Freshly Made Sketches 485

I'm very happy that I made another Christmas card for my stash this year!  And the design for my card was inspired by our latest sketch challenge at Freshly Made Sketches.  This week Judy is our hostess and I couldn't resist flipping her sketch. 😉

I was looking through my stash of cards the other day and came across a couple of "slimline" cards that I made many years ago.  I'm sure I made them for a sketch challenge or something and at the time I made them I remember thinking that they were extra special because of their unexpected size and they are still in my stash today because they fit the category of "too pretty to give away!"  And here we are years later and all of a sudden slimline cards are all the rage and I find myself making them often.  It's funny how trends come and go isn't it?  

Anyway, for this card I filled up the background with a cover die in a mistletoe design and die cut the "holiday" sentiment out of red glitter paper - that's the banner on the sketch, mind you.  At the last minute I added a few red berries cut out of the same glitter paper and scattered them around the mistletoe.

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

Supplies
Stamps:  Tiny Words Christmas (Simon Says Stamp)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Green Parakeet (Papertrey Ink)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Mistletoe die (Honeybee Stamps); Wonderful Words Holiday die (Papertrey Ink)

Freshly Made Sketches 484

We've got a great new challenge for you at Freshly Made Sketches!  This week our hostess is Amy and her sketch got me thinking about negative space.  Take a look!

Using the colors from Crazy 4 Challenges I stamped the leaves on  two pieces of cardstock then cut out a square from one of those with the intention of layering it over the other.  The negative space it created became the square on the sketch.  I added a slim sentiment I was done!

Thanks for stopping by! My friends at Freshly Made Sketches have made some amazing cards with this sketch so be sure to check them out!

Supplies
Stamps:  Dot Botanicals (Altenew); Tons of Type (The  Stamp Market)
Paper:  Night of Navy, Whisper White (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Bamboo (Altenew); Tempting Turquoise, Night of Navy (Stampin' Up!)

Fusion - Mother's Day

Our new challenge at Fusion is inspired by Mother's Day so I decided to make a Mother's Day card but I took a little poetic license.  I've got a niece expecting a baby girl in June, and though she doesn't know exactly when her mother's day will be, it will definitely be!  So this card is for her!

It's a girl so, of course, I incorporated some pink then threw in some polka dots and pink sequins as well.  It's so cute!  I was lucky to combine both the inspiration and the sketch at Fusion.  Maybe you will too?

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Little Ones (Lil' Inker Designs); Giraffe (Leaping Frog Creations)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Pixie Pink (Avery Elle)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine); Copics
Accessories:  Polka Dots embossing folders (Lifestyle Crafts); Traditional Tags STAX, Pierced Traditional Tags STAX, Slanted Sentiment Strips die (My Favorite Things); Pink Party Couture Mix (The Ton); seam binding ribbon; crochet thread

Freshly Made Sketches 483

Hi all!  We've got a great new sketch for you at Freshly Made Sketches designed by Narelle.  It's one of my favorite themes because it's got a grungy background, which in my book means you can just about anything to complement it and it will look fabulous!

I stayed pretty faithful to the sketch and incorporated a circle, some splatters, a flower and leaves on my card all done in the colors of the Color Hues challenge.  I love those colors!

Thanks for stopping by!  My fellow teammates at Freshly Made Sketches have made some amazing cards with this sketch so I am sure you will be inspired to play along with us!

Supplies
Stamps:  Bokeh Dots (Essentials by Ellen); Mini 72 (Paper Artsy); Petite Posies (Technique Tuesday); Leaf Clusters (Altenew); Tons of Type (The Stamp Market)
Paper:  Whisper White (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Smoky Slate (Stampin' Up!); Citrus Burst (Altenew)

Freshly Made Sketches 482

It's time for a new challenge from your friends at Freshly Made Sketches!  This week Karren has given us a long and skinny sketch which I flipped counter-clockwise (or anti-clockwise as I suspect Karren would say)!

I loved the mood board at Challenge Up Your Life and was inspired to use the mint and bright pink on my card.  I fully intended to add a poppy or a similar flower but I think I got a little distracted by that horizontal layer with diagonal stripes.  I thought it was fun but it ended up dictating the rest of my card!  I happened upon the "thanks" letters that I had previously cut for a different project (and never used) which I thought provided a great level of contrast.  So then I tried to figure out how I could add those flowers that I wanted but nothing looked right with my bold pink and mint horizontal layer.  So I ended up stamping some circular images in the corners, to mimic the bike wheel from the inspo photo, in the same color as the sponged mint background.  I suspect they are hard to see in the picture but in real life they break up the background nicely.

Thanks for stopping by!  My fellow Freshly Made Sketches have all made fantastic cards with this sketch (but I'm sure you knew that already)!  I hope you'll join us in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Sunburst (Clearly Besotted); Hand Lettered Thanks (WPlus9)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Bristol Smooth; Mint Julep, Raspberry Fizz (Papertrey Ink); Basic Black (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Cracked Pistachio (Distress Oxide); Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Slim Diagonal Stitched Rectangle (Pink Fresh Studio); Bold Alpha Lower cut file (The Ton)

Fusion - Poppies

We've got a great new challenge for you at Fusion!  The inspiration photo is full of beautiful poppies but, alas, I didn't have any of those in my stash so I took my cues from the colors and from flowers in general and combined them, along with the sketch, to make this card.

The filmstrip is inspired by the vertical element on the sketch and was the first stamp I thought of using when I saw the sketch.  I stamped it in gray, so that it would be a little muted behind the brightly colored flowers.  I colored the flowers by scribbling some colors with Copic markers then stamping the flowers over my scribbles and fussy cutting them out.  I made this a slimline card to add to the TGIF Challenge.

Thanks for stopping by!  My Fusion teammates have made some fabulous cards so be sure to check them out!  I hope you'll join us!

Supplies

Stamps:  Pocket  Full of Posies, Petite Posies (Technique Tuesday); Film Strip I (Creative Embellishments)

Paper:  Whisper White, Smoky Slate (Stampin' Up!)

Freshly Made Sketches 481

It's time for a great new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches!  This week our hostess is Cécile and her unique sketch had me a bit nervous at first!

But my initial nervousness at all those circles gave way to snowflakes!  It's well documented here that I only like snow when it's on a card so I let a whole lot of snowflakes loose on this card.  I cut them from silver glimmer paper and carefully arranged them in a grid.  The sentiment was embossed in silver.  At the last minute I added a slim silver border to break up the white background a bit.  All that silver was inspired by the color challenge at Christmas Card Throwdown.

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you can join us at Freshly Made Sketches for our latest challenge!

Supplies
Stamps:  Ways to Say Merry Christmas (Papertrey Ink)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Silver Foil, Silver Glimmer (Recollections)
Ink:  Versamark
Accessories:  Let It Snowflake Too die (My Favorite Things); silver embossing powder

Mojo Sketch for Mother's Day

By some happy accident I just found that an old favorite sketch challenge of mine, Mojo Monday, is back!  As a new papercrafter, Mojo Monday was one of the first challenges that I played along with regularly as I stretched out my creative wings and I was sad when it retired back in 2017.  But it's back and I'm playing along with the current sketch.

One of the things I always loved about the Mojo sketches were the layers!  They allowed me to get creative with pattern and texture so for this card I dug deep into my patterned paper stash and used a lots of different SU papers.  And in a nod to Julee, the Mojo creator, I used a favorite flower from Verve.  The colors from the latest challenge at The Color Throwdown inspired the floral theme and since Mother's Day will be here before you know it I thought this was a perfect card for that.  And at Tic Tac Toe I managed to squeeze in the first row down - as long as "mother" is a good enough substitute for "mom' LOL! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Dream Big (Verve); Keep It Simple Mother (Papertrey Ink)
Paper:  Desert Storm (Neenah); Old Olive, So Saffron, Cameo Coral, Whisper White, Sweet Pea DSP, Patterns Stack Brights DSP (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Cameo Coral, Old Olive (Stampin' Up!); Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Dreamy Leaves die (Verve); Dotted Borders die (Avery Elle)