Friday, April 28, 2017

Taylored Expressions: A Pinecone Hello

Living in Colorado and spending lots of weekends and vacations in our mountains, I truly love pine trees.  Here's a couple of pictures I pulled off my phone from last summer!


Pine trees and pinecones make me happy!  I haven't been to the mountains in way too long - and particularly after a long day in an office without windows, I needed a reminder.  So I pulled out my layered pine cone stamp and created this.

KimAPRIL2017SIMPLYSTAMPEDWM

This stamp set also has a fourth layer that can be used for snow which is such a wonderful look for a rustic Christmas (plus most of the sentiments in the set are holiday sentiments!)  But even without the snow, it worked for my pinecone fix!! 

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Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Freshly Made Sketches: HB2U

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! Today we have a sketch byAmy.


I needed a masculine birthday card which can be hard anyway, but this is for a new co-worker whom I know nothing about.  I prefer knowing something...anything...about the recipient of my cards so I can tailor it for them.  For instance, there's one lady at work who is all about purple.  Another lady is a ballroom dancer and a motorcycle rider!!  One guy is a bicyclist - actually was a serious into racing in his past. I also work with a mermaid fanatic!!  I have ideas and stamps for all of those!!

For this gentlemen, I started with a total copy of the sketch - a star, a circle, etc.  But I could not find the right sentiment in my stash. As I was browsing, I saw this birthday balloon with a simple "HB2U".  That seemed simple, yet fun!

FMS HB2U

I wanted some contrast so instead of a circle background, I switched to a square.  I found some scraps of paper in my stash that seemed masculine - yet still colorful.  Wooden stars seemed like a nice accent.  It's basic - but it should work!!

I hope to see you playing along this week!!

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Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Freshly Made Sketches: You Anchor Me

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! Today we have a sketch by Karren.


I had a lot of ideas for this one.  I had pretty much settle on big flowers with patterned centers - but look what came out of my craft time!!

FMS Anchor

I seriously sat down to make flowers.  I even had them picked out.  Then I saw the banner stamps and that got me to thinking about Paper Smooches and I dug through my PS stash, paused on this set and realized how fun it would be with a sailing ship above and anchor below.  I'm usually a brute force cardmaker - try this, try that, try again, photo it, photo again, etc.!!  So when inspiration strikes, I go with it!!

I hope to see you playing along (maybe some of you will do big flowers!!

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The patterned paper is from Echo Park's Splash 6x6 pad.

Saturday, April 15, 2017

Curtain Call: Tulip Blessings

It's time for a new challenge at the Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge: Tulip.


Isn't this just the perfect inspiration photo for today??  Tomorrow is Easter! And, at least in my part of the world, it's a beautiful weekend!  A perfect time to bring out some tulips!

Before I move to my card, be sure to check out our guest designer for our challenge:  Anita Bowden, Neet & Crafty.

My card uses a variety of die sets with the base sets being the Sitting Pretty series which includes the frames, the ledge and the vases.  I found other sets to add tulips to the vases and to add the other Easter themed images.  I pulled the colors from the inspiration and I even used the beadboard in the background!

CC Easter Blessings

I hope to see you playing along with this spring-time challenge - there's so much inspiration in that photo!!  Check out how the other designers used the inspiration at the Curtain Call blog.

Happy Easter!!

He is Risen!!!

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