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Freshly Made Sketches #673

Freshly Made Sketches #673 published on 6 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #673

Well, as I type the winter wonderland is returning to northern Virginia. So beautiful (as long as I don’t have to drive around). But when it comes to stamping, I seem to have moved on to spring. I’m the sketch designer this week for Freshly Made Sketches and I had fun getting inky for my card.

I had a couple of ideas about what I was going to use for the decorative element but finally decided this sweet little spring umbrella was perfect for the job. All of the die cuts are from the Lovely Layers: April Showers set from Honey Bee Stamps. Using Distress Inks, I colored all of the flowers, the bird and the umbrella using both the Bitty Bunny Blending Brushes and the Beeluxe Blending Brushes.

I used the Spring Medley 3D Embossing Folder for the background and cut out a circle, inking it in Squeezed Lemonade Distress Oxide Ink. The sentiment is from the Mini Messages Stamp Set cut out with the coordinating Mini Messages Banners dies.

I hope you like my take on the sketch and will find some inspiration in all that the team has created. As always, their work is incredible! Hope to see you in the gallery!

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Freshly Made Sketches #665

Freshly Made Sketches #665 published on 5 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #665

We have a super interesting sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches and I’m excited to see how everyone plays along with it. As always, our wonderful Kim Singdahlsen has created something fabulous!

For me, this one all started with the poinsettia. I wasn’t sure how I was going to use the five panels behind it so I just started inking the flower. I will say that inking these dies just doesn’t get old. I used a combination of of Candied Apple and Aged Mahogany Distress Inks for the flower and then Bundled Sage and Peeled Paint for the leaves. Once they were done, I thought they needed a little something else, so…splatters! White Metallic Ink and some black refill ink for those.

As that was drying, I decided that I was going to do the panel all in white but with texture. So I cut the strips apart, glued them in the sketch pattern and then let them dry a bit. Once done, I ran them through with the Snowy Pines 3D Embossing Folder and I’m so excited with the effect! The rest of the card was easy from there. I picked a sentiment from the Wonder of Christmas Stamp Set and cut it out with the coordinating dies. The textured panel is popped up on foam tape so you can really see the interesting shape.

The team has shown a number of ways to use this sketch and I hope you will give it a try too. Thanks so much for stopping in today. See you soon!

Freshly Made Sketches #658

Freshly Made Sketches #658 published on 3 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #658

Super quick today. Another fabulous sketch at Freshly Made Sketches and this week’s designer is the lovely Narelle Farrugia. My two boys have been home from college (their fall breaks shared a weekend) and while they were here I had a request to create a birthday card for a friend. Can’t say no to that!!

I had the Meowgical stamp set in my workspace from last week’s card and he told me that I should use it. Specifically, to create a black and white tuxedo that looks like a specific kitty. Oh, and the kitty actually has a little cape that is purple as a costume! I colored over the tabby markings with my Black and T8 Comics and created a tuxedo face with a pen. My “muse” has a black and pink nose so yeah, definitely had to do that!

I chose some papers from the Spooktactular Paper Pack (Honey Bee Stamps). I inked on a little bit of Villainous Potion) to get the purples to match a bit better. When I tried sticking just to the sketch, the kitty was kind of just floating so I added a green circle to help ground him a bit. I thought a little bit of black metallic thread would be a nice touch too. I hope the lad’s friend likes it (but Nate is sure he will).

Hope you’ll have fun with this sketch and that you’ll join us in the gallery. Have a great rest of your week and see you soon!

Freshly Made Sketches #657

Freshly Made Sketches #657 published on 8 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #657

Happy to share the fun sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches this week. Karren has really created a fun one with the angled panel and the tag element. I found my idea came together really quickly for this one!

It all started with these kitties….a phrase that pretty much describes daily life at my house! They come from the Meowgical Stamp Set by The Rabbit Hole Designs and I love them! A couple of weeks ago, I needed some coloring therapy and sat down to Copic color these two. I think I told you about a Copic “belch” and had to rethink a card. It was on one of these that I had almost finished. So I walked away for a bit and then came back to color again. As usual, I chose to make them Kate (the calico) and Meg (my gray tuxedo). I didn’t quite create Meg’s face flash but otherwise it is pretty much them.

There is a fun spider web image in the set and at first I planned to use it. But then I came across this paper from the Spooktacular Paper Pack (Honey Bee Stamps) and thought it was perfect for the sketch. I found this green texture paper in the same pack and used on of my “Free Bee” tag dies to cut it out (Honey Bee has freebies that come with certain order amounts…which I always seem to hit…and this tag set has other fun elements with it too). The sentiments from the stamp set are all so cute and punny! In my brain this is totally Kate casting a disappearing spell on Meg and Meg just looking at her all sassy after drinking some kind of immunity potion. And if Kate could make Meg disappear, pretty sure she would!! Ah, calico kitties!!! Also Kate has one of the loudest and purriest purrs ever so…. Clearly this will end up with one of the boys or someone who knows these two and their shenanigans.

I had an orange and white ribbon that, at first, I tried in the tag but it was too thick. Instead, I used it as a border detail and love the effect. All the ribbon and twine is from my “collection”.

Thanks so much for stopping in today. For the next week, I’m one happy mom. Both of the boys will be coming home for their respective fall breaks. A little staggered but both here over the weekend. For all of you who are in the path of the latest hurricane or have been impacted by Helene, please know my thoughts remain with you. Please take care of yourselves and know that we are waiting to support you in any way we can. See you soon!

Freshly Made Sketches #623

Freshly Made Sketches #623 published on 7 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #623

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!

Freshly Made Sketches #614

Freshly Made Sketches #614 published on 4 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #614

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 #604

Freshly Made Sketches #604 published on 14 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #604

I love sketches with a clear focal point and that is just what we have for you this week! Our talented Cécile Ribon created a gorgeous challenge for Freshly Made Sketches!

The sketch has a big leaf and that put me right into fall creating mode! I pulled out my new Lovely Layers: Apple Barrel Dies and wow. Just wow. The details on these are incredible. I would love to say my shading was all my own idea but I watched the always amazing Dawn Woleslagle use these and I just went right ahead and mimicked her shading. I cut the pieces from Hammermill White Card Stock and then used Distress Inks for the shading. I cannot even tell you how much fun this was to do!! I didn’t have the same colors as Dawn so I just kind of winged it using some of the apples I got from a local orchard as my guide.

The key to the blending is all in those little blending brushes! The Bitty Bunny Blending Brushes are fabulous! You can color these little die cuts and add shading and nuance. So great! The background paper is from one of the “Free Bee” packs that come with orders from Honey Bee Stamps. The prints are always varied and so usable! Something about this one just made the apple barrel jump off the page. I heat embossed the sentiment onto brown card stock (another idea I stole from Dawn!). I added some leaves from the Lovely Layers: Autumn Bouquet set to try to comply with the sketch a little more.

I hope you like this one as much as I do. And please, do yourself a favor. Click Dawn’s name above and go watch her video. She is a genius! I hope you are having a wonderful week. See you again soon!

Freshly Made Sketches #557

Freshly Made Sketches #557 published on 5 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #557

My leaves are starting to change and I’m all in on fall. Went to the apple orchard on Monday, made apple butter yesterday…I love fall in Virginia! Pretty much no matter what the sketch was this week, I was planning on using leaves and the sketch from our fabulous Judy Rozema is perfect!!!

The Lovely Layers: Fall Foliage dies from Honey Bee Stamps are simple glorious for perfect (and easy) leaf creating. I cut them out from Hammermill white paper and then blended on Distress Ink with my Bitty Blending Brushes. I love these little brushes for controlling where the color goes. I pulled a couple of leaves from my yard as color muses, as you can see. I added a few paint splatters to mimic the spots on my leaves.

I chose a sentiment from the new On The Line Fall Florals stamp set (Honey Bee Stamps) and I love how close the coordinating die cuts it. The background paper is from the Grain and Grunge Paper Pack and the gems are from the coordinating gem pack.

I hope you will come over to Freshly Made Sketches to check the gorgeous work from the team and play along. Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you have a beautiful day!

Freshly Made Sketches #535

Freshly Made Sketches #535 published on 7 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #535

Hi everyone! Another week of lots of flying and fixing my blog behind the scenes. But…I think, maybe, it is done. Maybe. We will see. One of the issues was that my posts would not go live after scheduling…. So this one is a test! In the mean time, I got a fun card made for Freshly Made Sketches with an adorable sketch by our lovely Amy.

I’m just totally in love with this sweet set from The Rabbit Hole Designs. Something about these little rain boots and the flowers…so great! I stamped it using Versafine Clair Ink and then heat embossed it with Clear Embossing powder. And I got to try out my new Cottontail Embossing Powder Tool. This is a game changer. No residue, no embossing powder sticking where it shouldn’t. It is patent pending because it is awesome!! And the price is so great. Seriously. If you need an anti-static tool, just get this one and please don’t get a knock-off. There are some out there and they will made you sad. Supporting an innovative entrepreneur is a great thing to do!

I don’t often combine brands on cards (really this should not be an issue unless it is a DT card but somehow I struggle to do it). For this, I was short on time and I had this pretty sentiment all ready foiled so, naturally, it just jumped on the card. It is from Pinkfresh Studio and I love that touch of shine. All the watercoloring was done with Distress Ink, including the little panel. I added a vellum flag and then some fun pearls. The pearls are part of a bonus pack that came in my order from The Rabbit Hole Designs. Yep, beautiful!!

I hope you will join us this week for the challenge and I’m so grateful for all the patience on my blog. I know it mostly hasn’t been apparent on the front side but it has taken so much of my time away from crafting. Wishing you a great rest of the week!

Freshly Made Sketches #412

Freshly Made Sketches #412 published on 8 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #412

This is the first of two posts today! Bonus Wednesday! Freshly Made Sketches to start the morning with a fun and clean sketch by the lovely Jennifer Brum.

Not gonna’ lie, this reindeer continues to crack me up! Also, this is pretty much what I’ve been looking like for the last two weeks as I finish up my training and going back out to the line in the new plane. Well, I do manage to put on a uniform and get out of the robe, lol! This hilarious image comes from The Rabbit Hole Designs and I have a few of their things now courtesy of winning a gift card during the Coffee Lovers Fall/Winter Hop.

I colored our caffeinated friend using Copic Markers and found this fun holiday paper in my stash (yes, I really am trying to use it up…truly!). The sentiment is from the stamp set and I used another on the inside that says “Caffeine gives me the jingles all the way”. And yes I do have an intended recipient for this already!! The little holiday colored sequins were a nice extra sent in my package and I put them right to use!

Hope you’ll have a bit of crafting time this week and will join us for this sketch. I love how the team has a wide variety of interpretations! See you in a bit for this month’s Crafty Friends Blog Hop.

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