Freshly Made Sketches 168

Well hello there Freshly Made Sketches fans!  We've had a bit of a long holiday break but we're back today with a brand new sketch designed by Amy!

It's been getting a bit colder where I live and I was feeling a little like I wanted to see a bit of summer on my card.  And one thing that says summer to me is a butterfly.  Fortunately I have some beautiful butterfly dies so adding one to a card is no trouble at all!

The black, pink and gold colors of my card come from the inspiration photo at Fusion.  I've got some crafty goals for 2015 and one of them is to take a step outside my usual comfort zone a bit more.  I have always tended to shy away from "inspiration" photo challenges, preferring the more direct instructions provided by color and sketch challenges.  But I want to try new things this year and that means things that I normally would avoid like the plague!  So I'm going to add in an inspiration photo challenge here and there!

The super crafty design team at Freshly Made Sketches has got some wonderful cards to share with you so, if you haven't already, make sure you check them out.  I hope you'll take some time to join us in the gallery as we kick off a new crafty year!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  So 80's (WPlus9); Artful Flutters (Stamplorations)

Paper:  Classic White (Flourishes); Vellum (Papertrey Ink); Basic Black, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White (SU)

Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine); Distress Embossing Ink (Ranger)

Accessories:  Pierced Rectangle STAX (My Favorite Things); Chrissy Butterfly die, Leanna Butterfly die (Simon Says Stamp); metallic enamel dot (My Mind's Eye); gold embossing powder

colourQ 274

Hey, hey stamping friends!  We're back at colourQ, after a wee holiday break, with a brand new palette inspired by this comfy, cozy flannel bedding - just the sort of thing you want on a cold winter's night!  My card features a poppy because I'm dreaming of spring!

Since I made this card I wish I had done a little something extra with that big layer.  It's a little too plain, even for me, but it will have to do!  The layout for my card comes from the latest Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge and since I used some new stamps and dies I'm throwing this into the ring at the always-amazing Darnell's NBUS challenge.

The colourQ design team have got some gorgeous cards to show you, so be sure to pop on over there to check them out.  We'd love to see you in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Painted Poppy (Altenew)

Paper:  Kraft, Ripe Avocado, Vellum (Papertrey Ink), Rich Razzleberry, Very Vanilla (SU)

Ink:  Calypso Coral (SU); Ripe Avocado, True Black (Papertrey Ink)

Accessories:  Pierced Rectangle STAX (My Favorite Things); Dotted Borders die (Avery Elle); Banner Trio die (WPlus9); enamel dot (My Mind's Eye)

My First 2015 Thank You!

Wow, I can't believe it has taken me until January 4th to post a card in 2015.  I've been trying to organize my stamp room for a few days and every time I took a break to do some creating I wasn't feeling particularly crafty.  So I decided to just take a break and get all inky when the mood struck.

Well, the mood has struck and ordered me to combine the sketch from As You See It with the inspiration photo at Curtain Call.

I'm not entirely sure it is visible in the photo but I used a chevron stencil to lay down some embossing paste before I layered my embossed-flower-on-vellum over it.  I stamped the sentiment in PTI's Smokey Shadow which has a wonderful taupe look to it when dry so it fit the tone of the inspiration photo I think.

I'm looking forward to a crafty 2015 and I hope you are too!  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Hennah Elements, Label Love (Altenew)

Paper:  Classic White (Flourishes); Vellum (Papertrey Ink)

Ink:  Smokey Shadow (Papertrey Ink); Distress Embossing Ink (Ranger)

Accessories:  Chevron Pattern stencil (Simon Says Stamp); white embossing paste (Dreamweaver);  silver cord,  gold cord (SU); metalllic enamel dots (My Mind's Eye); gold embossing powder

Dragonfly Thanks

Hard to believe it's new year's eve isn't it?  It's funny how time seems to fly (unless it's winter which always seems to drag on) and suddenly you are staring a new year in the face.  I've got some crafty goals that I hope to meet in 2015 - I think I'll be brave and post them here soon because I think it will help me be accountable!

Wednesday's are usually the day where I debut a card that I made using the new sketch from Freshly Made Sketches, but we're on a holiday hiatus so I'm free to indulge myself in other crafty challenges today.  This card is for the Mojo sketch and a recent color challenge at Splitcoast Stampers.

The SCS color challenge was actually to use Hello Honey, but I used Crushed Curry because I had some DSP in that color and I really wanted to use it on my card.  This is also tall and skinny week at Mojo so my card is a slim 3 1/2 by 5 1/2 inches.  I kinda like that size!

I hope that you all enjoy a safe new year's celebration, whatever it is you are doing.  Thanks to everyone who stopped by here and left an encouraging comment over the past year.  I really appreciate your feedback and cherish all the friends that I've made during my crafting journey!  And here's to a super crafty 2015!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Distressed Background Blocks (My Favorite Things); Mini Stamp Thank You (Heidi Swapp)

Paper:  Classic White (Flourishes); Basic Black, Crushed Curry, Welcome Neighbor DSP (SU)

Ink:  Crushed Curry (SU); Onyx Black (Versafine)

Accessories:  Pierced Fishtail Flags STAX, Pierced Circle STAX (My Favorite Things); Pretty Butterflies & Dragonfly die (My Creative Time); black crochet thread

Hello!

I have the somewhat unusual luxury of finding myself with lots of extra time to get crafty lately.  My design team work is on vacation for the holidays so my schedule is free to do whatever I want!  What a strange feeling that is.  Today I decided to play along with the inspiration photo at Just Us Girls and to combine it with the latest retro sketch.

I really loved the gray, pink and white colors of the JUGS inspiration photo plus you can see I was heavily influenced by the circles.  I randomly stamped some circles then added a button and a stacked die-cut sentiment.  You may notice that I sneaked in a little black on the die cut sentiment.  That is a little trick I learned from my friend Karren.  It really makes the die cut stand out and since this card is really just about the pink and gray, it really helped to make the sentiment get noticed.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps: Bokeh Dots (Essentials by Ellen)

Paper:  Neenah Solar White; Smoky Slate, Blushing Bride, Basic Black, Twitterpated DSP (SU)

Ink:  Smoky Slate, Blushing Bride (SU)

Accessories:  Happy Hellos die, Pierced Square STAX, Pierced Fishtail Flags STAX (My Favorite Things); button (SU); thread

You Brighten My Day!

Now that Christmas is behind me, I'm free to think about getting inky again!  As you know, I prefer to start my cards with inspiration from some of my favorite challenges and a lot of them are on hiatus for the holidays.  But a few are open and I found that at CASology the cue card "light" gave me an excuse to use this cool stencil.

This card was so simple to make and was just what I needed after a long day at work.  (Returning to work for one day after a mid-week holiday is SO hard)!  There was really nothing to it but sponging the sun's rays and adding a sentiment.  I lucked out that I had a sentiment that was appropriate for a light-filled sunny card!

Well, that's it for me.  I've got a surprise 80th birthday party for my uncle to go to on Sunday, but hopefully I can get some more crafty time in around that!  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Bright Days (Avery Elle)

Paper:  Neenah Solar White

Ink:  Daffodil Delight (SU); Onyx Black (Versamark)

Accessories:  Shine stencil (Memory Box)

colourQ 273

Even though this weeks palette from colourQ could easily inspire a Christmas card (it was in fact inspired by this tree on an advent calendar) I'm all Christmas-ed out and went in an entirely different direction.  Last week's Make it Monday technique was a cool way to use die cuts on a card by "camouflaging" them.  The look is pretty cool and I wanted to try it out.

Cool huh?  I layered the die cut four times because I really wanted it to show up.  Plus the sponged colors are pretty dark and I was afraid that if I didn't have enough dimension, you wouldn't be able to see the cool look of the popped up sentiment.  I also went over the die cut with my Wink of Stella pen to give it some glitz and it looks really pretty in real life!

This is a busy time of year so this colourQ challenge will stay open for two weeks to give you extra time to play along.  The design team have created some beautiful projects to be sure to check them out!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Paper:  Solar White (Neenah)

Ink:  Hello Honey, Old Olive, Calypso Coral, Poppy Parade (SU)

Accessories:  Hello Word die (Lil' Inker Designs); Winter Blend sequins (Avery Elle); Wink of Stella pen

Snowflake

The Shades of White challenge at As You See It had me intrigued.  Then, as luck would have it, I found a sketch at Match the Sketch that seemed perfect for a white on white card and then I saw the winter wonderland challenge at Cupcake Inspirations which was perfect for a snowflake so I decided to combine them all.

I started with a white card base and layered some vellum over it.  I have some white, sparkly twine in my stash so I used that to wrap around the vellum and create the contrast between the two layers.  Then I added a snowflake that I die cut from Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer paper.  All this looks very bland here but in real life it's quite sparkly and wonderful!

Thanks for stopping by and if you are going to leave a comment (and I hope that you do) remember that you can ignore the stupid prove you're not a robot check box!

Supplies:

Paper: Classic White (Flourishes); Vellum (Papertrey Ink); Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer (SU)

Accessories:  Funky Snowflake die (Simon Says Stamp)