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….

Do you know what today is??  Well, Monday of course.  But it is a good Monday because it is reveal day for the Dirty Dozen Design Team at Splitcoaststampers!!!  Yep, the new gallery full of stamping inspiration is open.  In order to see what I have created, you have to be a member of the Splitcoast Fan Club.  But seeing my cards is definitely the tip of the iceberg!  You get access to the whole Fan Club/Dirty Dozen Gallery plus all the other perks outlined in the club link.  Yeah…it is awesome!

This month’s theme is super cool!  “If You Leave Me Now….”  So many ways to interpret and the team has had a blast with it!  I even have a card to share that did not make my final cut to the gallery there.  But I just HAD to share it!

I pulled out some retired things to play with on this one.  The leaf image is from the Secret Garden Framelits and the sentiment (embossed in Gold Stampin’ Emboss Powder) is from Always Thankful.  The Champagne Glimmer paper makes the card and wow does it sparkle in person!

Click HERE to purchase these wonderful Stampin’ Up products!

Stamp:  Always Thankful; Paper:  Very Vanilla. Champagne Glimmer Paper; Ink:  Early Espresso; Accessories:  Big Shot, Secret Garden Framelits, Heat Tool, Gold Stampin’ Emboss Powder, Dimensionals

 

 

 

 

 

No cards to share today but I wanted to post on the meaning of Memorial Day for me this year.

I spoke last week about the field trip that I took with my oldest son’s class.  Going to the Vietnam Memorial with children really changes the experience a bit.  When I watched how Jacob looked at the names on the wall and was inspired to thank veterans that were there, I was reminded about what it means to serve.  When I signed up for the Air Force, I think it was more about adventure and seeing the world….and flying cool planes, of course.  It took a while to really understand the rest.  I was lucky enough not to serve during years and years of war.  I went to regional conflicts (like Bosnia) but these weren’t the quite the same.  It isn’t that we didn’t have some risk, but at least as an AF pilot, I wasn’t entrenched in war for years.

When Jacob and I looked at the names on the Wall, we discussed that these were members of someone’s family.  A brother, a son, a husband…who didn’t return.  I wasn’t sure he could process that but when I look at the pictures he took, I feel like maybe he did.

He is particularly proud of the picture that shows all the names with the Washington Monument in the background.  I like the one where he captured us in the reflection of the wall.  He told me it was because we were supposed to see ourselves in the names.  Hmmm.  I think he gets it.

I’ll be back tomorrow with another Artisan card.  Until then, I hope your day is safe and wonderful.

My promised bonus post of the day!

I created this for the Stampin’ Up Blog.  I love all the gold in this new catalog so I combined some of the beautiful products to create this.  Please go check the corporate blog to see all the how-to’s!

Stampin’ Up’s Blog

I’ll see you tomorrow for the next Artisan Wednesday Wow!