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Freshly Made Sketches #662

Freshly Made Sketches #662 published on 3 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #662

I am the sketch designer this week for Freshly Made Sketches. Naturally, I designed it to use some new things. Because why not?! I thought the wide open space on this one would appeal to many and be helpful for any holiday or fall creating you are up to.

So let me start with this. How stinking cute is this gingerbread house?!!! And there are three of them in the set. This is the new Lovely Layers: Alice’s Gingerbread Lane from Honey Bee Stamp’s latest release. I am sometimes hesitant to get die sets that seem fussy but this one practically jumped into my cart. I immediately had a vision of it with glittery snow details so that is what I went with.

I cut all the pieces from white card stock (Hammermill) and inked them using Distress Inks with my Bitty Bunny Blending Brushes and my Beeluxe Blending Brushes. There is a great layering guide for the die cuts so you don’t have to guess how to put things together. I’ll list my colors at the bottom of my post. For the glittery elements, I tried a technique I have seen to make glitter stick better and I think it was a success. You could totally use a glitter/glimmer paper for the die cuts too but I find that they are never a match for the whites in my card and this allows me just to use basic card stock. All you have to do is ink the element up with Versamark Ink (or an embossing ink), sprinkle on Distress Frosted Crystal powder and heat it up. You actually overheat it a bit and that makes it sticky. Right from the heat, you add the Rock Candy Glitter and then add a bit more heat to make it grab on. I did this on white but imagine how pretty it is on inked paper or colored card stock!

To add even more glitter, I wanted to stencil on snow. Using an older stencil, I added Prima Texture Paper Paste (I got it on Amazon). I pulled the stencil off and quickly added the Rock Candy glitter and the paste holds onto the glitter as it dries. Finally I just put everything together and added a sentiment from the new Wonder of Christmas Stamp Set.

Colors of Distress Ink: Gingerbread color – Vintage Photo; Door, roof, step – Aged Mahogany plus Candied Apple; Trees – Bundled Sage; Window frame – Ground Espresso; Window panes – Fossilized Amber; Background – Distress Oxide Inks blended – Salty Ocean, Faded Jeans, Black Soot

I hope you have fun with this sketch. I appreciate you stopping in today. Have a wonderful day!

Freshly Made Sketches #660

Freshly Made Sketches #660 published on 6 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #660

Hi all! Hope the week is treating you well. I’m happy to share the latest sketch from Freshly Made Sketches designed by the wonderful Judy Rozema. I’m a big fan of floral swags and groupings so this sketch sure was a treat for me to use this week.

All I had to do was look outside my window for some inspiration for this. My leaves are turning and some are the most glorious colors of yellow, orange and red. And some fading sunflowers are always a pretty add! The Lovely Layers: Mini Fall Florals (Honey Bee Stamps) had all these elements in one set. Perfection!

Using a whole variety of Distress Inks and my blending brushes, I had fun adding color variations and worked to make the leaves look real. I just love the effect! For the oval, I realized that one of my Free Bee tag die sets from Honey Bee Stamps had this layered oval. I just flipped it so that you could not see the hole in the tag part. Such a pretty pair with the scalloped layer. I added a bit of Distress Ink to them too so that the framing would pop a bit.

Finally for the sentiment. I was reminded today, as I got the chance to converse with two friends, how wonderful it is to have people in our lives who understand us. I thought this sentiment summed up my feelings perfectly! It is from the Lean on Each Other stamps set…one that has just the right words for your dearest friends.

Hop on over to see the cards from the rest of the team. Always a treat! And maybe you’ll get a chance to create this week. If nothing else, make a card for a dear friend to tell them how you feel! Thanks for stopping in. See you soon!

Freshly Made Sketches #655

Freshly Made Sketches #655 published on 6 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #655

So, as I sit to write this, I realized that I never posted my card here from last week’s Freshly Made Sketches challenge. Sigh. Not exactly sure how that happened other than the card was a complete re-vamp after a Copic “belching” incident… Oy. Moving forward, as they say. This week we have a super fun sketch from our adventurer extraordinaire Jen Brum. Now mind you, this is a woman who says she doesn’t like circles in her sketches…um…. But I took a loose interpretation of those circles and I’m hoping she doesn’t mind.

I totally took this as an excuse to play with the new products from Honey Bee Stamps, starting with the Lovely Layers: Mini Fall Florals. This set abounds with fall awesomeness to include a fun boot but I lasered in on the sunflowers. Using my Bitty Bunny Blending Brushes, I had fun blending Distress Inks onto the die cuts. I added in a few branches from the Lovely Layers: Seasonal Frame for extra texture and I love that the two sets are at the same scale.

I chose a sentiment from the Bloom with Grace stamp set (it also has sunflowers) that I thought was really sweet. To help keep more to the sketch, I added a few gems from the Grain and Grunge gem sticker pack. I did brush a little Distress Ink on the edges of the base too for a bit of depth.

I hope you like my version of the sketch and will come over to join us. The team has a wide variation on it and I think you will enjoy it as much as we have. Thanks again for stopping in today. Sorry about skipping the card last week. For those who only see my cards on the blog, here it is (tree die cuts and papers are from Honey Bee Stamps). Have a great week and see you soon!

Freshly Made Sketches #641

Freshly Made Sketches #641 published on 7 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #641

Hi everyone! I am the sketch designer over at Freshly Made Sketches and I hope you will enjoy the options on this one.

I’m still working on finding the right card for a friend to give his wife. After narrowing some things down and showing him some previous cards he narrowed it down to: hummingbird, vintage feel, touches of blue. I think maybe I’ve gotten closer to the mark. I did lots of ink smooshing, splattering and brushing it on. Almost all of it was Distress Oxide ink and all the paper was Distress Heavystock. I’m simply obsessed with the details on this hummingbird from Honey Bee Stamps. I just played with shading on greens and grays (Peeled Paint, Rustic Wilderness, Lost Shadow) plus a bit of Rusty Hinge and Candied Apple for his throat. I added Lost Shadow Distress Spray Stain for more splattering.

For the flower, I used Tattered Rose and Worn Lipstick plus a little bit of the Rusty Hinge left on the brush to pull in a little bit of orange. I used the Vintage Flora background stamp inked with a combination of Antique Linen and Rusty Hinge Oxide inks. I spritzed, stamped off and then applied the paper to the stamp to get a less detailed image. I then spritzed with Tumbled Glass Distress Spray and added more Tumbled Glass Oxide to the edges. The sentiment is from my go-to Mini Messages.

Thanks for dropping into today. Let me know if you think I hit the mark for my friend’s request. See you again soon!

Freshly Made Sketches #640

Freshly Made Sketches #640 published on 5 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #640

Hi all!! I’ve been dodging weather around the country for the last week but managed to have a day to create a card. I opted to pull out a new to me die set that matches the sketch (although in reverse). Our sketch is courtesy of our wonderful Judy Rozema and it leaves lots of fun options.

The Lovely Layers: Dianthus dies have this little group of 3 flowers that I thought would work for the sketch…hopeful Judy forgives my flip. Using my Distress Inkds with pinks and oranges, I blended the flowers. I just love how they layer! Added the extra leaf layers for dimension and the flower was done. I wanted to use a dark background the make it pop but it seemed a little plain.

I added an extra panel that I embossed with the Sandie’s Garden 3D embossing folder. The sentiment is from the Lean on Each Other stamp set with white heat embossing on the same blue as the background.

Hope you are having a great week and will come join us for the fun! Thanks so much for stopping in. See you soon.

Freshly Made Sketches #639

Freshly Made Sketches #639 published on 4 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #639

Hello everyone! Well, the last few weeks have been all that I promised…busy! But we got the youngest graduated from high school (and I didn’t fall apart), I got to see the oldest’s regatta and we went on a family vacation. Now I’m trying to get back to reality and out on a trip. We have a beautiful sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches from the lovely Amy O’Neill.

A bit of a simple take to get back into the groove (and to actually get it made). I was inspired by some beautiful flowers I saw when we were on vacation in Seattle. I think they are lupines but if you know differently, please let me know (photo below)! Using some paper that already had some Distress Ink stamping and splatters, I cut out the flowers and greenery. I added more Distress Ink for shading and character.

I chose a some pretty papers from the Grain and Grunge plus Vintage Love packs by Honey Bee Stamps and then added a sentiment from my go-to set, Mini Messages. I opted for gold embossing and added a few gold pearls to go along. A Captain that has led the way for many women is retiring this month so I thought it would be nice to make her a special card.

I hope this finds you well and starting to enjoy a bit of summer. As you can imagine, this is the beginning of the busy work season for me. I’ll create as much as I can but also I’m trying to hold on to every moment with my youngest before he heads out to college in August. Thanks for always being so supportive!

I showed a closeup of the flowers but there was a whole field of these. It was glorious! Thanks for stopping in today. See you soon!

Freshly Made Sketches #635

Freshly Made Sketches #635 published on 3 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #635

Another amazing sketch from Freshly Made Sketches this week. A clean classic from our classically fabulous Jen Brum! Lots of room for scene building, patterned papers or die cuts.

I wanted to play around with a watercolor look using solid image stamps and love how this turned out. The stamp set is a retired one from Honey Bee Stamps (Bold Botanicals) but you may have similar versions in your stash. Using Distress Ink, I inked up the stamp, spritzed with water and then stamped. On some of the images, I just stamped again for that faded look. I’ll admit that this is a bit addictive and fun to experiment with!

Once I was done inking, I distressed the edges of the paper (watercolor paper) and then inked more Distress Ink onto the edges and created more of an aged look. I splattered with some of the Weathered Wood and then set everything aside to dry. I tied up some linen thread with a button and added a sentiment with double banners. A friend has asked me to create a card for his wife who is pregnant with twins and I hope this will be a contender for him to choose from. I chose a basic sentiment with that in mind. You can only see it a little but I stamped some of the flowers on the corner of the envelope and finished an inside panel with a few more flowers in a bottom corner.

I hope you like this one. I’d love to hear what you think so I know if this feels special enough for my friend. Thanks so much for stopping in. See you soon!

Freshly Made Sketches #632

Freshly Made Sketches #632 published on 6 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #632

Welcome back for another sketch from Freshly Made Sketches! This week, our sketch designer is our one of the challenges fearless leaders, the amazing Jen Mitchell. I was so happy when I saw her sketch for the week because I was already working on the perfect thing to use.

I was so excited when I saw the Lovely Layers: Herb Garden set from Honey Bee Stamps on their last release. Like absurdly excited. First of all, I love growing herbs. But also, I love the idea of something that is easy to use for everybody on the card list! While the set comes with adorable little buckets, I immediately thought of the barrel from the Lovely Layers: Apple Barrel set and decided that was what I would use to hold my herbs.

I had a ridiculous amount of fun creating each herb and playing with the shading on greens and accents of browns and purples (all Distress Ink). The new Beeluxe Blending Brushes were key (I used the smallest ones, size 5 for the details and my Bitty Bunny Blending Brushes (from The Rabbit Hole Design) for the broader areas. Once I had them done, I moved on to the apple barrel. Bigger areas with my regular sized brushes, then working down to the tiny ones. I created the aged metal band and added a bit of Rusty Hinge Distress Oxide Ink. To create the illusion of dirt, I cut an extra of the back belly band and trimmed it off a bit, turned it upside down and made it black. Voilá…soil!

Finally, I created the herb signs to match the band. I found that if I did a little bit of brush work in a lighter gray and then did direct to paper with the ink, it allowed me to see the words better. A little extra Rusty Hinge on those too. Then it was just putting it together. I wanted it to look like a real garden so it is a bit haphazard with signs askew. I want this on my deck for real!! I did an ombré background and added the Burlap 3D textured embossing for a little more interest. The sentiment from Mini Messages is great to send just because! Finally a few sequins.

Hoping you have a great week and maybe even get to start thinking about your summer garden. I have some spinach in now and can’t wait until I can plant the rest of my faves. Make sure to go see the challenge blog and take a look at the beautiful creations from the FMS team. Thanks for stopping in today!

Freshly Made Sketches #630

Freshly Made Sketches #630 published on 6 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #630

A sweet spring card for you today using some brand new products. Our wonderful sketch at Freshly Made Sketches is courtesy of the lovely Judy Rozema and it allows for some interesting variations.

I just got some things from the latest release by Honey Bee Stamps and wanted to pull these dies out right away. Are they sweet?! I mean, that bird…and then the boots and all the flowers. It comes with an umbrella (which I could have used for real today) too. I cut all the elements from Hammermill White Card Stock and then used my Distress Inks to color them. I cannot wait to try some other variations!

I pulled a retiring piece of ombré patterned paper (Honey Bee Stamps) and added the three rectangles from the sketch. I thought about some texture on those but when I tried it…nope. Instead a pretty script sentiment and some matching pearls. Quick to put together after I did the ink blending on the elements.

The pictures today are a bit dark and the colors aren’t quite true. A rainy day and I just couldn’t get any lighting to cooperate. Ah well. Perfect day for those rain boots! Hope you are having a good week!

Freshly Made Sketches #626

Freshly Made Sketches #626 published on 6 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #626

We have another fun sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches and our designer, the lovely Cécile Ribon, gave us a great one. The half circle elements are particularly fun!

This card is directly inspired by the amazing Dawn Woleslagle. She did a live one night just playing with Distress Oxide ins and this background stamp from Honey Bee Stamps called Vintage Flora. She used exactly these colors! Her reminder was that when you are feeling a little flat on creativity, just pull out the inks and play. So I did just that! This background is the result and it is super cool.

This bluebird had been sitting on my desk for a few weeks waiting for plan and the background gave me just that! I added a bit of splattering and inking on the edges to match the style and knew it was going to work. With the extra ink after stamping the background, I had stamped again a few times. I used one of those and cut out the flowers, then added just a little more ink. I thought vellum would be perfect for the split semicircles and I love the texture it adds without covering anything up. Finally a little sentiment from the Mini Messages Set.

I hope this will inspire you to get out some inks and just play around! It is good for the soul! Thanks for stopping in today. See you soon!

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