Happy Wednesday!!  I hope you are having a fantastic week!  For all of you in the U.S., I am sure you are deep in the preparation for Thanksgiving!  Just in time for the long weekend, we have another amazing sketch from Freshly Made Sketches!  This one comes from my talented friend, Jen Mitchell!  I love her clean and fabulous style and this sketch is perfect for so many things!

I thought it was appropriate for today to make a Thanksgiving themed card.  Day of Gratitude is such a perfect set for this, don’t you think??  I started with the Howlstooth & Scaringbone DSP and chose this More Mustard pattern.  Then I dug out my burlap and decided I liked the two together.  I thought a Cajun Craze background would work well and then framed everything with Soft Suede.  I stamped the leaves in those same colors and cute them out.  The Bronze Button is simply perfect for this look and I tied on one of the threads of burlap that I had pulled to fray the edges. Finally, I stamped the sentiment on the Natural Cotton Ribbon.  I love how you can stamp on this ribbon and guess what??!!  It is carrying through to the Spring Catalog.  So happy about that!  I realized the background layer was still missing something so I ran it through the Stripes Embossing Folder.

I would like to take the time to tell you all how thankful I am for you, my readers, and all of the people I have met through stamping.  From the design teams, to my upline, to my extraordinary customers…I am truly blessed!  Thank you for all the support you give me and for allowing me to be a part of your lives!!

You will love the variety from the team this week.  As always you will find loads of inspiration.  I look forward to seeing what you create too!

For those who celebrate, have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!!  Don’t forget that Stampin’ Up is having a huge Online Extravaganza.  Just click on the Shop with Jennifer button to see all the deals.

Stamp:  Day of Gratitude; Paper:  Howlstooth & Scaringbone DSP, Cajun Craze, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla; Ink:  Cajun Craze, More Mustard, Soft Suede; Accessories:  Big Shot, Stripes EF, 7/8″ Natural Cotton Ribbon, Bronze Button, burlap

Yea, it is Wednesday!!  Time for a new sketch from Freshly Made Sketches!  I am the sketch hostess this week and I am so excited to see what you do with this one.  I tried to leave it pretty basic to make room for watercoloring, large sentiments or cool DSP.  The design team has used all of these and you will love their cards!!

I thought it would the perfect place to put this large Happy Birthday from You’re Amazing.  This card had an interesting evolution, I must admit.  It originally started out with a So Saffron base and I had planned on using more rosettes.  When I put it all together, something was missing.  So naturally I added a bow!!  One of LeAnne’s lovely shabby bows…I really do love these!  I found that just one rosette as the center worked perfectly.  Then to the color…yep, had to change that too.  The So Saffron was a little too muted for my taste today so I brightened it up by changing over to Raspberry Ripple.  I embossed the base layer with my Lacy Brocade Embossing Folder (which we just found out will still be available in the Spring Catalog!!).  Of course the rosette needed a Basic Pearl so I added that as a finishing touch.

I would like to take the time to bid a fond farewell to Jen Sannes of Simple & Sincere.  She has been a guest designer over at Freshly Made Sketches and this will be her last week with us.  What amazing talent she has and it has been such fun to work with her!

You know what to do now.  Run right over to the challenge site and see what the team has created.  I hope you like this one and I look forward to seeing you in the gallery!

Thanks so much for stopping in today.  I hope your week is fantastic!

Stamp:  You’re Amazing; Ink:  Basic Gray; Paper:  Raspberry Ripple, First Edition DSP, Basic Gray; Accessories:  Big Shot, Lacy Brocade EF, Very Vanilla Seam Binding, 1-3/4″ Scallop Circle, Basic Pearls

Wow, has it been a week already??!!  Where did the time go?  I’m glad I have Freshly Made Sketches to keep me stamping this week!  We have an awesome sketch by the amazing Tui Nathan for you today.  Another layout with so many possibilities!!

I thought it would be fun to pull out my Snowflake Soiree stamp set again for this sketch. Just look how perfectly that snowflake fits on the  2-/1/2″ Circle!  Of course what is a snowflake without a little sparkle so I amped it up a bit with some Champagne Glimmer Paper.  Did you know that the snowflakes from the Snow Flurry Die coordinate with the stamp set??  Just look how pretty they are layered together.  I added some embossing on the Midnight Muse panel with the retired Snow Burst Embossing Folder (which also happens to coordinate).  Finally, to add a touch of champagne color to the pearl, I dabbed on some Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint.  It adds just a little bit of extra sparkle.

This sketch has so many amazing possibilities and I just can’t wait to see what you will create with it.  The design team has provided some incredible inspiration, as always!

Thanks for stopping in today.  I’m hoping to be back Friday with a project I made a while ago for one of my boys!  Until then, have a great week!

Stamp:  Snowflake Soiree; Paper:  Midnight Muse, Very Vanilla, Champagne Glimmer; Ink:  Midnight Muse; Accessories:  Big Shot, Snow Flurry Die, Snow Burst EF (ret), 2-1/2″ Circle Punch, Basic Pearls

I am back today with a great new sketch from Cindy Hall.  I love the possibilities for the square elements and can’t wait to see the gallery this week!

I actually decided to use a different shape and went with butterflies instead.  I need a card for a dear family friend who is fighting breast cancer.  She is over halfway through her chemo treatments and is such an amazing and inspirational woman.  She is in need of a bit of a lift so I wanted to make something special for her.  I chose to use stitching instead of ribbon for the sketch and added the gorgeous 3-1/2″ Scalloped Tulle Ribbon for the crossing panel.  Yes, I actually sewed on my card!!  My wonderful mom gave me an awesome sewing machine and I have been wanting to use it on a card so badly.  I really like the stitching here!!  I thought the little touch of pink would be nice to put in a pop of color and perfect for the last day of October (Breast Cancer Awareness Month).

I hope that you are having a good and safe week.  I am glad that I had pre-posted for yesterday and today because we lost power for about 27 hours.  Through the overwhelming kindness of friends, we were surprised when a generator was brought over yesterday afternoon.  It saved all the food we had and my gratefulness for their generosity is without words.  Unlike so many, we did not sustain any damage and are incredibly lucky.  All those in the path of Sandy remain in my thoughts and prayers.

Make sure you take a look at the amazing design team work this week!  It is LeAnne’s and Narelle’s last week as guest designers.  What a joy it has been to have them join us for October!!  Have a great rest of your week!

Stamps:  French Foliage; Paper:  Crumb Cake, Naturals Ivory; Ink:  Crumb Cake; Accessories:  Big Shot, Beautiful Wings Embosslit, Neutrals Buttons, Subtles Buttons, Basic Pearls, 3-1/2″ Crumb Cake Scalloped Tulle Ribbon, Sewing Machine, Mini Glue Dots, Dimensionals

Wow, it was quite a week over at Freshly Made Sketches with the big one year anniversary!  The entries were all so spectacular and the design team ended up choosing two Queens of Clean (because it was just too hard to narrow it down any further!).  Congratulations to LeAnne and Narelle!  I’m so excited to work with them during October.  This week we are back to new sketches and wow does Tui have one for us!  The design team has come up with some awesome inspiration with this cool layout!

It seems that I can’t count because I obviously used the wrong number of strips behind the image but I think I kept to the intent of the sketch.  Somehow, these were just the sizes the panels “needed” to be and this is all the fit!  All the work here is really done by the Howlstooth & Scaringbone DSP.  I mimicked the angles in the patterns in my cuts to the DSP.  I kind of like the overall effect.  The mummy just called out to be used again so I popped him up on a Dimensional and added the sentiment.  The button is really a Cajun Craze button from the Regals set but it really goes well here.  The texture on the circle and the background is from the Square Lattice Embossing Folder.

Ok….I hope you enjoy this fun and challenge sketch!  You’ll be glad you tried it and we can’t wait to see what you make!

I got a little extra stamping time this week so I’ll be back tomorrow with another card!  Yea!!  Have a super Wednesday!

Stamp:  Googly Ghouls; Paper:  Howlstooth & Scaringbone DSP, Tangerine Tango, Basic Black, Very Vanilla; Ink:  Basic Gray; Accessories:  Big Shot, Square Lattice EF, Googlies, Regals Buttons

Happy Wednesday to you all!!  It is a very exciting day and the whole team at Freshly Made Sketches is celebrating the first anniversary of the challenge!  You’ll notice that I don’t have a sketch posted….hmmm.  That is because we are opening up EVERY sketch from the last year as a choice.  Good luck with that because I had a very hard time choosing!!  Click on over to the blog and there is a link to all the previous sketches.  Not surprisingly, the team has outdone themselves.  We are even welcoming back Rita Wright and Linda Callahan for this one!

I went with this awesome sketch originally created by Linda Callahan.  I loved so many cards that were made with this sketch and I thought it would be fun to make one really different than my original.

I am so completely in love with the new 3-1/2″ Scalloped Tulle Ribbon and have been wanting to make one of these flowers with it.  It is so easy now that Stampin’ Up has the new 2-1/2″ Jumbo Sticky Rounds.  I simply tied a knot in the end of the ribbon and stuck it to the middle and started wrapping in circles.  You twist the ribbon as you wrap and I love how some of the loose scallops add to the look of the flower.  I applied the ribbon straight from the roll of ribbon so I don’t have a length for you.  I do recommend this technique, though, since you won’t waste one little bit of the ribbon that way!  A Naturals Ivory panel was embossed using the Lacy Brocade Embossing Folder and then lightly brayered with Crumb Cake ink to highlight the pattern.  Now that background panel on the base…you’ll notice it matched the embossing folder perfectly.  Nope, it isn’t a stamp….I used the embossing folder to stamp it!  Just brayer the ink onto the folder and carefully stamp it down.  Now of course it doesn’t hold ink like the rubber but the effect is pretty for a card like this.

This is what it looks like when the panel is stamped with the folder.  Cool, huh?  I love so many of the patterns on our embossing folders so I think I’ll be using this technique again.

I want to take the time to thank Lesley Croghan and the whole team at Freshly Made Sketches!  I am so inspired by your artistry and so grateful to have the privilege of working with you all.

I was looking back to my post for the first challenge and my card was for the 10th anniversary of 9-11.  I guess that is fitting since my post yesterday reflects on that in a different way.  What a great year it has been for this challenge and I am looking forward to seeing what everyone makes for this one (and all the challenges in the upcoming year!).  Hope you will be able to join us!

Stamps:  Teeny Tiny Wishes; Paper:  Crumb Cake, Naturals Ivory; Ink:  Crumb Cake; Accessories:  Brayer, Big Shot, Lacy Brocade EF, 3-1/2″ Crumb Cake Tulle Ribbon, Jumbo Sticky Rounds, Jewelry Tag Punch, Basic Pearls, Dimensionals