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.

We have a wonderful new sketch up today at Freshly Made Sketches. This fun design is courtesy of our fabulous Judy Rozema and I love the options for those circles.

Like many of you, crafting is my respite from the craziness of the world. But with that, sometimes the craziness is what inspires what I’m making. The never-ending hate for anything that is different from oneself, the fear-mongering over things that truly cause no harm, the persecution of those who love differently — all of this weighs on my heart. I fear for the LGBTQ+ community. If one truly believes that we are made in God’s image and we understand that God is limitless, then how can we not also believe that there is no limit to the variance in humans? And that each and every person is the image of our transcendent God. We are losing young people (and older people) at alarming rates because we make them feel like there is no place for them. Each of us matters. What we bring to the world matters. Just like a rainbow, the beauty is diminished if colors are missing. We need them all. We need you all. And that is what was on my heart as I made this. Not saying this out loud seems complicit in the hate so today I will say it out loud. Love is love is love. And this world is better with all the love and with you!!

I loved these bird houses and sweet birds from the Little Birdies stamp set. I pulled out all the Copics (ok, I don’t have all the Copics but I pulled out a ton of them) to get the rainbow colors. The Barn Wood Planks dies are behind to match the sketch. The sentiment is from the Inside: Birthday Sentiments set, a beautiful and multipurpose set for birthdays and beyond.

Thank you for stopping by today. Please know that I generally keep this to only crafting but it is my space to share. I respect that there may be those among you that do not agree with my point of view. And that is ok as long as you are respectful that I am entitled to my perspective. Hateful comments will be deleted since this is my space to use as I see fit.

It is my turn to be the sketch designer for Freshly Made Sketches this week and I hope you will enjoy this one. In a disclaimer, I originally designed this as a square and then promptly made my card into an A2. I switched up the sketch but some of our team had already made a square. Either version is great to use and let’s face it, there is a lot about guideline over rule for our challenge after all these years.

What I did know was the set I wanted to use for the sketch. This beautiful Grandma’s Garden set from Honey Bee Stamps is a breath of spring. Not that we have really had much winter here but it is fun to color a little bit of spring. I chose a basic pink version of the fuchsias with the inner part of the flower being a pale pink. I played with blending teals and greens on the hummingbird with my Copics.

For the background, I inked on some Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide Ink to start. Then I splattered with a little water and came back over with a little bit of Broken China Distress Oxide to create the darker splatters. The sentiment is from the On The Line: Fall Florals set and I think these sentiments in the set are ones to use over and over. Finally a few green sequins to finish.

Come over to the challenge to see the amazing work by the team and I hope you will play along with us this week. I do have a few cards to share that I have created over the last couple of weeks. My oldest went back to college on Monday and now the “real” world sets back in. How lucky I have been to have the time with him home!! I hope you have a wonderful week.

I seem to be in a one card per week kind of pattern right now. Trying to work on that but between work and the last days of the college kid home, time seems too short. Thankfully, this fabulous new sketch for Freshly Made Sketches “told” me just what to make. The amazing Jacquie Southas gave us this classic vibe for the week and I pulled an older image that fit it perfectly.

This Pretty Postage set from Honey Bee Stamps has been sitting on my desk for a couple of weeks waiting to be used. When I first got the set, I did not get the dies and I recently remedied that so I was ready to use it again. I pulled some pretty spring colors in my Copic Markers and colored it right up. I love those modern flowers!

To add a little more pop to the card, I reached for the Whimsical Hearts Stencil since the hears are similar in shape to the image. I added some Tim Holtz Distress Matte Texture Paste for some tone on tone detail. The sentiment is from the stamp set and I just put it on a banner from the Sentiment Banners set. The pearls are from the Holiday pack.

I’m not one for a lot of Valentine cards but I like that this could be used for other occasions. I hope your week is going well and that you will have a little time to craft. Thanks so much for stopping in today. I might even be back later in the week with another card. See you soon!

Another week has flown by and I’m back with the latest from Freshly Made Sketches. This week our sketch designer is the wonderful Judy Rozema and I love her sketch. I might have played a little loose and fast with it (in my head it was going to be closer) but I love the card it inspired.

I was looking through my stamps to find some sets that I haven’t used much and came upon this Smitten Kittens set from Honey Bee Stamps. It really is SOOO fun and I love how the variety of cats allow for customization to look like different family kitties. Of course, I use my two hooligans as inspiration. I colored using Copic Markers and this kind of coloring always makes me happy.

I found this gingham color in the Gingham Galore Fall paper pack from Honey Bee Stamps. This is one of the packs that are on sale right now and I love having the color varieties in my repertoire. This one matched the “calico orange” so seemed perfect for this. I pulled a sentiment from the Riding By set. Just a nice basic for any occasion and these are the ones I always seem to need most.

I hope you like the fun little card and will come over to join us for the challenge. As things settle down into more of a routine, I hope to have more to share with you too. Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great day!

A new sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches today designed by the lovely Judy Rozema.

I loved the idea of the banner as an interest layer so I just free cut it with my paper cutter and inked it with Distress Oxide Ink. Then I pulled out the new Grandma’s Garden set from Honey Bee Stamps. Such a pretty set of images! The fuchsias are so pretty and fun to color.

I’m such a fan of this simple little hummingbird style (there are three in the stamp set) and I thought it would be fun to add a ruby throat like the ones in my area. The bird also acts as the circle element in the sketch. The sentiment is from the same stamp set and works perfectly on the banner.

I hope you enjoy this sweet little card and have time to create this week. As heavy as the world feels, I hope that a little beauty and color will act as a balm to bring some solace. Thanks for stopping in today.

Hi everyone!  I hope you are having a great week.  Another one has flown by here!  Today I have the latest from Freshly Made Sketches and our sketch designer is the wonderful Jen Brum.  I admit I took a bit of liberty with the sketch and I hope Jen isn’t too upset with me.  But I just “had” to color flowers.

As soon as I saw the sketch, I thought about this stamp set called Wildflowers by Honey Bee Stamps. The images are so pretty and I thought they would be nice for the vertical panels. The little greenery plants mimicked the bottom blocks (at least in my head) so I went with it. Plus I was really in the mood to color.

I chose a sentiment from the My Favorite Flowers set and then decided that I needed to add the little bee from the flower set. The background is a patterned paper ombré piece from the Playful Pastels pack.

I hope you enjoy this sweet card and will come over to play along at the challenge. The team has some beautiful cards to share! Thanks so much for stopping in. See you soon.

Hi everyone! Hope you are having a good week. Spring is starting to show itself here in Virginia complete with cherry blossoms. I was able to go down to the Tidal Basin last Friday with my sister (visiting during her spring break) and the flowers were just about to go full bloom. There were a few trees starting though so the day was definitely nice. I was thrilled to have a bit of time to play with the latest sketch from Freshly Made Sketches and I just love this one from the wonderful Jacquie Southas.

The new Little Birdies stamp set from Honey Bee Stamps has such a spring feel to it and the images are darling. I colored a few of them and decided the little bird house stand could work as one of the elements in the sketch. I added two sentiments from Small Card, Big Hug which is a set of go-togethers phrases. I brushed on some Squeezed Lemonade Distress Oxide Ink to give it a sunny feel and done.

I hope you will come over to join us this week. Thanks for stopping in today. Affiliate links below if you are inspired to shop.