Can I confess that I’m starting to think I won’t get all the Christmas cards done this year. In fairness, I lost about 5 weeks of crafting during prime holiday card season but still…. So I’m working to have a few ideas that I can lean on for a bit of mass production (which I generally do not prefer). And I’m going to tell you, I just left this new background stamp from Neat and Tangled in my Misti because I’m going to use it over and over.
Karren is our sketch designer this week at Freshly Made Sketches and she has given us one that is perfect for just this kind of background. I stamped the sentiments in Momento Tuxedo Black and then cut the panel to size. I then stamped these little holiday leaf elements from Classic Christmas and colored them quickly with Copic Markers, then cut them out using the coordinating dies.
I added a thin layer of red card stock to help the background feel finished and then put the whole thing on some green card stock (SU). I just got these awesome stamps from Neat and Tangled and they included a little bonus of the Crystal Clear Mix Sequins in my package. I LOVE THAT!! Reason #5003 to shop small. They love their customers!
I think this little vertical element is going to lend itself to some clever ideas this week and I can’t wait to see what the gallery does with it. Hope you’ll join us. Thanks for stopping in today! See you soon!
This is the first of two posts today! Bonus Wednesday! Freshly Made Sketches to start the morning with a fun and clean sketch by the lovely Jennifer Brum.
Not gonna’ lie, this reindeer continues to crack me up! Also, this is pretty much what I’ve been looking like for the last two weeks as I finish up my training and going back out to the line in the new plane. Well, I do manage to put on a uniform and get out of the robe, lol! This hilarious image comes from The Rabbit Hole Designs and I have a few of their things now courtesy of winning a gift card during the Coffee Lovers Fall/Winter Hop.
I colored our caffeinated friend using Copic Markers and found this fun holiday paper in my stash (yes, I really am trying to use it up…truly!). The sentiment is from the stamp set and I used another on the inside that says “Caffeine gives me the jingles all the way”. And yes I do have an intended recipient for this already!! The little holiday colored sequins were a nice extra sent in my package and I put them right to use!
Hope you’ll have a bit of crafting time this week and will join us for this sketch. I love how the team has a wide variety of interpretations! See you in a bit for this month’s Crafty Friends Blog Hop.
Hi everyone! Sorry for the quiet on the blog lately. I’ll explain a bit more at the end of my post. But for today, I get to share with you the latest from Freshly Made Sketches! Our sketch designer is the talented Lee Ann Barrett and she has a winner of a sketch for us this week.
I’m all in on Christmas cards now and I thought it was perfect to pull out an old favorite for this sketch. The Be Merry stamps and dies from WPlus9 are always a winner in my book. I stamped the sentiment onto Ivory card stock and then cut it out with the dies. I stamped some of the accessory images too for layering. I thought the sentiment needed a bit more oomph so I added a bit of the olive ombré on the Merry. The flowers and leaves were quick Copic coloring but they really add so much.
I seem to be drawn to plaid this year and I found this old Stampin’ Up patterned paper in my stash. Perfect! I added a couple of little pearls for flower centers and popped up all the elements with foam squares.
Now for the rest of the story. I never really share too much about my “day job” here but in this case, I wanted to explain my sporadic posting. This picture is from the last day of flying on my beloved Airbus 319/320. I have been in the right seat of that fleet for a long time and I needed to make a change for scheduling. Last week I started training on the Boeing 757/767 fleet. There is a lot that goes into training. Studying, of course, but we also come to our training center in Denver for over a month. Needless to say, I had lots to do to make that happen at home. So I did get a few cards made ahead of time (not as many as I had hoped) and will be posting those over the next couple of weeks. And then you probably won’t hear too much from me until I can get back home and in the craft room. Once I’m back home, I should be able to settle back into the routine quickly and get back to creating.
So with that, back to the Freshly Made Sketches challenge! Make sure you hop over and check out all the inspiration from the team. Thanks so much for stopping in today!
I continued to be inspired by the thought of fall. Not actual fall since that seems to be eluding us in Virginia. But I’m going to keep making cards with leaves to see what I can do. I pulled out these wonderful Autumn Leaves Dies by Newton’s Nook Designs and used a sentiment from the Cottage Garden Stamp Set. I popped them onto some stitched squared with the entire base of Neenah Desert Storm.
Come on over and join us for this fun sketch! And make sure you go see all the inspiration from the design team too. Always a joy to see the takes on the sketch and this week is no exception. Thanks for stopping in today. See you soon!
Happy Wednesday! Freshly Made Sketches has a fabulous sketch from designer Narelle Farrugia today. It is one that is fun for patterned paper, die cut elements or even great horizontal images. You are going to love it!
I went with a fall go-to this week, Layering Leaves Dies by Concord and 9th. They seemed to fit the sketch perfectly! I also went to the way back machine and pulled out remnants of some old designer paper by SU called Sweater Weather. Loved it then, still do. This plaid seemed right on trend so I thought it would be great for the background. I used some other prints from the pack and a sentiment from C9’s Hello Lovely set on the panels. To keep the panel cutting easy and uniform, I cheated. I used the Slanted Sentiments Dies from MFT and simply cut them down to rectangles.
Hope you’ll head over and join the team for this latest sketch. I’ll be back on Friday with a post with the Crafty Friends. You won’t want to miss this month. Another fabulous promo code from another amazing company! Until then, have a great day!
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
Yes, finally, we ACTUALLY have sketch #400 this week at Freshly Made Sketches. As we looked back into our files, it has been fun to re-visit old sketches. But now we get to move forward! This week, we not only have a new sketch but we have generous sponsors who have given us fun prizes for our players. The winners will be chosen from the gallery so make sure you play along!
I decided to use this gorgeous set by one of our sponsors, Ellen Hutson. I love all of the “Mondo” series and this holly is no exception. I had a few minutes just to play around with watercolor and decided to experiment on the leaves. I added in some blue with the greens (all Daniel Smith watercolors) and liked the effect. I found an old patterned paper from my stash and a navy base to help highlight the colors in the leaves. This sentiment is from the same Mondo Holly stamp set.
Now to all the fun details. Our prizes are so generous and the whole team is so grateful for the continued support of the crafting industry. Here is the list of actual prizes:
The winners will be chosen randomly from those who play and link this week so, needless to say, this is the week to play along! Here is the sketch. We chose one that is classic and we hope you’ll enjoy it.
Thanks for stopping in today. I appreciate you taking a few minutes out of your day to visit. Hope the week is great!
I’m continuing my trend from yesterday of using Concord and 9th with the latest sketch from Freshly Made Sketches. This is week 3 of our celebration leading up to sketch 400 and we have pulled out sketch 300. It is such fun to see another older sketch with a new eye.
I started with a based of Fabriano watercolor paper and painted on a swatch in this beautiful fall yellow (why yes, I am craving the crisp fall air!). While it dried I cut some leaves with the Layering Leaves die from watercolor paper and painted them in an ombré from brown through red to orange. The sentiment comes from Hello Lovely and I used a banner die (yes, I was that lazy) to make sure it was cut perfectly and then chopped off the ends.
Once everything was dry, I simply layered it up and attached to the base. I added a bit of twine to comply with the sketch a bit better and a few sequins, because I could.
I hope you’ll join us this week and then get ready! Next week is going to be really awesome. Really! We can hardly wait. Until then, thanks for stopping in today. See you soon!
It is finally here! I can finally share a little with you. We are starting a month long celebration at Freshly Made Sketches. For eight years, this challenge has been a part of the crafting landscape and has provided inspiration for so many stampers. I remember being so excited about a sketch challenge for clean stampers! It was like my name was on it! I played along in sketch 1 and found a home shortly after. How lucky I am to be a part of this team!!
This is actually my third time using the sketch since it was both Sketch #1 and Sketch #100. It doesn’t get old! Today I thought it would be fun to make a Christmas card using my favorite snowman from Honey Bee Stamps. Let It Snow remains a go-to stamp set for me!! I found this retired patterned paper in my stash (SU) and did some super quick Copic touches to the snowman. The snowflakes worked great for the sketch too!
I hope you will join us this week and all month as we celebrate eight years of fun! Thanks for stopping in today. See you soon!
Wow! That number is getting pretty close to a significant big one, don’t you think?! Yep, me too. Make sure you tune in next week to see what Freshly Made Sketches has in store for you. But for now….we have a new and fabulous sketch by the wonderful Jen Brum this week. It is such fun and lends itself to repeated patterns and small images. Love it!
I thought that the leaves from Weekend Doodles by Altenew were perfect for the sketch. I stamped them three times in black Versafine ink and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder by WOW! (Oh yeah….don’t miss LOTS of fun inspiration in the WOW and Picket Fence Studios collaboration in my second post today).
I cut the images out using the coordinating dies and then watercolored with Daniel Smith paints. I had a little bit of fall on the brain (because the heat is addling mine at this point of the summer) and added a bit of golden yellow to the green and teal. I used a sentiment from the same set on Fog Gray card stock and then cut with a double stitched square die. I added some clear drops that I loved with the shine of the clear embossing and then put it all on a base of Tranquil Tide card stock (SU).
I hope you enjoy this card and all the inspiration from the team. Hope you will consider joining us too! Thanks so much for stopping in today and make sure you come back for the second round too. Have a great day!
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