Sorry for all the quiet over the last few weeks. Summer is always a hard time for me to craft but this summer even more so, it seems. I have been working in the flight office at Dulles for a month (and through this month) and while it is more consistent, it comes with long days. The pay off has been some weekends off and even the 4th of July off but we have done a small amount of traveling. Thus, not much crafting. But I did have a few minutes to play with this week’s Freshly Made Sketches challenge with this fun sketch by the amazing Narelle!

Given that Narelle is the queen of fussy cutting, I decided to do some cutting of my own. Die cutting that is. I took a bit of liberty with the dies (and the sketch) to create a bluebird out of a robin die. I spritzed some watercolor paper with Oxide sprays and let it dry. Then I cut the bird from the watercolor paper and then used my Bitty Blender Brushes to add Salty Ocean and Crackling Campfire Distress Oxide Ink.

There was a bit of mix and match with the dies but that is what makes these such a good investment! The Winter Greenery branch with leaves from the Dogwood set created a pretty summer branch. I added a nest with some little Salvaged Patina inked eggs. For the additional circle on the bottom of the sketch, I took my yellow blender brush and applied what happened to be on there. Likely some Scattered Straw and Squeezed Lemonade. I added a small sentiment from On the Line: Fall Florals. Before I added the elements, I decided a little more Lost Shadow spray would be good behind them.

Thanks for stopping in today. As always, come over to see what the team has created! Hope you are doing well. See you soon!

Our lovely, overly ambitious hiker (the fabulous Jen Brum) is the sketch designer this week at Freshly Made Sketches. I was super glad for this graphic sketch because I needed something I could follow literally. And that is what I did!

I knew I wanted to use a patterned paper for the middle section on this and I had this paper pack out on my stamp table from another project. I love this bokeh rainbow print and it adds so much texture with none of the work! I just cut it on the angle and did a little bit of sponging on the edges to finish them a bit.

I thought this big sentiment was just the right size to fill the space and I like this “hello” for cards that sit ready to send a friend. Quick stamping and die cutting too! I added a few colored pearls to match the rainbow paper and done.

See, I told you I took this literally!! Some weeks just need a quick card so that I what I made. I hope you will have a few minutes to craft and join us too! Thanks for stopping in and I’ll see you soon!

A clean and fabulous new sketch from Freshly Made Sketches. This week’s sketch designer is the marvelous Kim Singdahlsen and I love this trio of stripes for all the options.

In my mind I saw an ombré panel for the sketch so I started on that path. I spritzed white card stock with Distress Spray Stain in Lost Shadow and Pumice Stone. Once dry, I inked with the combination of Oxide Inks in Tumbled Glass, Broken China and Peacock Feathers. After some light inking I ran the panel through with the Clover Petals 3D Embossing Folder and then cut the panel into three pieces to comply with the sketch better. Once cut apart I added a bit more ink in each color. I wanted a little more, well, something so I added a spray of Shimmer Spray from Hero Arts.

I looked through my unused die cuts stack and fount these two leaves. One is spritzed and one is plain white. Perfect! I did spray them with a little more Shimmer Spray and then added them on. The sentiment is from my foiled pile (I love to just make a stack when I’m foiling) and then finally I added some pearls to help emphasize the shimmer.

I hope you will come over to join the challenge this week. The lesson of this card is: yay for keeping a stash of pre-made die cuts and sentiments!! I hope you have a wonderful week! Thanks for stopping in.

I am the sketch designer this week at Freshly Made Sketches and I tried a circle pattern that is a little out of my normal card preference. I hope you will find some inspiration in it!

I thought it would be fun to use a 3D embossing folder for the texture on this card. Using the Spring Medley folder, I brayered on some Saltwater Taffy Distress Oxide Ink. I took my time making sure the folder as good and inked up before running it through. After I was done, I simply used some circle dies to cut out the different sizes from the same panel.

I thought a big gold sentiment would be perfect against the texture and I love this one from Thinking of You Big Time embossed with gold embossing powder. I added some matching confetti to finish. The best part about this card is that it would be easy to duplicate and make a stack in the same or even different colors!

Thanks so much for stopping in today. It has been a bit of a crazy month and truthfully, I designed this so it would be simple to make with dies. I hope you will come over and join us! See you soon!

So glad to be bringing you this week’s sketch from Freshly Made Sketches! Our wonderful Judy Rozema is the designer this week and it is so creative!

I went through a few other ideas for this before I remembered the Barn Wood Planks dies. I knew they would be perfect for the sketch! I cut five of them and then trimmed the length down a bit so they didn’t go all the way across the card. And then I got to play with the Dogwood dies. These are really fun and easy to use. I used Concord and 9th inks for the shading and just sponged it onto the paper after cutting it out.

I pulled out an already foiled sentiment from my pile (yep, doing a bunch at one time for the win!) and that is all it took to finish the card. I’m just in love with these dies and look forward to playing with them some more.

Our team has some beautiful cards, as always, and I think these stripes have lots of interesting potential for texture and design. Come over and join us! Thanks so much for stopping in today.

Hi all! Glad to see you this week! Well, I survived the college visits (at least physically…emotionally, coming to terms with the second child actually looking at colleges, lol). I think we are done with that for now so maybe I’ll eek in a little crafting on my off days from flying. For today’s Freshly Made Sketches challenge, we have a fun one from the incomparable Linda Callahan. She always finds a new look to challenge us!

I’ll start with an apology on the lighting for my photos. They have a weird cast to them that no editing could fix. Something about the cloudy day but it is what it is. I kept this pretty simple. I thought the On the Line: Fall Florals was perfect for the sketch and just colored this up in pretty pale spring colors with my Copics.

I love this little sentiment with the matching die (from My Favorite Flower) and it was just the right fit for the sketch. I added a quilted background for just a little more texture but otherwise left it really clean.

Thanks for stopping in today. I hope you have some time to create this week! If so, come over and join us.