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Freshly Made Sketches #591

Freshly Made Sketches #591 published on 2 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #591

Our lovely, overly ambitious hiker (the fabulous Jen Brum) is the sketch designer this week at Freshly Made Sketches. I was super glad for this graphic sketch because I needed something I could follow literally. And that is what I did!

I knew I wanted to use a patterned paper for the middle section on this and I had this paper pack out on my stamp table from another project. I love this bokeh rainbow print and it adds so much texture with none of the work! I just cut it on the angle and did a little bit of sponging on the edges to finish them a bit.

I thought this big sentiment was just the right size to fill the space and I like this “hello” for cards that sit ready to send a friend. Quick stamping and die cutting too! I added a few colored pearls to match the rainbow paper and done.

See, I told you I took this literally!! Some weeks just need a quick card so that I what I made. I hope you will have a few minutes to craft and join us too! Thanks for stopping in and I’ll see you soon!

Freshly Made Sketches #590

Freshly Made Sketches #590 published on 4 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #590

A clean and fabulous new sketch from Freshly Made Sketches. This week’s sketch designer is the marvelous Kim Singdahlsen and I love this trio of stripes for all the options.

In my mind I saw an ombré panel for the sketch so I started on that path. I spritzed white card stock with Distress Spray Stain in Lost Shadow and Pumice Stone. Once dry, I inked with the combination of Oxide Inks in Tumbled Glass, Broken China and Peacock Feathers. After some light inking I ran the panel through with the Clover Petals 3D Embossing Folder and then cut the panel into three pieces to comply with the sketch better. Once cut apart I added a bit more ink in each color. I wanted a little more, well, something so I added a spray of Shimmer Spray from Hero Arts.

I looked through my unused die cuts stack and fount these two leaves. One is spritzed and one is plain white. Perfect! I did spray them with a little more Shimmer Spray and then added them on. The sentiment is from my foiled pile (I love to just make a stack when I’m foiling) and then finally I added some pearls to help emphasize the shimmer.

I hope you will come over to join the challenge this week. The lesson of this card is: yay for keeping a stash of pre-made die cuts and sentiments!! I hope you have a wonderful week! Thanks for stopping in.

Freshly Made Sketches #589

Freshly Made Sketches #589 published on 6 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #589

I hope you are doing well and I’m so glad to have you along today for the latest from Freshly Made Sketches! Our lovely Linda Callahan is the sketch designer this week and she created a unique and super fun sketch for us.

I pulled out some products that haven’t seen any love in quite awhile and I love them for this sketch. Most of the products here are from SugarPea Designs with colored paper (and coordinating inks) from Concord and 9th. The Paint Palette Dies come with the palette, paint splotches and brushes. Super fun! I cut the palette from a wood grain paper in my stash. Then cut the splotches from different colors of C9 paper in ROYGBIV order. I used some black and a matte silver for the brushes and two of the colors again for the brushes. I sponged on a little bit of matching ink for a bit of depth and that is it.

I chose a sentiment from the Color of Life stamp set that makes me happy! I love this one for a number of my friends! I kept the rest clean so the focus stays right on the center of this fun design.

So glad you stopped in today. I hope you are having a beautiful start to your summer! See you again soon.

Freshly Made Sketches #587

Freshly Made Sketches #587 published on 7 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #587

I am the sketch designer this week at Freshly Made Sketches and I tried a circle pattern that is a little out of my normal card preference. I hope you will find some inspiration in it!

I thought it would be fun to use a 3D embossing folder for the texture on this card. Using the Spring Medley folder, I brayered on some Saltwater Taffy Distress Oxide Ink. I took my time making sure the folder as good and inked up before running it through. After I was done, I simply used some circle dies to cut out the different sizes from the same panel.

I thought a big gold sentiment would be perfect against the texture and I love this one from Thinking of You Big Time embossed with gold embossing powder. I added some matching confetti to finish. The best part about this card is that it would be easy to duplicate and make a stack in the same or even different colors!

Thanks so much for stopping in today. It has been a bit of a crazy month and truthfully, I designed this so it would be simple to make with dies. I hope you will come over and join us! See you soon!

Freshly Made Sketches #586

Freshly Made Sketches #586 published on 7 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #586

A beautiful new sketch from Freshly Made Sketches designed by the wonderful Jacquie Southas. I combined some old and new products for this one.

I had not done much Copic coloring lately and I had a few minutes just to goof around. I pulled out the pretty Spring Joy Bouquet and colored some tulips and daffodils! I love the little wrap die and I used it 00with some tissue paper to create a more realistic wrap for the flowers and then tied it up with some purple twine.

I used a background I already had embossed with the Clover Petals embossing folder on Neenah Desert Storm. I love that floral feel but it doesn’t compete with the colored flowers.

I feel like May is one of the busiest months of the year and I’m guessing you feel the same. Not sure what it is but it happens every year. Wishing you a beautiful week! See you soon.

Freshly Made Sketches #585

Freshly Made Sketches #585 published on 4 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #585

So glad to be bringing you this week’s sketch from Freshly Made Sketches! Our wonderful Judy Rozema is the designer this week and it is so creative!

I went through a few other ideas for this before I remembered the Barn Wood Planks dies. I knew they would be perfect for the sketch! I cut five of them and then trimmed the length down a bit so they didn’t go all the way across the card. And then I got to play with the Dogwood dies. These are really fun and easy to use. I used Concord and 9th inks for the shading and just sponged it onto the paper after cutting it out.

I pulled out an already foiled sentiment from my pile (yep, doing a bunch at one time for the win!) and that is all it took to finish the card. I’m just in love with these dies and look forward to playing with them some more.

Our team has some beautiful cards, as always, and I think these stripes have lots of interesting potential for texture and design. Come over and join us! Thanks so much for stopping in today.

Freshly Made Sketches #584

Freshly Made Sketches #584 published on 4 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #584

Hi all! Glad to see you this week! Well, I survived the college visits (at least physically…emotionally, coming to terms with the second child actually looking at colleges, lol). I think we are done with that for now so maybe I’ll eek in a little crafting on my off days from flying. For today’s Freshly Made Sketches challenge, we have a fun one from the incomparable Linda Callahan. She always finds a new look to challenge us!

I’ll start with an apology on the lighting for my photos. They have a weird cast to them that no editing could fix. Something about the cloudy day but it is what it is. I kept this pretty simple. I thought the On the Line: Fall Florals was perfect for the sketch and just colored this up in pretty pale spring colors with my Copics.

I love this little sentiment with the matching die (from My Favorite Flower) and it was just the right fit for the sketch. I added a quilted background for just a little more texture but otherwise left it really clean.

Thanks for stopping in today. I hope you have some time to create this week! If so, come over and join us.

Freshly Made Sketches #582

Freshly Made Sketches #582 published on 7 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #582

I’m back today with the latest from Freshly Made Sketches! Our sketch is by the oh so talented Karren Johnson and it is super fun to use. I, of course, saw flowers in the circles. And I’ve opted to pull out some old favorites and some brand spankin’ new colors!!

I thought the Elegant Asters from Gina K Designs was perfect for the flower elements. And then the colors. If you haven’t heard (can’t imagine that is possible), Concord and 9th just added colors to their line and I had my order in 10 minutes after it went live. I love their papers and the little ink cubes are so great for expanding color options on a reasonable budget. And this is TWENTY-FIVE new colors! Using a sponge dauber, I added a little color with some fade on white card stock and then stamped over them with the images using Versafine Clair Ink.

I cut them out with their respective dies and started with the sketch. The flowers are Pink Lemonade and Lilac, the leaves are Lemongrass, the centers are touched with Honeycomb and the background paper is Powder (I’m going to need a whole pack of this ASAP). I mixed companies on this one and used the Clover Petals 3D Embossing Folder and then pulled a sentiment from my already foiled pile (I tend to make a bunch when I’m foiling for using later). This one is from Pinkfresh Studios. You can expect to be seeing these colors in all the things for a bit!!

I keep thinking things will calm down a bit here but nope. I’m flying max schedules and still trying to finish some end of school year things for the boys. Last week and next week, college visits for the youngest. And nope, can’t even talk about it because it is happening too fast. So glad you stopped in today. I appreciate you all so much!

Playing Cards with Friends – April 2023

Playing Cards with Friends – April 2023 published on 5 Comments on Playing Cards with Friends – April 2023

Imagine my delight when my friend Michele Ferguson invited me to play along with her “Playing Cards with Friends” series! I’m a bit of a fan girl of her work so this is super fun! The parameters for this month’s creating are:

  •           April 15th Husband Appreciation Day! 
  •           Make a card for your husband
  •           Let’s include masculine colors:  shades of blue, and greens.
  •           Add alpha dies, or die cut words!

I thought that using a more graphic element would get this moving in the masculine direction. I used the Plaid A2 Hot Foil Plate with Spellbinders Black Foil. This is my first time using the black foil and I’m a BIG fan. It stretches the hot foil plates and gives a different vibe than an inked background. To comply with the rules, I spritzed a piece of card stock with Tumbled Glass and Lost Shadow Distress Sprays and then inked part of it with Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide Ink. I cut two different leaves from the Lovely Layers: Greenery set.

For the sentiment, I pondered and pondered the right words. And then I saw this one. Fortunately, it has a coordinating die set so I could cut it out and comply with the parameters! I don’t know about you but this is pretty much the perfect husband sentiment. Our lives are so crazy and we are forever going different directions. When we do have time together, it is usually local and really just NOT traveling. It really is the little things that are so big!

Now I cannot wait to see what Michele has created for today! Let’s head over to her blog now to see! Here is her link for today: Michele’s Playing Cards with Friends April

Thanks so much for joining us today. And for all of you out there with wonderful husbands, get to that craft room and make a card for him! A big thanks to Michele for inviting me to play along!!

Freshly Made Sketches #581

Freshly Made Sketches #581 published on 6 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #581

Hello friends! Long time, no see! I was off on spring break vacation with most of the family and finally home and back to creating. We went to Arizona where we hiked in Sedona, took a train up to the Grand Canyon and then spent some time in Phoenix. It was lovely! I was happy to have a few moments to create with this wonderful sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. Designed by our fabulous Cécile, I had all kinds of ideas for it.

As soon as I saw the leaf elements, my mind went to these Lovely Layer: Winter Greenery dies. And now there is a new Lovely Layers: Nest to add on to the family (and some new spring birds too!). Seeing some of my FMS teammates making holiday cards inspired me to make one myself. I spritzed some watercolor paper using Lost Shadow and Pumice Stone Distress Spray and then added colors to the panels for the different elements. LOTS of inky fun and not really hard at all.

I sat the cardinal on the side of the nest and then started working in the greenery. May have gone a bit overboard but I loved the process of building this. The sentiment set that is meant for the birds is a holiday one and this one called out to me. And aren’t the details on this die to cut out the words fabulous? I attached the entire thing to a Grain and Grunge woodgrain print.

Thanks so much for stopping in today. I hope you are inspired to join us over at the challenge. I’ll be back on Saturday for a fun extra post! Until then, have a great week!

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