A quick post today (sorry I’m up a little late). I just got back from the most marvelous weekend of stamping and laughing and hanging with crafty friends. It is called Stamping Away and I’ll be sharing more cards I made there over the next few weeks. But now, I’m in “re-entry” phase and catching up.

This week the wonderful Jen Mitchell is the sketch designer for Freshly Made Sketches. I love this design and think you will too.

I used a set from The Greetery to create this and just love this sweet little flower from Summer Sketches. I have loved this company for awhile and had the chance to use their sets last weekend. You’ll be seeing more! The die is from Reverse Confetti and seemed perfect for the sketch.

I hope you like this card and the sketch. I hope your week is going well! Back later this week to share some more of what I made over the weekend. Until then, have a great day!

Happy middle of the week to you! It is Freshly Made Sketches day and we have a fabulous new sketch by the lovely Kim Singdahlsen this week. I love all the ways you can use that circle element.

Of course, I opted for a flower. Because…well, it is my go to for a circle. But not just any flower. I chose one of my favorite Christmas flowers, the Poinsettia Stamp Set by Simon Says Stamp. I stamped it in Momento Tuxedo Black and then colored with my red Copic Markers. For the shading, I did add a bit of T5 and R39 to help get the shadows a bit deeper on the layered petals. Otherwise, my go-to reds are R24, R27 and R29. Once I had the flower colored, I went back to my Misti and overstamped the image in Versamark Ink.

I heat embossed the flower with Wow! Platinum Super Fine Powder for a subtle shine. I found this old sentiment in my stash (I think it is from a Paper Pumpkin box) and thought it was the right size for the sketch. I stamped in Versafine Onyx Black and heat embossed with Clear powder.

I used some textured black card stock and a snow die to add the holes (from Gina Marie Designs) and added some Sparkling Clear Sequins to finish. I hope you will join us this week! Make sure to check all the gorgeous work by the design team too. Hope you are well…see you again soon!

Hi everyone! Guess what happened? I stamped!! I had a short time at home last weekend and managed to eek out a few minutes to make a card with Linda’s sketch for Freshly Made Sketches and the 2019 Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop.

Because I didn’t have a ton of time, I reached for my “obvious” choice. The Stacked Coffee Mugs from Taylored Expressions really make for a detailed yet uncomplicated start. I cut the cups out of white card stock and then cut each fill-in layer out of a different glitter paper. Because I was in on the sparkle, I used a bit more gold for the second layered square.

For the sentiment I chose the Wishes Stamp Set by Gina K Designs. I love how flexible the set really is. I stamped in Versamark and then heat embossed with Wow Gold Rich Super Fine Embossing Powder. I love the Super Fine because even on the small sentiment, you get crisp detail.

I hope you join us for Linda’s fabulous sketch. It is fun and clever, just like her! Almost done with school and back out to the line next week! Hopefully a few more cards will start showing up too! Until then, have a great week.

Hi Everyone! I’m the sketch hostess this week over at Freshly Made Sketches. I hope that you will love this one!

I used the beautiful Snowflake Cluster Die by Hero Arts along with Nuvo Glitter Paste in Tanzanite Lavender. I used one of the dies as like a stencil and then removed. I cut a few of the flakes out to layer on a vellum version of the die cut. And you can see the negative to the side that I’ll use on another project. A great way to stretch your dies! The sentiment is from the Nordic Tree Stamp Set.

Hope you’ll have a moment to join us this week. Make sure you go over and check out the gorgeous work from the design team too! See you soon.

Wow, what a month we have had over at Freshly Made Sketches! Thank you to all who have support this challenge for 8 years. Now we get to move forward with our latest. The gorgeous sketch is from the wonderful Cécile and it is a winner for sure!

I used the Weekend Doodles stamp set and coordinating dies by Altenew for the images and sentiment. Then I finished with the Braided Circles Dies by Pinkfresh Studios for the sketch circles. I love the combination! Instead of typing, I created a new video tutorial to show you how I did the coloring (Copic blending and stippling).

Here is the direct link to YouTube: Copic Coloring for Freshly Made Sketches

I hope you will play along with this fabulous sketch too! The team seems to be re-energized for our next 400 sketches and they have created amazing projects. Make sure to go check them out!

I’m super happy to share this week’s new Freshly Made Sketches sketch with you today! This classically styled design by the wonderful Amy O’Neill is sure to be popular this week!

I decided that I would turn to this gorgeous stamp called Weekend Doodles again. I love the variety of designs and this wreath really called to be colored. I went with a favorite color combination in greens and purples. I love how these Copic colors work together! To coordinate with the yellow greens and add a bit more color, I used the new Hero Hues Reactive Ink in Key Lime Fizz with my Life Changing Blender Brushes for the panel behind the wreath. The sentiment on the panel comes from the same stamp set as the wreath.

The little background panel is purple to help highlight that color a bit and I used a base of Desert Storm. I thought the little green sequins were a fun touch to finish.

I hope you enjoy this card and that you’ll join in this week at the challenge. Hope you have a wonderful day! See you soon.

It is with great sadness that I share the passing of my mother, Elizabeth Rohrer, on October 18, 2018.  This was sudden and a shock to my entire family.  As you can imagine, our grief is overwhelming and we are working to take care of many things.  My mother was my biggest cheerleader on all that I created for this blog.  I will continue to look for her emails and comments on the cards, especially the ones with flowers, since she often commented on what we needed to make “next time”.

With all that I need to do for my family, you have probably already noticed my absence but I will remain away from here for a bit longer.  Thank you for understanding and know that I have leaned heavily on the kindness of my friends near and far over the last week.  Hug those you love and make sure you tell them often what they mean to you!  Until next time, thanks so much for stopping in.

Hi friends!!  I did a bit of a stamp room clean out toward the beginning of the summer and have all kinds of products that need to find new homes.  I was overwhelmed by the amount of things so it took me this long to come up with a plan for my sale.  After some debate, I decided the easiest way to handle it was to create “bundles”.  So I have 7 boxes all ready to go and I hope you will see my logic in the groupings.  With all my traveling, I was afraid that selling things individually would simply not work for me.

I created a new page on my blog that shows pictures, gives lists and has all the instructions on how to purchase. Please hop over and take a look.  The boxes are all unique and this sale is first come, first served (by email time stamp).

Jen’s Crafty De-Stash Page

Please share my sale with crafty friends if you think they will be interested!  I want all of these beautiful products to help inspire other stampers as much as they inspired me!

In the meantime, I’m working on some fun projects for next week and I can’t wait to share.  Until then, thanks for visiting and I’ll see you soon.

As with all great adventures, you have to find the end to start a new beginning.  And that is where I am now.  After almost 12 years of being a Stampin’ Up demonstrator I have decided it is time to leave.  There are a number of reasons, some personal and some professional, that brought me here.  But first…allow me a small trip though my years.

I was first introduced to stamping through some friends in my neighborhood.  They convinced me to come to a Stampin’ Up workshop pretty much kicking and screaming.  After all, I told them, I’m not crafty.  But I went and found that I could actually make something I liked and I had fun.  Hmmmm.  So I went to another event and stamped some more and eventually was a hostess and bought enough to make, well, nothing.  This was in the days before kits, you see.  As part of a one year assignment to Columbus, MS, I met my dear friend Brandi.  She was hosting a stamping event at a local coffee shop and I convinced some others to go with me.  I loved what we made and was happy to create with Brandi.  Over the year, she convinced me that I should give being a demo a go.  So for my birthday that year, I asked for my starter kit.  (There may have been some days that my husband regretted the decision to get it for me, haha!!)  And so it began.  Eventually, I was able to go to a Convention in Salt Lake City and I met some of my online friends in person and met my friend (and second level upline) Lisa too.  Now Lisa is a smart and business minded stamper and she asked me about my goals.  And gave me some space to consider them.  She knew that with my flying schedule, the business side would always be a challenge.  She and Brandi cheered me on as I decided to enter the competition for the Artisan Design Team.And they were there when I was actually chosen for the team.  I could not have guessed how much this ADT group would come to mean to me.  They will always be a part of my heart!  I grew so much creatively over that year but I also found that my business was going in the other direction.  I enjoyed focusing on the process of making things.  Other opportunities have presented themselves and I found myself wandering further from the “Stampin’ Up Only” way of making cards.  But I adore my SU friends and stayed “for just a little longer”.

I finally came to a place where I knew it was time to make the decision to leave.  Again, a few things factored in but the biggest is that I want to explore other opportunities.  I can’t do that with one foot still in the door so I officially resigned last week.  While I haven’t had any SU orders from my blog in a while, I still want to share with you some contacts in case you need a Stampin’ Up demo.

1.  Brandi Diaz  – http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/brandidiaz
2. Lisa Curcio – https://lisasstampstudio.com
3. Michelle Suit – http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/suitablystamped/

All of these ladies are super talented and kind and wonderful and…..  You get the point.  A word of caution….Brandi has a way of convincing you to take a chance!  Take her up on it!!  Lisa has an amazing blog and creates videos that will blow you away.  And Michelle is local in Northern VA for those who would love to attend in person classes.  There is no wrong choice and they would love your business!!

I very much hope you will continue to follow me in my crafty adventures.  You, my followers, are a big part of why I continue to grow.  It takes courage to share creativity and you have always made it a little less intimidating with your sweet comments.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart!!  Now…on to the next chapter….