Freshly Made Sketches #690

Hello everyone! We have a new sketch today at Freshly Made Sketches and our faraway dear friend, Karren, is the hostess! We are just getting into summer temperatures and I wanted something light and airy. So I went with lighter, non-traditional colors for my card today.

I love this beautiful Christmas Bird Poinsettia Etched Die Set from Spellbinders. What a festive and fun set. The bird also has a Santa hat and there is a candy cane as well, but for today's color scheme, I left those things for another time. The sentiment is from the Make It Merry Sentiments. A little striped paper in the background gives interest to the die cuts and follows the sketch. 

I hope you will join our sketch challenge this week, and add your creations to our gallery. I look forward to seeing your ideas! This week's challenge will end at 3:00 EDT time on Monday, June 16. Be sure to take a peek at the gorgeous designs my talented teamies have made on th FMS blog to inspire you!

Freshly Made Sketches #602

This week's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches is brought to us by the very talented Kim! I had the absolute pleasure of meeting Kim and her husband earlier this summer when they passed through my little town! It was such fun to meet one of the team in real life!

I used the Holiday Dove Floral from CottageCutz for my sweet main "images". It is an all-in-one die, so you are cutting all of the pieces at once, and then again in whatever other colors you wish. One of the advantages to that is that you never lose the little tiny dies! They're all connected! The sentiment is from Spellbinders' Christmas Floral Die, and the embossing folder is Spellbinders' Forevergreen. 

I hope you will join our sketch challenge this week, and add your creations to our gallery. This week's challenge will end at 3:00 EDT time on Monday, September 11th. Don't miss all of the amazing creations from the DT on the FMS blog to inspire you!

And here is a photo of Kim and me at a fun coffee shop where we met!

Freshly Made Sketches #596

Hello everyone! We have a new sketch today at Freshly Made Sketches and it is my pleasure to host! It's Christmas in July -- only because this week is the hottest week we have had so far this summer. I am happy to have summer a lot longer -- if it would stay a little cooler and rainier! So I went with lighter, non-traditional colors for my card today.

I recently got this beautiful Christmas Bird Poinsettia Etched Die Set from Spellbinders and could hardly wait to play with it. What a festive and fun set. The bird also has a Santa hat and there is a candy cane as well, but for today's color scheme, I left those things for another time. The sentiment is from the Make It Merry Sentiments. A little striped paper in the background gives interest to the die cuts.

The idea of the sketch is to work with the top half and leave the bottom half of your card clean or "blank".

I hope you will join our sketch challenge this week, and add your creations to our gallery. I look forward to seeing your ideas! This week's challenge will end at 3:00 EDT time on Monday, July 31st. Be sure to take a peek at the gorgeous designs my talented teamies have made on the FMS blog to inspire you!

Other challenges:

• Dream Valley Challenges - #298 - Christmas in July 

Freshly Made Sketches #577

Hello! Happy new sketch day from Freshly Made Sketches! It is my pleasure to be the hostess and sketch designer this week. I have chosen a trio of shapes (shown in the sketch as circles) for you to play with. I hope you will join us!

I have had this stamp and die set (SB) forever and have never used it. And per my usual, by the time I get around to using things, they are retired, as is the case with this set. But I thought it was perfect for the sketch, and a fun, quirky greeting!

I used a cover plate from Reverse Confetti for the background, and a bit of designer paper from Honey Bee Stamps. I colored both images with Copics, and then added salt to my pretzel with a Posca Paint Pen. A trio of sequins for bling!

I hope you will join our sketch challenge, and add your creations to our gallery. We would love to see what you make! 

This challenge will end at 3:00 EDT time on Monday, March 20. Be sure to take a peek at the gorgeous cards my teammates have created on the FMS blog to inspire you. There are some beautiful and very creative designs there! Have fun with the sketch!

Freshly Made Sketches #576

Hello! Happy new sketch day from Freshly Made Sketches! Our hostess this week is the incredibly talented Amy! I love her style, and I think you will have fun playing with ideas for her sketch.

I started by stamping my large background stamp (SB) with embossing ink, and then embossing with Alabaster White EP (Brutus Monroe). My background color was made by blending three Distress Oxide inks (Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn, Lucky Clover) on TH Distress Watercolor Cardstock. I splattered with water and let dry. I cut two clovers (Lawn Fawn), the Birthday die (SB/Yana), and the word "happy" (SSS) and adhered to my background using Connect Glue (GKD). 

I hope you will join our sketch challenge, and add your creations to our gallery. We would love to see what you make! 

This challenge will end at 3:00 EST time on Monday, March 13. Be sure to take a peek at the gorgeous cards my teammates have created on the FMS blog to inspire you. There are some beautiful and very creative designs there! Have fun with the sketch!

I am also entering this in The Card Concept Lucky Charm #190 challenge. I was inspired by all of the green and the little clover for my Mixed Media card.

Happy Birthday, America!

Happy Independence Day!

Today I am sharing some beautiful dies from Spellbinders Paper Arts:  Birthday Wishes Vignette Etched Dies from Beautiful Sentiment Vignettes Collection by Becca Feeken.

I started with navy cardstock for the die base and then die cut and made the layers with white cardstock. I popped up the Birthday Wishes sentiment with foam tape. I have such a lovely collection of paper roses, and was happy to use two of the colors on this card - Earth Tone and Mixed Pink (Really Reasonable Ribbon). Not quite red, white, and blue traditional, but close!

I used a patterned paper from my stash for the card base background with a Sahara Sand base. I love the elegance of the dies! You can find the rest of the collection HERE.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Spellbinders Heart Swans

Have you seen the new Truly Yours Collection from Spellbinders? Today I am sharing a card made with the new Heart Swans Etched Dies. They are simply gorgeous! Ten dies, including facing swans, flowers, and leaves!

I think black swans are so unique and beautiful. My swan's wing is lined with silver metallic cardstock (CutCardStock) to match the leaves and sentiment (Spring Flutter - Small Die of the Month). I cut out all of my dies first, and arranged them on the Oval 2 from the Elliptical Ovals Etched Dies (also new from Truly Yours!).

I popped up some of the flowers, and the swan. Don't you love that little sparkly crown? The sentiment is cut three times, and stacked up for dimension. The starry holographic patterned paper (The Paper Studio) was the perfect background to show off the dies!

Be sure to check out the rest of the Truly Yours Collection - it's beautiful!

Submitting to these challenges:
Crafty Animals - Always Anything Goes
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper - Anything Goes with Patterned Paper
Happy Little Stampers Dies - Anything Goes with Dies

Freshly Made Sketches #488

Happy Wednesday! It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. The very talented Jen M is our hostess this week.

I took a few liberties with the sketch this week, but hopefully you can see the resemblance. Ha!

It's rare that I don't have some kind of sentiment or word die on the front of my cards. But today, I wanted a simple and elegant design without either of those things.

I used the new Cameo Etched Dies from the Truly Yours Collection from Spellbinders Paper Arts. I cut the Laurel Frame, flowers, and leaves from a watercolored panel, and the Cameo Silhouette from Crumb Cake (SU!) cardstock. I added a rhinestone (Kaiser) to the flower in her hair. 

I hope you will join our sketch challenge this week, and add your creations to our gallery! This challenge will end at 3:00 EDT time on Monday, June 7.  

Be sure to take a peek at what my teammates have made on the FMS blog!