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Posts tagged Honey Bee Stamps

Freshly Made Sketches #611

Freshly Made Sketches #611 published on 9 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #611

Do you hear it? That freight train of the holiday season has started coming down the tracks!! I’m pretty sure I’m already behind! I think you will be getting holiday cards non-stop from now on (ok, like you haven’t already but now I’m really, REALLY all in). Good thing the amazing Jen Mitchell has a great sketch for us this week at Freshly Made Sketches!

For the last few weeks, I’ve been doing lots with inking on die cuts. This week, I opted for clean. I pulled out products from Honey Bee Stamps latest release (and added some older things too) and had such fun on this. To start with, the Lovely Layers: Large Snowflake was going to be the star of the show. I wasn’t sure how the background was going to go so I started with the snowflake. First I cut it from glitter paper (it is GORGEOUS) but realized it wasn’t right for this card. So I used some watercolor paper with the thoughts I might ink it up. But just looking at all the detail on that thicker paper, I opted to just leave it plain and I love it. Using the same watercolor paper, I cut a card based and the other plain layer. I found this print from the old Vintage Holiday Paper Pack that has coordinating snowflakes (I love how HBS keeps things coordinated from season to season!!).

I decided that I needed a bit of shine on this so I heat embossed the sentiment from the Good Tidings Stamp Set in silver and cut out with a coordinating die. The shiny silver pearls are from the new Metallic Mix Pearls. Fun to have some super shiny choices! The ribbon with the silver edges was from my stash and was a great finish. I like that I can make a few more of these with no trouble and add to my stash!

I hope this week finds you well. I appreciate you stopping by and spending a few minutes of your day with me. See you soon!

Freshly Made Sketches #607

Freshly Made Sketches #607 published on 7 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #607

We have a super interesting sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches created by the lovely Amy O’Neill. At first, I thought flowers and a large sentiment. Then, I thought stencils. And finally, I came to this plan. Well, sort of.

This started out with the plan to put a pinecone at the top and bottom of the sentiment. And for the record, a totally different sentiment (went through a few on this one). I just could not get the pinecone to look right in the opposite direction which is crazy since that is how they are on trees but… Some days are just like that. In any case, I did lots of spritzing and inking on these Lovely Layers: Winter Greenery dies. These Bitty Buzzwords: Holiday sentiment finally worked just right on a rectangle with gold heat embossing.

Again, the plan went a little sideways. I planned to add red berries to the holly but at the last minute opted to add some gold embossing to the leaves and elements. Once that was there, the red didn’t make sense. So I added some gold pearls instead! I had a little time when making this which is good because I just had to keep walking away until inspiration struck. But in the end, I had fun just playing around and that is the entire point of this, after all.

The team has all kinds of cool takes on this one and I think the gallery is going to be super fun! Oh, and as I’m typing I realized I missed the rectangle layer. Sigh. Hope Amy doesn’t fire me, lol! Have a lovely week. Stay safe and be kind. Goodness knows we need a lot of kind.

Freshly Made Sketches #606

Freshly Made Sketches #606 published on 5 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #606

I suppose I am fully committed to holiday cards now. I mean…there might be others for fall but… Not for today at least. Our sketch designer at Freshly Made Sketches this week is our lovely Narelle. Usually when I see circles, I see flowers. But today, I saw trees. I know, trees are not circles but that’s just how I’m rolling this week.

I pulled out the Lovely Layers: Trees set to take a look. On a piece of Tim Holtz Heavystock, I spritzed some Distress Spray in Pumice Stone and Lost Shadow. Once that was dry, I cut out the trees. I wanted to go with the idea of snowy trees. I started by inking the back of the trees and the one tree without a layer. I blended on some Bundled Sage and Peeled Paint Distress Inks and then added a bit of Pumice Stone. I made the single tree a bit darker to make it look more like it was in the background. I used my brand new Waffleflower Grip Mat for blending and it is a game changer. No tape, nothing hard, works great. So happy I got it!!

For the top layer of the trees, I just added a little bit of Pumice Stone where I thought shadows might be. All of the layers got splatters of Hero Arts Metallic Ink (White) and Iridescent Shimmer Spray. I used a panel of the Heavystock for the base and blended on some Speckled Egg Distress Oxide Ink and added just a touch of Faded Jeans in the corner. On a scrap that had the splatters on it, I stamped the sentiment from Inside: Holiday Sentiments. As I was starting to put it together, I decided to add a bit more shimmer to the background with the Shimmer Spray and then added some gold pearls.

I had fun getting inky on this one today. These die cuts are so great and I find that I really enjoy just playing around with the ink to see what happens. Thanks so much for stopping in today. Hope you are having a great week!

Freshly Made Sketches #601

Freshly Made Sketches #601 published on 6 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #601

We had such fun with our sketch #600 celebration last week and now, onward! This week’s Freshly Made Sketches challenge designer is the one-of-a-kind Linda Callahan. She is the BEST!

I felt this one was perfect for a little scene and what better than Christmas mice from Merry Little Mice? I went with some non-traditional colors and had such fun coloring these elements.

I think I stuck close enough to the sketch on the background. I played around with adding an additional pattern under the teal but it just didn’t work for me. I love the stars on this pattern from the Make It Merry Paper Pad and found the crossing teal patten in an older, retired pad. The sentiment is from one of my workhorse sets called Inside: Holiday Sentiments. If you don’t have a set like this one, go grab it!

Thanks so much for stopping in today. I hope you have some crafting time this week and will join us. I have to say that I had a pretty challenging week last week at the day job and I’m so thankful for my coloring and creating time to bring balance to the stress. I hope you have a wonderful week!

Freshly Made Sketches #573

Freshly Made Sketches #573 published on 4 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #573

I was in a bit of a time crunch for creating this week’s Freshly Made Sketches card. In fact, I thought I would just have to miss out. But Kim Singdahlsen created a great one and I had an a-ha moment. I thought that her panel could be a wood print and a card was born.

I chose one of the prints from the Grain and Grunge Paper Pack since it looked a bit like the pattern of the sketch. But then what? Yeah, I know it shocks you but I thought flower die cut! I went to one I had not used in a bit, Lovely Layers: Hydrangea. I love this one. As a total shortcut, I used another paper print for the flowers. All that color variation and texture…on the paper. No extra work for me!

The only thing left was to choose a sentiment. I love this one from the Seeds of Kindness set. It is great for a birthday or just to cheer someone. I added some Trinity Stamps Confetti Embellishments to finish. Simple, but I really love it!

You’ll see that the team has a variety of interpretations and that just means it is a great sketch. Come over and give it a go! Back out to work later today. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week!

Freshly Made Sketches #566

Freshly Made Sketches #566 published on 4 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #566

I’m sharing the last Freshly Made Sketches challenge of the year and it is just fabulous for last minute holiday cards or cards made when you are done with holiday cards. The wonderful Narelle has one with tons of possibility, as you can see with the team’s cards.

In a crazy move, I made a card that is NOT a painted tree! I reverted back to some of my favorite dies of the season from Honey Bee Stamps. These Lovely Layers: Winter Greenery elements are just so pretty and I had not used the pinecones yet. I thought they were perfect for the sketch. I started with a piece of watercolor paper that I sprayed with Pumice Stone Distress Spray and added some Rustic Wilderness Distress Ink. I was just neutral with texture as a starting point.

Using that piece of paper, I cut out all of the elements for the card. All the little color textures on the pieces are because of that first layer of ink. Once each piece was cut, I added more Distress Ink to color each one its proper shade. I used Distress Ink because it is more sheer so I kept the other details and splatters.

I played around with the placement of the elements and then went to decide the background. I found this taupe-ish wood grain in my Grain and Grunge Paper Pack that was perfect. The gold foiled sentiment was just the right size for the sketch and I love the bit of shine it adds.

I hope you will come over and join us if you have time to craft during the holidays. You can join multiple times and we love seeing all you create! Thanks for stopping by today. Back soon with a few more cards I’ve been making for the holidays.

Freshly Made Sketches #565

Freshly Made Sketches #565 published on 5 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #565

Happy Wednesday! I am back today with the latest sketch from Freshly Made Sketches and another watercolor tree. Truly, I’m obsessed. I did get a question on the tutorial on the watercolor trees. Dawn has a group on Facebook called WPlus9 Encourage Creativity where she has lives twice a week or so. The tree painting was on November 15th. Now, on to the latest sketch from the incredible Karren Johnson.

Armed with my confidence from the last watercolor tree, I attempted another style and, oh my word, it worked! I wanted to use it with the sketch this week and had to play around with backgrounds that worked. I finally settled on some patterned paper from Honey Bee Stamps.

I love this traditional plaid behind the tree and thought the dark wood print grounded the card nicely. In keeping with the sketch (loosely, at least) I chose a sentiment from Inside: Holiday Sentiments (Honey Bee Stamps). I had added a few gouache splatters to the tree after painting but still thought it needed a little something extra. A twine bow seemed to be just the right amount of detail.

I hope you’ll come over to join us for this week’s challenge. This sketch is perfect for those last minute holiday cards! I appreciate you dropping by. See you again soon!

Honey Bee Stamps IG Hop + FMS

Honey Bee Stamps IG Hop + FMS published on 6 Comments on Honey Bee Stamps IG Hop + FMS

I’m super excited to share a combination card today. It is Honey Bee Stamps Instagram Hop day (with chances to win!!) and I used the Freshly Made Sketches challenge for my sketch inspiration. Perfect timing for this fabulous sketch designed by the fabulous Jacquie Southas.

When I saw the sketch, I knew just the focal point I wanted to use. Sleigh Bells Ring is a new stamp and die set from Honey Bee Stamps and it is a treat to use. The sled die is so fun and full of details but yet easy to put together. I used some wood grain paper from my stash for the sled. Then I used some of the elements from the stamp set to decorate the sled.

Once I had the sled built, I thought this cool print from the Vintage Holiday paper pack was added wonderful texture and was great for the sketch. I inked a panel with Peeled Paint Distress Oxide Ink and put it all on a taupe base.

Come over to Instagram to hop with us for a chance to win and I hope to see you playing along with the sketch. Thanks for stopping in today!

Freshly Made Sketches #500 – A Decade of Sketch Inspiration

Freshly Made Sketches #500 – A Decade of Sketch Inspiration published on 25 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #500 – A Decade of Sketch Inspiration

Yes, you read that right. Freshly Made Sketches is celebrating 500 sketches. A decade ago, the amazing Lesley started this challenge during a time when “clean” stamping was not a dominant style. She put together an idea of clean, but not always simple, designs based on layouts. BRILLIANT! I played along as a player from the first challenge and soon joined the team. It has been my biggest consistent inspiration in my stamping and it has been a great joy to be on this team for so many years.

As you can imagine, 10 years of a challenge is really worth celebrating. We have sponsors and the winners will simply be randomly chosen from all the players this week. Additionally, I have a personal prize too! As a thank you for the support you have given me over these many years, I will choose a winner from all who comment on this post. See the end of the post for details.

I love that Linda chose 5 layers for the sketch as a nod to the 500 milestone. I wanted to explore a little more on some of the products from the Honey Bee Stamps release we just featured. The Garden Harvest Florals is such fun to color and I thought it would be perfect for this sketch. All of the elements were colored with Copic Markers. I chose a pretty gingham from the Summer Stems paper pack that had a bit of a late summer/early fall feel.

The sentiment is my favorite part of the card. It comes from the Bitty Buzzwords: Fall stamp and die set. Truly, this sums up how I feel about this team. Some have been together for the whole 10 years, some joined us more recently, but all are amazing. In every possible definition of the word, our happy little group is a team. And one that has given me immeasurable joy!

For my personal giveaway, I will send the above products to one lucky winner, randomly chosen from those who comment on this post. Giveaway is limited to those in the US only. It include: Distress Oxide Picked Raspberry Ink and products from Honey Bee Stamps: Team Tie Dye Paper Pack, Precision Tip Glue, Bee Young: Blooms Stamps and Dies. Winner will be contacted via information left when you comment.

Again, thank you for playing along, supporting our fun challenge and for always sharing your time and talents in our gallery. We are so grateful you have included us in your crafty adventures!

Honey Bee Stamps Autumn Splendor Release – Sneak Peek Day 4

Honey Bee Stamps Autumn Splendor Release – Sneak Peek Day 4 published on 2 Comments on Honey Bee Stamps Autumn Splendor Release – Sneak Peek Day 4

Welcome to the Honey Bee Stamps Autumn Splendor Release Sneak Peeks! Today is day four of our peeks at the new release and, as usual, you will be totally wow’d by all the amazing sets. Tonight the release goes live!!

For my last day of sneak peeks, I am sharing the new Patchwork Pumpkin Stamp Set and Honey Cut Dies plus the Sentiment Frames Honey Cut Dies. (These affiliate links will not be live until the release opens for sale tonight, August 23rd after the Release Party on IG and FB at 9p CT.)

I am going to confess that fall is my favorite season. I love all the fall things! And pumpkins rank really high on the list. This Patchwork Pumpkin set comes with so many options to build adorable pumpkins with a never-ending variety of patterns. I thought that copper embossing would be a fun way to show a couple of the patterns. For the inner oval, I stamped, embossed and then cut. But for the outer layer (which is actually only a mid sized layer in the set) I cut the paper first and then lined up the stamp in my Misti for stamping with Versamark and then heat embossing. I only had to line up the image once since the die is symmetric. I just turned it around to stamp the other side!

I stamped some fo the elements in the set, embossed and cut them out too. I love the little vines! The frame is part of the new Sentiment Frames die set. I cut it from white paper and then “smooshed” it into my Versamark pad and added embossing powder, then heated. The sentiment is from the Inside: Thankful Sentiments set introduced on day 2. I cannot wait to use this set more and try all the patterns!

So glad you stopped in today. I hope you will consider shopping with me via my links when they go live later tonight. There is no additional cost to you and it helps me keep my little blog running. Thanks for joining me for all the fun on this release!

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