Freshly Made Sketches #659

Here's Freshly Made Sketches #659, another sketch with many possibilities.

 

And here's my take on it. Butterflies!

Pinkfresh Studio's Fluttering Butterflies Washi tape has a kaleidoscope of

butterflies and I love that you can cut them out in one pass. Some gold paint was 

spattered on the card and I adhered the butterflies and foliage and stamped

 the sentiment.

I hope this brightens your weekend! I'm off to link this up, early, for a change.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Color Throwdown Challenge #816

 

I consider myself "color challenged" but joined this week's Color Throwdown

Challenge #816 to honor a former Color Throwdown DT member, Barbara Anders 

who recently passed away.

I was on the My Favorite Things design team from 2015 till 2019 and Barbara

was a long time designer--possibly even from the very beginning. I always admired

her ability to create cards so effortlessly, from CAS to elegant and layered. 

Bar could do it all. 

 

Here's my card that I plan to send to her family.

 

Altenew's Hill Blossom stencil is one of my favorite stencils and I've made many

cards with it. It's a first for me to ink up brown leaves and I rather liked how it 

looks together with the orange blooms.

I cut out two panels from Reverse Wonky Rectangles and ran the Doily embossing

folder through one. The back panel was joined to the front to form a hinge and I

liked how the doily left a space for my sentiment.

 

 

Two branches were stenciled and cut with the matching dies. One branch was

adhered directly to the card and the second was trimmed a bit and popped up

over the first. An MFT sentiment finished off the card.

For more information on this week's challenge and how you can send a card to

Bar's family, visit this post. Thanks for stopping by!

Freshly Made Sketches #658

 

Freshly Made Sketches #658 offers so many possibilities.

 

I went the postal route and here's my card.

 

The postage stamps were cut from patterned paper and adhered to postage frames.

I stamped the sentiment then ran the card through the Swiss Dots embossing folder. 

The two smaller stamps were adhered to the card base and the larger stamp

was popped up on the card. 

I'm off to link this up with hours to spare. Thanks for stopping by!

* * *

Edited to add: Honored that my card was chosen for Princess status by Jen T.

Thanks so much, Jen! 

 

 

JUGS #748 Word Week -- LEAVES

 

 It's Word Week over at Just Us Girls Challenge #748 and the word is LEAVES.

 

 

 

I love leaves and own a ton of leaf dies in every shape and size. It's my dream to see

fall foliage anywhere--brilliant reds and oranges, please. I seem to be missing the mark as

we've traveled to see them many times with no luck.

I have seen ginkgo leaves in Japan and I love their fan shape and that no two are the same.

Here's my card featuring ginkgo leaves in bright colors because I've rediscovered my 

Zig Kuretake markers.

I started out with green and yellow pens, and grabbed pinks and purples just for fun.

I rather like how they looked--pretty much like umbrellas. After spattering them with 

white paint, they were adhered to a tree ring embossed card and I made sure to 

stamp the sentiment before embossing it.

A little far fetched, I know, but wouldn't it be awesome to see leaves in those colors?

Thanks, always, for stopping by!

Freshly Made Sketches #657

 

I've returned from Japan and slowly getting back into craft mode. I left with a small 

cold and came back with an unwanted souvenir--a very bad cough.  

 

I decided to get my feet wet with Freshly Made Sketches #657 and came up with this.

 

I had some stenciled panels and chose one and embossed it with a folder. I also 

embossed a plain white panel then cut them per the sketch and joined them on a

card base.

I chose a sentiment that would fill up a tag and gold embossed it. After adhering 

the tag to the card, I found some rayon ribbon that I dyed many moons ago

and fashioned a bow as best as I could and adhered it to the tag.

Off to link this up, thanks for stopping by!

* * *

Edited to add: My card was chosen as the winner for FMS #657!

Thank you so much, Freshly Made Sketches!

 

 

JUGS #746 -- Anything Goes STENCILS

 

I'm leaving on an overseas trip in a few days and wanted to post a card so it won't be 

too quiet around here. Luckily, while swooning over Michele's gorgeous card 

I learned about Just Us Girls Challenge #746 using STENCILS.

 

Pinkfresh Studio's Built on Dreams may be my all time fave stencil because it's easy 

to layer and the dies make the cutest little shaped card if you choose to make one.

I love this stencil so much that I bought several as "backups" because some parts

of the stencil are delicate and I was worried it might tear. I chose Concord & 9th

inks and finished off with some iridescent sequins and a sentiment that came

with the stamp set.

 

 The design is versatile and depending on the colors you choose, can be used for

almost any occasion.

 Ok, I'd better link this up. Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

Freshly Made Sketches #655

 

Freshly Made Sketches #655 is a simple one by Jen B. with so many possibilities.

 

 

I was thinking of flipping the sketch but I'm running short on time so I went with Jen's 

sketch as is. 

 

A bunch of mushrooms were cut and colored and adhered to an embossed wall. I stamped the

punny sentiment before embossing and drew in some grass to ground them.

The mushrooms and sentiment are by Paper Smooches, and although Kim has closed

 her online shop, I continue to use her products whenever I can. Because I love them!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

Inspired By Challenge #302

 

It's been a while since I've joined an Inspired By challenge and when I saw the

graphic for IB302, I was in.

 

 

I LOVE leaves and anything fall, so I searched for Altenew's funky leaves and

put together this card in record time.

 

 

 Three leaves were cut and colored in autumnal colors and I stamped the

sentiment before running the panel through an embossing folder. I adhered

the leaves to a "clothesline" and called it done.

Off to link this up. Thanks for stopping by!

Freshly Made Sketches #654

I'm entering Freshly Made Sketches #654 after seeing some gnomes pop up

and remembered how much I loved them. And their shape mimicked the sketch.

 

Here's my card and I substituted a tree because two gnomes were rather squishy.

 

 

I assembled the Large Gnome with patterned paper and searched high and low for

a tree that I was happy with. Twig and Stump's tree fit the bill and I assembled

both on the embossed background. A strip of gray card stock was run through

the embossing folder and matched up with the background. A simple "joy"

finished off the card.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Long Time No See

  

Well, I totally missed Time Out Challenges #271 deadline by a day but thought I'd 

share this anyway because I like how it turned out. Once again, patterned paper

was my friend.

 

 

I was inspired by Allison Frazier (@allifrazier on Instagram) and how she played with 

postage stamp supplies and patterned paper to create some quick and easy cards. 

I found a pad of paper on Amazon with large floral images and created postage 

stamps with Spellbinders Nested Postage Label Dies.

All postage marks were made with Waffle Flower Crafts Oversized Postage Stamp Set.

I chose the CZ Design sentiment because it fit perfectly in the space and white

embossed it so it would stand out against the dark background.

To give the panel some dimension, I cut out another butterfly and flower and popped 

them up. A second postage panel was cut and adhered in the back to create a hinge. 

I'm a little late with the postage trend but I know that I'll be making more cards 

using patterned paper because it's fast and fun. Thanks for stopping by!

Freshly Made Sketches #653

 

I couldn't pass on Freshly Made Sketches #653 with Kim's fun sketch.

 

 

And here's my take on it. I have several large sentiments but thought I could 

chalk up a holiday card for my stash.

After embossing a panel with some falling snow, I built the Spellbinders sentiment

 on a tree shape with hot pink letters. A gold star and sub sentiment finished off

the card. I thought about adding baubles on the tree but decided it had enough bling

so it went without.

Thanks for stopping by!

Freshly Made Sketches #652

 

I'm joining Freshly Made Sketches #652 with a simplified take on the sketch. I wanted

to use Concord & 9th's new Mushroom Medley--yes, another mushroom die set that

just had to join the others.

 

Here's Linda's versatile sketch.

 

 

And here's my mushroomy card in portrait format. Can you see the sketch?

 

 I took advantage of the mushroom cap's roundness and adhered a few with some

greenery on a wood plank embossed card base. The two part sentiment is an oldie 

from Simon Says Stamp and one of my faves because of the different fonts.

 

The card was finished off with some Creamsicle enamel dots. 

Off to link up my card, thanks for stopping by!

Freshly Made Sketches #650

 

Freshly Made Sketches #650 is as simple as a sketch can get and sometimes 

that can be a challenge in itself. Here's the sketch, courtesy of Judy.

At first glance I thought "sky, land, sea" but felt a skosh lazy so I turned to some

new patterned papers that arrived this week. Brutus Monroe has some beautiful

papers and I chose the Cherry Blossom pad for my card.

 

I cut one sheet into thirds with the middle panel being slightly bigger. I adhered

them to a top folding card and stamped the sentiment from CZ Designs. A few

luminescent sequins finished the card.

If I had more time I would have stamped a background, then cut it up per

the sketch. But time constraints and laziness overruled and I can link this up

to this month's Simon Says Stamp Flickr Challenge, too.

Thanks, always, for stopping by!

Time Out Challenges #270

 

The current challenge at Time Out Challenges has a photo inspiration that's full of 

fruit and autumn vibes.

 

 

I'm playing along using Concord & 9th's Weekend Market Dies and patterned paper

from p13 that I must have bought a while ago because it's now discontinued. I was

totally inspired by all the luscious fruit!

 

 I used mostly all papers from the pad and I'm pleased with how the wine bottle 

turned out. Originally the bottle was in the bag but you couldn't see much of it,

so I DIY'd her left arm and have her holding it rather than bagging it.

I cut out a few apples from the paper pad to add to the shopping bag. The background

was embossed and she was grounded with a wood plank floor. A Simon Says Stamp

sentiment finished off the card.

I'm happy that I'm early for a change and grateful that the challenge is a long one.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

* * *

 

Edited to add: My card was chosen as an Honorable Mention.

Thank you, Time Out Challenges!

 

 

Freshly Made Sketches #649 AND Color Throwdown Challenge #806

It's not often that I enter two challenges but the stars aligned for Freshly Made

Sketches #649 and Color Throwdown Challenge #806.

So here's the sketch.

And here's the color palette.

 

And here's my card that combines both.

The nest and eggs were tossed in the holder for the dies and I don't know why I made

yellow eggs but I had an "aha!" moment and added the greenery. I love it when I don't

have to work too much.

I loosely followed the sketch although I thought about using an MFT hexagon die

but went rogue with the nest. I had to turn the orientation of the card to landscape 

format because the nest took up a lot of the card's real estate in portrait mode.

I stamped the sentiment on a patterned paper strip and embossed the background

with a dotty embossing folder. Done, with days to spare! Yay! 

 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

 

 

Freshly Made Sketches #648

I love a simple sketch and Freshly Made Sketches #648 has me playing along.

 

 

And here's my usual almost-hits-the-deadline entry.

 

 

Before die cutting, I covered white cardstock with washi tape from Pinkfresh Studio

then cut out two cups and a teapot. The edges were inked lightly with beige ink so 

they'd stand out against the white background.

 

 A panel was embossed with the 3D Doily folder and the cups and teapot were

adhered per the sketch. I added the Altenew sentiment and finished off with

some iridescent pink sequins.

Initially I was going to use three cups for the sketch, but I'm glad I switched to a

teapot. Breaks up the monotony a bit. 

 

Ok, I'm to link this up. Thanks for stopping by!

Freshly Made Sketches #647

Cleaning and decluttering has its rewards and finding pretty papers and ephemera that 

you bought and completely forgot about is a bonus. I put together a card in a matter 

of minutes with no stamping nor die cutting.

 

Here's Freshly Made Sketches #647 from hostess Karren. 

 

 And here's my quick card with a summertime theme.

 All papers are from Asuka Studio's Welcome to Paradise collection which is over 

2 years old and for the most part, discontinued. The papers were cut per the sketch 

and adhered to a card base. The dolphin and sentiment were popped up on the card 

and finished off with sequins. 

I'm pretty happy with how the card turned out, considering how little time I have 

set aside for crafting these days. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great weekend!

Color Hues Challenge #91 -- Red and Green

I'm joining the latest Color Hues Challenge to use hues of RED and GREEN.

 

 

I tried NOT to think of Christmas using other card ideas, but in the end I caved 

and went all in for the holiday.

 

 I reached for The Greetery's BotaniCuts Mistletoe and shaded the branch and 

berries using the same colored ink as the card stock. I assembled the branch

and found an embossed panel that was the perfect piece for the background.

I adhered the mistletoe branch and added the loopy bow cut from gold glitter card 

stock. I tried a white glitter bow (underwhelming) and a red bow (overwhelming)

and in the end the gold won. A simple sentiment from Altenew finished off the card.

I have about a week left to enter another card and I really want to try a non

Christmas theme. We shall see. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Color Throwdown Challenge #802

I'm entering Color Throwdown Challenge #802 although I'm not 100% happy

with the colors I chose. Especially the blue.

 

 I wanted to use Pinkfresh Studio's Built on Dreams set but could not find a closer

shade of blue as in the graphic. Then I just decided to go for it since what I used IS 

a shade of blue--just more on the aqua side. 

 

Here's my first attempt, which is perhaps closer in color value to the graphic.

 

But the card seems "blah" to me, which is why I did the aqua one. I loved playing

with the Pinkfresh set. The sentiments can be used for different occasions and 

I'm a huge fan of shaped cards. So there it is.

Thanks for stopping by!

Inspired by Challenge #297 -- SEASHELLS

 

The challenge theme for this week's Inspired by Challenge is SEASHELLS.

 Here's the challenge graphic and Laurel's sketch.

And here's my card, with inspiration from both the sketch and colors.

I've been having fun with C&9th's latest release. Putting together these mini

Poolside sunbathers was challenging because of their size, and in the end I chose 

three of them per the sketch.

 

I adhered them onto a sandy, torn edge panel and stamped the sentiment.

Clear drops finished off the card.

 

I have about a dozen more of the sunbathers and hope I can use them up on a

future project They're so cute! Thanks so much for stopping by!