Freshly Made Sketches 554

We've got a great new challenge for you at Freshly Made Sketches this week.  Our design this week is brought to you by Karren.  I decided to go with a monochrome one-layer card.  

I thought combining the black and white challenge at Less is More with our Freshly Made Sketches challenge would be a good idea.  I think I was right!  The flower on my card becomes the vertical layer and I drew a rectangle around the sentiment to create the horizontal layer.  The result was a simple, one layer card.

Thanks for stopping by!  My Freshly Made Sketches have some fabulous cards for you to see so I hope you check them out!

Supplies
Paper:  Whisper White (Stampin' Up!
Stamps:  Foral Art (Altenew); Deepest Sympathy (My Favorite Things)
Ink: Onyx Black (Versafine)

Freshly Made Sketches 499

Hi friends!  It's Wednesday and time for a new challenge at Freshly Made Sketches.  This week the hostess is yours truly! 😊I opted for my favorite shaped card - a square one.  And feel free to substitute another shape for those triangles in the corner!

I decided that my square card needed to be one layer and when I saw the black and white challenge at Just Us Girls I knew exactly how I wanted this card to look.

This card went together very easily.  I simply stamped the leaf images in the corner in black ink then added a script sentiment in the middle.  Thats. It.  What could be easier than that?  

Thanks for stopping by!  My Freshly Made Sketches teammates have turned my sketch into some beautiful cards so be sure to check them out.  I hope you'll play along with us!

Supplies
Stamps:  Botanical Prints (The Stamp Market); Scripty Sayings (Gina K Designs)
Paper:  White Pure Luxury (Gina K Designs)
Ink:  Nocturne (Versafine Clair)

Fusion - Green

March seems to always be about green right?  The snow starts to fade, spring (hopefully) is on it's way, and, of course, St. Patrick's Day is only a couple of weeks away.  So it's only fitting that our latest challenge at Fusion is all about green!

 

I think I went a little bit over the top with my green!  I sponged a couple of shades to create the background and then added some leafy stamps in a couple of darker shades.  This is a great stamp set and I just love the little dots.  I love how they add dimension to a flat surface.  

Thanks for stopping by!  My fellow Fusion teammates have made some great cards for our challenge so be sure to check them out.  You can play with the sketch, the inspiration photo, or both!

Supplies
Stamps:  Dot Botanicals (Altenew); Forever in Our Hearts (Verve)
Paper:  Bristol Smooth
Ink:  Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint (Distress Oxide); Frayed Leaf, Forest Glades, Evergreen (Altenew); Onyx Black (Versafine)

Freshly Made Sketches 468

Hi all!  It's Wednesday so that means we've got a new challenge at Freshly Made Sketches.  Our hostess this week is Linda and her great sketch got my card growing and growing!

So I got it in my head that I wanted to use a particular stamp on that small horizontal layer.  But I couldn't get it to fit it onto a layer that fit a regular A2 card.   So I had to keep increasing the size of the card so that I could accommodate a bigger layer that fit the stamp.  I finally found the sweet spot- yay - but I think the final card is something north of 5 inches square!  

The colors of my card come from the challenge at The Paper Players.  Originally I wasn't sure that I could make those colors work together but eventually I figured out that the stamp I used made it easy to combine them.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Wreath Turnabout (Concord & 9th); Keep It  Simple Sympathy (Papertrey Ink)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Premium White (Catherine Pooler); Blueberry Sky (Papertrey Ink)
Ink:  So Saffron, Blackberry Bliss (Stampi' Up!); Bluberry Sky (Papertrey Ink); Only Black (Versafine)

Freshly Made Sketches 449

Hey everyone!  It's time for a new challenge at Freshly Made Sketches.  This week our hostess is Cécile and she's got this amazing sketch that, as you will see by checking out our design team cards, can be interpreted in so many different ways!

First I made a card with some triangles on it in the style of the sketch, but it was really boring and I had no choice but to scrap it.  So then I actually sat at my desk, chin in hand, and contemplated the myriad of stamp sets at my disposal.  Soon my eye was drawn to this set I've had in my stash for ages and my card was born.  I think karma might have had a hand in my choice because the set is called French Foliage and Cécile is from France.  It was meant to be!

I took some liberties with the sketch and opted for some different shapes than triangles but the placement of my shapes it the same.  The card is made from a kraft background and all the stamps were done in a dark brown.  The muted colors seemed perfect for a sympathy card so I added that sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you can join us at Freshly Made Sketches this week!

Supplies:
Stamps:  French Foliage (Stampin' Up!); Tiny Words (Simon Says Stamp)
Paper:  Desert Storm (Neenah)
Ink:  Early Espresso (Stampin' Up!)

Freshly Made Sketches 436

We've got a great new sketch for you at Freshly Made Sketches.  Our hostess this week is Jen Brum and I love the classic lines of her sketch.  There is so much you can do with it!

I chose to go with shades of green for my entire card a-la the challenge at Color My Heart Color Dare.  I even sponged the background on this one with my Distress Inks, something I'm getting better at!  For the focal image I layered the leaves in several shades of green, framed the layer in black and added a black sentiment.  I think it's soft and soothing.

Thanks for stopping by!  My Freshly Made Sketches teammates have made some fantastic cards with this sketch so I hope you check them out!

Supplies

Stamps:  Leaf Clusters (Altenew); Keep It Simple Sympathy (Papertrey Ink)

Paper:  Mint Julep (Papertrey Ink); Black Licorice (My Favorite Things); Bristol Smooth

Ink:  Cracked Pistacchio (Distress); Bamboo, Olive, Moss (Altenew); Onyx Black (Versafine)

CAS(E) This Sketch 354 Meets Fusion

Hey everyone!  It's that time when I get to combine the sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch with the inspiration challenge at Fusion. 

I love the neutral colors of the Fusion inspiration photo so I kept the colors on my card to white, black, and a bit of brown.  I copied the tree images and added a simple sentiment stamped and embossed in black on vellum.

Thanks for stopping by!  My CAS(E) This Sketch and Fusion teammates have each made some great cards for these challenges!  I hope you can play along with us!

Supplies
Stamps:  Lovely As A Tree (Stampin' Up!); Scripty Greetings (The Ton)
Paper:  Fresh Snow Linen, Cocoa Bean, Vellum (Papertrey Ink); Solar White (Neenah)
Ink:  Nocturne (Versafine Clair); Versamark
Accessories:  Wood dots (My Mind's Eye); black embossing powder; washi tape

Freshly Made Sketches 391

Sometimes I forget to actually hit "publish" when I do these blog posts!  😬So without further ado my card for the latest Freshly Made Sketches challenge follows.

We've got a great new challenge for you at Freshly Made Sketches.  Our hostess this week is our resident color-master Amy.  I love this sketch!

It seems weird to think about making sympathy cards but I do like to have some on hand when the time comes that I need one.  Amy's sketch gave me the perfect design.  I used the colors from the latest FabFriday challenge, although I will admit that my Soft Seafoam is a stretch.  I didn't have any colors that were terribly close to the right one so I chose the best one that I had.  I'll completely understand if they throw me out of their gallery!  Obviously I need to go shopping to fill this gap in my cardstock collection! 

Thanks for stopping by!  My Freshly Made Sketches teammates have made some terrific cards to inspire you.  I hope you'll join us in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Botanical Silhouettes (Papertrey Ink)
Paper:  Aqua Mist (Papertrey Ink); Pear Pizzazz, Whisper White (Stampin' Upp!)
Ink:  Pear Pizzazz, Regal Rose (Stampin' Up!); Nocturne (Versafine Clair)
Accessories:  Stitched Rectangle die (My Favorite Things); Subtle 3D embossing folder (Stampin' Up!)

Freshly Made Sketches 326

It's hard to believe that today is the last day of February, but the calendar doesn't lie!  And it's no lie that we've got a great new sketch for you at Freshly Made Sketches designed by the super talented Jen Timko.  It's got a beautiful wide-open space that will surely get your creative juices flowing!

I spied the green color challenge at Sunday Stamps the other day and got to thinking about these wispy leaves of grass from an old stamp set I've got in my stash.  I knew that image would be perfect for this sketch.  So I went digging through my newly organized paper stash (done ROYGBIV style) and found some colors that seemed about right and went to work.  And as an aside can I just gush that re-organizing my paper by color has been a game changer for me - especially when playing along with a color challenge.  It's so easy to see what colors I've got, it makes matching a lot easier, and I think I'm using more variety on my cards.  I should have done that ages ago!

One thing about having my paper organized by color is that I realized that I didn't have anything even close to the color that is second to the right on this graphic.  It's a beautiful color, and to my eye looks like a warm taupe, so now I'm on the hunt to see if I can find something similar!

Thanks for stopping by!  And do pop over to Freshly Made Sketches to check out the inspiration from the design team.  You're going to love it!

Supplies
Stamps:  Inspired by Nature (Stampin' Up!); Scripty Sayings (Gina K)
Paper:  Fog (Simon Says Stamp); Solar White (Neenah); Always Artichoke, Vellum (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Lemon Grass (Avery Elle); Lemon Lime Twist (Stampin' Up!); Jet Black (Altlenew)
Accessories:  Papillon die (4enscrap)

Freshly Made Sketches 278!

This week I am the hostess at Freshly Made Sketches!  I designed the sketch so that there would be plenty of room for creative interpretation.  At least I hope I did!

I was feeling a little nostalgic for some of my old stamps apparently because I grabbed an old SU set and stamped these grassy images.  And since it's been a while since I've made a butterfly card I decided that a butterfly would look quite nice resting on some of those blades of grass.  I actually made a big boo-boo on this card and if you look closely you'll probably see it.  I wanted to make sure that I got a good image of the grass and was pressing the stamp with a bit more force than was probably necessary because it ended up moving a smidge and I got a bit of double image.  I actually liked how it looked so I didn't re-do it.  I remember this old adage very well:  there are no mistakes in stamping!

The colors for my card come from the latest challenge at Cupcake Inspirations.  Incidentally I didn't set out to make a sympathy card, but as I was perusing my sentiment stamps my eye happened to fall on a set of sympathy sentiments that I got recently and one of them fit perfectly on that panel.  The strange thing is that some friends of mine lost a family member recently and I really think that I was being guided to make this particular card at this particular time.  Amen!

I really hope you have a chance to play along this week with my sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.  If you need some inspiration you need only to hop on over there to see some amazing creations from the design team!  See you in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Inspired by Nature (Stamin' Up!); Keep it Simple: Sympathy (Papertrey Ink)
Paper:  Pure Ivory (Gina K); Chocolate Chip, Bermuda Bay, Regal Rose, Vellum (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Bermuda Bay (Stampin' Up!); Jet Black (Altenew)
Accessories:  Papillon die (4enscrap); Wink of Stella

With Sympathy

Today I'm posting a card that I made for a couple of challenges.  I loved the colors at House of Cards and I thought I could pair them with the sketch at Sketch Saturday.

I started layering colors on in a way that looked pleasing to me without really having an idea of how I was going to fill that focal layer on top.  Once I had the colors done I poked around in my stash of dies for something interesting and I chose these leafy ones.  The colors seemed a little moody to me so I chose to make this a sympathy card.

I'm not sure if you can see it in the photo but I stamped that top layer with a really old background stamp that I dug out from my stash.  It's funny how everything old is new again, isn't it?  I've got quite a few of these big background stamps and I never purged them from my stash because I really like them and I just knew that I'd use them again, even if only occasionally.  And look, I was right!

We had our first snowstorm here in Massachusetts over the weekend.  I think I got about a foot of the light fluffy stuff.  And in a few days it's supposed to be 50 degrees.  Go figure!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  French Script, Warmest Regards (Stampin' Up!)
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Bravo Burgundy, Vellum (Stampin' Up!); Smokey Shadow, Soft Stone (Papertrey Ink); Cement Gray (My Favorite Things)
Ink:  Smokey Shadow, Soft Stone (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories:  Feuillage die (4enscrap); Petit Assortment d'automne die (Simply Graphic); Washi Tape die (My Favorite Things); clear embossing powder  

colourQ 366!

Hello, hello.  We've got a new palette for you at colourQ and the colors are beautiful.  I was sadly in need of a sympathy card so I used the colors to create a card that, I think, is subtly masculine.

I used some leafy dies with a speckled background for my focal point and I arranged them to leave a nice spot for the sentiment.  I've got to tell you though it was quite a pain to leave all the little bits inside those die cut leaves!  I used micro-pore tape on the back to make sure they didn't fall out!  My layout comes from Sunday Sketch.

Short and sweet today.  I'm writing this quickly before I head off to work this morning.  I hope everyone had a fun Halloween and that your trick or treat basket is full of goodies!  Please head over to colourQ to check out what the design team has to inspire you this week.  I hope to see you in the gallery!  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Forever in Our Hearts (Verve)
Paper:  Island Indigo, Hello Honey, Really Rust (Stampin' Up!); Solar White (Neenah)
Ink:  Hello Honey, Dusty Durango (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories:  Branchages & Feuilles die (4enscrap); Speckles stencil (Tim Holtz)

colourQ 295

The weather has been so fantastic around here that I have been totally neglecting my stamp room!  I can't possibly justify holing myself up inside when the sun is shining, the temperatures are warm and the flowers and veggies need watering.  But I did manage to get inside a time or two to make a card for today's colourQ palette!

This one is pretty CAS and I'm sure you recognize the CAS(E) This Sketch layout! When I started making this card I was going to use an entirely different floral image stamped in shades of pink than the one you see here but changed my mind at the last minute.  There was a piece of vellum hanging around my desk and when I saw it I thought that it would look pretty embossed in gold with this image instead.

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to check out the other colourQ designers cards this week!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Hennah Elements (Altenew); Beautiful Butterflies (Papertrey Ink)
Paper: Blushing Bride, Night of Navy, Vellum (SU); 
Ink:  Night of Navy (SU); Distress Embossing Ink
Accessories:   Pierced Square STAX (My Favorite Things); enamel dots (My Mind's Eye); embossing powder

Freshly Made Sketches 175

I don't usually keep sympathy cards on hand but every once in a while I unfortunately need one and as I was creating my card for this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge it occurred to me that it made a nice one.  Our sketch this week is brought to you by Jen Brum who is currently freezing her you-know-what off in eastern Canada.  But that didn't stop her from creating this great sketch!

Look at all that space to unleash your creativity!  I used the space to show off this beautiful poppy stamp.  First I inked it up in Tangerine Tango then splashed some Pure Poppy on with a marker in random spots.  I love how it came out.  And the sentiment fit perfectly tucked down next to the stem.

Ok, you know the drill.  Being Wednesday your first order of business is to go to Freshly Made Sketches and check out the inspiration from our amazing design team.  Then you need to play along with us!  Simple!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Poppy Field (Rubbernecker Stamps); Fancy Feathers (Clearly Besotted)

Paper:  Dove Grey (WPlus9); Basic Black, Whisper White (SU)

Ink:  Tangerine Tango, Pure Poppy (SU); Onyx Black (Versafine)

Accessories:  Stitched Rounded Rectangle STAX (My Favorite Things); crochet thread