Freshly Made Sketches 596

Hold on to your hats folks, because we've got a fun new challenging sketch for you at Freshly Made Sketches!  Our hostess this week is Judy and she has challenged us to keep the bottom part of our sketch completely BLANK!  Say what???!!!

I flipped my card to horizontal to accommodate these mountain dies.  I stumbled across them as I was searching my stash to find something suitable for the sketch.  I feel like this card is a tribute to my fellow design team member Jen as she is a bad-ass mountain climber!  Check out her Instagram and you'll see what I mean.  And at Just Us Girls they are looking for three of something and I've got three mountain ranges here, so I'm going to add this to their challenge as well.

At Freshly Made Sketches there's lots of inspiration so I hope you'll play along with us!

Supplies
Stamps:  For the Graduate (SugarPea Designs)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Gray Granite, Buckaroo Blue, Midnight Muse (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Mountain Landscape Layers die (Impression Obsession)

Freshly Made Sketches 595

I've really been into making Christmas cards lately.  I don't know if it's the "Christmas in July" phenomena or just general panic that I'll end up short at the end of the year!  But another Christmas card is on tap for our new challenge at Freshly Made Sketches.  Amy is our hostess and I think her layered design called for some patterned paper in the background.

Poinsettias are one of my favorite elements to use on a Christmas card and I paired one with this patterned paper that combines SU! Crumb Cake, Always Artichoke, and Cherry Cobbler.  The poinsettia and leaves were die cut using two of the same colors and I jazzed the card up a bit with some gold glimmer on the die cut sentiment and the center of the flower.  The "peace" sentiment is intended to replicate the rectangular layer on the sketch and I was able to tuck in a complementary sentiment next to the tail of the "P."  

Thanks for stopping by!  

Supplies
Stamps:  Stained Glass Greetings (Simon Says Stamp)
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler, Always Artichoke (Stampin' Up!); gold glimmer (Recollections)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Blooming Poinsettia die, Peace die (Memory Box)

Freshly Made Sketches 594

It's Wednesday so that means there's a great new sketch challenge for you at Freshly Made Sketches!  Our hostess this week is Narelle and those circles put me in mind of these fun (and new to me) fireworks images.

I bought the matching die for these stamps and I've got to say that trying to match up the die with the stamped image was very challenging.  I think the key might be to cut out each die cut onto plain paper and then use that as a registration mark on the stamped image.  I realized this, of course, after many attempts to line up the die with the image, and a few choice words when it wasn't working!

But in the end I'm happy with the result and thanks to Sunday Stamps Challenge for the colors!

Thanks for stopping by!  My Freshly Made Sketches teammates have some creative cards to inspire you to play along with us, too, so be sure to check them out! 

Freshly Made Sketches 593

I've got Christmas on my mind again for my Freshly Made Sketches card.  Karren has given us a great sketch inspired by a "bridge" card and I'm not ashamed to say I had no idea what a bridge card was!  Luckily the sketch can be interpreted in other ways, but I was intrigued by the concept so I watched the video link on Freshly Made Sketches and loved the idea!  I can't wait to try my own variation of a bridge card!  Here's how I interpreted the sketch.

This funky Christmas paper formed the background of my card and inspired the gold snowflake swoosh.  I stamped the slim sentiment in gold and added some golden gems for a little added bling.

Thanks for stopping by!  Our Freshly Made Sketches design team have some marvelous interpretations of this sketch so definitely check them out!

Supplies
Stamps:  Triangle Trees (Reverse Confetti)
Paper:  Whisper White, Sahara Sand, Holiday Lounge DSP (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Gold (Encore)
Accessories:  Snowflake Cluster Fancy Die (Hero Arts); metallic gold jewels (Pretty Pink Posh)

Freshly Made Sketches 592

A busy work schedule last week caused me to miss last week's challenge at Freshly Made Sketches, so I was determined to not miss this weeks sketch.  Our hostess is Cécile and her sketch is so fun!

The sketch has got some sailboat vibes but I really wanted to make a card to add to my Christmas stash.  At first I though the triangles might work as Christmas trees, but as I was browsing my stamps I found one that had some wise men with angular shapes that sort of mimicked the sketch so I decided to go with those.  

I sponged the circle and added the star, in keeping with the Christmas theme, and stamped the "wise men" in silhouette.  (Although I think the one on the right is a female (Mary) accepting a gift from the magi).  The sentiment, tucked in perfectly.

As this is a one layer card and pretty simple in nature I'm going to add it to Less is More!

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope we'll see you in the Freshly Made Sketches gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Three Kings (Penny Black); Star of Light (Stampin' Up!)
Paper:  Bristol Smooth
Ink:  Fossilized Amber, Wild Honey (Distress Oxide); Onyx Black (Versafine); Nocturne (Versafine Clair)

Freshly Made Sketches 590

We've got a fun new sketch challenge for you at Freshly Made Sketches this week.  Our hostess is Kim and I thought the three horizontal layers on it would be perfect for a few stacked sentiments.  

Once I stamped the sentiments I needed something to take up the rest of the space so I stamped this leafy image in a pale purple.  I got some additional inspiration from the color challenge at Less is More and the one layer challenge at Addicted to CAS. 

Thanks for stopping by!  There's some great inspiration at Freshly Made Sketches so be sure to check us out!

Supplies
Stamps:  Botanical Print (The Stamp Market)
Paper:  Whisper White (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Wisteria (Altenew); Onyx Black (Versafine)

Freshly Made Sketches 589

I had some logistical and technical difficulties this week but I finally got my card for the latest Freshly Made Sketches challenge posted!

Late work meetings this week prevented me from having my card ready on time and then...my phone died.  Ordinarily that wouldn't have any effect on my card-making (and posting), but lately I've been taking pics of my cards on my phone.  No worries, I say to myself, I'll just use my camera to take the picture of the card.  But it's been so long since I've used the camera the battery was dead!  So after some all-day charging of the camera battery I was able to take the picture, edit it, and post it!  

I'm on a full day without a phone, and I've got to say it's a little weird.  I don't have a landline so I am completely unavailable to anyone who needs to "call" me.  I told my sisters if they need to contact me they'll need to use Facebook Messenger or call me during the day while I'm at work.  How weird is that!  I grew up in the generation where if you needed to talk to someone you called them or rode your bike over to their house!  

But on to my card.  Linda is our hostess and her fun sketch got my thinking about long, thin stamps that might fit the verical layer on the sketch.  That lead to this floral image.  Perfect!  The rest of the card came together quickly and the colors were inspired by the challenge at The Color Throwdown.

Thanks for stopping by!  

Supplies
Stamps:  Poppy Field (Rubbernecker Stamps); Scripty Greetings (The Ton)
Paper:  Whisper White (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Smoky Slate (Stampin' Up!); Baby Pink (Altenew); Nocturne (Versafine Clair)
Accessories:  Circles die (Little B); enamel dots (My Mind's Eye)

Freshly Made Sketches 588

It's my turn to be the hostess at Freshly Made Sketches this week.  I literally dreamt up this angular sketch in that moment when you wake up before your alarm goes off and you are trying desperately to go back to sleep.  I think I was dreaming about making a card and thought "angles might be fun."  We'll see if you agree!

I wanted an interesting background for those angles so I found this pretty patterned paper in my stash of Christmas papers.  I added the Joy sentiment popped up on foam.  The sentiment was a little blah on its own, so I brushed it with some Wink of Stella.  Poof!  Instant pretty!

Thanks for stopping by!  My fellow Freshly Made Sketches design team members have some great cards to inspire you to play along with us, so check them out!

Supplies
Paper:  Blushing Bride, Ruby Red, Holiday Treasures DSP (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories:  Bold Borders Flurried die (Papertrey Ink); Wink of Stella