Freshly Made Sketches 262!

Another presidential election is in the bag here in the US.  I have no idea who won because I wrote this post Tuesday night when it was "too close to call."  And in other news there's a new sketch challenge up at Freshly Made Sketches brought to us by Jen Brum!

I had Christmas on my mind when I made this card.  There is a "purple and gold" challenge at Less is More and the "flower" challenge at Jingle Belles got me thinking that maybe I could combine those with my FMS card this week.  Yes, that horizontal image really is purple!  I die cut the poinsettia out of vellum then added a couple touches of gold and voilà!  And can I just say that this is very cool looking in real life!

Thanks for stopping by and please stop by Freshly Made Sketches and check out the inspiration from the design team.  I hope to see you in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Many Merry Messages (Stampin' Up!); Rugged Edge (Indigo Blu)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Vellum, Gold Foil (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Concord Crush (Stampin' Up!); Gold Ultimate Metallic (Encore)
Accessories:  Blooming Poinsettia die (Memory Box)

colourQ 367!

Finally it is election day here in the US.  Hopefully everyone's Facebook feed can return to normal!  It's also time for a new palette from your friends at colourQ.  The colors may say fall to you, but I chose to use flowers.

Everything old is new again.  I found some old SU specialty paper with a bunch of white on white designs so I used a piece of that as my background layer, then I used my scallop Nesties to create the circular layers.  It's been a dog's age since I used a scallop circle!

The layout that inspired those circles is from Just Add Ink and I'm also joining the flower challenge at CAS on Sunday.

Well that's it for me.  I'm typing this in the morning quickly just before I head off to work.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you can join us at colourQ this week!

Supplies
Stamps:  Fonds Grunge (4enscrap)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Cool Caribbean, Old Olive, Really Rust, Presto Patterns (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Cool Caribbean (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories:  Classic Scallop Small die, Standard Circles Small die, Standard Circles Large die (Spellbinders); Wild Gardenia die (Essentials by Ellen); Metallic Metal dots (My Mind's Eye)

CAS(E) This Sketch 197!

I'm on a little bit of a Christmas kick this week.  The challenge at CAS(E) This Sketch gave me another opportunity to add to my stash!

I went digging deep into my stash for this card.  I was rooting around for some patterned paper when I happened upon some specialty paper that was in shades of kraft and brown.  The brown in particular was special because it was a nice heavy weight and had subtle speckles all through it.  The kraft had subtle stripes that gave the illusion of texture.  I opted to use the kraft paper for a solid background and to accommodate the  sketch I created some angled "layers" using some burlap twine.  The Christmas tree was die cut from the brown speckled layer and it's really hard to see in the pic but that paper is absolutely gorgeous....which explains why I've barely cut into it.  #paperhoarder

You'll find me at Christmas Card Challenges with this one too.  Along with the other 200+ entries.  I suppose that means everyone is starting to get worried that Christmas card mailing deadlines are not that far away!

Thanks for stopping by.  Be sure to check out our latest CAS(E) This Sketch challenge for lots of inspiration.  I hope you can join us in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Christmas Carols (CAS-ual Fridays Stamps)
Paper:  Cocoa Bean (Papertrey Ink); Taste of Textiles (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Early Espresso (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories:  Sketch Tree die (Memory Box); burlap twine

Freshly Made Sketches 261!

I don't think I have as yet recovered from the shock that it is actually November 2nd.  In a few days we'll turn the clocks back an hour and it will officially be dark when I leave work in the afternoon.  Yuck!  Anyone know how many days until spring?!  But on the bright side it's time for a new challenge from Freshly Made Sketches!  This week our hostess is the supremely creative Cindy Hall.

A long, long time ago I pinned this card from the uber talented Debby Hughes with the intention of just CASE-ing it.  I have the snowflake dies and everything!  Well I never got around to it....until now.   That card came into my head when I sat down at my desk to make my card this week.

For some reason (no idea why) I used a totally different snowflake die cut than she did.  I cut it out of glimmer paper and colored it with Copics.  Debby used Distress Inks and her color is a little more obvious so I think I might try this again and use those instead.  This is very pretty in real life...but I like her snowflake better so next time I'm using that one!

There's an "anything goes" challenge at Christmas Card Challenges so I'll be adding this over there as well.

And as usual, thanks for stopping by.  There's a whole lot of pretty going on at Freshly Made Sketches so I hope you check out the inspiration from the design team then join us in the gallery!

Supplies
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper, Soft Sky (Stampin' Up!); Vellum (Papertrey Ink)
Ink:  Copic
Accessories:  Snowflake Trio die (a.muse studio); Make a Snowflake die (Taylored Expressions); Merry Christmas die, Falling Snow stencil (Simon Says Stamp); white embossing paste (Wendy Vecchi); Clear Droplets (Pretty Pink Posh)

colourQ 366!

Hello, hello.  We've got a new palette for you at colourQ and the colors are beautiful.  I was sadly in need of a sympathy card so I used the colors to create a card that, I think, is subtly masculine.

I used some leafy dies with a speckled background for my focal point and I arranged them to leave a nice spot for the sentiment.  I've got to tell you though it was quite a pain to leave all the little bits inside those die cut leaves!  I used micro-pore tape on the back to make sure they didn't fall out!  My layout comes from Sunday Sketch.

Short and sweet today.  I'm writing this quickly before I head off to work this morning.  I hope everyone had a fun Halloween and that your trick or treat basket is full of goodies!  Please head over to colourQ to check out what the design team has to inspire you this week.  I hope to see you in the gallery!  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Forever in Our Hearts (Verve)
Paper:  Island Indigo, Hello Honey, Really Rust (Stampin' Up!); Solar White (Neenah)
Ink:  Hello Honey, Dusty Durango (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories:  Branchages & Feuilles die (4enscrap); Speckles stencil (Tim Holtz)

CAS(E) This Sketch 196 - Redux

I recently got some new stamps and dies from a new-to-me company in France called 4enscrap.  My friend Cécile uses their products quite often and I fell in love with some of them.  I couldn't wait to get my hands on some of their products!  Surprisingly shipments from France don't take as long as you would think and in short order I was raring to go using my new stuff!

I had it all planned out in my head to use my new supplies on my card for CAS)E  This Sketch so that's exactly what I did.  I used the colors from the Fusion challenge and some of my new dies from 4enscrap and was pretty darn happy with the results.  (That butterfly is so beautiful)!

And then I went to upload my card to the DT blog and I saw that this is the week that we are supporting Cards For a Cause - and that cause happens to be pets - so I knew this card wouldn't pass muster.  Back to the drawing board I went for the card I would eventually upload to the challenge (you can find that HERE) but since I had made this one I figured I would share it with you anyway!

The weekend is here so I plan to do some relaxing and football watching capped off with a new episode of The Walking Dead.  I hope you are inspired by all the design team cards at CAS(E) This Sketch and want to join us in the gallery this week.  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Painted Greetings (Altnew)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Old Olive (Stampin' Up!); Berry Sorbet, Vellum (Papertrey Ink)
Ink:  Scarlet Jewel (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories:  Papillons die, Brancheges & Feuilles die (4enscrap); Lucky Blend sequins (Avery Elle); Blueprints 21 die (My Favorite Things); Basic Pearls (Stampin; Up!)

CAS(E) This Sketch 260!

This week at CAS(E) This Sketch we've got a bit of a theme going on.  And it involves pets, something near and dear to my heart!

Karen of Feline Creative contacted Chrissy and asked if the team would be interested in participating in Cards for a Cause to benefit the Tri-County Humane Society in St. Cloud Minnesota.  They need general and thank-you cards with a pet theme and I was happy to contribute.  I've got two cats that I adopted from my local shelter so I know first hand the important work these shelters do.  Sending along a card for the society to use to thank the adopters is the least I can do!  Here's a pic of my kitties in a rare moment of them sleeping together.  They are brother and sister but don't always hang out together!

And in a totally coincidental twist the the challenge at Global Design Project this week is to use animals or pets.

You don't have to follow our pet themed challenge to join us at CAS(E) This Sketch this week, but if you do and you want to donate your card please make sure you use a pet (and not a wild animal).  The humane society is mostly looking for general and thank you cards, but birthday, sympathy, and anniversary cards are welcome too.  Please leave the inside of the card blank so that the humane society can write a personal message, and include an envelope.  Don't put them in a plastic sleeve.  You can mail your card to Karen Howard, 9088 Country Avenue, Monticello MN  55362.

Thanks for joining us and be sure to check out the cards from the CAS(E) This Sketch design team.  They are purr-fect!

Supplies
Stamps:  Cat's Meow (Technique Tuesday)
Paper:  Basic Gray, So Saffron (Stampin' Up!); Black (Simon Says Stamp)
Ink:  Jet Black (Altenew)
Accessories:  feLINE die (Penny Black)

Freshly Made Sketches 260!

I've been away for a few days but I'm back today with a new card for the latest challenge at Freshly Made Sketches!  This week our hostess is Kim and she's got this great sketch with awesome shapes.  Take a look!

I just got that new leaf stamp and really wanted to ink it up.  I think I tried three times and made a mistake of one kind or another on it each time.  I ended up going with my first try because I could obscure the mistake with the die cut sentiment.  (Some of the veiny part of the leaf didn't stamp completely).  BTW, that veiny part is heat embossed in copper on top of the sponged color background.

I was inspired by the challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches and though it looks gold in the picture, the die cut sentiment and cord are actually copper in color.  And in case you miss it in the photo, there's a vellum flag under the sentiment too.  Photography is obviously not my forte!

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out the inspiration from the always-amazing Freshly Made Sketches design team.  We'd love to see you in the gallery this week!

Supplies
Stamps:  Lace Leaf (Concord & 9th)
Paper:  Classic Ivory (Flourishes); Vellum (Papertrey Ink); Kraft-Core Metallic (Tim Holtz)
Ink:  Garden Green, Cherry Cobbler (Stampin' Up!); Versamark
Accessories:  Grateful Leaf die (Concord & 9th); Epis de blé die (4enscrap); Jumbo Fishtail Banner STAX (My Favorite Things); copper cord (Stampin' Up!); copper embossing powder (Ranger)