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Posts categoriezed as Honey Bee Stamps

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 #617

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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!

Good Tidings

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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!

Merry Merry Merry with Unity

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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!

Freshly Made Sketches #614

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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.

Freshly Made Sketches #611

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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!

Freshly Made Sketches #610

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Hi all! Super quick today, getting this post finished after Halloween fun. I am the sketch designer over at Freshly Made Sketches this week. Tried something new and I hope you will like the idea.

I played with some new things from Honey Bee Stamps. The little elements are from Lovely Layers: Seasonal Frame and the sentiments are from Mini Messages: Holiday. I had some scraps that had some ink and spritzing an used those for cutting out the elements. Saved a bit of time.

I added everything to a background from the Grain & Grunge Paper Pack and added a few pearls. I love all the things that the team has done with the sketch and I hope you will find some fun ideas with this trio.

Thanks for dropping by. Sorry for the short post…off to fly tomorrow! Have a great rest of your week.

Freshly Made Sketches #609

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Hello everyone! Hope the week is treating you well. Sorry for all the quiet lately. I took some time off and went on a fall road trip with my sister! Apples, fall colors, gourd lantern making, glass pumpkin blowing and lots of laughs. It has been years since we spent the kind of time together and it was really good (photo below).

I’m back with the latest from Freshly Made Sketches and a sketch by our dear Judy Rozema This one has a few more layers and extra details but that gives lots of room for interpretation!

My starting place was actually the bottom of the card. I wanted to decide what to do with the little lines at the bottom of the sketch so I played with the idea of twine. While I was rooting around for the right one, I came across this little sequin trim and that was that. All in on gold! I used the Lovely Layers: Poinsettias dies on paper I inked with Distress Oxide Candied Apple ink. After cutting the layers, I added some more Distress Ink in the same color plus a little Aged Mahogany Distress Ink. I spritzed with water and then added some gold splatters.

I found this plaid pattern (or is it tartan…I never know) in the Make It Merry Paper Pack and used a sentiment from Foil Script: Holiday that I had already foiled that was sitting in my stack for just such an occasion. When I’m foiling sentiments, I tend to do as many as I can and leave them for when I need a quick card.

I hope you have fun with this one and find some time for yourself this week. Make sure to look at all the beautiful cards from our design team and our guest designer this week!

And some of the photos of our shenanigans:

Freshly Made Sketches #607

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We have a super interesting sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches created by the lovely Amy O’Neill. At first, I thought flowers and a large sentiment. Then, I thought stencils. And finally, I came to this plan. Well, sort of.

This started out with the plan to put a pinecone at the top and bottom of the sentiment. And for the record, a totally different sentiment (went through a few on this one). I just could not get the pinecone to look right in the opposite direction which is crazy since that is how they are on trees but… Some days are just like that. In any case, I did lots of spritzing and inking on these Lovely Layers: Winter Greenery dies. These Bitty Buzzwords: Holiday sentiment finally worked just right on a rectangle with gold heat embossing.

Again, the plan went a little sideways. I planned to add red berries to the holly but at the last minute opted to add some gold embossing to the leaves and elements. Once that was there, the red didn’t make sense. So I added some gold pearls instead! I had a little time when making this which is good because I just had to keep walking away until inspiration struck. But in the end, I had fun just playing around and that is the entire point of this, after all.

The team has all kinds of cool takes on this one and I think the gallery is going to be super fun! Oh, and as I’m typing I realized I missed the rectangle layer. Sigh. Hope Amy doesn’t fire me, lol! Have a lovely week. Stay safe and be kind. Goodness knows we need a lot of kind.

Freshly Made Sketches #606

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I suppose I am fully committed to holiday cards now. I mean…there might be others for fall but… Not for today at least. Our sketch designer at Freshly Made Sketches this week is our lovely Narelle. Usually when I see circles, I see flowers. But today, I saw trees. I know, trees are not circles but that’s just how I’m rolling this week.

I pulled out the Lovely Layers: Trees set to take a look. On a piece of Tim Holtz Heavystock, I spritzed some Distress Spray in Pumice Stone and Lost Shadow. Once that was dry, I cut out the trees. I wanted to go with the idea of snowy trees. I started by inking the back of the trees and the one tree without a layer. I blended on some Bundled Sage and Peeled Paint Distress Inks and then added a bit of Pumice Stone. I made the single tree a bit darker to make it look more like it was in the background. I used my brand new Waffleflower Grip Mat for blending and it is a game changer. No tape, nothing hard, works great. So happy I got it!!

For the top layer of the trees, I just added a little bit of Pumice Stone where I thought shadows might be. All of the layers got splatters of Hero Arts Metallic Ink (White) and Iridescent Shimmer Spray. I used a panel of the Heavystock for the base and blended on some Speckled Egg Distress Oxide Ink and added just a touch of Faded Jeans in the corner. On a scrap that had the splatters on it, I stamped the sentiment from Inside: Holiday Sentiments. As I was starting to put it together, I decided to add a bit more shimmer to the background with the Shimmer Spray and then added some gold pearls.

I had fun getting inky on this one today. These die cuts are so great and I find that I really enjoy just playing around with the ink to see what happens. Thanks so much for stopping in today. Hope you are having a great week!

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