lot of fabulous cards made with this set, so I had to have it!

I stamped the stem and leaves from Field Flowers in Old Olive onto the wonderful Newsprint designer paper which I then layered onto some Basic Black and Calypso Coral.  Then I stamped the flower from the same stamp set twice in Calypso Coral and cut them out so that I could position them onto the stem where I wanted them.  The sentiment is from Fabulous Phrases and is punched out with the Word Window punch.  It's then finished off with an Antique Brad.

Now I hope that you'll join us this week at Freshly Made Sketches.  And if you need some inspiration, be sure to visit our amazing design team.

Lesley Croghan

Linda Callahan

Cindy Hall

Tui Nathan

Jennifer Timko

Rita Wright

Lauri Ingram

Christy Q

Friday Mashup 30

I so wanted to mashup the challenge this week at The Friday Mashup.

The mashup challenge is to make a card using this sketch and to use up something from our stash that we have been holding onto for some crafting purpose or another.  I've got loads of ribbon that I have saved from various gift bags or boxes, buttons, plastic containers and who knows what else floating around my stamp room so I figured I'd be able to do this challenge with no problem.

The problem was that I had no idea what recycled item I wanted to use!  None of my ribbon looked quite right so I ended up using an old button.  And as you can see, I went with a Christmas card theme because I've begun to realize that it's November 1st and I have not seriously considered what I want to make for Christmas cards this year.  Yikes!  For this card I used the retired Holiday Treasures designer paper and the Snow Much Fun stamp set, which I think is going to end up being my stamp set of choice this year.  I stamped the image in Timber Brown Stazon and colored it in Baja Breeze, Old Olive, and Riding Hood Red with my blender pens.  It is just about impossible to tell from the picture, but I used Dazzling Details on the buttons, the pom-pom at the end of the hat, and the snowball.

In case you haven't heard of this tip I'll tell you that quite often when you squeeze something like Dazzling Details onto your cardstock the shape of the blob (for lack of a better therm) can be a bit pointy.  If you want a more rounded look, just tap the underside of the cardstock and the blob will flatten out a bit.  I generally "flick" the cardstock using my middle finger and my thumb.  I'm not entirely sure how to describe "flicking" but it's the same thing as when you use those fingers to "flick" a bug off your arm!

Thanks for stopping by today!