Freshly Made Sketches #441

It's Wednesday, and that means a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! It is my pleasure to host the challenge this week!

I recently received the Brighter Days dies from Concord & 9th, and thought they were perfect for today's sketch.

I had a little bit left of this fun patterned paper with hearts (Bella Blvd.) and it was perfect for the Color Throwdown #599 this week too. This came together quickly, and I know I will be using these dies frequently to send snail mail cheer!

I hope you will join us with your take on the sketch this week! Our challenge is open until 3 PM EDT on Monday, June 29. Click on the links on the FMS blog by each photo to see what lovely things my teammates have created on their blogs!

Let's Shellebrate!

Hello friends!

Today I am sharing images from the adorable SEA YOU SOON 6x8 stamp set from Brutus Monroe. Such fun images and so many things to compliment the set.....like the gorgeous SEA SPARKLE 6x6 paper pad. What amazing designs to create your underwater scenes!

I stamped on PERFECT BLEND ALCOHOL MARKER CARDSTOCK with RAVEN DETAIL INK, and then colored my mermaid with alcohol markers.

I used two of the paper designs with my mermaid, and added a few metallic sequins here and there for added sparkle. You really must check out all of the mermaid and underwater goodies, because there are so many fabulous products!

Shop HERE!

My inspiration came from this week's Color Throwdown:

 

It's Wedding Season! Simple, Elegant, Quick!

It's June and that means wedding season! Even if the circumstances change for how those ceremonies happen, I do have need for a couple of wedding cards this month. 

I love this gorgeous stencil by Picket Fence Studios. It's called Flowers in a Heart Stencil, and makes beautiful, simple, and elegant looking greetings! I used Peacock Feathers Distress Ink and my Blender Brushes on the stencil. I stamped a sentiment from Fancy Sentiments on top with Nocturne ink. I love the way it turned out!

My color inspiration came from this week's Color Throwdown #595:

Hope your June is warm and sunny and that you're staying healthy!

Color Throwdown #591

It has been my pleasure to be the April Guest Designer for the Color Throwdown. This is my last post, and I had a ton of fun! It's already Wednesday in the East, so my post is right before midnight in my neck of the woods! This week Amy Rysavy is our hostess and has chosen a fun color palette to play with: plum, pink, peach, and white.

I have been sending out cards to friends and family every day for a couple of weeks now (I am terrible at mailing things. So this is a big deal to do it every day ha!) and I wanted to make a cheery greeting for a friend to send out tomorrow.

 

I used the balloon from Party Pants (Stampin' Up!) for my background, and drew my strings with the A614 Azteca Everblend marker and a ruler. My sentiment (Stampabilities) is inked with VersaFine Clair Nocturne. My cute cloud is the Stitched Cloud from Whimsy Stamps. Enamel dots are My Mind's Eye. A little of everything today! My card is totally inspired by Maile Belles.

Now it's your turn to play along over at the Color Throwdown Challenge. Be sure to also visit with each of the CTD Design Team members and leave them some love:

** Amy Rohl **  Amy Rysavy ** Barbara ** Broni ** 

 ** Jodi ** Lisa ** Lynn ** Vickie ** Wanda **

Color Throwdown #590

It has been my pleasure to be the April Guest Designer for the Color Throwdown. It's already Wednesday in the East, so my post is right before midnight in my neck of the woods! This week Wanda is our hostess and has chosen a wonderful color palette to play with: navy, yellow, kraft and green.
I have chosen Pucker Up from Picket Fence Studios for my card this week.

I used Layers of Clouds Stencil for my background, and added soft sponging with Tumbled Glass DOX. I didn't want the background to overshadow the bright lemons! I stamped the sentiment to one side. Images were stamped with Black Hybrid ink and colored using Copic markers. 

The lemon branch was cut out using the coordinating die. I love that it cuts the middle out too! Perfect! I added a trio of sunny lemon sequins to finish the card.

Now it's your turn to play along over at the Color Throwdown Challenge. Be sure to also visit with each of the CTD Design Team members and leave them some love:

** Amy Rohl **  Amy Rysavy ** Barbara ** Broni ** 

 ** Jodi ** Lisa ** Lynn ** Vickie ** Wanda **

Freshly Made Sketches #431 Meets Color Throwdown #589!

I am guest designing with the Color Throwdown this month! This week Vickie is our hostess and she has one of my favorite color combinations to play with: red, black, gray, and white.

It's also Wednesday, and that means a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! Lee Ann is our hostess this week. 

I went "shopping" in my stash to use something new that I hadn't before, and found these fun Cityscape Skyline dies by Tim Holtz. I cut one in black and one in gray, and gave them a red background. I added a little white cloud (Whimsy Stamps) and a banner sentiment (TE). It's a perfect card to send to a friend right now!

Now it's your turn to play along over at the Color Throwdown Challenge. Be sure to also visit with each of the CTD Design Team members and leave them some love:

Amy Rohl

Amy Rysavy

Barbara Anders

Broni Holcombe

Jodi Collins

Lisa Henke

Lori Tecler

Lynn Put

Vickie Zimmer

Wanda Cullen

I hope you will also join us with your take on the sketch this week! Our sketch challenge is open until 3 PM EDT on Monday, April 20. Click on the links on the FMS blog by each photo to see what lovely things my teammates have created on their blogs! Live at 7 AM CDT.

Freshly Made Sketches #430 Meets Color Throwdown #588

I am guest designing with the Color Throwdown this month! This week Lynn is our hostess and she has some bright and bold colors for us to play with: orange, green, pink and yellow. What a fabulous combination!

It's also Wednesday, and that means a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! Jacquie is our hostess this week. While her sketch shows a diamond shape, she says "If you have a forgotten shape die in your collection, I'd love to see it get used this week!"

So I went with this fun Stitched Hex Tag from Reverse Confetti.
I paired it with that adorable crafty zebra from Crafty Critters. I did a watercolor background with Twisted Citron DOX on the tag, and then colored in the images with Copics. 

You can see all the colors in the little paintbrush holder!

I added some fun patterned papers from the Cheerful and Kind 6x6 Paper Pad, and a sentiment from the Crafty Critters set. So cute to share with a stamping friend! I added some pink and white baker's twine at the top of the tag, and a few enamel dots for embellishments. My card base is my favorite Melon Mambo pink!

One thing that my daughter and I did this past week for a fun quarantine activity was to design a floral bouquet. You could have the flowers delivered or picked up curbside, and then you watched a video from the florist (our sweet friend, Todd!) to help you design. They came wrapped in a bunch, and then you cut and arranged how you wished. It occurred to me that they are a perfect complement to the colors for this week. This is my finished bouquet, and it was a blast creating it! Something new for me during these crazy times (and a real stress reliever - just like cardmaking!).

Now it's your turn to play along over at the Color Throwdown Challenge. Be sure to also visit with each of the CTD Design Team members and leave them some love:

Amy Rohl

Amy Rysavy

Barbara Anders

Broni Holcombe

Jodi Collins

Lisa Henke

Lori Tecler

Lynn Put

Vickie Zimmer

Wanda Cullen

I hope you will also join us with your take on the sketch this week! Our sketch challenge is open until 3 PM EDT on Monday, April 13. Click on the links on the FMS blog by each photo to see what lovely things my teammates have created on their blogs! Live at 7 AM CDT.

Guest Designing with the Color Throwdown!

It's April 1st in the East and that means that I am honored and super excited to be guest designing with the Color Throwdown this month! This week Lori is our hostess and she has some beautiful colors for us to play with: pink, gray, green and kraft.

I chose the beautiful Wildflower Background from Taylored Expressions, and paired it with the Hello Word Die from Picket Fence Studios. I watercolored my flowers after stamping with VersaFine Clair Morning Mist. I cut the word die out of vellum and a pink watercolor panel. I added some Kaiser Chino pearls to the flower centers for my "kraft" color. 

Now it's your turn to play along over at the Color Throwdown Challenge. Be sure to also visit with each of the CTD Design Team members and leave them some love:

Amy Rohl

Amy Rysavy

Barbara Anders

Broni Holcombe

Jodi Collins

Lisa Henke

Lori Tecler

Lynn Put

Vickie Zimmer

Wanda Cullen

Let's Decorate A Cake!

Cake decorating is such an amazing art. I am in awe of those of you that can pipe beautiful designs, and in awe of those TV shows where cakes are ridiculously not like a cake!

But -- I do love stamping and decorating cakes -- especially when it's so easy to do with LET'S DECORATE from Picket Fence Studios! I have two cards to share using this set. First up is pink - my favorite color.

I made my background of circles first, using Spun Sugar and Picked Raspberry Distress Oxide Ink and a small 2 1/2" circle stencil from PFS. I stamped my cake and flower decor separately with VersaFine Clair Nocturne, colored with Copics, and then cut out using the coordinating dies. The sentiment is from CHEAT DAY, also from PFS. A few sequins from the same color family, and it was ready to go. I used Silver Metallic cardstock for my background for a party atmosphere. Links to the products are below.

The next card uses colors from the Color Throwdown! I used just the corners of the QUATREFOIL BOUQUET stencil with Abandoned Coral DOX and colored the cake and stand with Copics. Some patterned paper for an added layer, and this second card is a peachy beauty!

Challenges:

Color Throwdown #585
2 Sisters On The Blog - #37 - Dots and/or Stripes

Waving Hello on This Memorial Day

Perfect colors for a project today! I am playing along with the Color Throwdown Challenge 394. My card is made with images from Paper Smooches and designer paper from Echo Park and American Crafts.

I stamped my bird, boat, and sentiment from Wicked Nauticool in Memento Black Ink, and then colored in my boat using Copic markers. I used the Nauticool Die to cut out the boat. The Cherry Baker's Twine and Cherries Jubilee button are from Really Reasonable Ribbon.

And to all in the U.S. -- a blessed Memorial Day.

Celebrating Five Years With The Color Throwdown!

 

I am so thrilled to be a part of the birthday celebration at The Color Throwdown today! I had the honor of being a Guest Designer with them last summer during July. I can't believe that was a year ago! And here we are at the 250th Color Throwdown Challenge! Not only do they have great color combos, but I love each of the women on their team!

Be sure to visit the Color Throwdown Blog for a list of all participating alumni and guest designers, AND.... there are FABULOUS prizes to be had if you join in the challenge too! Check it out for all the deets~!

Here is our color inspiration for this 250th week!

My card today is made using Reverse Confetti's Dream in Color, available at i {heart} papers. I thought it was the perfect set to celebrate the Color Throwdown! 

 

One of my new favorite paper collections is Hip Hip Hooray by American Crafts. It had perfect colors for the challenge. 

I arranged three sentiment pieces on my block and then stamped them on my paper using Memento Rosebud ink. I added a cork arrow from the Fancy Pants' Cork Shapes Label Stickers (from IHP), some banners, and some paper flowers for my embellishments. I had most of these things on my desk already, so it was nice to use something twice before I had to put it away again.

Thanks so much for stopping by to help celebrate CTD250! Don't forget to play along for a chance at those amazing prizes!

I will have Day #3 of Growing in Unity later this morning, so stop back by for a chance to win some Unity too~!

Wine A Little!

Today we have a brand new color challenge for you at the Color Throwdown, courtesy of Tammy! I LOVE these colors together!

I stamped my images in Rich Razzleberry ink and then colored part of the bottle in with Copics and added a gem to the top of the bottle. I added three trims, a couple of patterned papers (Memory Box), a border punch (Martha Stewart), and some more little gems around the sentiment (Recollections).

My images are from Rubbernecker Stamps: Wine Bottle SKU:639-03 and wine a little SKU:640-04.
My trims are from Really Reasonable Ribbon.

Now it's time to check out the AMAZING creations from the rest of the CTD Team!

Barbara Anders
Broni Holcombe
Joan Ervin
Kerri Michaud
Lori Tecler
Lynn Put
Tammy Hershberger  

Wanda Cullen
Judy Rozema (July Guest Designer) <---You are here!


I so enjoyed being the July Guest Designer for the Color Throwdown!