Freshly Made Sketches #747

 

This week's Freshly Made Sketches #747 is brought to us by our teammie Kim.

 

 

So many possibilities for this sketch! What do you see? Balloons? Hearts?

I brought out citrus slices from The Greetery. Again.

 

 I went with lemons and limes this time. I assembled them on an embossed panel

and tucked in some leaves. A white embossed sentiment finished off the card.

 

 Visit Freshly Made Sketches to see how the rest of the team played with Kim's

sketch and join us if you can. Link up your card by Monday, Aug 3 at 3PM EST.

Hope to see you in the gallery!

 

Inspired by Challenge #332

Squeezing in under the wire, my card for Inspired by Challenge #332--

inspired by color.

 

 

 

 Such a pretty color palette, I love the modern rainbow color order.

I was looking at my stash of washi tape, then decided on some dies from

my beloved Paper Smooches--the skyline.

I diecut the buildings from watercolor paper and messy colored them with Zigs

and a waterbrush in rainbow order. I added them to a card base and stamped

the simple sentiment. Done! No embellies, no spatters. Done.

 

 And now with about a day left, I'm off to link this up.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

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Edited to add: So honored that my card was chosen as the winner of the challenge!

Thank you, Inspired by Challenge!

 

Color Hues Challenge #103 -- Pink and Red Collaboration

  

 Color Hues Challenge #103 is a collaborative one with Inkspirational Colour

Challenge using the color palette of PINK and RED.

 

 

With Valentine's Day just around the corner--can you believe it's February?--

I pulled out one of my favorite retired heart stencils from Paper Smooches.

I used a variety of red and pink dye inks and stenciled big and small hearts in

gradient shades of red. I spattered some white paint and finished off with a

stamped and cut sentiment, also from Paper Smooches.

 

I'm off to link this up at Color Hues and new-to-me Inkspirational Colour Challenge.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

 

Edited to add: My card was chosen as a Runner Up for TCH103.

Thank you, Color Hues! 

 

 

 

...and as a Top Pick at Inkspirational Challenges!  

 Thank you so much!

 

 

 

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!

 

 

Guest Designer Caffeinated Christmas Card Challenge #24 -- SNOWMAN

 

Me and my gnomies were chosen as the Top Pick for Caffeinated Christmas Card  

Challenge #22  and I was invited to guest for the last challenge of the year with the 

theme of SNOWMAN.

 

The prize sponsor for this month is Frantic Stamper. 

 

 

 Fran is generously offering this trio of goodies to the winner:

 

One (1) Frantic Stamper Precision Die -- Irish Coffee 

One (1) Frantic Stamper Precision Die -- Coffee Grinder

One (1) Frantic Stamper Precision Die -- I Love Chocolate and Coffee

My card uses one of my favorite snowpeople from Paper Smooches and all patterned 

paper is from  Catherine Pooler's Daily Grind which is sadly discontinued. 

I love his plaid attire!

The sentiment is from Catherine Pooler (also discontinued) and I stamped it 

before running the card through a falling snow embossing folder. To finish off the card, 

I added a mug from a Casual Fridays set and some snowflakes from my snowflake stash.

 

Kim Hughes closed her Paper Smooches shop and blog three years ago, but you can 

now find some of her products at Queen & Co and a few Catherine Pooler products 

can be found at Frantic Stamper.

* * *

Huge thanks to Amy and Lisa for the invite and we hope you'll join the last

challenge of the year. You have until 11:55PM PST on December 25th, 2023

to link up your caffeinated creations.

 

Freshly Made Sketches 581

 This week's Freshly Made Sketches had me pulling out bits and bobs from my

scrap bowl and I love when that happens.

Meet the sketch.

 

 And here's my take on it.

 

I subbed a butterfly for the heart and added my beloved Paper Smooches greenery

plus a sentiment from Altenew. I also found Altenew's (misplaced) swirl debossing plate

 and used it before adding the elements onto the kraft base.

A few clear drops and the card is done. Being a hoarder has its perks, no?

Hope you're having a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!

Inspired by LEMONS

It's been a week since I've returned from an overseas trip and I think I'm still 

a bit jet lagged. I've been wanting to enter card challenges but I'm two steps behind.

When I saw the current Inspired by Challenge with the theme of lemons, I

couldn't resist.

 

Here's my card. I was inspired by the lemon slice and the color of the truck.

I happened to have some of The Greetery's lemon slices already made so this card

came together rather quickly.

Off to link up this card--I hope I made it! Thanks for stopping by!

 

* * *

 

Edited to add: Honored that my card was chosen as the weekly winner AND

I won the digital prize! Thank you, Inspired By Challenges!

 

 

Supplies:

The Greetery Dried Citrus Slices Die 

Papertrey Ink Just Sentiments: Summer Mini Stamp Set
SSS Vine Canopy 3D Embossing Folder

Paper Smooches Botanicals 3 Dies (discontinued)

Color Hues #28 -- Red and Kraft

I'm a newbie at playing along with Color Hues Challenge. I consider myself color challenged 

and usually take forever to come up with a design after given the color choices.

I can't think fast enough.

 

 

Challenge #28 with RED and KRAFT seemed simple enough and I had an idea in mind

for the design. And how fun is that gif?

Ironically, I used stamps and dies from two companies that are no longer in

business, and I consider myself lucky to own their products.

Neat and Tangled 's Warm Winter Scene Cover Plate has always been a

favorite and those little trees won me over years ago. I cut the plate from 

a scrap of alcohol inked paper. 

The trees were cut from white card stock and I adhered all the pieces to a

mini slimline kraft panel. The perfect Paper Smooches sentiment was white 

embossed and I added some "snow" with Nuvo Drops and a white gel pen.

 

 Thanks for stopping by! I hope you're off to a good week!

CAS(E) this Sketch #397 -- You're a fungi

It's retro week over at CAS(E) this Sketch. Here's Sketch #397, formerly

 Sketch #184 in 2016.

This was my take on the sketch back then.

And here's the 2020 version.

 

 I'm still on a mushroom kick and used some leftovers from my stash. I used 

the sketch mainly as a guide and simplified it so the mushrooms weren't

 squished. I adhered the mushrooms, then grounded them with Copic 

markers. I stamped the sentiment and finished off with a rounded corner.

 

Stop by CAS(E) this Sketch to see how the rest of the team interpreted 

the sketch and join us if you can. Link up your card(s) by 

Thursday, November 12th and we hope to see you in the gallery!

 

CAS(E) this Sketch #394 --Thanks so mush!

Team leader Chrissy brings us this week's CAS(E) this Sketch #394.

 

 And here's my take on it.

A woodgrain pattern was stamped and ink distressed on the edges then

trimmed and adhered to a card base. I added a strip of green card stock

to ground three mushrooms and finished off with the punny sentiment.

Visit CAS(E) this Sketch to see how the rest of the team interpreted the 

sketch and join us if you can. Link up your card(s) by Thursday, Oct 22nd

and we can't wait to see you in the gallery!

CAS(E) this Sketch #388

Teammie Michelle brings us CAS(E) this Sketch #388 and 

it looks like this.

And here's my simplified take on it.

I discovered an old embossing folder and embossed it on kraft card stock,

then went over it with white pigment ink. Several Paper Smooches fronds

were die cut and ink distressed, then adhered to the card. A white 

embossed sentiment finished off the card.

Visit CAS(E) this Sketch to see how the rest of the team interpreted the
sketch and join us if you can. Link up your card(s) by Thursday, Sept 10th
and we hope to see you in the gallery!

Paper Smooches Final Challenge--ANYTHING GOES

Paper Smooches has closed the door on its store and I'm playing in their very 

last challenge with the theme of ANYTHING GOES.

My card uses the amazing Succulent Stencil that I'm inking up for the very 

first time, together with a sentiment from Inhale Exhale.

There's a bit of sadness in the air since Kim announced her retirement and the
store quickly sold out of her trademark images and sentiments. I can proudly say
that I've built up a collection of Paper Smooches goodies and could probably open
up my very own store!

So while I'm sad there won't be any new items, I can still play with my inventory
for years to come. Many thanks to Kim and the design teams, past and present, for all
the inspiration they provided and the joy Paper Smooches brought into our lives.

Paper Smooches -- COLOR POP

Paper Smooches challenge for the second half of July is COLOR POP, using
just black and white with a pop of color on your project.

 

I may have missed the mark on this but here's what I came up with.

 

I knew that I wanted to use the orca because it's already a black and white
mammal, so I decided the "pop of color" would be the ocean. I tore some
low tack tape so I'd get the ragged edges and ink blended and spattered a
small patch of blue.

I popped up the orca, added the splashes above him, and stamped the
two part sentiment. I'm still not too sure about this. I'll go through my
Paper Smooches stash and may try again....Thanks for stopping by!

Paper Smooches RAINBOWS Challenge -- Take Two

I'm sharing a second card for Paper Smooches Rainbow theme challenge thanks
to the speedy delivery from Scrapbook.com of a stencil set that I thought was a 

build-your-own rainbow. So I did.

I inked up three parts of the stencil to form a rainbow shape in three colors of
Hero Arts Reactive inks, then added small designs found on the stencil in a
secondary color. I stamped the sentiment, then adhered the panel to a card base
covered with diagonal striped paper.

I was going to add a few clear sequins but it's such a busy card, the bling would
have disappeared, so I left it as is. Do you see a rainbow? Please say yes....

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Paper Smooches Challenge--RAINBOWS

I'm joining Paper Smooches Challenge for the first half of July
with a RAINBOW theme.

I could not believe that I don't own Paper Smooches Rainbow Die and yet own 

one from almost every other company. So plan B was to use the theme as
inspiration for my card.

Paper Smooches Hearts Stencil was inked in rainbow order with Hero Arts'
Reactive inks. I over spattered the card with black ink then finished off with
an Inverted Greeting.

 I'm not too sure if this will qualify for the challenge, but lots of color always
makes things better. Thanks for stopping by!

Fusion Card Challenge -- BUTTERFLY

I'm playing along with the new Fusion Card Challenge. Because butterflies.

You can choose to play along with just the sketch or the inspiration photo or combine
the two. I combined the theme and the sketch.

I inked up three butterflies in rainbow colors. A (recycled) strip of textured kraft
paper was stamped with the sentiment then adhered to the card base. The
butterflies were adhered per the sketch.

Hope your week is going well. Thanks so much for stopping by!


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Edited to add: Honored that my card was chosen as Honorable Mention.
Thank you, Fusion Card Challenge!