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Freshly Made Sketches #445

Freshly Made Sketches #445 published on 10 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #445

Happy Wednesday! I hope your week is going well. I’m happy to share the latest sketch from Freshly Made Sketches designed by Jen Mitchell. This one is fabulous!

I took a pretty literal view of the sketch. The truth is, I wanted to play with my brand new, hot off the presses colors from Concord and 9th. I picked a little flower from the Furry Friends stamp set and stamped it with a variety of the new colors. The outlines, sentiment and wreath are stamped in Mushroom. This is a fantastic neutral that is kind of a dark taupe. Wonderful! The flowers here are Honeysuckle, Ballet Slipper, Buttercup, Sprout and Aqua Sky. I got the bundle of Ink Cubes and Card stock and the colors are beautiful! In the card stock, there came white and black as well. This white is really nice. I find that using the same brand of paper and ink tends to work well since they are tested together and this combination backs this up. The Mushroom was perfect on the sentiment (always a good test of ink/paper).

I think you will have a great time wit this sketch. Those little circles give lots of room for fun! I hope you will come over and join us. Thanks so much for stopping in today. See you soon!

Freshly Made Sketches #437

Freshly Made Sketches #437 published on 6 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #437

Hi everyone! I hope you enjoyed the flurry of posts last week. It was such fun being part of that exciting release. Back to “normal” this week and up with the latest from Freshly Made Sketches. Our sketch designer is Cécile and wow, did she create a wonderful challenge.

At first the sketch had me a bit stumped. But then….an a-ha moment!! This City Stacks Stamp Set by Concord and 9th was perfect!! I stamped it onto white card stock with Momento Tuxedo Black ink and then pulled out my Copic markers. I kept to generally muted colors that seemed right for my imaginary city. And I’m going to be truthful, I love many cities across the country (and world). And I miss them. I miss traveling a lot. I miss the people I work with and I miss seeing friends on my occasional visits to their cities. And that is ok. Because I know I have also been part of a greater good. But won’t it be wonderful when we can gather again?!

I think you are going to find all kinds of ways to use this sketch and I cannot wait to see them! I hope you are able to join us. Make sure to go see all that the design team has created. Honestly, they are just the best!! Thanks for stopping in today. I appreciate you so much!

Freshly Made Sketches #429

Freshly Made Sketches #429 published on 7 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #429

Happy Wednesday to you all! I hope this finds you healthy, safe and secure in your homes. Like many places, Virginia now has a stay at home order so we are hunkered down. I am still considered essential but with the flying pulled down for April, I’m on a reserve (on call) status. My boys are waiting for the real plan to start distance learning so we are trying to do what we can to stay engaged. My husband is also essential so works from his office every other day and teleworks on the others. All in all, we seem to be adapting as well as can be expected. The cats are confused and, no surprise, are the big winners. With all this at home time, I keep thinking that I’ll do so much crafting but somehow the mojo has just flown away. I’m glad for Freshly Made Sketches to keep me motivated! This sketch by the lovely Judy allowed me to follow my previous formula of finding a favorite stamp from a favorite company and just keeping it simple.

The Posie Fill-In stamp set from Concord and 9th remains a favorite of mine, especially on sketches with circles. I stamped using Altenew inks in Aqualicious, Lime and Jet Black. I found this piece of patterned paper in the stash and it seemed just right behind the flowers. The sentiment from the same set is bold and fabulous. I’m trying hard to mail more cards to friends. It makes me feel better and I hope it brightens their days too.

I just bet the cards from the design team will inspire you and I hope the sketch gives a boost to your creativity. I am grateful for you all. Please stay safe! See you soon.

Freshly Made Sketches #419

Freshly Made Sketches #419 published on 8 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #419

Glad to see you for my latest card using this week’s Freshly Made Sketches challenge. Our sketch designer is Lee Ann and she really gave us one to stretch with this week. I love the off angle panel!! (and I hope that she will forgive that I forgot one of the elements)

I pulled out an underused favorite called Folk Hummingbird by Pinkfresh Studios (yes, there is a fabulous bird in the set!). I did a bit of quick coloring with Copic and then cut the flowers with the coordinating die set.

I felt like it was missing a bit of something so I added a bit of sunny yellow ink using my Taylored Expressions Blender Brush and then put the panel on a pretty aqua panel (Coastal Cabana by SU). The sentiment is from the soon to be retired Monogram J by Concord and 9th.

I hope you like this happy little burst of spring. It got super cold here in VA this week and it seemed like a little sunshine was in order. Thanks so much for stopping in today. I hope you will join us over at the challenge this week! See you soon.

Freshly Made Sketches #418

Freshly Made Sketches #418 published on 7 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #418

Holy smokes, another week has flown by and it is time for another Freshly Made Sketches day. I’m super excited about this one from the amazing Jacquie Southas and you are sure to love it too!

I thought it would be fun to use a big image and a great choice was the Hello Lovely floral spray by Concord and 9th. This image is just so pretty and fun to color too! I decided I’d take some time just to play with shading and color combinations and really found some great results.

The foundation of my coloring was the BV20 family (BV20, BV23 and BV29). I used it on almost every part of the image as an underlayer. It muted my BGs and added depth and shadows to the leaves and flowers alike. I also played with combining my BGs and my G20s for variation on the leaves. I’m definitely going to play around more with these combinations!!

These are all the colors I used. I did link a few of them below in my Link Deli list but it is much easier just to show you the whole group in this format. For the scalloped edge in this card I used a retired die set from Lil’ Inkers.

I hope you enjoy this card and that it inspires you to try playing with color families that may not be obvious go together sets. You may love the results! Make sure to go see the inspiration from the whole team and I hope you will have time to join us this week. Thanks for stopping in. See you soon!

Freshly Made Sketches #417

Freshly Made Sketches #417 published on 7 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #417

Happy New Year! I hope you enjoyed your holiday season and had a bit of time to yourself to rest. We did a bit of family visiting and travel and a lot of being at home. While I didn’t do a lot of stamping, I did do quite a bit of organizing in my stamp room. I have a post coming about that soon and some de-stash info too. Stay tuned!

But now we are back to it at Freshly Made Sketches and Judy is starting us off right! She has a beautiful and classic feeling sketch that was great to use as I got back to work.

I thought this pretty image from Concord and 9th was perfect for the sketch (and guess what, they are on clearance sale too…link below). I used Catherine Pooler inks in All That Jazz, Coral Cabana, Grape Crush and Lime Rickey. So pretty! I thought this pretty gingham from Lawn Fawn was a nice match and made for a spring-like card.

I hope you love the sketch today and all the inspiration from the team. I’d love to see you over in the gallery! Thanks so much for stopping in today. See you soon!

Freshly Made Sketches #403

Freshly Made Sketches #403 published on 5 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #403

Happy Wednesday! Freshly Made Sketches has a fabulous sketch from designer Narelle Farrugia today. It is one that is fun for patterned paper, die cut elements or even great horizontal images. You are going to love it!

I went with a fall go-to this week, Layering Leaves Dies by Concord and 9th. They seemed to fit the sketch perfectly! I also went to the way back machine and pulled out remnants of some old designer paper by SU called Sweater Weather. Loved it then, still do. This plaid seemed right on trend so I thought it would be great for the background. I used some other prints from the pack and a sentiment from C9’s Hello Lovely set on the panels. To keep the panel cutting easy and uniform, I cheated. I used the Slanted Sentiments Dies from MFT and simply cut them down to rectangles.

Hope you’ll head over and join the team for this latest sketch. I’ll be back on Friday with a post with the Crafty Friends. You won’t want to miss this month. Another fabulous promo code from another amazing company! Until then, have a great day!

Labor Day Sales!

Labor Day Sales! published on 1 Comment on Labor Day Sales!

In case you didn’t see them, some of my favorite companies are having Labor Day sales!

If you liked the Mondo Holly by Ellen Hutson from my Wednesday post, now is the perfect time to shop!!

And let’s face it, Concord & 9th is a favorite for a reason! Come celebrate their birthday with a sale.

Taylored Expressions is getting us ready for fall cards. Beautiful products in this category!

Honey Bee Stamps is having a huge sale! Such fun!

If you are going to be shopping, I’d appreciate you using my affiliate links by clicking the photos or the links in the text! They help me keep creating and sharing with you! Have a happy and safe Labor Day weekend.

Freshly Made Sketches Anniversary Celebration Week 3

Freshly Made Sketches Anniversary Celebration Week 3 published on 6 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches Anniversary Celebration Week 3

I’m continuing my trend from yesterday of using Concord and 9th with the latest sketch from Freshly Made Sketches. This is week 3 of our celebration leading up to sketch 400 and we have pulled out sketch 300. It is such fun to see another older sketch with a new eye.

I started with a based of Fabriano watercolor paper and painted on a swatch in this beautiful fall yellow (why yes, I am craving the crisp fall air!). While it dried I cut some leaves with the Layering Leaves die from watercolor paper and painted them in an ombré from brown through red to orange. The sentiment comes from Hello Lovely and I used a banner die (yes, I was that lazy) to make sure it was cut perfectly and then chopped off the ends.

Once everything was dry, I simply layered it up and attached to the base. I added a bit of twine to comply with the sketch a bit better and a few sequins, because I could.

I hope you’ll join us this week and then get ready! Next week is going to be really awesome. Really! We can hardly wait. Until then, thanks for stopping in today. See you soon!

Crafty Friends Blog Hop – Concord and 9th

Crafty Friends Blog Hop – Concord and 9th published on 10 Comments on Crafty Friends Blog Hop – Concord and 9th

Welcome to something brand new! I am so excited to share with you a new monthly blog hop. We all know that crafty friends are some of the best friends so what better than a Crafty Friends Blog Hop?! Who are these stampers? A group who had similar beginnings in stamping and had the good fortune of becoming friends.

We will feature a different company on the 20th of each month. To start it off this month, I could not be more thrilled to say that our featured company is Concord & 9th. I’ve been a fan of theirs since the beginning and I love that they are celebrating with us this month.

I wanted to create a card for a recently engaged couple in my family and thought this was the perfect time. I started with the wreath and elements from the Furry Friends Stamp Set. Armed with some amazing WOW! embossing powders, I inked up the stamps with Versamark Ink and then embossed in Rose Glintz, Oyster Glintz and Platinum to create this gorgeous color palette.

Let’s fact it, no embossing ever shows its best in a photo but I tried to capture the shine on an angle so you could see more. Using the Rose Glintz again, I chose a sentiment from the Give Thanks Stamp Set for the center of the wreath. I found this older printed paper from Simon Says Stamp in my stash and found it went perfectly with the Rose.

So now on to more fun! As part of the celebration, Concord and 9th has shared a limited time discount for shopping with the Crafty Friends. YES!!! Click on the graphic above and use the code CRAFTYFRIENDS20

Now on to the rest of the hop. Jenny Hall is next in the rotation if you did not start at the beginning. And here is the list in case you get lost along the way.

We hope you are as excited about this new inspiration as we are. Thank so much for joining in today!

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