My card for today’s Freshly Made Sketches challenge. All the detail can be found on Instagram (link here: jentimko) or on Facebook (link here: Stampin’ on the Fly with Jen Timko).
Freshly Made Sketches #704
Posts tagged Freshly Made Sketches
Twenty-four Years
“If we learn nothing else from this tragedy, we learn that life is short and there is no time for hate.”
—Sandy Dahl, wife of United Flight 93 Captain Jason Dahl
I started with this same quote last year but, honestly, it holds so true that it bears repeating. And yet, here we are. Everywhere around us, words of hate, actions of hate, finding ways to push other down instead of lifting them up. As I pondered how to approach this post, I find myself overwhelmed by the fear that we have totally failed. Those passengers and crew on United Flight 93 knew what had happened to the other planes. They knew that a target was set on a critical landmark. They banded together and said not on my watch. They didn’t ask who was an immigrant; they didn’t care about the color of skin; they didn’t care if someone was LGBTQ+. They chose to do whatever it took to try to stop the evil and it took all of them. They knew that they would likely die but chose to save others with their sacrifice. They counted on us to make it worth it. Have we?
As always for this anniversary, I focused on blue. The blue of the sky that day, United blue. The butterfly is from All Things New by Honey Bee Stamps and the background is Vintage Floral. The arch dies are from Spellbinders. The sketch is from Freshly Made Sketches designed by the incomparable Karren Johnson.
I have written my thoughts and memories for many years now. This is likely the last blog post for a 9/11 anniversary but I will say that it is these posts that have make me hold onto the blog for as long as I have. If you care to read: 9th Anniversary, 10th Anniversary, 11th Anniversary, 12th Anniversary, 13th Anniversary, 14th Anniversary, 15th Anniversary, 18th Anniversary and 19th Anniversary, 20th Anniversary, 21st Anniversary, 22nd Anniversary and 23rd Anniversary.
As I wake up tomorrow on a new day, I will be grateful for the lives and examples of the crews, the passengers and all those at the WTC and Pentagon that were lost on 9/11. I will mourn what could have been for them. I will try to find joy and beauty in everyone – and that is without qualifier. I wish for us all a world where each of us will do the same and choose to be worthy.
In memory of:
United 93: Jason Dahl, LeRoy Homer Jr., 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, Marianne McFarlane, Jesus Sanchez
American 11: John Ogonowski, Thomas McGuinness, Barbara Arestegui, Jeffrey Collman, Sara Low, Karen Martin, Kathleen Nicosia, Betty Ong, Jean D. Roger, Dianne Snyder, Madeline Sweeney
American 77: Charles Burlingame III, David Charlebois, Michele Heidenberger, Jennifer Lewis, Kenneth Lewis, Renee May
Freshly Made Sketches #701
Keeping this quick today. After a big week of celebrating we are onwards with our sketches for Freshly Made Sketches. This one is courtesy of our intrepid hiker/adventurer, Jen Brum.
When I saw the sketch I immediately saw these trees from Gina K Designs July Release – O Christmas Tree. All I had to do was an assembly line. I stamped the three and then also stamped one of the sentiments from the same set. I broke the sentiment apart when I cut it out using a sentiment die set (I actually stamped two so that I could cut without worrying about spacing).
I thought I’d go a little non-traditional by using pink gems instead of a classic red and I love the effect. And sorry…my colors in my editing are not quite true…sigh… Some photo days are just like that. In any case, it took longer for me to get photos than it did to make it. I love solid images like this for just that reason.
Hope you enjoy this card and that you will come over to join us as well. I’m trying to get back to a bit more stamping. Summer has ended here and the boys are moved back into their respective places. Wishing you a great week and see you soon!
Freshly Made Sketches #699
Happy middle of the week! Hope your August is going well. We have a great new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches this week courtesy of designer Verena Shapiro. I’m not sure I kept to the intent but when I saw the circle, my first thought was this washi tape bouquet.
I already had this cut out so all I had to do was pick a sentiment and a background. I chose the gold embossing to match the gold in the washi tape. I thought the Rustic Brick Embossing Folder added nice texture.
I popped up layers with foam tape to give a bit more dimension and then added some Champagne Clear Drops with go well with the gold. Start to finish, about 30 minutes. Which was about as much time as I had. Washi tape and already cut elements for the win!
Thanks for stopping by today. And in case you didn’t notice, next week is one of those “big number” weeks for the challenge. We are planning a little trip down memory lane. Hope you will join us this week and come over to see us next week too.
Freshly Made Sketches #693
Hello friends! Glad you stopped by today I’m happy to share a card for Freshly Made Sketches but first…a question for you. Recently I asked you all about the links at the bottom of my posts and was grateful for your thoughts. But now, I’m considering saying goodbye to this blog. I know, for some, you do not do social media and this is the way you see what I create. But truthfully, I’m not even sure you are seeing my posts. My mail service has started charging fees and I cannot tell if you are still getting my posts or for how long you will. (Note: If you see this in an email, I’d appreciate you letting me know) The blog as I have it set up cost more than I can ever make in running it. I pay for the domain, the access to WordPress and the layers of security. Nostalgia has been the only real reason to hold on with 15 years of cards, thoughts and sharing. But it seems blogs are going away as a whole. Before I just cut it off, I’d like to hear your thoughts to make sure I’m not missing something. Will you please drop me a comment or note to let me know what you think? Thank you!
Now on to my card for this week. The lovely Amy O’Neill is our designer this week and came up with one that is super clever. I immediately thought it might be fun to use die cuts so that is the direction I took.
I started with the Lovely Layers: Spring Greenery and Lovely Layers: Dianthus dies from Honey Bee Stamps. Using the Bitty Bunny Blending Brushes from The Rabbit Hole Designs, I inked them up with Distress Inks in a multitude of colors. My lighting on these photos is kind of meh but the greens have more variety in person (thunderstorms rolled in and I had to rely on my craft room lights instead of daylight).
I didn’t want to cover up all the inking so opted for a vellum piece and added a sentiment on top. That allowed me to have attachment points under the sentiment that remain invisible. With the size of the elements, I didn’t want to have to cut them down so I made a 5″x7″ card instead. Kind of fun to work with the bigger space. I did some embossing in the background with the Sandie’s Garden folder and inked the edges just a bit for contrast. A few pearls and done!
Thanks again for stopping in today. I appreciate all of you so much! As I figure out what to do with this blog, just know that I want to maximize the making and sharing part while minimizing the admin and cost part. Hope you have a lovely week!
Freshly Made Sketches #691
Our sketch designer at Freshly Made Sketches this week is our newest team member, Michele Ferguson, with her first sketch! And, no surprise, she has knocked it out of the park! I think it will be wildly popular this week.
At first I didn’t think I was going to have time to play (only two days off between trips) but with a sketch this great, I had tons of ideas in my head. I may have deviated a little from her intention but I really wanted to play with my new Lovely Layers: Butterflies dies from Honey Bee Stamps. I am completely in love with them! I cut them out of Distress Heavystock paper for easy ink blending and colored them using Distress Inks and Bitty Bunny Blending Brushes.
I was aiming at a rainbow vibe so I just decided what order I wanted the butterflies in and got to blending. You can see all the colors listed in my link below. Once I was done with the wings, I debated for a bit on what color to make their bodies. I opted to use my Copics in T1 and T2 for a pale neutral that was easy to do. I chose the Quilted A2 Coverplate to add a little interest and picked a sentiment from the new Always and Forever stamp set (both Honey Bee Stamps).
I hope you will come over and join us this week. If you are out traveling, keep an eye out for me. I think I’ll be at most of United’s major airports at some point this week. Have a great week and see you soon!
Freshly Made Sketches #690
We have a great sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches! Our amazing Karren Johnson has given us some great options and I knew just what I wanted to do.
I had a birthday card that I needed to make for one of my boys and he loves foxes. Naturally, I pulled out my Fall Foxes from The Rabbit Hole Designs and got to coloring. Even though it says fall foxes, I colored him as a spring fox. I love him! To shop for him and other cute things from The Rabbit Hole Designs, just click the link to the store above or you can use discount code on their site: STAMPINONTHEFLY
I chose a woodgrain background from Honey Bee Stamps and found a scrap of green paper that matched the leaves to help with the sketch. The sentiment is from the Mini Messages: Birthday set. But what you can’t see in the photo is that the fox is up on a mini action wobbler. These little gadgets are so fun!!
You can see the video here: Fox Wobble Card
And here is the sketch for your reference:
Thanks so much for stopping in today. Hope you like this and will come over to join us too! See you soon!
Freshly Made Sketches #689
The unofficial start of summer has arrived! Our weather has still been a bit spring-like and those are the colors I have used for this week’s Freshly Made Sketches card. Our sketch designer, Cécile Ribon, always has the most modern and fabulous cards so naturally her sketch is fabulous.
This card is for a dear friend’s daughter who just graduated from high school. The young women wear all white dresses (an all girls school) for commencement so I thought a more elevated card was in order. I stuck to a “script” and used the beautiful Flowers for the Soul Washi Tape (Pinkfresh Studio) again. Great for so many cards!! I pulled an old card stock from my stash and embossed with the Spring Medley 3D Embossing Folder.
For the center medallion, I chose this pretty shape from the Always and Forever product suite (Honey Bee Stamps). The sentiment is from the same suite. I added some gold pearls to add to the elegance of the gold on the washi.
Hope that you will come over to see the amazing work from the team and join our fun this week. Thanks for stopping in today!
Freshly Made Sketches #687
Welcome back to more on the graduation theme! Everything went well over the weekend and we had such fun celebrating all of our oldest’s accomplishments.
One of our newest teammates at Freshly Made Sketches has created her first sketch for us this week and it is fabulous! Verena Shapiro is wildly talented and if you don’t already know her, go take a look at all her gorgeous work!
My youngest started drawing during his second semester in college this year and loves creating dragons. He decided that he wanted to make one that is the dragon version of his brother to turn into a card for graduation. What an awesome idea!! I asked him if he wanted me to color it and he agreed that would be ok. So he drew this dragon (using the work of hyperion_draws on Instagram as his inspiration). I love that he is using other artists as he tries to figure out his own style. AND…that he expressly told me that I had to credit the artist when posting. Let’s face it, understanding intellectual property is such a big deal and I’m glad he does.
After he was done getting his details right, I used Copic markers to create a William and Mary color scheme (under the direction of my son). After all the coloring was complete, I realized this would work for the sketch and we set to choosing a sentiment. This is from an old stamp set by Picket Fence Studios and is a phrase we banter about as a family. I added a bit of texture on the back layer using the Burlap 3D Embossing Folder (Honey Bee Stamps) and added a few sequins to finish.
I hope you’ll come over to join us this week. I see so many options for this sketch and might keep using it for a few more cards myself. Hope you have a great week!
Freshly Made Sketches #686
The big week is here and my oldest graduates on Friday from The College of William and Mary! Technically, he already finished in fall semester but they only do one formal ceremony at the college so this is the big week. He is graduating Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Biology and a minor in Biochemistry. So happy to see him get to walk with all his friends as he finishes his time in Williamsburg.
Using the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches designed by the lovely Kim Singdahlsen was perfect to create a shaker card.
Using the green and gold color scheme from the college, I started planning. First, I pulled out an old letter die set from SugarPea Designs to cut the word. I chose some patterned papers from Honey Bee Stamps and played around until I found a version I liked. Next up…sequins and confetti in all the proper colors! Just raided the stash and combined some from different companies.
I got all that done and it was missing something. And that is when things went a little nuts. I was looking at some products that JUST arrived from Honey Bee Stamps sitting on my desk and I saw a cap. I mean, it isn’t a cap but it was just the right size and scale. It is from the Always and Forever set that is in the new release and seriously…not a cap. But I cut it out and started playing around. Next I found a tutorial on how to make tassels and gave that a go. Yep, love it, still not enough. Out came the greenery dies. Lovely Layers: Mini Fall Florals to be exact. I mean, he is a Biology major with an interest in plant studies, after all. Finally, that was the answer. So yeah, a little busier than I expected but I do love it for him.
This sketch is a real gem and I suspect you will have fun using it too. Come over and join the fun. Plus, as always, the team has tons of inspiration. Hoping for clear skies in the outdoor event on Friday (always a roll of the dice in Williamsburg) and I cannot wait to see him celebrate all that he has accomplished. Thanks for stopping in today. See you soon!
