Freshly Made Sketches 4

We've got another great sketch for you to try at Freshly Made Sketches this week.  And LeAnne Pugliese is joining us at Guest Designer!

I can hardly believe that we're up to our fourth week already!  It's been such a treat to check out the submissions to our challenges.  I love to see how everyone interprets the sketch, and I always learn a new thing or two.  Often, I'll see something new and I think "now why didn't I think of that!"  So keep 'em coming.

For my card this week, I've continued the Christmas theme.

The card base is Chocolate Chip and the designer paper is called Jolly Holiday.  I finished it up with some Cherry Cobbler and Old Olive accents, including my snowflakes.  The tag is from Two Tags, a Stampin' Up! exclusive Sizzix die.

I hope you have a chance to join us for our challenge this week.  Our design team has lots of inspiration for you, so hop on over to their blogs and show them some love!

Lesley Croghan

Linda Callahan

Tui Nathan

Rita Wright

LeAnne Pugliese

Then don't forget to hop on over to Freshly Made Sketches and use the linky tool to show us your creation!

Paper Players 65

I've been plugging away making Christmas cards lately, but I still haven't settled on a design that can be easily mass-produced.  Last year I made so many cards for challenges that I almost had enough to satisfy my Christmas card list, but this year I'd like to have a design of one or two that can be recreated fairly easily in case I need to make some in a hurry.  I'm not saying that I sometimes forget to send cards to people, it's just that sometimes I forget to send cards to people.  Hey, we old folks are forgetful sometimes.  Just you wait, it will happen to you too!

So in this spirit, I found The Paper Players sketch challenge very helpful in my Christmas card quest.

Now, some of you might remember that I've been busy trying to use up my Christmas designer paper from years past.  The one you see here is called Holiday Lounge and it's another reason why I saved what Ruby Red and Taken With Teal cardstock that I had on hand.  The designer paper has a very cool, seventies, sort of retro look to it.  I never seem to make a card that does this paper justice, but I actually like this one quite a bit.  I softened the edges by sponging some Sahara Sand on pretty much every white surface you see, as well as all the designer papers.  It really does help to soften the overall look of the card and I'm glad I did it (despite some initial misgivings about it)!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Color Throwdown 160 and Stamping 411 Sketch

I've taken a little break from my Christmas cards to participate in the Color Throwdown challenge.  The colors are awesome and the inspiration from the design team was very..........inspiring!

Add in the wonderful CAS sketch this week at Stamping 411 and my creative juices got going.

I had a general idea in my head how I wanted this card to look, but as I got assembling all the pieces I realized that I didn't know what stamped images I wanted, which meant I had trouble deciding how to proceed.  Despite all the stamps I have, sometimes it seems like I don't have exactly the one I want!  I eventually settled on a sentiment from Whimsical Words, a Sale-A-Bration set from last year, and an image from Simply Soft, a hostess set from the current catalog.  I opted to forgo the bow in the sketch, because I wanted to keep the layout of my card pretty clean.

I love working with colors like these.  There's just something about them that catches my eye and I'm happy to send a big thank you to Danielle from the Color Throwdown DT for picking them!

Thanks for stopping by!

A La Card Monkey 75

This week the challenge at A La Card Monkey is a sketch with a Christmas theme.  No problem for me since I've been trying to squeeze in as many Christmas cards lately as I can.

My card has a couple of things on it that I don't think I've used before. On that note, I wish someone could explain to me why I have a strange compulsion to buy cool crafting things, then never use them.  I suspect I'm not alone in this, so maybe we should form a support group!

First I used some never-before-used chocolate chip ribbon from a set called Masterpiece.  I also used a mini library clip.  I've had those for ages and never thought I'd get to use them, but I decided it looked pretty good with my tag here.  I had debated about using a button, but I didn't have any chocolate chip ones and nothing else I thought of looked good to my eye.  Then I remembered the library clips and my tag was saved!

The pleated flower was made from some Holiday Treasures designer paper using a Sizzix decorative strip die called Mini Paper Rosettes.  In fact, all the designer paper on this card is from that set.  The sentiment came from the Delightful Decorations stamp set. 

I actually got the idea for this tag from a very nice tag that is featured in the Holiday Mini.  That tag had a few more layers and some stamp sets that I don't have, but I like my version too!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! 

MOJO 207 and ColourQ 103

This has been a very busy week for me and tonight is the first time since Sunday that I've had a chance to sit down in my stamp room and create something.  I'm quite sure that my mojo has deserted me because it took forever for me to decide what I wanted to do!

I ended up making a card for the latest MOJO Monday sketch challenge.  MOJO Monday has been on vacation for the last couple of weeks, so I think I was the victim of some pent-up demand for their sketch.

Then I turned to the lastest ColourQ for my color palette.  The colors this week are attention grabbing.

Not the sort of colors I would expect to see in late September, but perhaps that is why this challenge appealed to me so much.  Wisteria Wonder is the new "purple" that I think is just wonderful.  I've hardly used it, but that doesn't mean that I don't love it. 

I knew that the Berry Blossoms designer paper included some of these colors, so I used some of it for my card.

I'm not sure you can tell, but the little flowers have been colored in both Calypso Coral and Poppy Parade.  The sentiment is stamped in Poppy Parade.  Initially I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the little bow treatment in the sketch, but ended up going with a bit of scrunchy ribbon tied in a bow.

It's good to be back in my stamp room and I hope that this weekend I can spend some more time there.  I'm so behind on the challenges that I like to do, that I'd like to sneak a few in before they expire.  Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Freshly Made Sketches 3

Hello everyone!  Today is our third challenge at Freshly Made Sketches!  We've had such an unbelievable response to our clean sketch challenge.  It seems that a lot of people appreciate a clean card!  So, it's no surprise that we've got another great sketch for you to try this week.

The other day I said that I was going to try to use up the Christmas designer paper that I had in my stash rather than buying any new paper this year.  I'm committed to this challenge, so I dug deep into my stash for my card today.

For this card, I used a small piece of designer paper from a set called Wintergreen.  This set features colors like Always Artichoke, Certainly Celery, Sage Shadow, and Soft Sky (at least I think it's Soft Sky).  I saved what I had left of Sage Shadow specifically because I had this designer paper, so that's what I used for my card base.  The larger stamped image is the wonderful poinsetta stamp from the Bells & Boughs stamp set, which I stamped in Always Artichoke and colored with my Cherry Cobbler marker.  The two holly stamps are from the same set as well as the sentiment.

So now it's time for you to check out the inspiration from our Clean Team of Freshly Made Sketches designers.  This week the talented Nance Leedy is joining us as our guest designer.  Once you see what the Clean Team has created I'm sure you'll want to show us your creation too!

Lesley Croghan

Linda Callahan

Tui Nathan

Rita Wright

Nance Leedy



Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge 135

This year I have decided to not buy any new Christmas designer paper.  (I think I may have just heard a collective {gasp} from blogland)!  After I took an inventory of the Christmas stamps and designer paper I had in my stash, I realized that it would be quite a self-imposed challenge if I were to use what I already have instead of buying some new stuff.

I've used a bit of it already, but now I've got to commit myself because I've told all of you about it!  Incidentally, I have 11 packs of designer paper with a Christmas theme.  They're not all full packs, but some have quite a bit left.  So in this spirit today I made a card for the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge so I could get a jump start on using this stuff!

The paper I used here is from a set called Merry Moments.  It's got all sorts of colors that I love working with:  Chocolate Chip, Real Red, Old Olive, Garden Green and Very Vanilla.  This card uses some of the Old Olive and Real Red paper.  I even decided to use some Old Olive and Real Read for my snowflake.  Very non-traditional I know, but I think it works here!

Thanks for stopping by today!

FTL158 and Create With Connie and Mary 167

My first thought when I saw the latest color challenge at Create With Connie and Mary was of a Halloween card.

But I saw that quite a few cards from the design team were all about autumn, so I thought I'd make a card  with that theme instead.  I saw a neglected stamp set in my stash called Autumn Splendor so I inked that up for this card and used the Clean and Simple Stamping sketch for my layout.

This sketch was perfect to let leaves take center stage.  I inked up two of them then cut them out so that I could layer them.  Even though you can't see it, the top one is popped up with dimensionals.  The sentiment is from Pocket Silhouettes. 

I also did something I almost never do.  By wrapping the linen thread around the card base, it is exposed on the inside of the card.  I really don't like doing that.  And I mean I really don't like doing that.  I don't like ribbon showing on the inside of my cards or even the little metal things on brads.  I usually have enough layers on my cards to hide these messy details, but on this card I didn't want a layer on top of the textured Basic Gray cardstock that I used as my base.  So I ended up cutting another piece of Basic Gray and layering it on the inside of the card to cover the thread.  Problem solved!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!