Freshly Made Sketches 316

I'm pretty sure that I've been making Christmas cards non-stop for the last gazillion weeks!  I've actually had enough and this is the last Christmas card that [I think] I'm going to share in 2017.  Never say never, but I think I've got enough cards to cover my entire mailing list so I hope to turn to to other themes now.  BUT, I've got this one last Christmas card to share inspired by the latest challenge at Freshly Made Sketches.  This week our design was created by Jen Timko and I am sure that you are going to love it.  It's got a wide open panel that is up for anything that your creative juices can think of.

My creative juices came up with this big sentiment that stretches across that wide open panel.  The edges of my card are full of glitter (paper) and I added a few sequins to make sure that this card was super sparkly in real life. 

The colors for my card were inspired by the Cupcake Inspirations Challenge and they are looking for Christmas at AAA Cards so I'll be adding this over there as well.

Thanks for stopping by.  And I hope our Freshly Made Sketches design team will inspire you to play along with us!

Supplies
Stamps:  Fa La La (Simon Says Stamp)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Black Licorice (My Favorite Things); Pool Party (Stampin' Up!); glitter cardstock (Recollections)
Ink:  Pool Party (Stampin' Up)!
Accessories:  Fa La La die (Simon Says Stamp); Christmas Couture Mix sequins (The Ton)

Joyous Noel

I had some extra time Saturday so I went into my craft room and made a card with a new poinsettia die that I got recently.  I wanted to do a white on white design but I liked the challenge at Color Throwdown so I did a hybrid!  They are looking for glitter at Just Add Ink so I used gold glimmer paper for the center of the flower I sprayed the petals with glitter dust.  Hard to see in the picture, but very pretty in real life.

I did a little splatter behind the flower in pewter embossing powder.  This card really has some nice shimmer and shine to it.

Well that's it for me today.  Gotta get ready for some football!  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Joyous Noel (Verve); Mini72 (PaperArtsy)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Black Licorice (My Favorite Things); gold foil paper (Recollections)
Ink:  Jet Black (Altenew); Versamark
Accessories:  Layered Poinsettia die (Spellbinders); Blooming Poinsettia die (Memory Box); Glitter Dust (Therm-o-web); pewter embossing powder

CAS(E) This Sketch 249

We're back from our extended challenge at CAS(E) This Sketch to bring you a new challenge.  Our latest sketch is actually a retro one, designed by Leigh, and it originally appeared as #104 on December 18, 2014.  It's a classic design and worthy of a redux!

I used some die cut greens as my horizontal layer and added a simple sentiment in dark brown.  Super easy - just what I want at this busy time of year!  There's a Christmas Joy theme going on at Global Design Project so I'm going to add this there as well.

Thanks for stopping by!  The CAS(E) This Sketch design team has got some great cards to inspire you so be sure to check them out.  I hope you can join us in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Travelers Journal - December Typed Words (Papertrey Ink)
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Garden Green, Cherry Cobbler, Pear Pizzazz (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Pear Pizzazz (Stampin' Up!); Dark Chocolate (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories:  Holiday Greens Mini die (Tim Holtz); enamel dots (My Mind's Eye)

Freshly Made Sketches 315

Here we are at Wednesday again and I've got another Christmas card to share.  You're shocked right?  We've got a new challenge at Freshly Made Sketches and our hostess this week is Amy.  I took a few liberties with her sketch....

Instead of an oval I die cut a big "joy" sentiment to use in its place.  Then I stamped a super thin sentiment on a super thin piece of cardstock to layer across my "oval."  I added some snowflake sequins and easy-peasy I was done!

My kind, funny, and generous friend Linda recently gave me a wonderful gift:  a Shotbox.  It's a portable lighting studio that I've had my eye on.  I experimented a bit and took many photos of this card.  The one I chose for this post I took with my phone and I am beyond pleased with how it came out.  For one thing the colors of the card are much more representative of the actual colors in real life, but more importantly, you can actually tell that I used sparkly cardstock for the joy die cut.  I think that's the first time that something shiny has showed up in a photo that I took!

Thanks for stopping by!  And don't forget to pop on over to Freshly Made Sketches to check out the cards from our amazing design team.  I'm sure you'll be inspired to play along with us!

Supplies
Stamps:  Stained Glass Greetings (Simon Says Stamp)
Paper:  Sea Glass (Avery Elle); Solor White (Neenah); silver glitter (Recollections)
Ink:  Silvery Shimmer Delicata (Tsukineko)
Accessories:  Joy die (Concord & 9th); Winter Wonderland sequins (Neat & Tangled)

Ombre Christmas

Much to my dismay every time I see a card challenge I can only think of making a Christmas card!  Today is no different having spied the colors at Merry Monday, which lead to the sketch at Match the Sketch, which lead to the ombre challeng at TGIF.  Whew!

Love this color combo!  And I love the graphic shapes on the sketch at Match this Sketch.  I thought the two would look good together and I think I was right! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Ombre Sentiments: Christmas (Papertrey Ink)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Tempting Turquoise, Lemon Lime Twist (Stampin' Up!); silver glitter (Recollections)
Ink:  Tempting Turquoise (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories:  Circle STAX (My Favorite Things)

Happy Anniversary

Saturday I went to a party to celebrate the 50th anniversary of my aunt and uncle.  Sometime during the afteroon I decided that the card I was going to give them was not good enough so I sat at my desk to make a new one - with the help of the "cheer" challenge at CASology and the "shine" challenge at Less is More.

This card was sort of reverse engineered from the envelope!  I had a card all picked to give them and made a festive envelope to go with it with gold embossed accents and the word "cheers" featured right in the middle.  I chose gold because traditionally, that is the color of the "golden" 50th anniversary.  The envelope looked fantastic, but the card I was going to use had no gold on it so the two looked terrible together.  Luckily I had some time in the afternoon before I needed to leave so I made this shaker card.  Much better!  Here's the envelope that inspired my card:

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Bokeh Bursts Round (The Ton); The Big the Bold and the Happy (Winnie & Walter)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); glitter cardstock (Recollections)
Ink:  Golden Glitz Delicata (Tsukineko)
Accessories:  The Big the Bold and the Happy die (Winnie & Walter); gold embossing powder

Tag You're It 78

Thanksgiving 2017 is in the books in the US for this year so it's time to get SERIOUS about Christmas!  Today there's a new challenge at Tag You're It and our inspiration comes from Jessica Frost-Ballas.  Jess has created a tag that inspired me to add to my Christmas stash.

Instead a pink and gold theme I went with blue and silver, but I was inspired by the shading of the background, the snowflakes, and the deer.  I created some falling snow on the background with embossing paste and a stencil and the deer was die cut with some foil paper from Michaels that has a subtle texture to it - sort of like wrinkles.  I find myself reaching for "peace" themed sentiments a lot this year.  With everything that has been going on in the world lately wishing for a little peace seems to be a good thing.

The Muse: ChristmasVisions challenge has teamed up with Tracey McNeely's 25 Days of Christmas Tags challenge and are looking for snow on a tag!  Well here you go!

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you are inspired to join us at Tag You're It.  Our design team has created some fantastic tags to get you in the mood so hop on over to check them out!

Supplies
Stamps:  Pure Florals:  Poinsettia (Uniko)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Taken With Teal, Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer (Stampin' Up!); silver foil (Recollections)
Ink:  Broken China (Distress Oxide)
Accessories:  Tag Sale: Quilted die (Papertrey Ink); Deer Trio die (Impression Obsession); Falling Snow stencil (Simon Says Stamp); white embossing paste (Dreamweaver)

Freshly Made Sketches 314

Hello!  And happy Thanksgiving Eve to all my American friends!  I don't think that's really a thing, but having hosted thanksgiving dinner for many years I am aware of how important the day before the actual holiday is and how much work it can be putting together a big dinner for an extended family.  So to everyone out there who is busy slicing, dicing, chopping, baking, and otherwise occupied in the kitchen kudos to you!  Be sure to relax a bit too and actually enjoy the holiday!

Now to switch gears a bit!  Today we debut a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.  This week our design comes to us from Narelle.  I love how she manages to subdue her love of layers when it's her turn to design the sketch and keep it to just three or four.  I actually took one of her layers and inlaid it into my cardbase so I don't even think that counts as a layer!

I made a slight change on my card by not adding the sentiment over the circle layer.  The poinsettia was just too pretty to cover up, so I made sure to stamp my sentiment enough to the left so that the poinsettia would stand alone.

That's it for me today.  I've got some shopping to do to get ready for the big day and I need to get a move on!  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you'll have a chance to play along with our sketch and join us in the gallery at Freshly Made Sketches!

Supplies
Stamps:  Keep It Simple:  Joyeux Noel (Papertrey Ink)
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Hello Honey (Stampin' Up!); Pinefeather, Pure Poppy (Papertrey Ink); Naturals White (Neenah)
Ink:  Pinefeather (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories:  Layered Poinsettia die (Penny Black); Circles die (Little B)