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