Freshly Made Sketches 139

Half-way through the work week and time for another new sketch from Freshly Made Sketches!  This week Rita is our hostess and she's one fabulous crafter.  She's got an irreverent sense of humor and a fabulous sense of design and you should totally check out her blog, if you haven't already!  Her sketch incorporates the ever-popular flags and a tag (one of my favorite things).

I found some great colors on the CAS on Sunday challenge blog and really hoped that I could do something special with them along with the sketch.  I knew I wanted to focus on some flowers and leaves and after lamenting that I don't own enough floral stamps I dug out an old favorite SU set and went to work.  In the end, I don't love this card because I think the arrangement of images and colors is just too bland.  But here it is in all it's glory!

The Freshly Made Sketches design team has not suffered from any blandness this week so do hop over there to check out their beautiful cards.  I hope to see you in the gallery!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Best Blossoms (SU); Group Hugs (Paper Smooches)

Paper:  Sahara Sand, Wisteria Wonder, Perfect Plum, Whisper White (SU); Vellum (Papertrey Ink)

Ink:  Perfect Plum

Accessories:  Tag Sale #5 die (Papertrey Ink); Little Leaves Sizzlet, Elegant Eggplant ribbon, (SU); clear embossing powder, sequins; baker's twine

colourQ 244

I seriously love the color palette this week at colourQ (which is inspired by this very cool clock).  There's just something about these colors that grabbed my attention right away.  Then I saw the sketch at Fusion and knew that they would look awesome combined!

These colors would be fantastic for that oh-so-hard-to-make masculine card.  I guess mine could qualify as that, although I didn't intentionally make it that way.  I was really going for a graphic, colorful look which would really show off these bold colors.

My teamies at colourQ have really rocked this challenge with some great cards and scrapbook pages.  You will really be wowed so be sure to hop over there and check them out.  I can't wait to see the gallery lit up with these colors this week, so I hope you can find time to join us!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Paper:  Old Olive, Night of Navy, Tangerine Tango, Bashful Blue

Accessories:  Happy Hellos die, Pierced Circle STAX (My Favorite Things)

Happy For You

I was surprised to see that after 259 sketches the Unscripted Sketches challenge was calling it quits.  Although now that I think of it 259 sketches is quite an accomplishment and I'd probably be pretty tired after all that too!  Well, I wanted to play along with their last challenge so I made a card and combined it with the colors at Color Throwdown.

I think it's tough to see in the photo but one of my "layers" is a line of some translucent embossing paste done in a concentric circle pattern.  I wish it showed up better but I've hung my photography hat up and have decided to quit obsessing about getting the perfect picture.  I'm a banker, not a photographer, so I have conceded defeat to the lens.

Oh and incidentally, if you are wondering why my Sahara Sand (as suggested in the Color Throwdown challenge) looks suspiciously like kraft, that's because it is.  I started making the card after looking at the challenge graphic once and was sure it said Crumb Cake and not Sahara Sand.  By the time I realized my mistake it was too late to turn back so I kept going.  (Apologies to the Color Throwdown ladies).

Thanks for stopping by and "so long" to Unscripted Sketches!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Doodlie-Do (Papertrey Ink)

Paper:  Kraft (Avery Elle); Coastal Cabana, Watercolor Paper (SU)

Ink:  Jet Black (Stazon); Crumb Cake, Strawberry Slush, Coastal Cabana (SU)

Accessories:  Jute Button Twine (Papertrey Ink); Modern Radio Waves stencil (Memory Box); Translucent embossing paste (Dreamweaver)

Bravo!

I've been busy making some graduation cards for a friend and needed to squeeze one in for my niece too.  I was actually kind of tired of looking at sentiments that proclaimed that the graduate would soon conquer adventures the likes Christopher Columbus had hardly seen.  So I went in a bit of a different direction.

"Bravo" could mean a lot of different things, but in this case it's a celebration of all that my niece has accomplished.  She deserves a hearty congratulatory sentiment and this one sure sums it up!  The colors at The Card Concept merged with the sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch for this one.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Beautiful Botanicals (a.muse stamps); Oh Happy Day (Avery Elle); Textures 2 (Florileges Design); Sketchy Chevron Border (Impression Obsession)

Paper:  Classic White (Flourishes); Solar White (Neenah); Basic Black (SU)

Ink:  Basic Gray, Daffodil Delight (SU); Pitch Black (Adirondack); Onyx Black (Versafine)

Accessories:  Notable "Cute" enamel dots (My Mind's Eye); washi tape

Freshly Made Sketches 138

Hello and welcome to another edition of Freshly Made Sketches!  This week the sketch is brought to you by the super talented Jen Timko.  She's a very busy stamper these days and always manages to wow me with her cards!  The sketch she designed has a nice layer on it that is wide open to interpretation.  I thought it looked rather like a tag so that's what I put on my card.

I love a long weekend off from work because I get to spend some relaxing time in my stamp room.  Usually my weekends are spent crazily making cards for upcoming DT work, but when I have an extra day it's like winning the lottery!  So on Monday I was able to make my FMS card with inspiration from the current Muse challenge.  I didn't have quite the same bright colors as in Cornelia's card but I used the brightest colors I could find to make my card.  The vague chevron shape of her colors had me reaching for this new background set from WPlus9 with it's modern looking chevrons.

The Freshly Made Sketches design team have got some great cards to show you (don't they always)!  So head on over there to check them out.  I hope you can join us in the gallery this week!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  So 80's, Borders and Backgrounds 4, Hand Lettered Hello (WPlus9)

Paper:  White Linen (Ellen Hutson); Basic Black, Whisper White (SU)

Ink:  Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo, Lucky Limeade, Tangerine Tango (SU); Onyx Black (Versafine)

Accessories:  Hand Lettered Hello die (WPlus9); Enamel Dew Drop Stickers (Freckled Fawn); black seam binding ribbon, baker's twine

colourQ 243 and Seize the Sketch #21

It's that time again when I get to show you a card that I made using the newest color palette at colourQ and the layout from Seize the Sketch.  This week the colors are inspired by this shower curtain with its riot of flowers and the sketch comes to you from the sweet and talented Lori Turner.

Don't you love this sketch!  That rectangular layer has SO many possibilities.  I took the opportunity to use it to show off this gorgeous leafy die along with a couple of wee flowers and a layered butterfly.  I didn't use any stamps on this card (which is rare for me) because I couldn't figure out exactly where I wanted to place a sentiment.  I didn't want to mess with the lines of the die cuts, so I think I'll end up leaving this one plain.  That way I can use it for just about any occasion and when I need it I can stamp a sentiment on the inside!  

There's loads of inspiration over at colourQ and Seize the Sketch so head on over there to check out the beautiful projects from the design teams and get all the details for playing along with us.  I can hardly wait to see how you interpret this sketch and these colors!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Paper:  White Linen (Ellen Hutson); Winter Wisteria (Papertrey Ink); Certainly Celery, Bermuda Bay, Tangerine Tango, Vellum (SU)

Accessories:  Palm Fancy die (Hero Arts); Delaney Butterfly die, Cheviot Butterfly die (Poppystamps); Bricked embossing folder (Tim Holtz); Boho Blossom punch, Basic Pearls (SU)

Happy Birthday Ga

My niece's birthday is Tuesday and instead of searching through my stash of ready-made cards for a birthday card for her I decided to make one from scratch.  Somehow all the stars aligned in this card because I included four different challenges to make this.  I'm not sure if I've ever done that before but here it is.  This combines the colors at Color Throwdown with the sketch from Sketchbook Saturday along with the texture challenge at Addicted to CAS and the flower cue card at CASology.  Whew!

I got some new October Afternoon sprinklers and I wanted to try them out so after I stamped the flower and masked it off, I gave the card base a shot of color.  The spray zone is a little bigger than what I intended but it's actually growing on me.  I intended to watercolor this flower and got it all ready to go on water color paper then my brained zoned out and I grabbed some Copics and before I knew it I was coloring with those instead.  I tried to keep the colors light and went over it with the colorless blender to remove some color and make it look a little more water color-y and I don't think it looks too bad.

The title of this post is "Happy Birthday Ga" which is niece's nickname.  Her name is actually Stephanie but for some reason her younger sister started calling her Ga and nobody knows why.  As  is the way with that sort of thing, the name stuck and now we all call her Ga!  Go figure!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Charming Gardners (a.muse studio); Wet Paint (Papertrey Ink)

Paper:  Soft Sky (SU); water color paper

Ink:  Jet Black Stazon; Onyx Black (Versafine)

Accessories:  All Aboard Sprinklers (October Afternoon); translucent embossing paste (Dreamweaver); Burlap stencil (Tim Holtz)

Tis the Season

It's been a while since I've added a Christmas card to my collection so I was feeling in a festive mood as I checked out some of my favorite challenges last night.  It just so happens that the flower challenge at Merry Monday, the inspiration photo at Festive Friday and the week four sketch at Viva la Verve all went together in my mind.

For some reason I make a lot of Christmas cards using kraft cardstock.  I like how it gives warmth to a design.  And the inspiration photo from Festive Friday definitely had some warm colors to my eye, like kraft, off white, and red.  I added some silver glimmer paper too because that little deer looked kind of shimmery to me.

Today is the start of a nice long weekend here and I am really looking forward to that extra day off from work.  I've got tons to do outside and so far it looks like the weather will cooperate!

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Memorial Day to all my US friends!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Think Big Favorites #8 (Papertrey Ink)

Paper:  Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler, Silver Glimmer, Deck the Halls DSP (SU); Natural White (Neenah)

Ink:  Dark Chocolate (Papertrey Ink)

Accessories:  Pierced Oval STAX (My Favorite Things); Banner Bundle die (Verve); Blooming Poinsettia die (Memory  Box); Berry Blend sequins (Avery Elle)