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Freshly Made Sketches #587

Freshly Made Sketches #587 published on 4 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #587

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!

Freshly Made Sketches #586

Freshly Made Sketches #586 published on 7 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #586

A beautiful new sketch from Freshly Made Sketches designed by the wonderful Jacquie Southas. I combined some old and new products for this one.

I had not done much Copic coloring lately and I had a few minutes just to goof around. I pulled out the pretty Spring Joy Bouquet and colored some tulips and daffodils! I love the little wrap die and I used it 00with some tissue paper to create a more realistic wrap for the flowers and then tied it up with some purple twine.

I used a background I already had embossed with the Clover Petals embossing folder on Neenah Desert Storm. I love that floral feel but it doesn’t compete with the colored flowers.

I feel like May is one of the busiest months of the year and I’m guessing you feel the same. Not sure what it is but it happens every year. Wishing you a beautiful week! See you soon.

Freshly Made Sketches #585

Freshly Made Sketches #585 published on 4 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #585

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.

Freshly Made Sketches #584

Freshly Made Sketches #584 published on 4 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #584

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.

Freshly Made Sketches #582

Freshly Made Sketches #582 published on 7 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #582

I’m back today with the latest from Freshly Made Sketches! Our sketch is by the oh so talented Karren Johnson and it is super fun to use. I, of course, saw flowers in the circles. And I’ve opted to pull out some old favorites and some brand spankin’ new colors!!

I thought the Elegant Asters from Gina K Designs was perfect for the flower elements. And then the colors. If you haven’t heard (can’t imagine that is possible), Concord and 9th just added colors to their line and I had my order in 10 minutes after it went live. I love their papers and the little ink cubes are so great for expanding color options on a reasonable budget. And this is TWENTY-FIVE new colors! Using a sponge dauber, I added a little color with some fade on white card stock and then stamped over them with the images using Versafine Clair Ink.

I cut them out with their respective dies and started with the sketch. The flowers are Pink Lemonade and Lilac, the leaves are Lemongrass, the centers are touched with Honeycomb and the background paper is Powder (I’m going to need a whole pack of this ASAP). I mixed companies on this one and used the Clover Petals 3D Embossing Folder and then pulled a sentiment from my already foiled pile (I tend to make a bunch when I’m foiling for using later). This one is from Pinkfresh Studios. You can expect to be seeing these colors in all the things for a bit!!

I keep thinking things will calm down a bit here but nope. I’m flying max schedules and still trying to finish some end of school year things for the boys. Last week and next week, college visits for the youngest. And nope, can’t even talk about it because it is happening too fast. So glad you stopped in today. I appreciate you all so much!

Playing Cards with Friends – April 2023

Playing Cards with Friends – April 2023 published on 5 Comments on Playing Cards with Friends – April 2023

Imagine my delight when my friend Michele Ferguson invited me to play along with her “Playing Cards with Friends” series! I’m a bit of a fan girl of her work so this is super fun! The parameters for this month’s creating are:

  •           April 15th Husband Appreciation Day! 
  •           Make a card for your husband
  •           Let’s include masculine colors:  shades of blue, and greens.
  •           Add alpha dies, or die cut words!

I thought that using a more graphic element would get this moving in the masculine direction. I used the Plaid A2 Hot Foil Plate with Spellbinders Black Foil. This is my first time using the black foil and I’m a BIG fan. It stretches the hot foil plates and gives a different vibe than an inked background. To comply with the rules, I spritzed a piece of card stock with Tumbled Glass and Lost Shadow Distress Sprays and then inked part of it with Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide Ink. I cut two different leaves from the Lovely Layers: Greenery set.

For the sentiment, I pondered and pondered the right words. And then I saw this one. Fortunately, it has a coordinating die set so I could cut it out and comply with the parameters! I don’t know about you but this is pretty much the perfect husband sentiment. Our lives are so crazy and we are forever going different directions. When we do have time together, it is usually local and really just NOT traveling. It really is the little things that are so big!

Now I cannot wait to see what Michele has created for today! Let’s head over to her blog now to see! Here is her link for today: Michele’s Playing Cards with Friends April

Thanks so much for joining us today. And for all of you out there with wonderful husbands, get to that craft room and make a card for him! A big thanks to Michele for inviting me to play along!!

Freshly Made Sketches #581

Freshly Made Sketches #581 published on 6 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #581

Hello friends! Long time, no see! I was off on spring break vacation with most of the family and finally home and back to creating. We went to Arizona where we hiked in Sedona, took a train up to the Grand Canyon and then spent some time in Phoenix. It was lovely! I was happy to have a few moments to create with this wonderful sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. Designed by our fabulous Cécile, I had all kinds of ideas for it.

As soon as I saw the leaf elements, my mind went to these Lovely Layer: Winter Greenery dies. And now there is a new Lovely Layers: Nest to add on to the family (and some new spring birds too!). Seeing some of my FMS teammates making holiday cards inspired me to make one myself. I spritzed some watercolor paper using Lost Shadow and Pumice Stone Distress Spray and then added colors to the panels for the different elements. LOTS of inky fun and not really hard at all.

I sat the cardinal on the side of the nest and then started working in the greenery. May have gone a bit overboard but I loved the process of building this. The sentiment set that is meant for the birds is a holiday one and this one called out to me. And aren’t the details on this die to cut out the words fabulous? I attached the entire thing to a Grain and Grunge woodgrain print.

Thanks so much for stopping in today. I hope you are inspired to join us over at the challenge. I’ll be back on Saturday for a fun extra post! Until then, have a great week!

Freshly Made Sketches #579

Freshly Made Sketches #579 published on 6 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #579

Welcome back for another week of Freshly Made Sketches. I am the sketch designer this week and I thought I’d go classic for the sketch. Something about ovals always seem so elegant to me so I thought I’d add one to the mix. Lots of ways to interpret this one, I think!

Living in Northern Virginia, the last couple of weeks have been all about cherry blossoms. So imagine my delight when I saw the new Lovely Layers: Cherry Blossoms dies from Honey Bee Stamps! I put those right into the basket as soon as ordering opened. I had the perfect examples for coloring them (the flowers in my photos are snipped from my tree) and I love how details the dies are. So pretty! Using Distress Ink in Spun Sugar, I added a pale pink to the flowers. Then on the centers I added Scattered Straw Distress Ink and a little bit of Saltwater Taffy Distress Oxide. At the base of the flowers I blended greens (Bundled Sage and Peeled Paint) into the Saltwater Taffy to mimic my actual flowers. I placed it all on a branch cut from Concord and 9th Mushroom Card Stock.

Once my branch was built, I cut an oval from this gray wood grain paper (Grain & Grunge) using an old discontinued die. Into the oval, I used a piece of white card stock that was embossed with the new Dogwood Blooms 3D Embossing Folder. Even though it is the dogwood, I love it with the cherry blossom too! I chose a pretty sentiment from Love You Bunches and stamped it in gray ink (Morning Mist Versafine Clair). A few white pearls from the Cool Pearls pack to finish.

I had so much fun trying to copy the beauty of nature on this and, let’s face it, playing with new products is always great! I hope you will come join the challenge this week. Might be quiet here for a bit. Spring break is coming up so I’ll be enjoying some family time. Until next time, have a wonderful rest of your week!

Freshly Made Sketches #578

Freshly Made Sketches #578 published on 7 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #578

Thank you to all who shared such kind words with me last week. I so appreciate you all!

For this week’s sketch from Freshly Made Sketches, I took a more vintage turn. I love this classic look from designer Jacquie Southas and immediately thought of the seed packets from Honey Bee Stamps.

I was inspired by the new release of more designs for the Seed Packet die. While I waited for the order from Honey Bee Stamps to arrive, I pulled out this fun spring lemons image from Seeds of Kindness. I cut the packet from watercolor paper and then stamped on the image. Using Daniel Smith watercolors, I colored up the image and then added a vintage wash. I folded up the packet and used Distress Ink in Vintage Photo for the edges to make it feel more finished.

To make the background more interesting, I pulled out my Clover Petals 3D Embossing Folder. I inked up one side and then ran through some Desert Storm card stock. I love the effect the inking gives. To be honest, I actually ran it inked two times so I could see what each side gave me. Both were gorgeous, but this one just seemed to fit better on this card. And now I have another all ready to go for a different project. For the crossing panel on the sketch, I pulled out some old things from my stash. A pretty lace, some sequined thread, seam binding and baker’s twine.

Thank you for stopping in today. Hoping for some time for a little stamping over the next day or two. My oldest was home for a part of his spring break last week so not much stamping. But it was so nice to see him (and to make sure he got lots of home cooked food!). Hope you have a wonderful rest of your week!

Freshly Made Sketches #577

Freshly Made Sketches #577 published on 6 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #577

We have a wonderful new sketch up today at Freshly Made Sketches. This fun design is courtesy of our fabulous Judy Rozema and I love the options for those circles.

Like many of you, crafting is my respite from the craziness of the world. But with that, sometimes the craziness is what inspires what I’m making. The never-ending hate for anything that is different from oneself, the fear-mongering over things that truly cause no harm, the persecution of those who love differently — all of this weighs on my heart. I fear for the LGBTQ+ community. If one truly believes that we are made in God’s image and we understand that God is limitless, then how can we not also believe that there is no limit to the variance in humans? And that each and every person is the image of our transcendent God. We are losing young people (and older people) at alarming rates because we make them feel like there is no place for them. Each of us matters. What we bring to the world matters. Just like a rainbow, the beauty is diminished if colors are missing. We need them all. We need you all. And that is what was on my heart as I made this. Not saying this out loud seems complicit in the hate so today I will say it out loud. Love is love is love. And this world is better with all the love and with you!!

I loved these bird houses and sweet birds from the Little Birdies stamp set. I pulled out all the Copics (ok, I don’t have all the Copics but I pulled out a ton of them) to get the rainbow colors. The Barn Wood Planks dies are behind to match the sketch. The sentiment is from the Inside: Birthday Sentiments set, a beautiful and multipurpose set for birthdays and beyond.

Thank you for stopping by today. Please know that I generally keep this to only crafting but it is my space to share. I respect that there may be those among you that do not agree with my point of view. And that is ok as long as you are respectful that I am entitled to my perspective. Hateful comments will be deleted since this is my space to use as I see fit.

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