I can hardly believe how time is flying up to Christmas!!  Is it only me?!  I mean really….a week left.  Yikes!  So we have a great deal for you over at Freshly Made Sketches.  Narelle, the queen of gorgeous layers and unbelievable fussy cutting, has created our sketch for this week.  But not only for this week.  We are leaving this one open throughout the holiday season.  This gives you time to ponder over all the fabulous ways to use her design’s layers and elements!  Really…there is just no reason you can’t participate!  *smile*

So as I played around with layers for this, I still had a sled on my table from the Watercolor Winter card kit.  Actually two since there was an extra in the kit.  I had one colored Cherry Cobbler already and I took the other and used Early Espresso to color it.  Then I cut off the extra pieces and put it up on Dimensionals (cut small).  I love this sled.  A lot!  I couldn’t be done until it had a rope to pull the sled now could I?  So I added one out of Linen Thread.  I just attached the knows with Tomboy Multipurpose Glue.  I used this great print from Under the Tree DSP and just cut the flag end by hand.  A Basic Gold Button and a sentiment from Petite Pairs are a great finish.  Now I have to admit that I haven’t used a lot of Garden Green in a long time but I just love this DSP and this green is perfect with Kraft!  Here is a closeup of the sled.

So as usual the design team has created all kinds of variation on this sketch and ALL of them are great.  I know I sound like a broken record on this every week but seriously, they are the best team!  Make sure you say hi to them all and let us see your amazing creations!

I will be flying LOTS over the next couple of weeks.  Gone a lot more than home.  I look forward to happy holiday faces and I’m really hoping for happy holiday travel weather too!  I have one more post this week on Friday with my Fancy Friday friends.  Until then, I hope your week is fantastic!

Don’t forget, all twelve PDF video tutorials for my Bright & Beautiful Edition are now available.  Just click HERE or on the picture to learn more!

Click HERE to purchase these wonderful Stampin’ Up products!

Stamp:  Petite Pairs; Paper:  Early Espresso, Kraft, Under the Tree DSP; Ink:  Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler; Accessories:  Watercolor Winter Card Kit, Linen Thread, Basic Gold Buttons, Dimensionals

The extraordinary Karren Johnson has created this fun and classic looking sketch for us at Freshly Made Sketches.  As always, the sketch seemed to show up just in time to help my creative spark.  In fact, it was the start of some excellent card making and I actually finished my cards for Dirty Dozen and then got to next week’s FMS card too.  Ah, the power of a great sketch!  Karren is such a clever and creative card-maker (never mind being an extraordinary enabler on crafting products!).  Make sure you go over to thank her for this fabulous inspiration!

I went back to the Color Me Christmas stamp set and the retired Season of Style DSP.  Much like with the Santa a couple of weeks ago, this image was another NBUS and just called out to be colored with Blendabilities!  I pulled out the Old Olive Collection and added in some Cherry Cobbler ornaments and a Daffodil Delight star (the tree base is the Crumb Cake collection).  The sentiment is from the ever versatile set Petite Pairs.  I have a special place in my stamping heart for great sentiment sets and this one is so flexible and fun.  I tied on some Early Espresso Baker’s Twin and added a Cherry Cobbler button.  The tree was fussy cut and popped up on Dimensionals.  The star is on a tiny piece from the edges of the Dimensional sheet.  The whole image is up on Dimensionals too.  I almost forgot to share something really important with this too…..  Did you see the message about Blendabilities being ok to be used with many of the SU basic ink pads?  Yeah, well it makes coordinating a breeze.  I used my Early Espresso Classic Pad to stamp the tree and it just held beautifully while I was coloring.  So awesome!!

With all that I keep getting drawn to use my Blendabilities, I cannot tell you how excited I was to hear about NEW BLENDIES coming in the Occasions Catalog.  Lighter color collections coming to  add even more depth and dimension to the coloring palette.  I’ve been resisting making a pre-order but not sure how much longer I can hold out.  I have a lot of flying over the next couple of weeks and that will seriously impact any stamping.  Truthfully the only thing keeping me from ordering!

I just know you are going to have a great time using this sketch and I can’t wait to see the gallery this week.  And oh, the cards from the design team.  How do they just get more fantastic each week?!  Love those talented and amazing stampers!  Well, I hope that your week is going well.  I appreciate you dropping by today and look forward to seeing you again soon.

Don’t forget, all twelve PDF video tutorials for my Bright & Beautiful Edition are now available.  Just click HERE or on the picture to learn more!

Click HERE to purchase these wonderful Stampin’ Up products!

Stamp:  Color Me Christmas (ret), Petite Pairs; Paper:  Early Espresso, Whisper White, Season of Style DSP (ret); Ink:  Early Espresso, Blendabilities – Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, Daffodil Delight, Crumb Cake; Accessories:  Early Espresso Baker’s Twine, Regals Buttons, Dimensionals

Ready for a fresh new sketch?  Well, Freshly Made Sketches has just the thing for you!!  Our hostess this week is Cindy Lovell.  She always has a modern take on her cards and they are fantastic!  Make sure you go over to see her work!

I had a class this last weekend for my local stampers creating cards with the Watercolor Winter Card Kit from the Holiday Catalog.  I had so much fun and the cards from this kit are amazing.  Well, I think sometimes I should have a special stamp that says “does not follow simple directions well” because I started making changes to the kit using all the elements.  For the record, I DID make a few following the designs from the kit because they really are great.  But when I saw Cindy’s sketch, I had a natural modification.  I took the white card base from the kit and attached the snowflake.  This “happy” is SOOOOO pretty and sparkly and all I had to do was punch it out of the paper full of other great words!  The “Christmas” is from a retired set and I stamped using Gold Encore and embossed with Gold Stampin’ Emboss Powder.  I confess that I hoard stamp sets with Christmas sentiments for just this reason.  I mix and match every year!  I love this block font with the script cut out.  I added on a few gold sequins to help match the sketch.

The day after the class, my mom was finishing up her cards (with 20 cards, it was a lot to finish in three hours).  While she was busily stamping, I worked on my FMS card…and then I kept going.  I created another card in almost the same way.  I trimmed the edge off the snowflake and used the same sentiment combination for another clean and very mailable card.  All I can say is that this kit was an excellent purchase!  For those who love  cute and “Pin-able” cards, this kit will make you look like you spent hours designing.  For those like me who don’t follow directions well, there are lots of fun elements to mix and match.

My mom is leaving today and we had such a fun time with her.  I plan to head back to the stamp room this week and hope to have a few things to share with you soon.  I think my mojo took a bit of a vacation too and I like to see it again!  If you know where it went, please send it home!  *smile* I hope that you are having a great week.  Thanks so much for stopping in.  See you soon!

Don’t forget, all twelve PDF video tutorials for my Bright & Beautiful Edition are now available.  Just click HERE or on the picture to learn more!

Click HERE to purchase these wonderful Stampin’ Up products!

Stamp:  A Banner Christmas; ; Ink:  Gold Encore; Accessories:  Watercolor Winter Card Kit, Heat Tool, Gold Stampin’ Emboss Powder, Glue Dots

Another week has flown by and here we are at Wednesday already.  And the sweet and talented Jen Brum is our sketch hostess this week at Freshly Made Sketches.  Jen makes the most wonderful cards and I love her clean style.  And her boys (big and little) are huge aviation fans.  Needless to say when I was able to meet up with her at the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum over the summer, our kids were fast friends!!  I love the friendships I get to make through this hobby of mine!!

Ok, I have a confession to make.  For those of you who were with me during my Artisan Design Team year, you saw the boxes of Stampin’ goodness and all of the incredible things I got to work with during my tenure.  The down side (the ONLY down side) is that I never felt like I got to give some of the stamps I received their due.  So with my apologies to those who prefer “current” products, I am having so much fun going back to some of the stamps that have never even seen ink.  Oh, the travesty of an unused stamp.  There is even a name for this terrible syndrome:  Never Been Used Stamp or Stuff (NBUS).  Now it is even more fun to combine the NBUS with something new like Blendabilities!!  That is what I did here.  This Santa comes from the set Color Me Christmas from last year’s Holiday Catalog and the sentiment is from Oh, Goodie.  They were meant to go together and aren’t they fun.  The paper is from the same catalog, the Season of Style DSP.  I took my Skin Tone Blendabilities and colored Santa’s face and added rosy cheeks with Melon Mambo (the lightest color).  His suit and the candy cane are colored using the Cherry Cobbler set.  Such easy coloring but so much fun!  The image and the sentiment were stamped using Momento Tuxedo Black and I tied on some leftover Black Twine from my September Paper Pumpkin and added a button.  Now is it just me or does this guy remind you of Santa in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?  He is still a little bit of a skinny Santa!  Good thing he has another month for Mrs. Claus to get him to eat!

Now go and take a look at YOUR NBUS and see if adding Blendabilities will make you want to pull them right out.  And guess what??!!  NOW is the time to get Blendabilities.  Actually, December 1st is the day.  Because on December 1st (the last day of the Online Extravaganza), you can get 12 Blendabilities Assortments at at 30% discount.  That is a crazy low price.  You can see all the details plus the other sale items HERE.  You can order at my online store.  These are as supplies last so you need to get in on the deals as soon as you can!!

For those of you in the U.S., I hope you have a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday.  And to all of you who stop in to visit, I am incredibly grateful for your support and kindness.  I count you all amongst my many blessings!!

In case you missed the announcement, all twelve PDF tutorials for my Bright & Beautiful Edition are now available.  Just click HERE or on the picture to learn more!

Click HERE to purchase these wonderful Stampin’ Up products!

Stamp:  Color Me Christmas, Oh Goodie; Paper: Whisper White, Season of Style DSP; Ink:  Momento Tuxedo Black, Blendabilities – Cherry Cobbler, Smoky Slate, Skin Tone, Melon Mambo; Accessories:  Black Baker’s Twine, Neutrals Button, Dimensionals

Wow, has it already been a week since I posted?  I guess it is that time of year when the time seems to fly.  So that makes it even better when Freshly Made Sketches designers give us a great sketch to inspire us.  This week, the sweet and oh so amazing Cindy Hall is our hostess.  I was working most of the time since last week so I was thrilled to see a sketch that I could use quickly when I sat down to stamp yesterday.  The rest of the team has done it again!  Wow, these ladies are fabulous!

I felt like this set really called for a pretty image and as I looked at the stamps, this fellow from Beauty of the Season jumped out at me.  I really love him so much.  And….with all the cold air, it is time for me to put my bird feeder out.  I’ll be sure to be seeing his friends soon, lol!  I colored this guy with my Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities and then used a little bit of Smoky Slate for the branches.  I added a piece of the Typeset DSP which I thought was a nice complement and striking against the Cherry Cobbler card stock.  I didn’t do a perfect job of following the sketch (sorry Cindy) but this just seemed to call for a fluffy bow.  So I added one with my Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding.  The inside will use one of the fabulous sentiment from the set and I have another Christmas card done.  YAY!

I was out and about in the cold this week and will be back at it starting on Saturday through Thanksgiving.  Being on reserve (on call) I have no idea where I’ll be but I hope to see some stampers along the way!  Also, I have a fun announcement coming tomorrow for you.  Just in time for those last minute holiday cards.  And we’ll be doing our Fancy Friday early this month due to the holiday here in the U.S.  You won’t want to miss this one!  Thanks so much for stopping in today.  See you tomorrow!

Click HERE to purchase these wonderful Stampin’ Up products!

Stamp:  Beauty of the Season; Paper:  Typeset DSP, Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla; Ink:  Momento Tuxedo Black, Blendabilities – Cherry Cobbler, Smoky Slate, Daffodil Delight; Accessories:  Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding, Neutrals Button, Black Twine