I’m back with the latest sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.  Our new designer Cindy Lovell has designed her very first sketch and it is so cool!  Playing with the angles is a challenge at first but the results are so fun!

I continued on with my gold theme from yesterday’s post for this one.  Let’s face it, gold is incredibly trendy and I’m pretty happy that Stampin’ Up has so many “toys” to play with in this great metallic.  I used the Fancy Foil Vellum and backed it with the Gold Foil and I love the two together.  Attaching vellum can always be a challenge since you want to conceal the adhesive.  The Fancy Foil allows you to hide it behind stripes (and dots and hearts) which makes it pretty easy to use.  Now, I went a step further and actually sewed it on but this is completely makable without the machine.  I added on a butterfly from Beautiful Butterflies cut from the foil then stamped and embossed a regular White Vellum sheet with the sentiment from Regarding Dahlias (stamped in Gold Encore and embossed with Gold Stampin’ Emboss Powder).  I added a little bit of the new  Gold Sequin Trim to the butterfly to fancy him up.  The whole whole thing is attached to a White Vellum card base.

I am really excited to see what you will come up with for this sketch.  The design team has such a variety of amazing cards and it is fun to see the different interpretations!

If you missed it, I started posting my projects for the Leadership Display Boards on Monday.  I will be back tomorrow and Friday with some more!  Can’t wait to show you!  Until then, thanks so much for stopping by and I look forward to see you soon!

Stamp:  Regarding Dahlias; Paper:  Fancy Foil Gold, Gold Foil, White Vellum Card Stock; Ink:  Gold Encore; Accessories:  Big Shot, Beautiful Butterflies Die, Gold Sequin Trim, Heat Tool, Gold Stampin’ Emboss Powder, Glue Dots

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Freshly Made Sketches is off and running with our new challenges for the new year.  The extraordinary Jen Mitchell is our sketch hostess this week and this one should have everyone playing along!  We also have the privilege of welcoming a new Design Team member this week!  Karren Johnson has been a gallery favorite for a long time and we are thrilled she will be joining us to inspire you.

I’m continuing on with my Retro Fresh theme of the week.  Make sure you check out yesterday’s card (it is one of my favorites in a while and has Sale-a-bration peeks).  I love that this DSP can take on a more masculine flair.  I thought the sketch made it perfect to show you the new Starburst Sayings stamp set and its matching Starburst Framelits.  They are so awesome!!  This stamp particularly is so great since it can be used for so many occasions (birthday, promotion, graduation).  Yep, I think a stack of these in varying colors/DSPs will be added to my stash for those times when I need a last minute card.

The team obviously recharged their creative batteries because the DT samples this week are so fantastic!  I know you will love them too so make sure you go on over and take a look.

Starting next Monday, I will begin sharing projects I made for Stampin’ Up’s Leadership Conference.  I can’t wait to show you all that I was working on at the end of November!  Until then…have a great rest of your week!

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How can it be that this is the last Freshly Made Sketches challenge of the year?!  The time has flown by!  This amazing sketch is courtesy of the lovely and talented Amy O’Neill.  I think everything she makes is extraordinary so it is no surprise that this sketch is too.  We will have this challenge open for longer than the usual time and it will not close out until January 6th.  The team will be taking the holidays off but I hope that means you will have plenty of time to play along.

I pulled out some new things to play with for this one.  First of all, the new Occasions Catalog has Banner Framelits.  Oh yeah!!  Two of the sizes here are the smallest ones and the range up to some nice big banners.  Love them!  I paired the framelits with some new DSP called Retro Fresh.  Some fun colors and prints, don’t you think?  Finally I just had to show you the new Essentials Wooden Elements.  These are so on trend and easy to use.  I just stamped right on the wood with a sentiment from Six-Sided Sampler.  I added some watermarks with the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set and used the Coastal Cabana Ruffled Ribbon to complete the sketch.  This came together fast because it had to!  I’m still making Christmas cards (yes, yes…I know) and hoping to have most of them in the mail by tomorrow.  We’ll see….

Ok, so these new things will be available on January 3rd (yippee!!) and I’m happy to answer any questions you have about them.  Now I have one more piece of news.  This is the last week that design team member Linda Suarez will be with us.  She has some fun plans for the new year!  I am always inspired by Linda’s work and I will personally miss seeing her FMS cards.  A special thank you to her for all that she has done for our team.  Make sure you drop by and give her a good send off!

I’m so glad you stopped in today.  I really appreciate you coming over and I look forward to seeing you again soon!  Have a great week!

Stamps:  Six-Sided Sampler, Gorgeous Grunge; Paper:  Retro Fresh DSP, Coastal Cabana, Baked Brown Sugar; Ink:  Baked Brown Sugar; Accessories:  Big Shot, Banners Framelits, Essentials Wooden Elements, Coastal Cabana Ruffled Ribbon, Sticky Strip, Dimensionals

Click HERE to shop my Stampin’ Up Store.  Make sure you check out this week’s specials!

For all of you in the US, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!  Mine was nice and quiet and I actually got to spend it with friends and family here in Virginia.  I was on call for United but the phone didn’t ring.  A holiday blessing for sure!  I can’t believe that we are already into December.  I have so many Christmas cards left to make! I’m hoping I can use this sketch from Freshly Made Sketches to help me out.  I am the sketch hostess this week and I left it clean and basic…you can add as much or little as you want!

So here I am needing Christmas cards but did I make one…of course not!  Do you do that too?  Well, I was simply too distracted by NEW products from Stampin’ Up that were still sitting on my table.  Still, you ask??  While these just became available on Dec. 1st for SU demonstrators (and available to everyone on Jan. 3rd), I have had them for few weeks.  I told you I have been creating and this a little of what I got to use!  The stamp set is called Geometrical and it has the triangles plus this sentiment (and others).  Cute, huh?!  The Bermuda Bay print is from the new Kaleidescope DSP.  These are all available in the upcoming Spring Catalog.  I added an edge to the borders around the DSP with the Tiny Wave blade on the Rotary Addition to the Stampin’ Trimmer.  All I needed was a few buttons to finish the card.  The button colors were pulled from the DSP.  It is seriously awesome DSP!  Now there is a new Triangle Punch that coordinates with this stamp and I cannot recommend it enough.  Mine are hand cut because the punch wasn’t ready to be sent so early but I will be getting it.  It will really make this stamp easy peasy to use!

Now if you are looking for Christmas ideas, roll down a little to last night’s post.  I made a card and matching “envelope” (a fun bag) that I really like.  It might be one of my favorites so far this season!

I hope you enjoy the sketch this week.  Please make sure you give a warm welcome to our new guest designer Cindy Lovell.  She is filling in while our amazing team mate Allisa Chilton takes a break.  You will love Cindy’s style…she is a great addition to our happy group of stampers!

Thanks so much for stopping in today.  I hope to be back in the next couple of days with more that I have been creating.  Until then, have a great week!

Stamp:  Geometrical; Paper:  Kaleidescope DSP, Whisper White, Bermuda Bay; Ink:  Bermuda Bay, Strawberry Slush, Crushed Curry; Accessories:  Rotary Addition, Tiny Wave Blade, Buttons, White Baker’s Twine, Dimensionals

Click HERE to shop my Stampin’ Up Store.  Make sure you check out this week’s specials!