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!
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!
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).
Happy New Year! I hope that you had a wonderful and safe holiday season. As we all get back to work and school, our team at Freshly Made Sketches has some fun to share too! Our amazing Stampin’ Up Artisan DT 2024 Member Narelle Farrugia is our sketch hostess and she has a clean and classic sketch to get us back to creating.
I thought I’d get back to it with a clean and simple little card with some easy coloring and happy colors. The Little Birdies set from Honey Bee Stamps seemed just right for the job. I stamped some of the images and colored them with my Copics. I love this little bird!
For the squared I used the inserts from the Lovely Layers: Seasonal Frame. These deckled edges give a bit of detail and make alignment less fussy. Great for a quick card! I brushed on some Distress Oxide Ink in Salty Ocean with a little bit of fade on the bottom. The sentiment is from the Mini Messages Stamp set (and there are MANY mini messages on this one!) and used the coordinating Mini Messages Banners Dies to cut it out.
I hope you will come over and join us this week. Make sure to stop by and say hi to the team (and especially tell Narelle a big congrats on being chosen for the ADT this year). Wishing you another year of happy crafting and I hope that 2024 brings you and your families much joy!
Wishing you and your family a very merry Christmas and a happy holiday season. My last card of the season and one of my new favorite images. Clean, simple, and the heart of our celebration.
This stamp is called the Joy of Jesus by Unity Stamps. I colored in Copics and watercolor and love both results. Same layout, just some sewing and distressing on the watercolor card.
Thank you for another year of kind words and support for my crafty adventures. I’ll be back in the new year and look forward to what 2024 brings. Wishing you peace and joy!
As this holiday season is in full swing, I wanted to share a series of cards I made with the Good Tidings line by Honey Bee Stamps. I started this as a test of stenciling on images. I see lots of people who create beautiful cards with stenciling as their method of coloring. But personally, I have not had a ton of success with it. Still, when I saw the Good Tidings suite, I thought yeah…just get the stencils too. I was already getting the stamps and dies and, knowing the quality of Honey Bee, the stencils were a worthwhile add-on.
First up, I went to my tried and true. Copic coloring! I loved coloring this image! I find it such a brain break and I get lost in the shading and details. But, when it comes to holiday cards, not the most efficient. This one took me about 2 hours to color. So next, I pulled out the stencils. To be honest, my first attempt was not good. I stenciled first and then over-stamped with the image. That did not work for me. So I tried again except that I stamped the image and then used the stencils for shading. Since I already had the Copic image, I looked to mimic those colors and shading with my Distress Inks. Here they are side by side:
I did not use the one stencil that has “highlights” for the leaves but otherwise just worked through the stack. Other than the shading on the pinecones, I was able to approximate the darks and lights using my Bitty Blender Brushes to help get more color in the nooks and crannies. And this one took me…..10 minutes. Yes, TEN. So in mass production, this is manageable and still feels hand colored and special. I’m a convert to the stencils! Obviously, the Copic markers allow for more depth but the stencils give such flexibility on time.
I finished these out in a way to match. On the Copic version, I used the Burlap 3D Embossing folder on the panel behind the image and matted it with Gold Cardstock from Erin Lee Creative. Both images with cut out with the coordinating die and I chose a sentiment from the stamp set for heat embossing (also with a coordinating die). Pearls to match but the layout is exactly the same.
I created one more for those who might not have the stencil but still want a card that is easy to make in multiples. This time, the power of gold! I got rid of the extra layer and just stamped, embossed and cut out the image. Same sentiment and some pretty gold pearls.
I love the versatility of this suite and am so glad I took the chance on the stencils. The beauty of this image is what captured me and I will be using this for years to come.
I’m on call today and hoping the system stays quiet for a couple more days. Cookies to back and a few last presents to wrap. Wishing you a bit of calm in your hustle and bustle!
Well, I never did get back to you last week. Sigh. Once I’m in the training center, all of my brain cells are apparently occupied and I totally forgot. So I guess that means I have some cards to share over the next couple of weeks. For today, I have the latest from Freshly Made Sketches and our last sketch of the year. The team will take a couple of weeks off and be back in the new year. We close out with this awesome sketch by the lovely Amy O’Neill. It is great for your last Christmas cards (that’s me!) or for moving into the new year with fresh stamps.
If you haven’t already heard, the wonderful Dawn Woleslagle is closing her shop, WPlus9. She isn’t leaving the industry, just moving more into designing. We are all winners for that. It looks to me like this set, Joyful Poinsettias, is already sold out but there are some other pretty things left at a huge discount. I have loved coloring this set but I needed fast for today. Heat embossing to the rescue! I set up the flowers and the sentiment, stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with silver. So fast, so elegant!
I used some glitter paper from Simon Says Stamp to complete the sketch and this card was done! Looks fancy, totally easy. Not going to lie, the hardest part of the process was getting photos. Still not great pictures but the silver was giving my camera all kinds of issues. It is so pretty in person so I hope you get the feel of it.
With the challenge open so long, you are welcome to join in at anytime and you can even add multiple cards. Hoping this sketch will be fun for you to use if you have some time off for crafting. Thanks for stopping in today. Really, really, I will have another card up soon. Until then, have a great week!
A very quick post for today. I have a few cards to share over the next week or so as I move through my Christmas stamping. I’m back out in Denver but got some photos before I left so I could share.
When I saw this little reindeer from Unity Stamp Company, I thought it was totally different that anything I have and knew it would be fun to use. It is called Winter Cheer and Deer. I stamped in black ink, then heat embossed with clear so that I could make this good and inky. It was white paper to start and I added tons of distress ink in Vintage Photo, Corduroy and Ground Espresso. I cut it with an old oval die which conveniently matched up to the Stacking Art Deco Labels Dies from Honey Bee Stamps.
I had some really old (like a decade maybe!) paper with the music on it. I love it and hoard it and I need to USE IT!! This is a start. I inked it up with Distress Oxide Ink in Iced Spruce and then Rustic Wilderness. I added splatters with brown ink and then paint. It still needed something, so I added some stitching too. I inked and embossed the sentiments just like the main image and hand cut them (it adds to the vintage vibe to not be too perfect). I tied it up with a bow…literally. Some old seam binding from my stash. I always love the bows made with this ribbon!
Ok, I’m off to learn from some experts and get to be a part of training the newest 60 Captains at United. These are exciting days! Back later in the week with more. Hope you are having a wonderful day!
Well hello all! It has been a minute since I posted. Quick explanation…I’m in training to become a facilitator (instructor) for United’s Captain Leadership Training. This has taken much of my brain power and I have still been flying the line, of course. Quite the trip over Thanksgiving but so grateful to my many kind passengers and crew members! I muddled back into the craft room on Monday and got to work on this sketch. Not sure I quite hit the mark but I did have fun with the card. Our sketch designer this week at Freshly Made Sketches is the awesome Jen Brum. She also inspired this card with her all white beauty last week.
I started with the Lovely Layers: Winter Birds and created this cardinal. I chose a red cardstock and then added some Distress Ink to darken the back layers a bit. I cut the Lovely Layers: Winter Greenery from white card stock using my Bitty Buzz Cutter. I love this little table top die cut machine for working through these little dies and keeping the texture showing on them.
I decided I needed a little more color so I cut down my white panel and added a printed paper behind it from the new Holiday Wishes Paper Pack. The sentiment comes from Mini Messages: Holiday. Love all the sentiments but this one seems especially right. I added a few pearls to try to match the sketch a little more.
I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday if you celebrate it and are off to a good week. I’m back in training next week but I’ll be trying to get ahead a little with a card for while I’m gone. Goodness knows, I need some more Christmas cards to get done! Thanks for stopping in today. Make sure to go see all the beautiful work from the FMS Design Team and our Guest Designer this week.
Do you hear it? That freight train of the holiday season has started coming down the tracks!! I’m pretty sure I’m already behind! I think you will be getting holiday cards non-stop from now on (ok, like you haven’t already but now I’m really, REALLY all in). Good thing the amazing Jen Mitchell has a great sketch for us this week at Freshly Made Sketches!
For the last few weeks, I’ve been doing lots with inking on die cuts. This week, I opted for clean. I pulled out products from Honey Bee Stamps latest release (and added some older things too) and had such fun on this. To start with, the Lovely Layers: Large Snowflake was going to be the star of the show. I wasn’t sure how the background was going to go so I started with the snowflake. First I cut it from glitter paper (it is GORGEOUS) but realized it wasn’t right for this card. So I used some watercolor paper with the thoughts I might ink it up. But just looking at all the detail on that thicker paper, I opted to just leave it plain and I love it. Using the same watercolor paper, I cut a card based and the other plain layer. I found this print from the old Vintage Holiday Paper Pack that has coordinating snowflakes (I love how HBS keeps things coordinated from season to season!!).
I decided that I needed a bit of shine on this so I heat embossed the sentiment from the Good Tidings Stamp Set in silver and cut out with a coordinating die. The shiny silver pearls are from the new Metallic Mix Pearls. Fun to have some super shiny choices! The ribbon with the silver edges was from my stash and was a great finish. I like that I can make a few more of these with no trouble and add to my stash!
I hope this week finds you well. I appreciate you stopping by and spending a few minutes of your day with me. See you soon!
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