Welcome back to another challenge from Freshly Made Sketches!  I am the hostess this week and this is my very first sketch!  I love square cards so it seemed perfect to use one this week.  I also know that in the middle of holiday card making I seem to end up with lots of designer paper scraps.  I hoped that this sketch would provide a way to use them.

When I intially designed the sketch I had intended to use it very literally with a snowflake from Northern Frost.  I realized, however, that I have been using that die a whole lot so wanted to shake it up a bit….but not too far.  I went with my go-to stamp set for the season this year, Bright Hopes.  I love this wreath!  Jen Mitchell has been using her Deck the Halls DSP from last year on a lot of cards lately and I have been admiring them all!  I went digging in my paper pile.  Low and behold…I had some!  Yippee!  And how pretty it is with the wreath!  I wanted to add a little bow to the wreath and chose to do another fork bow (tutorial here).  I used the Early Espresso Quilted Ribbon for this one.  I chose to put the sentiment in place of the snowflake and keep it clean.

Well, since the design team has already made some fabulous cards with the sketch, I am breathing a bit easier.  Make sure you stop over the the challenge site and see them.  I love the variety of interpretations!  I know you will show us even more cool ways to use the layout!

Thanks for stopping by today.  I hope you are having a great week!  See you again soon!

Stamp:  Bright Hopes; Paper:  Deck the Halls DSP (retired), Early Espresso, Very Vanilla; Ink:  Early Espresso; Accessories:  Early Espresso Quilted Satin Ribbon, Dimensionals

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The layout from Freshly Made Sketches this week is courtesy of the amazing Lesley Croghan from Always Playing with Paper.  Lesley is an incredibly talented stamper (who apparently never sleeps!).  She is the creator of the Freshly Made Sketches Challenge as well as the Paper Players Challenge.  All this takes a back seat to her just being a fantastic person…make sure you go check out her blog.  I know you will find new favorites there.

I definitely put emphasis on the clean part of the design today.  I knew I wanted to use the Silver Glimmer Paper to create snowflakes with my Northern Frost Die and wow are they pretty (sadly, the camera just never captures the sparkle).  With the emphasis on those snowflakes I kept the rest of the card fairly neutral.  I used the Snow Burst Embossing Folder on both Whisper White and Cherry Cobbler then chose one to show the embossed side and one to show the debossed side.  I tied on some Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding for balance and then topped off the snowflakes with Basic Pearls.  Yes, I did color them Cherry Cobbler.  You see, I have a brother-in-law that used to work for Sharpie and when I was up visiting their house a couple of weekends ago I asked if they had this color.  When my dear sister-in-law said she did, she was kind enough to let me come home with it.  I debated adding a sentiment but, after staring at the card for a couple of days, decided to go without.  I may add it on as a tag from the bow.  What do you think??

You will be amazed by the work the design team has for you this week.  Such wonderful variety!!  I can’t wait to see what you do with the sketch…so many choices for those shapes!

I’ll be back tomorrow with my latest project for the Creative Crew.  Until then, have a great day!!  Thanks so much for dropping by!

Paper:  Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White, Silver Glimmer Paper; Accessories:  Big Shot, Northern Frost Die, Snow Burst EF, Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding, Basic Pearls, Dimensionals

Happy Wednesday!  Welcome back for another fun challenge from Freshly Made Sketches!  This week’s sketch is courtesy of the amazing Jen Mitchell from I Create and boy does she ever create!  Her style is so cool.  She has a knack for wonderful clean lines but her cards always have a “wow” factor!

I took another non-holiday turn for this card.  I don’t know about you but I have some family members who have December birthdays.  I always try to make something for them that makes them feel special and that in no way reflects Christmas.  So out came the Beau Chateau DSP and off I went.  This paper seems to call out for a flower but instead of stamping one, I created one from my Fun Flowers die.  I folded up a piece of wrapping tissue paper and ran it through the Big Shot.  Since my tissue paper was white and this paper has a sponged element I sponged the layers with some Crumb Cake ink.  The center of the flower is a Crumb Cake button from my Neutrals pack.  The little banner is stamped on another piece of DSP from the set and grounded with an additional button.   A little bit of Linen Thread was tied onto both buttons to complete the look.  Between the Big Shot and the DSP, this is one of those cards that looks harder than it is…love it when that happens!

Thanks so much for dropping in today.  Make sure you go see what the rest of the team has created to inspire you.  They always amaze me!  I certainly hope that you get some crafting time this week and will show us your version of the sketch.  I will be off for a few days for the Thanksgiving holiday but next week promises to be full of posts!  For those of you in the US, I wish you a safe and blessed Thanksgiving!  See you soon!

Stamp:  All Holidays (retired); Paper:  Beau Chateau DSP, Soft Suede; Ink:  Soft Suede, Crumb Cake; Accessories:  Big Shot, Fun Flowers Die, Neutrals Buttons, Linen Thread, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Sponges, Wrapping Tissue Paper

Welcome back for another Wednesday challenge from Freshly Made Sketches!  This week’s sketch is courtesy of Linda Callahan from Stampin’ Seasons.  She is a remarkably talented stamper and her sketch has so many fantastic possibilities.

I figured it was time to pull out a Christmas card for you so here is my tall snowman from Snow Much Fun.  I will warn you about the hazards of stamping with people like the design team at FMS.  I had resisted this set all the way until my last order.  After I saw SO MANY cute cards, I realized that “resistance is futile”!!  So…here he is!  The best part is that the watercoloring takes almost no time at all.  Fabulous!  Now in order to make this guy work for the sketch, I had to, um, cut off his legs.  There are some (Karen Barber – who also had a hilarious set of cards about the two snowmen) that believe snowmen should not have legs.  Frankly, I can see the virtues of both but today losing them worked.  I made this card with Basic Black, Real Red and Baja Breeze.  I find that I don’t use black nearly enough and since it was already out from yesterday’s card, it seemed perfect.  I added a little dimension by embossing the Real Red layer with the Snow Burst Embossing Folder.  Some little snowflakes finished it up (another enabled purchase…these ladies are dangerous!).  I colored a Basic Pearl with a Sharpie Marker to make it coordinate.  Cool!

I’ll be back tomorrow with a card from my Christmas Wow Class this week.  Yep…another snow man!  Thanks for dropping by today.  Don’t forget to drop by the Freshly Made Sketches challenge to see the amazing cards from the whole team.  Hope you can play this week!

Stamp:  Snow Much Fun; Paper:  Basic Black, Whisper White, Baja Breeze, Real Red; Ink:  Stazon Black, Real Red, Basic Black, Baja Breeze, Basic Gray; Accessories:  Big Shot, Snow Burst EF, Northern Frost Die, Basic Pearls, Sharpie Marker, Dimensionals

It is time for the Freshly Made Sketches latest challenge.  Oooh, take a look at this one!!  The fabulous layout is courtesy of the super talented Rita Wright at Rita’s Creations!  I love her style and her choice of the sketch shows why.  Just look at all the possiblities with this one!  If you have any questions, you just have to see the variety of projects from the team this week.  Lots of inspiration there!

Normally by November I am making all Christmas cards all the time.  Somehow this year, I continue to be inspired to make fall cards.  It might be because I LOVE fall in Virginia.  It might be because we are having lovely cold crisp mornings with warm afternoons.  Or it might be the Spice Cake DSP.  Hmmm!  I leave that to you to figure out!  More Mustard is, I admit, not a go-to color for me in general.  But this pattern called out to get used in this cool sketch this week.  I looked at my leaves (and I have lots), I looked at my flowers (lots there too) and then I realized that my Every Moment stamp was at the back of the stack.  That clearly had to be remedied!  I love this stamp set and the little bird here is awesome.  I have made him into several types of bird but today he is an orange fronted yellow finch.  Yep, look it up!  Of course I just colored him how I wanted and then figured out what he looked like but now we can all recognize a new kind of bird.  *smile*  I watercolored him with my Blender Pen after stamping him with Stazon Ink.  I added a sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes and a button to finish it.

The sketch does all the work here so it is perfect for beginning and advanced stampers alike.  Hope you will give it a try this week!  My boys are have some days off from school this week so I will be enjoying the beautiful weather with them.  I’ll be back next week though with lots of fun new things.  Thanks so much for stopping in today!

Stamps:  Every Moment, Teeny Tiny Wishes; Paper:  Spice Cake DSP, Early Espresso, Watercolor; Ink:  More Mustard, Early Espresso, Soft Suede, River Rock, Always Artichoke, Stazon; Accessories:  Blender Pens, Neutrals Buttons, Linen Thread, Dimensionals

I am so happy to show you this week’s great sketch from Freshly Made Sketches!  This one was chosen by the amazing Tui Nathan and it is awesome!  I am also thrilled to tell you that the team is join by two guests for the month of November, Christy Q at SchnauzerCrafts Creations and Lauri Ingram of Paperville.  You are going to love what they bring to the team!

I am still working on replenishing my supply of thank you cards (always good before the holiday season) and today’s sketch kind of led me there.  I was looking through my stamps and realized that I had yet another stamp that needed ink.  My poor little pears had apparently been neglected.  This pear is the stamp that drew me into this hostess set and I knew it was perfect for this layout.  I inked it with Versamark, the Early Espresso (just like yesterday) and embossed it with Clear Embossing Powder.  This allows you to watercolor without blending the words of the stamp.  I colored the pear in with Old Olive ink, starting light and adding a bit more to darken the edges.  The inside is left plain or barely colored to give the illusion of depth.  For the ribbon, I ran a line of Sticky Strip across the card and scrunched the Early Espresso Satin across on top.  I left enough to tie on the end.  The thread is simply colored with my Stampin’ Write Marker.  An Espresso button conceals the other end.  Of course the Framed Tulips Embossing Folder was put to work again to add a little something to the base layer.

I hope you have as much fun with this sketch as I did.  Just look at the variety of cards from the team and you will see how much you can do with it!  I’ll be back tomorrow with another project from the Creative Crew.   See you then!

Stamp:  Faith in Nature (hostess); Paper:  Early Espresso, Old Olive, Very Vanilla; Ink:  Old Olive, Early Espresso, Versamark; Accessories:  Big Shot, Framed Tulips Embossing Folder, Heat Tool, Clear Embossing Powder, Blender Pen, Sticky Strip, Neutrals Buttons, Dimensionals

Happy Wednesday!  I hope your week is going well!  Like I said last week, I have been doing lots of stamping and now you get to start seeing some of it.  Freshly Made Sketches has another fabulous challenge up today and you are going to love working with this layout!

While I have been doing a lot of holiday stamping, today’s card was a bit of a departure from that.  I continue to just be in love with the colors in the Paisley Petals DSP and this is why.  The beautiful paper creates a card that looks hard but isn’t!  The flower is cut out of one of the designs and of course it matches the other papers perfectly.  I used my new Designer Frames Embossing Folder to frame the sentiment (from Precious Butterflies – hostess).  The “bow” is created by looping some Very Vanilla Seam Binding and cinching it with thread tied through the button.  The thread is concealed by a Basic Pearl.  I added a little trio of pearls to the corner to finish it off.  When your designer paper has this much beautiful detail, there is little need for extra embellishment.

Make sure you go check out the incredible work from the whole design team and our guest designer, Holly Endress.  As usual, the variety is amazing!

I’ll be back tomorrow with one of the cards from my Christmas 101 Class that I have been holding this week.  Get ready to sparkle!!

Stamp:  Precious Butterflies (hostess); Paper:  Paisley Petals DSP, Naturals Ivory, Early Espresso; Ink:  Early Espresso; Accessories:  Big Shot, Designer Frames Embossing Folder; Very Vanilla Seam Binding, Neutrals Buttons, Basic Pearls, Dimensionals

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It is time for the Wednesday sketch challenge from Freshly Made Sketches!  Yea!!  The team has another fun one for you!

Just look at all the possibilities with this one!!  Take note that the circle can really be any shape.

I knew that I wanted that shape to be a butterfly but needed something for the little trio.  I took inspiration from Heidi Baks over at RunningwScissorsStamper….her rolled flowers are always amazing.  They aren’t even as hard as I envisioned.  I started with a 1″ Circle Punch and followed the instructions here.  Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombo) was the adhesive to hold them together.  For my scalloped edges in the sketch I used Victoria Crochet Trim along the rectangular panel.  Basic Pearls were the last addition for the flower centers and the body of the butterfly (made with the Beautiful Butterflies Die).

Just wait until you see what the rest of the design team has made with this sketch.  Wow!  We are joined this week by guest designer Sandra Azzopardi and her card is amazing!

I’ll be back on Friday with a project I created for my Hostess Club.  Hint:  It is a little outside my normal design “box”.  Until then, have a great week!

Stamp:  None; Paper:  Spice Cake DSP, Early Espresso, Pool Party; Ink:  None; Accessories:  Big Shot, Beautiful Butterflies Die, 1″ Circle Punch, 1 3/4″ Circle Punch, Victoria Crochet Trim, Basic Pearls, Crystal Effects (to hold on butterfly), Multipurpose Liquid Glue, Dimensionals

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It is Wednesday and you know what that means?  Another Freshly Made Sketches Challenge is up for you!  This is another one of those sketches that you will use over and over again!

I decided to create this fun birthday card (made for one of my oldest son’s friends).  I am completely in love with the balloons in Patterned Party and the fit perfectly into this sketch!  I chose the colors because of the gift bag for his present and then promptly forgot to take the picture of the card with the bag.  Oh well!  You’ll have to trust me that it was an awesome match!  My trusty Brights Designer Paper Pack provided the DSP (in Real Red and Pacific Point) and I used Lucky Limeade as the accent color.  The sentiment is from Up, Up and Away.

Just wait until you see the rest of the cards created by the design team!  You will be so inspired to go use this sketch!  So glad you could drop in today.  Hope you have a great rest of your week!

Stamps:  Patterned Party, Up, Up and Away; Paper:  Brights Designer Paper Pack, Basic Black, Whisper White, Lucky Limeade; Ink:  Real Red, Pacific Point, Lucky Limeade, Basic Gray; Accessories:  1 1/4″ and 1 3/8″ Circle Punches, Real Red Wide Grosgrain (retired), Neutrals Buttons, Scallop Edge Punch, Dimensionals, Black Thread

Look at my cool new badge!!  Yes, I have been asked to design for the new challenge, Freshly Made Sketches for the next 6 months along with the super talented Cindy Hall.  How great is that??!!  Their sketches have already been fantastic and I am really in love with the design philosophy…clean, but not necessarily simple.  I have felt that is my design style for a while and can’t believe how fortunate I am to be in the company of such a great design team!

Take a look at the great sketch we have for you this week!  I love the simplicity with lots of room to make that “any shape” panel something special.

I chose to leave it as a circle but used my Perfect Pennants Die to create an interesting border.  I seem to be fully and completely in my seasonal color changeover and Always Artichoke seems to be one of my go-to colors this fall.  I used the Paisly Petals DSP as my inspiration and cut two of the leaves out of the DSP for the focal image.  Aren’t they pretty??  I threaded some Very Vanilla 1/8″ Taffeta Ribbon through my Early Espresso button and cinched up a bow made with Alway Artichoke Seam Binding.  The sentiment is from the hostess set Precious Butterflies.

I hope you are having a fantastic week so far!  Make sure you go see the beautiful cards that the rest of the team has made…and then show us your fantastic creation too!  Thanks for stopping by today!  Hope to see you again soon!

Stamp:  Precious Butterflies; Paper:  Paisley Petals DSP, Always Artichoke, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla; Ink:  Early Espresso; Accessories:  Big Shot, Perfect Pennant Die, Always Artichoke Seam Binding, Very Vanilla 1/8″ Taffeta Ribbon, Neutrals Buttons, Dimensionals

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