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Freshly Made Sketches #632

Freshly Made Sketches #632 published on 5 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

Freshly Made Sketches #629 published on 6 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #629

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!

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 #610

Freshly Made Sketches #610 published on 7 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #610

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

Freshly Made Sketches #609 published on 4 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #609

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

Freshly Made Sketches #607 published on 7 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #607

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

Freshly Made Sketches #606 published on 5 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #606

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!

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!

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