**** Make sure to check out my Holiday Sales post pinned to the top. I’ll update it all weekend. ****
Hi everyone! So happy to be here today with the latest from Freshly Made Sketches. Our sketch designer today is the wonderful Cécile Ribon and her sketch is simply delightful! Her whimsical ‘squiggle’ lends itself to all kinds of creative ideas.
As soon as I saw it, I saw word die. And then shaker with a word die. Clearly I forgot the sentiment off to the side in this but I’m hoping that the pretty sequins distract from my sketch departure. I inked up a panel with Distress Ink and my Taylored Expressions Blender Brush (isn’t it PRETTY!!). I love the white bristles that show how much ink you have loaded. I used an old Stampin’ Up die (Wonderful Wreath) for the Joy and then splattered on some Smooch Moonlight and some water. For simplicity, I used the new to me Waffle Flower A2 Layer Dies to make sure my die cut was perfectly centered on the panel (I seem to miss when using my paper cutter) and used the same dies to cut my acetate behind the sentiment.
The sequins are from 29 Lilac Lane and it is the Aqua Dreams Sequin/Bead Mix. I wanted the base to have a little more dimension but still be white so I chose the Simon Says Stamp Glimmery White Card Stock. It has shimmer and texture and is oh so pretty!
For those of you in the United States, I wish you a very happy and safe Thanksgiving weekend. I know the traveling has been precarious and I hope that none of you have been impacted by it. I’m home with my boys and will be cooking up a storm starting later today! Blessings to you all and thank you for being a part of my life.
I am here today with a card for Freshly Made Sketches, but even more with a look back. It has been a few years since I shared a 9/11 tribute. Somewhat because I don’t want it to feel forced. Last year, there was a lot of personal sadness happening and I just could not handle more. But this year, I felt compelled to create and share in honor of those lost.
Because it has been a while, and because I mostly don’t share about my “day job” here, I’ll clarify for those who are newer to the blog. I am a pilot for United Airlines. I currently fly an Airbus 319/320 but on 9/11/2001 I flew a B757. On that day. From Providence, RI to Chicago O’Hare. I have shared stories over the years if you are interested: 9th Anniversary, 10th Anniversary, 11th Anniversary, 12th Anniversary, 13th Anniversary, 14th Anniversary, 15th Anniversary.
As time goes by, I thought that the memories would ease a bit. I’m sure for all of us, we have found that isn’t really true with this particular event. But as I was talking with my now 16 year old son last night, and sharing my experiences of that day, there are so many things that still stand out as if it was yesterday. The fear, the confusion, yes. But really the strongest part is the coming together of people. All of us. I miss that. I tried explaining it to my boys. I feel like in trying to control our fear we have lost a bit of what makes us special. So many people worldwide simply stopped and took care of each other. They looked to neighbors and people that they had never met and found a way to come together. I reflect on flying that day and the feeling of that glorious sky and the darkness that came after. And I’m grateful for the light that returned because of love and kindness.
As in previous years, my color scheme seems to remain the same. Blue and gray (silver). The colors of legacy United Airlines. But as with the new United, the colors are a bit updated. A nod to our history but with an eye to our future too. Please know that there no matter how many years go by, the pilots of United do not forget. Our brothers, our sisters, our friends, our family, the passengers entrusted to our care….all were taken. We work every day to honor them. Today especially.
I “borrowed” this photo from a friend and Captain I fly with. The wings and jackets representing the crews of United and American Airlines. My friend, Brian, works daily protecting the legacies of the pilots of United lost that day. He and their loved ones bring light to the darkness. It is an amazing gift.
So today, as in the past, I hope for more of that. Kindness and love are the only solution to the tragedy brought by hate. I hope that today, and on other days, we give each other a little grace and work to find the light.
In memory of:
United 93: Jason Dahl, LeRoy Homer, Lorraine Bay, Sandra Bradshaw, Wanda Green, CeeCee Lyles, Deborah Welsh
United 175: Victor Saracini, Michael Horrocks, Robert Fangman, Amy Jarret, Amy King, Kathryn Laborie, Alfred Marchand, Michael Tarrou, Alicia Titus
American 11: John Ogonowski, Thomas McGuinness, Barbara Arestegui, Jeffrey Collman, Sara Low, Karen Martin, Kathleen Nicosia, Betty Ong, Jean D. Roger, Dianne Snyder, Amy Sweeney
American 77: Charles Burlingame III, David Charlebois, Michele Heidenberger, Jennifer Lewis, Kenneth Lewis, Renee May
Happy August release day from Picket Fence Studios! I’m so excited to share a couple of projects using two of the new sets. Also, this is my second post of the day. If you are looking for Week 2 of the Freshly Made Sketches #400 Celebration, just scroll down.
So in that “what did you do on your summer vacation” prompt for blogging, my family did a long weekend in New York City and I finally got to see Wicked. Yep, you can see where I’m going with this. Needless to say, the moment I saw the If You’ve Got It, Haunt It set, I knew I had to create Elphaba. Isn’t she glorious with her green complexion?!
I used my Zig Clean Color Markers to color her on Bristol Smooth Paper and then cut her out using circle die. I found this awesome ombré paper that matched perfectly too. Now this sentiment made me jump for joy! It comes from the Wicked Together stamp set and it was PERFECT! A few green sequins as a finishing touch.
Next up is another adorable Halloween set called Trick or Treaters. This little group of ghouls could not be even a little cuter! And the perfect size for quick coloring. I colored them up using Copic Markers and thought it would be fun to make a wobbler card. Yep, that little spider is on an Action Wobbler and it just makes me chuckle. I’ll have a short video over at Instagram if you care to see it in action. My background was created with Distress Ink in Wilted Violet and I used Tonic Glimmer Paste to add extra dimension with the Random Dots Stencil. The sentiment from the new Witch, Please cracked me up with the spider.
I hope you enjoy these cards and the whole release! Hop on over to Picket Fence Studios to see all the offerings! Thanks so much for stopping in today. And happy shopping…because you are going to want it all!
Welcome to the second week of our celebration of 400 sketches at Freshly Made Sketches. We are continuing with a look back at sketch #200. We did a big team celebration on this one with tons of prizes and it really was such fun. We chose a clean and basic sketch then and I admit I still love it!
I thought this was the perfect one to pull out the Alcohol Inks since it was easy to put the focus on a background. I used the Nature Walk pack of inks along with Gold Mixative (all from Tim Holtz/Ranger) and combined two of the colors. I was inspired by my friend Caly Person who created a pretty tile art piece using similar colors a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to try it. Worked beautifully!
With the gold mixed in, I thought it would be good to use some gold glitter paper with a sentiment die. This Hello die from Gina K Designs is so wonderful and has just the right flair to stand out against the background. I shadowed the glitter paper with black to help it pop a bit and put the whole thing on a black base, again to help it stand out.
I hope you like this card and the sketch this week. Come on over to help us celebrate! This is my first post of the day. Hope you’ll stop back in for my Picket Fence Studios August Release coming up later. Until then, thanks for sharing a few minutes of your time!
Happy weekend to you all! Sorry for the quiet around here. I don’t know about you but I find that summer is actually a bit busier for me on many things that keep me from stamping. Work, of course, but also having the boys around all the time. Which is awesome. And loud! But when it comes to a release, like this new one from Picket Fence Studios, everyone in the house knows to give mom some creative time!
My first card today shares the new Woodsy Forest Die. I love the pretty framing effect this gives and also the detail in the die itself. I used a woodgrain paper from my stash and cut out the trees. It was pretty in itself but then I added a bit of distress ink with my Life Changing Blender Brushes to help highlight the details. To create a background (like peering through the trees), I started with the Layers of Grass Stencil on Bristol Paper with the brushes again. The best part of this stencil is that is has both the positive and the negative. You can create the grass and then add the sky without messing it up. Such a nice touch for a stencil! I kept this pretty simple with just a couple of wooden flowers (again from my stash) that were colored with the inks and then decided that a word die was the way to go. This Lovely Word Die from last month’s release called out. I used the Tattered Rose (like on the sky) again and simply cut out the word. I like the softness of vellum in the background since it keeps to the same feeling of the sky.
Next up, I went all in on coloring this gorgeous new stencil called Heart of Flowers. It is SOOOO pretty! I found that the little round Blender Brush was perfect (actually I used two of them) to get into the nooks of the stencil. Also super helpful was a product called Pixie Spray. This is a much needed thing if you love stencils as much as I do. What is it? A spray that adds a bit of tack to the stencil so that it stays in place while you color. It made this detail work a breeze with no slipping while I colored. On this one, I used Catherine Pooler inks and the colors blended on so easily. I added a sentiment from the Small Ways to Say Thanks set.
Ok, that is it for today! I’ll have another card to share tomorrow with another set from the release. You are sure to love all the products so hop over to the site to see them all by clicking here: Picket Fence Studios
Thanks so much for stopping in today. Hope you have a great day and I’ll see you again soon.
Today is my day over at the Picket Fence Studios blog! I’m so happy I got a moment in my crazy week to color this gorgeous Sandra Girl image. I have been in awe of her from the moment I saw her and now I have two of them. Yep, two. The original size (shown here) and Kiss Kiss Sandra Girl which has the image a little larger along with the sentiment I used today. The original has a die coming out soon too!!
I colored her using Copic Markers (listed below in my Link Deli list) and just enjoyed working on her shading. All of the girls really allow for practicing coloring skills and playing with skin and hair variations. I thought pink would be a nice compliment to Sandra since she reminds me of a friend who happens to love pink.
After I was done coloring, I used Distress Oxide ink on watercolor paper with the Random Dots Stencil for a pretty background. The butterfly is from the original Sandra too.
I hope you enjoy this card. Hop over to the Picket Fence Studios blog for more and for lots of inspiration from the design team each week. Until next time, wishing a safe Memorial Day weekend (if you celebrate) full of thanks and remembrance.
Welcome to release day with Picket Fence Studios!! I’m excited to share for a couple of reasons. First, this release is really outstanding (again). But second, and most importantly, this is a big month for Picket Fence Studios. It is their 1-year anniversary!! And the whole team gets to celebrate by sharing a gift certificate with lucky winners. That’s right! Each and every design team member gets to give away a $100 Shopping Spree and a COUPON CODE. Details are at the bottom of my post.
So first up on the release is a set called Peach and Piper (with coordinating dies). I’m going to be REALLY honest with you. If you want this set, you need to go to my link below and buy it now. Like right now. Because it is going to fly off the shelves. It is so incredibly cute with fantastic sentiments. I am pretty sure the whole team is making stuff with it because we simply cannot stop ourselves. I stamped the little hugging bunnies with Momento Tuxedo Black and colored using Copic Markers. Then I created a little bit of texture inside of the scalloped frame with the new Layers of Grass Stencil. I love how it has the positive and the negative to easily ink both the grass and the background or sky. I inked the little frame using Peachy Keen (Lawn Fawn) to coordinate with the paper but also to keep with the stenciled ink look (all the inking is super fast with the Life Changing Blender Brushes!). I chose a sentiment from Peach and Piper and then added a little bird from Chirp Chirp. For my second card, I thought it would be fun to try and inlaid die technique. I first colored a piece of Yupo using Wild Plum and Silver Alcohol Inks and then cut it out using the new Flower Negative Die. It was easier to show you than tell you so I created a short video on the how to.
Now on to the details of the sale and giveaway. First of all, a sale. Yes, a SALE!!! To celebrate the one year anniversary, there is a 20% off sale. How do you get it?? Click this link: PICKET FENCE STUDIOS and use code PFS20.
For this giveaway, I’ll be running it on Instagram. Later today, look for the post in my feed with all the details (I will be posting after I fly this morning). I am there as jentimko or you can click my link in the sidebar on the right for IG.
Happy sale shopping and I hope to see you over at IG for the giveaways. Thanks so much for stopping in. I’ll be back tomorrow with another card from this release and the latest from Freshly Made Sketches. See you then!
Oh happy day!!! No really, it is a happy day! Release day for Picket Fence Studios starts now. I’m going to share two stamp sets and a new die in today’s post but the design team will be working together to show you the whole release so make sure to visit each one of them.
I’m starting with a new large flower image called Botan Peony. Oh my. When I say wow, I’m not kidding. This is not a small image (my card is 5.5″ square) but it is detailed and seriously gorgeous. I stamped the image in black in multiple times using my Misti onto Fabriano watercolor paper. Then I heat embossed the image using clear embossing powder. I like the extra dimension you get with the embossing and it is nice when watercoloring too. I got to work with watercoloring using Daniel Smith watercolor paints. They are amazing! If you are not sure about them, you can get dot sheets with actual samples of the colors to try (I linked it below). Once you do, you’ll be hooked. I combined pink, coral, gold and a little green and blue in a loose style. No real plan, nothing formal, but it is such fun to do on these big petals! Once done, I fussy cut the flower.
For the background, I used the Random Dots Stencil as an embossing folder to add a subtle texture. I then used this great sentiment from the new Hello, Beautiful stamp set. Again I stamped in black and heat embossed in clear.
Next up, I jumped on the alcohol ink bandwagon and used a background I created with the new Leaves Negative Die. I used just one color of Ranger Alcohol Ink (Stream) and the Gold Mixative on Yupo paper. I kept playing with the one colors and the gold and now have a few varied backgrounds that I’m sure you’ll see soon.
I took the panel and cut it with the Leaves and decided that I’d use gold glimmer paper in the negative space to play off the gold in the ink. Again I used the sentiment from Hello, Beautiful except heat embossed in gold.
I hope you like these two looks at the new release. Everything is available in the Picket Fence Studios store now! Thanks for stopping in to visit. See you again soon.
Hello my friends. I’m going to start off with a brief explanation. I know that my posting right now seems to come inconsistently. The truth is, I’m working very hard on balancing a lot of things. The biggest of them has been my mom’s estate. My mom lived in Orlando and I’m not there. That makes things hard since there are many decisions to be made and many beloved treasures to be sorted. So I’m going down there as much as I can to help handle that. When added to my flying schedule, I admit that my blog is the thing that seems to get the short end of my attention. I promised more details on my PFS January release and then promptly didn’t provide them all. I’m so sorry. Please forgive my distraction. The last trip was highly emotional for me and I’m truthfully feeling a bit overwhelmed. But stamping helps. And my family is the best. I’ll find my new normal soon but until the estate is handled, I think this is my normal. Thank you for your patience and support. It means the world.
And with that, I’m on to this week’s FMS card. I love this sketch by the lovely Kim Singdahlsen. It is fresh and clever! And, as usual, I think I may have stretched it a little too far. But whatever comes out of my head when I’m crafting is what I go with these days.
I love the Be a Unicorn of the Sea set by Picket Fence Studios and I thought it might be fun for the sketch. But what about the diagonals? Oh yeah….the new stencils!! And an idea was born. The Sunburst Stencil seemed perfect when I chose a few select “beams” and inked them with Distress Ink using the Life Changing Blender Brushes. I chose one of the small brushes because it fits in the beams perfectly without me having to tape and cover the others. Nice and simple! I inked up another piece of Bristol and then cut it out with a stitched circle as a background for my narwhal.
I have to confess that I love narwhal images. And this set is the BEST! The sentiments are such fun and useful for so many occasions. They are encouraging and kind!! I colored the narwhal with my Zigs to coordinate and then chose some Audrey Blue (SSS) as a background to make the colors pop. I love the Shark Bite Sequins too so of course I added a few.
Thank you so much for stopping in today. I’m grateful you choose to spend a few moments of your day with me. Make sure you hop over to see the inspiration from the whole team. See you soon!
It is the 14th of the month and that means today is a super fun day at Picket Fence Studios! Time for the December release!! I have two cards to share with you for the release and I know the team will have lots to share too.
Let’s get started with this ADORABLE image! Oh. My. Word. So cute. And such fun to color. I stamped her in the Black Hybrid Ink and then colored with my Copic Markers. Super awesome news here too….there are dies on every release now. I do love a coordinating die!!
So I cut her out with the die and decided to keep the rest of the card simple so as to focus on the image. I cut a scalloped frame and stamped the sentiment from the same stamp set. With all the Christmas cards I have been trying to make last minute, this release is a great change of pace!
With my next card I tried to do what I never do enough…make a masculine card. I have so many men in my life that need cards so you’d think I be a pro but nope. I thought this set really called for me to give it a go. I stamped in Versafine Ink (because it stays wet long enough to emboss) and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder. Out came the Life Changing Blender Brushes again and I blended on oranges and yellows until I was happy. I cute my inked panel down with some stitched rectangle dies and then used part of the cut off piece for the sentiment panel (all the coloring was done, after all). I found some sequins in my stash that matched and then put the panel on a black card base. My high schooler agreed that it looks like a “man card” so I’m going to call it mission complete.
Make sure you hop over to the Picket Fence Studios site to see the whole release! You will love it! Thanks for stopping in today. Hope you have a great weekend.
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