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Freshly Made Sketches #665

Freshly Made Sketches #665 published on 1 Comment 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 #664

Freshly Made Sketches #664 published on 6 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #664

Happy Thanksgiving week to those who celebrate in the US! I am, shockingly, home this week…first time in a long time. Which means I get to cook and feed the hungry hoard of college kids (who are now home and I’m hearing the sounds of brotherly discussions of college, video games, etc as I type). We have a fabulous sketch this week by my lovely friend Linda Callahan and I love this little trio of options. No surprise, I didn’t really follow the sketch that closely but, well, that happens!

I started with the Lovely Layers: Winter Greenery and played with my new Distress Spritzes. I got two colors to experiment with (Bundled Sage and Salvaged Patina) and they are really pretty. There is a metallic quality to them and they have more shine than I could capture in my photos. For more coverage, I inked the card stock first with regular Distress Inks (same colors) and then added the Spritz. For the gray branch, I just inked it up with Hickory Smoke and then sprayed on Hero Arts White Iridescent Shimmer Spray to match the shine of the others. The little berries only have the Shimmer Spray on them.

For the background, I used the Snowy Pines 3D Embossing Folder. The texture and design on it is so pretty and it means I didn’t need to do anything else but add the sentiment. The Mini Messages: Holiday seemed just right for the sketch and I used the coordinating Mini Messages Banners dies to cut it out.

I hope you will have a little bit of crafting time this week. And if you are celebrating with family, I wish you safe travels and enjoying lots of delicious food and company! Thanks for stopping in today. See you soon!

Freshly Made Sketches #663

Freshly Made Sketches #663 published on 5 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #663

Happy to be back today with the latest sketch from Freshly Made Sketches. Our designer this week is none other than one of our team leaders, the amazing Jen Mitchell. I think I may have broken a record with how fast this idea came into my head for the sketch.

I pulled out the new Floral Noel suite of products from Honey Bee Stamps. Super fun! I stenciled the flowers using distress inks and then cut with the coordinating dies. The sentiment comes in the coordinating stamp set and I embossed it with gold embossing powder. I love how the dies are so detailed when cutting it out, too.

Something about the combination of gold with rustic elements always makes me happy so I pulled out some burlap ribbon from my stash for the sketch crossing element. I added some gold card stock behind the white panel for a little more shine and then found this print in my older patterned papers (it is SU).

Hope you enjoy this one and will come over to play along too. Thanks so much for stopping in!

Freshly Made Sketches #662

Freshly Made Sketches #662 published on 3 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #662

I am the sketch designer this week for Freshly Made Sketches. Naturally, I designed it to use some new things. Because why not?! I thought the wide open space on this one would appeal to many and be helpful for any holiday or fall creating you are up to.

So let me start with this. How stinking cute is this gingerbread house?!!! And there are three of them in the set. This is the new Lovely Layers: Alice’s Gingerbread Lane from Honey Bee Stamp’s latest release. I am sometimes hesitant to get die sets that seem fussy but this one practically jumped into my cart. I immediately had a vision of it with glittery snow details so that is what I went with.

I cut all the pieces from white card stock (Hammermill) and inked them using Distress Inks with my Bitty Bunny Blending Brushes and my Beeluxe Blending Brushes. There is a great layering guide for the die cuts so you don’t have to guess how to put things together. I’ll list my colors at the bottom of my post. For the glittery elements, I tried a technique I have seen to make glitter stick better and I think it was a success. You could totally use a glitter/glimmer paper for the die cuts too but I find that they are never a match for the whites in my card and this allows me just to use basic card stock. All you have to do is ink the element up with Versamark Ink (or an embossing ink), sprinkle on Distress Frosted Crystal powder and heat it up. You actually overheat it a bit and that makes it sticky. Right from the heat, you add the Rock Candy Glitter and then add a bit more heat to make it grab on. I did this on white but imagine how pretty it is on inked paper or colored card stock!

To add even more glitter, I wanted to stencil on snow. Using an older stencil, I added Prima Texture Paper Paste (I got it on Amazon). I pulled the stencil off and quickly added the Rock Candy glitter and the paste holds onto the glitter as it dries. Finally I just put everything together and added a sentiment from the new Wonder of Christmas Stamp Set.

Colors of Distress Ink: Gingerbread color – Vintage Photo; Door, roof, step – Aged Mahogany plus Candied Apple; Trees – Bundled Sage; Window frame – Ground Espresso; Window panes – Fossilized Amber; Background – Distress Oxide Inks blended – Salty Ocean, Faded Jeans, Black Soot

I hope you have fun with this sketch. I appreciate you stopping in today. Have a wonderful day!

Freshly Made Sketches #660

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Hi all! Hope the week is treating you well. I’m happy to share the latest sketch from Freshly Made Sketches designed by the wonderful Judy Rozema. I’m a big fan of floral swags and groupings so this sketch sure was a treat for me to use this week.

All I had to do was look outside my window for some inspiration for this. My leaves are turning and some are the most glorious colors of yellow, orange and red. And some fading sunflowers are always a pretty add! The Lovely Layers: Mini Fall Florals (Honey Bee Stamps) had all these elements in one set. Perfection!

Using a whole variety of Distress Inks and my blending brushes, I had fun adding color variations and worked to make the leaves look real. I just love the effect! For the oval, I realized that one of my Free Bee tag die sets from Honey Bee Stamps had this layered oval. I just flipped it so that you could not see the hole in the tag part. Such a pretty pair with the scalloped layer. I added a bit of Distress Ink to them too so that the framing would pop a bit.

Finally for the sentiment. I was reminded today, as I got the chance to converse with two friends, how wonderful it is to have people in our lives who understand us. I thought this sentiment summed up my feelings perfectly! It is from the Lean on Each Other stamps set…one that has just the right words for your dearest friends.

Hop on over to see the cards from the rest of the team. Always a treat! And maybe you’ll get a chance to create this week. If nothing else, make a card for a dear friend to tell them how you feel! Thanks for stopping in. See you soon!

Freshly Made Sketches #655

Freshly Made Sketches #655 published on 6 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #655

So, as I sit to write this, I realized that I never posted my card here from last week’s Freshly Made Sketches challenge. Sigh. Not exactly sure how that happened other than the card was a complete re-vamp after a Copic “belching” incident… Oy. Moving forward, as they say. This week we have a super fun sketch from our adventurer extraordinaire Jen Brum. Now mind you, this is a woman who says she doesn’t like circles in her sketches…um…. But I took a loose interpretation of those circles and I’m hoping she doesn’t mind.

I totally took this as an excuse to play with the new products from Honey Bee Stamps, starting with the Lovely Layers: Mini Fall Florals. This set abounds with fall awesomeness to include a fun boot but I lasered in on the sunflowers. Using my Bitty Bunny Blending Brushes, I had fun blending Distress Inks onto the die cuts. I added in a few branches from the Lovely Layers: Seasonal Frame for extra texture and I love that the two sets are at the same scale.

I chose a sentiment from the Bloom with Grace stamp set (it also has sunflowers) that I thought was really sweet. To help keep more to the sketch, I added a few gems from the Grain and Grunge gem sticker pack. I did brush a little Distress Ink on the edges of the base too for a bit of depth.

I hope you like my version of the sketch and will come over to join us. The team has a wide variation on it and I think you will enjoy it as much as we have. Thanks again for stopping in today. Sorry about skipping the card last week. For those who only see my cards on the blog, here it is (tree die cuts and papers are from Honey Bee Stamps). Have a great week and see you soon!

Freshly Made Sketches #632

Freshly Made Sketches #632 published on 6 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #632

Welcome back for another sketch from Freshly Made Sketches! This week, our sketch designer is our one of the challenges fearless leaders, the amazing Jen Mitchell. I was so happy when I saw her sketch for the week because I was already working on the perfect thing to use.

I was so excited when I saw the Lovely Layers: Herb Garden set from Honey Bee Stamps on their last release. Like absurdly excited. First of all, I love growing herbs. But also, I love the idea of something that is easy to use for everybody on the card list! While the set comes with adorable little buckets, I immediately thought of the barrel from the Lovely Layers: Apple Barrel set and decided that was what I would use to hold my herbs.

I had a ridiculous amount of fun creating each herb and playing with the shading on greens and accents of browns and purples (all Distress Ink). The new Beeluxe Blending Brushes were key (I used the smallest ones, size 5 for the details and my Bitty Bunny Blending Brushes (from The Rabbit Hole Design) for the broader areas. Once I had them done, I moved on to the apple barrel. Bigger areas with my regular sized brushes, then working down to the tiny ones. I created the aged metal band and added a bit of Rusty Hinge Distress Oxide Ink. To create the illusion of dirt, I cut an extra of the back belly band and trimmed it off a bit, turned it upside down and made it black. Voilá…soil!

Finally, I created the herb signs to match the band. I found that if I did a little bit of brush work in a lighter gray and then did direct to paper with the ink, it allowed me to see the words better. A little extra Rusty Hinge on those too. Then it was just putting it together. I wanted it to look like a real garden so it is a bit haphazard with signs askew. I want this on my deck for real!! I did an ombré background and added the Burlap 3D textured embossing for a little more interest. The sentiment from Mini Messages is great to send just because! Finally a few sequins.

Hoping you have a great week and maybe even get to start thinking about your summer garden. I have some spinach in now and can’t wait until I can plant the rest of my faves. Make sure to go see the challenge blog and take a look at the beautiful creations from the FMS team. Thanks for stopping in today!

Freshly Made Sketches #630

Freshly Made Sketches #630 published on 6 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #630

A sweet spring card for you today using some brand new products. Our wonderful sketch at Freshly Made Sketches is courtesy of the lovely Judy Rozema and it allows for some interesting variations.

I just got some things from the latest release by Honey Bee Stamps and wanted to pull these dies out right away. Are they sweet?! I mean, that bird…and then the boots and all the flowers. It comes with an umbrella (which I could have used for real today) too. I cut all the elements from Hammermill White Card Stock and then used my Distress Inks to color them. I cannot wait to try some other variations!

I pulled a retiring piece of ombré patterned paper (Honey Bee Stamps) and added the three rectangles from the sketch. I thought about some texture on those but when I tried it…nope. Instead a pretty script sentiment and some matching pearls. Quick to put together after I did the ink blending on the elements.

The pictures today are a bit dark and the colors aren’t quite true. A rainy day and I just couldn’t get any lighting to cooperate. Ah well. Perfect day for those rain boots! Hope you are having a good week!

Freshly Made Sketches #629

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Happy Wednesday, friends! Happy to see you today. I’m so happy to share the latest from Freshly Made Sketches. Our lovely Amy O’Neill is the sketch designer and I love her simple take this week.

My beautiful cherry tree is blooming in my front yard (just like the famous ones at the Tidal Basin in DC) and that inspired my card. I pulled out the Lovely Layers: Dogwood dies (they are a little less fussy than my Cherry Blossom die) and started playing with ink. Using Bitty Blender Brushes, I added Distress Ink on all the layers and then built the stem. Something about this always makes me happy, especially when I’ve been away from the craft room too long (like lately).

I chose one of the woodgrain prints from the Grain and Grunge paper pack and added a white strip to match the sketch. The sentiment is from Spring Joy (retiring) and I love the pretty font. I added a bit of twine and some pearls to finish it off. So happy to be back to the craft room…and I think I actually have a few weeks where I can get inky!

I hope you will come over to see the beautiful work done by the team and can spend a little time joining us this week. Thanks so much for stopping by! See you soon!

Freshly Made Sketches #626

Freshly Made Sketches #626 published on 6 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #626

We have another fun sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches and our designer, the lovely Cécile Ribon, gave us a great one. The half circle elements are particularly fun!

This card is directly inspired by the amazing Dawn Woleslagle. She did a live one night just playing with Distress Oxide ins and this background stamp from Honey Bee Stamps called Vintage Flora. She used exactly these colors! Her reminder was that when you are feeling a little flat on creativity, just pull out the inks and play. So I did just that! This background is the result and it is super cool.

This bluebird had been sitting on my desk for a few weeks waiting for plan and the background gave me just that! I added a bit of splattering and inking on the edges to match the style and knew it was going to work. With the extra ink after stamping the background, I had stamped again a few times. I used one of those and cut out the flowers, then added just a little more ink. I thought vellum would be perfect for the split semicircles and I love the texture it adds without covering anything up. Finally a little sentiment from the Mini Messages Set.

I hope this will inspire you to get out some inks and just play around! It is good for the soul! Thanks for stopping in today. See you soon!

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