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Freshly Made Sketches #632

Freshly Made Sketches #632 published on 4 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #632

Welcome back for another sketch from Freshly Made Sketches! This week, our sketch designer is our one of the challenges fearless leaders, the amazing Jen Mitchell. I was so happy when I saw her sketch for the week because I was already working on the perfect thing to use.

I was so excited when I saw the Lovely Layers: Herb Garden set from Honey Bee Stamps on their last release. Like absurdly excited. First of all, I love growing herbs. But also, I love the idea of something that is easy to use for everybody on the card list! While the set comes with adorable little buckets, I immediately thought of the barrel from the Lovely Layers: Apple Barrel set and decided that was what I would use to hold my herbs.

I had a ridiculous amount of fun creating each herb and playing with the shading on greens and accents of browns and purples (all Distress Ink). The new Beeluxe Blending Brushes were key (I used the smallest ones, size 5 for the details and my Bitty Bunny Blending Brushes (from The Rabbit Hole Design) for the broader areas. Once I had them done, I moved on to the apple barrel. Bigger areas with my regular sized brushes, then working down to the tiny ones. I created the aged metal band and added a bit of Rusty Hinge Distress Oxide Ink. To create the illusion of dirt, I cut an extra of the back belly band and trimmed it off a bit, turned it upside down and made it black. Voilá…soil!

Finally, I created the herb signs to match the band. I found that if I did a little bit of brush work in a lighter gray and then did direct to paper with the ink, it allowed me to see the words better. A little extra Rusty Hinge on those too. Then it was just putting it together. I wanted it to look like a real garden so it is a bit haphazard with signs askew. I want this on my deck for real!! I did an ombré background and added the Burlap 3D textured embossing for a little more interest. The sentiment from Mini Messages is great to send just because! Finally a few sequins.

Hoping you have a great week and maybe even get to start thinking about your summer garden. I have some spinach in now and can’t wait until I can plant the rest of my faves. Make sure to go see the challenge blog and take a look at the beautiful creations from the FMS team. Thanks for stopping in today!

Freshly Made Sketches #631

Freshly Made Sketches #631 published on 5 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #631

Hi everyone! Back with the latest from Freshly Made Sketches and I am the sketch designer this week. Not gonna lie, I cheated on the sketch and created it after I had colored my image for the card. I just HAD to use it!

This giant image is so beautiful and perfect for practicing coloring. In this case, Copic Marker coloring. I thought about a not-red rose but thought I’d just keep it classic for the first use of the stamp. It is the Big & Bold – Smell the Roses stamp and die set from Colorado Craft Company. I did the coloring over a few days and had fun playing with shading not just on the flower but on the leaves too.

The base of the card is 5-1/2″x 5-1/2″ so that I didn’t have to cut off any of the image. I used a woodgrain background and then did some “imperfect” stamping with the Vintage Flora stamp by Honey Bee Stamps. It isn’t as big as the card but I just inked up part of it with Distress Oxide Ink in Scorched Timber. I did some stitching around the edges and then I added some splatters in white gouache and black watercolor paint and a few black confetti pieces. Finally, I chose a sentiment from the stamp stamp set as the flower. Perfect for the red rose, don’t you think?!

I hope you enjoy this card as much as I did making it. Have a great rest of your week and I look forward to seeing you in the gallery!

Freshly Made Sketches #630

Freshly Made Sketches #630 published on 6 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #630

A sweet spring card for you today using some brand new products. Our wonderful sketch at Freshly Made Sketches is courtesy of the lovely Judy Rozema and it allows for some interesting variations.

I just got some things from the latest release by Honey Bee Stamps and wanted to pull these dies out right away. Are they sweet?! I mean, that bird…and then the boots and all the flowers. It comes with an umbrella (which I could have used for real today) too. I cut all the elements from Hammermill White Card Stock and then used my Distress Inks to color them. I cannot wait to try some other variations!

I pulled a retiring piece of ombré patterned paper (Honey Bee Stamps) and added the three rectangles from the sketch. I thought about some texture on those but when I tried it…nope. Instead a pretty script sentiment and some matching pearls. Quick to put together after I did the ink blending on the elements.

The pictures today are a bit dark and the colors aren’t quite true. A rainy day and I just couldn’t get any lighting to cooperate. Ah well. Perfect day for those rain boots! Hope you are having a good week!

Freshly Made Sketches #629

Freshly Made Sketches #629 published on 6 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #629

Happy Wednesday, friends! Happy to see you today. I’m so happy to share the latest from Freshly Made Sketches. Our lovely Amy O’Neill is the sketch designer and I love her simple take this week.

My beautiful cherry tree is blooming in my front yard (just like the famous ones at the Tidal Basin in DC) and that inspired my card. I pulled out the Lovely Layers: Dogwood dies (they are a little less fussy than my Cherry Blossom die) and started playing with ink. Using Bitty Blender Brushes, I added Distress Ink on all the layers and then built the stem. Something about this always makes me happy, especially when I’ve been away from the craft room too long (like lately).

I chose one of the woodgrain prints from the Grain and Grunge paper pack and added a white strip to match the sketch. The sentiment is from Spring Joy (retiring) and I love the pretty font. I added a bit of twine and some pearls to finish it off. So happy to be back to the craft room…and I think I actually have a few weeks where I can get inky!

I hope you will come over to see the beautiful work done by the team and can spend a little time joining us this week. Thanks so much for stopping by! See you soon!

Freshly Made Sketches #627

Freshly Made Sketches #627 published on 5 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #627

Happy Wednesday, everyone! A lovely new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches by our wonderful Karren Johnson. It can be a mini-slimline or not…whatever works for you! I hadn’t made one in a while so I thought it would be a fun style to make.

When I saw the sketch, I went with my gut and pulled out the new to me set from Colorado Stamp Company called Flower Pot. It has a perfect spring feel and I thought the little bouquet of flowers looked like the semi-circle from the sketch. Or close enough. I spent a little time (much needed) doing some Copic coloring. It was fun playing around with the pot to get a terra cotta look.

For the flowers, I kept the coloring pretty simple, although it did take a craft table full of markers to do it. The real challenge was leaving a white flower in the middle and I added a little bit of shading with my Warm Grays to, hopefully, keep it from looking too flat. I pulled a sentiment from another CCC set called Smell the Roses. Such a pretty font!

I think there is a taste of spring on the agenda all week here in Virginia so I may clear out a few beds to start getting ready for planting. I hope you have a lovely day!

Freshly Made Sketches #626

Freshly Made Sketches #626 published on 6 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #626

We have another fun sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches and our designer, the lovely Cécile Ribon, gave us a great one. The half circle elements are particularly fun!

This card is directly inspired by the amazing Dawn Woleslagle. She did a live one night just playing with Distress Oxide ins and this background stamp from Honey Bee Stamps called Vintage Flora. She used exactly these colors! Her reminder was that when you are feeling a little flat on creativity, just pull out the inks and play. So I did just that! This background is the result and it is super cool.

This bluebird had been sitting on my desk for a few weeks waiting for plan and the background gave me just that! I added a bit of splattering and inking on the edges to match the style and knew it was going to work. With the extra ink after stamping the background, I had stamped again a few times. I used one of those and cut out the flowers, then added just a little more ink. I thought vellum would be perfect for the split semicircles and I love the texture it adds without covering anything up. Finally a little sentiment from the Mini Messages Set.

I hope this will inspire you to get out some inks and just play around! It is good for the soul! Thanks for stopping in today. See you soon!

Freshly Made Sketches #625

Freshly Made Sketches #625 published on 3 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #625

As I was coming over to write this post, I realized I never posted last week’s FMS card here. I did over at Instagram so a good time to remind you that I’m there as well: jentimko on Instagram. With that, we have a new sketch from Jen Brum for this week at Freshly Made Sketches and it is super fun. I took a little twist on the circle with a partial die cut edge to line it up with a die cut image.

I just got this sweet image from Colorado Craft Company called Finally Spring and thought it would be fun to use for the sketch. I love that the coloring only takes a few minutes since the images are so small. I used my Copics to create what I saw as cherry blossoms. Once that was completed I pondered how to make this work best.

I brushed on some Distress Oxides in Tumbled Glass and Broken China to “split” the panel. Then I added some Saltwater Taffy to an additional panel. Using the die for the image I did a partial die cut edge so that the image could nestle up in the cutouts. I make the image stand up a bit more, I cut two extra backing pieces to stack behind the image. Finally a sweet sentiment from the set.

I hope you like my interpretation of the sketch and will come over to join us. Thanks so much for stopping in today. See you soon!

Freshly Made Sketches #623

Freshly Made Sketches #623 published on 7 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #623

Hi everyone! I have a fun card for you this week courtesy of the latest Freshly Made Sketches challenge. Our always awesome Linda Callahan is our sketch designer this week and the gave us a fun slant on her sketch this week.

When I first say the release with these element stamps from The Rabbit Hole Designs, I knew I had to have them! My BioChem kid needs cards, after all! The Fall Foxes set is also so cute and I loved this little napping fellow for the sentiment. Seemed perfect for the sketch too. I did a bit of Copic coloring on the fox blending some of my browns and reds to get “fox color”. It was fun just to play with it and I wasn’t sure it would even work but I like how it turned out. And I decided to make him a spring fox!

I stamped on the sentiment (there are coordinating dies for the elements if needed) and kept the rest clean. A strip of black card stock and some twine with copper threading which I thought was fun with the fox. All ready to head out to the lad!

Hope you are having a great week. Just got back from a real live flying trip and it was nice to get out in the system for a few days. Reminded me of how much I love getting people where they need to go. Hope your week goes well. See you soon!

Freshly Made Sketches #622

Freshly Made Sketches #622 published on 5 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #622

As promised, back with a card for the latest challenge from Freshly Made Sketches. This week our sketch designer is the always awesome Jen Mitchell and she has a clean classic for us.

I pulled out an older set from Honey Bee Stamps called Seeds of Kindness. It is designed to go with the Seed Packet die and I thought it might be a good way to use the sketch. I stamped with Versafine Clair ink then pulled out my watercolor paints. I didn’t do a ton of shading since the flower are so small but nice to do a little bit of watercoloring again.

I cut out the image using the die and created this little seed pack. Tied on some linen thread and added a bit of lace to the bottom in a nod to the scalloped detail in the sketch. Hard to tell in the photo but the banner is stamped, cut and popped up on the birthday sentiment part. The background is from a paper pack so while it looks hard, it could not have been easier to use.

I think this one will be super popular this week and I hope you’ll come over and join us. Thanks for stopping in and I’ll see you soon!

Freshly Made Sketches #621

Freshly Made Sketches #621 published on 3 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #621

Hello, my friends! Long time since I have posted! I’m pretty sure I told you all that I would be doing some non-flying work for United and that is exactly what I have been off doing. I’m learning to teach a 4 day course on Leadership for new Captains and it is taking most of my bandwidth to work on (along with my required flying, of course). And then, I took advantage of a week off to jet away with my oldest – just the two of us – to Paris for a 4 day vacation. His time off has not aligned with the rest of the family since he went to college and he was in much need of a vacation. So I took advantage of my travel “privileges” (which mostly only work in off season travel) and off we went. He had a passport from right before Covid started and he had never used it. We fixed that! I have some photos at the bottom of the post if you are interested.

With that, I’m the sketch designer this week and in true form, did not even follow my own idea. In fairness, I created the sketch a while ago and well, all of the above things. I hope you will enjoy playing along with us at Freshly Made Sketches on this one.

I thought I’d better get back into crafting with something fairly simple so I opted to color just one of the flowers and pop it up. I went with older sets and things I just love to keep it easy. The flowers/leaves are from Friendship Blooms by SugarPea Designs and I did some Copic Coloring on that. The sentiment is from an Ellen Hutson stamp set.

Most of the work is done by my Misti. I stamped and colored first, attached the leaves to the flower and then just looked at the spacing for stamping. I cut the stamped flower part with a rectangle die so I could cut off a bit of the edge. I popped the image layer up and added a few pearls. Clean, simple and just what I needed to clear my head a bit from all the chaos.

For our trip to Paris, we hit the ground running and saw Ste. Chapelle and the Musée D’Orsay on the first day. We did a food tour in Montmartre (highly recommend) and visited Sacre Coeur while in that area. Of course the Eiffel Tower plus the Musée de l’Armée (a fabulous military museum) and most of a day at the Louvre. Whew….that was a lot in a short time! It had been a long time since I had been there so it was nice to return! A few photos of our adventure.

Thanks for staying to visit a bit. I hope your week is great! I’ll be back soon (really…I actually have another card ready).

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