Freshly Made Sketches: Independence Day

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! Today we have a sketch by Amy and here’s what I did with it!

The picnic basket is an OLD set by Papertrey Ink named Vintage Picnic.  It has multiple baskets and even more toppers and has survived all of my downsizing efforts so I must like it. The sentiment is from the Simply Sentimental series by Trinity Stamps. It's the kind of set I adore because it has multiple "happy" stamp and dies (most can be stand-alone) with even more add-on words including "Independence Day".

Using "Independence Day" was particularly important to me because not only is it my country's celebration but it's my personal celebration of independence. Tomorrow is my last day of work EVER. I am retiring!! I think I'm excited but that mood changes hourly.  I am excited to be leaving work but I am unexpectedly anxious about retirement. There's the financial side (will we outlive our savings), there's the keeping busy side (I've never been a sit around and do nothing person) and then there's the concern of how do I keep from killing my husband (in 35 years, we have never spent this much time together - in fact, we haven't really spent even average time together with work travel and opposite schedules). We have planned carefully for all of it so it all should work.

What I don't have a plan for is where cardmaking stands with all of it. I'd like to think I'd spend so much more time in my craft room but I also know that I have 60 less cards to make every year if I'm not making birthday and Christmas cards and others for office mates. I'll eventually search out a church ministry or veterans organization or something like that - but as I've been sharing on my blog, we are also planning to move so I'm not going to get overly involved in anything here. I only share about one card a week right now although I make more - so maybe my commitment for now is to take the time to photo and share the others.

So Happy Independence Day to the U.S.A. and to me!!!

I hope to see you playing along with us this week at Freshly Made Sketches.

SUPPLY LIST

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Vintage Picnic (and dies), Trinity Stamps Simply Sentimental - Happy (and dies)

Cardstock: Stampin' Up Crumb Cake, Poppy Parade, Azure Afternoon, Blueberry Bushel

Sunday Stamps: Paper Posy Thank You

I saw the gorgeous colors at Sunday Stamps and just had to play along. I love the corals and blues, and especially the two rich colors as accents.

I needed a thank you card this week and I already had a plan of using this new-to-me floral die set. I absolutely love the variety of flowers and especially the embossed detail.  My card uses just a handful of the options and I'm looking forward to using all of them.  It's from Concord & 9th and I have a number of bold sentiments from them to balance the flowers so for this one, I found a "thank you". 

I had all of this sitting on my desk but just hadn't quite figured out what to do with it all until I saw the color challenge. Not only did I use the colors but I clearly was inspired by the big image! A big thank you to Sunday Stamps for the inspiration!

SUPPLY LIST

Dies: Concord & 9th Happy Thanks die, Paper Posy dies

Cardstock: MFT Peach Bellini, Coral Crush, Lazy Day, and Jalapeno Popper, Stampin' Up Night of Navy

Other: Concord & 9th Paper Posy embossing folder, Stampin' Up Pinewood Planks embossing folder and Muted Palette Dots

Freshly Made Sketches: His Love

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! Today we have a sketch by Narelle and here’s what I did with it!

 

You can see that I didn't quite get it right but hopefully you can see that I was inspired by it! I shrunk it down a little with a smaller rectangle cut into the card front because I had settled on those butterflies and they just didn't fill the entire card front. Then those same butterflies became a problem with the sentiment. I had picked a very small sentiment and had every intention to place it across the butterfly as the sketch would indicate but the butterfly was too small and I lost too much of it with the sentiment.

I've been sending regular cards to my 20-year old niece who is working at a church camp this summer and can't even have her phone - but can get mail. I've used up my stash of appropriate cards already, although in fairness most of my stash is for my adult sons and for all my friends who are generally of the same vintage as I am - so it didn't take long to clean out the more youthful, female cards. For a new card, the sketch quickly drew me to butterflies and then this butterfly from Birch Press jumped out at me because it wasn't frilly and detailed, just fun. I went for cheerful colors and then found a scrap for the background that grounded them with the browns and more muted colors. 

I found a perfect pair of stamps in Simon Says Tiny Words Faith. They aren't in the stamp set as separate sentiments, not a pair, but I love how it worked out for my niece working at summer camp. With the outside sentiment being "His love guides us", the inside says "You are exactly where you're meant to be". I have so much respect for her decision to work at a camp and I rather doubt she's struggling at all - but just in case she's homesick or overwhelmed, I wanted the butterflies there to remind her she's in the right place!

I hope to see you playing along with us this week at Freshly Made Sketches.

SUPPLY LIST

Stamps; Simon Says Stamp Tiny Words Faith

Dies: Birch Press Simple Butterfly Contour Layers, Taylored Epxressions Diagonal Stitch Rectangle Stacklets

Paper: Studio Calico Printshop! Paper Pad, Stampin' Up Bubble Bath, Pretty in Pink, So Saffron, Marigold Morning, Coastal Cabana, Summer Splash, Pecan Pie

Freshly Made Sketches: Thanks Berry Much

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! Today we have a sketch by Michele and here’s what I did with it!

I actually made this a few weeks back (a big thank you to Michele for having her sketch ready for the design team early!) I tell you that because I'm sure you are getting tired of stories of my trip to Michigan but this is another card related to that trip.  I wanted something to give to my son and his girlfriend on the last day of the trip to say thank you. Sarah (my son's girlfriend) likes strawberries so I found a strawberry stem in my die collection to match the sketch. I wanted to do something fun with the sentiment to mirror the sketch but I just had to go punny and used the only Thank You Berry Much that I could find.

I hope to see you playing along with us at Freshly Made Sketches!

SUPPLY LIST

Stamps: Gina K Fun Fruit (and dies)

 Dies: Spellbinders Strawberry Patch (Die of the Month Aug 22)

Cardstock: Taylored Expressions Peapod and Granny Apple Green, Stampin' Up Real Red, Poppy Parade, Vary Vanilla, Daffodil Delight

Other: Stampin' Up Cane Weave 3D embossing folder, Loose Frosted Dots (old)

Freshly Made Sketches: Oh Thank You

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! Today we have a sketch by Karren and here’s what I did with it!

 

I had two requirements for making a card this week - it had to be a thank you and it had to include a cat. My son and his girlfriend took so much time away from their beloved Bucket while showing us around Michigan that I figured I had to send a thank you directly to the cat thanking him for sharing his parents with us.  He's a beautiful cat with a gorgeous coat that's kind of gray, kind of tannish but where most cats have white, his is beige. Here's a pic that shows his coat even though he's looking at the camera upside down while hanging off the edge of the bed.

I kind of forced my needs into the sketch.  I found a round thank you then found a kitty that could be standing next to it. Since Bucket's a boy, it had to be slightly masculine, but since I'm really doing it for Sarah, my son's girlfriend, I picked paper with a hint of pink and yellow too. 

The brick was inspired in a completely different way.  Just the plain blue was not enough so I started playing with my usual polka dots, etc. but they didn't have a "rugged" look to match the look of the paper. Then I was remembering and smiling at the fact that Andrew and Sarah shared that they regularly had "Zillow-time" together. They have a plan for their future and browsing Zillow looking for what/where their dream house could be is an important step. For some reason, that was in my head and out popped the brick embossing folder looking just like the side of a house!!

I hope to see you playing along with us this week at Freshly Made Sketches.

SUPPLY LIST

Dies: Die-Versions Oh Thank You, Simon Says Stamp Kitty Cat, Papertrey Ink Bows Galore

Paper: Stampin' Up Boho Vibes 6x6 dsp, cardstock in Cloud Cover, Daffodil Delight, Secret Sea, Cajun Craze and Sahara Sand

Other: Stampin' Up Brick & Mortar embossing folder

Freshly Made Sketches: Let's Celebrate

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! Today we have a sketch by the fabulously creative Cécile and here’s what I did with it!

Not only was I inspired by the sketch on this one - but also by the gift bag!

Given the number of birthdays and other events coming up this month, I knew right away that I would cut balloons out of the Paper Rose Balloon Trio and arrange them around the square as shown in the sketch. I didn't have anything in my mind after that but I had the gift bag and the light bulb came on that I could use the same colors. Then I realized there was even more inspiration in the bag - I added embossed stripes and embossed dots! (I won't tell you how many colors and background I played around with before I realized the inspiration was right there in front of me.)

We spent part of last week visiting our son and his girlfriend in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I have never been in Michigan, but more importantly I hadn't met his very-serious girlfriend. We all played tourists and I have to say, I was very impressed with the state - so many cute and vibrant downtowns in the various "suburbs" with unique stores and restaurants, plus amazing natural beauty including really big (or great) lakes!!  And the girlfriend is absolutely wonderful. It's so good for a mother's heart to see their child settling into a happy life!

I hope to see you playing along with us at Freshly Made Sketches.

SUPPLY LIST

Stamps: Altenew Sentiment Strips 2

Dies: Paper Rose Balloon Trio

Cardstock: Stampin' Up Pacific Point, Tahitian Tide, Poppy Parade and Daffodil Delight, Taylored Expressions Candy Corn

Othher: Stampin' Up Stripes embossing folder, Polka Dots embossing folder

Freshly Made Sketches: Happy BDay

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! Today we have a sketch by Jen Brum and here’s what I did with it!

I've had this die set in my not-yet-used stash for quite some time. It's been so long that it's retired! I don't even know why it took so long because I love the look of both of the words. With the rectangle on the sketch, I had the perfect chance to use it. I knew I'd need color contrast to make the "happy" stand. The confetti paper on top actually has shiny gold confetti in it (although I didn't realize until this moment that you can't tell in the photo) and I was thrilled when I saw it because the navy and gold work well together.

We're heading out tomorrow for a five days in Ann Arbor, Michigan. My oldest son lives there with his very serious girlfriend and I'm embarrased to say we haven't visited them yet. Although we are there to see them, they have a packed tourist schedule planned for us. We'll see his world - apartment, work, favorite restaurants - and we'll see quite a bit of the area - orchards, museums, and a Great Lake. He's really excited about his life right now and I'm thrilled. And I love that after this trip, I'll be able to imagine him in his daily life!

I hope to see you playing along with us this week at Freshly Made Sketches.

SUPPLY LIST

Die: The Stamp Market Happy Bday

Paper: Stampin' Up Birthday Bash (really old!), Night of Navy cardstock, Concord & 9th Neutral Foils Paper Pack

Other: Stampin' Up Iridescent Sequin Assortment