Freshly Made Sketches: Let's Celebrate

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!

I probably cheated a little on this sketch with two balloons and a sentiment vs. the three circles but I thought a third balloon at the bottom of the card had the sad look of the day after a party when the balloons have all deflated!! I really need birthday cards and the balloon idea was so strong in my head that I just couldn't change it so I opted for a second sentiment at the bottom. (Of course, two of my teammates used balloons with one at the bottom and it actually looks fabulous!) 

I used to play along with multiple challenges at once, but one of the sad downsides of getting older is that multi-tasking becomes harder!!  I can't remember the last time that one of my cards was for more than one challenge.  This card was for the same college-aged niece as last week's card and I wanted something unique. I had seen the colors at Hand Stamped Sentiments and realized I never use any of the colors so they defnitely seemed unique (at least to me!) and they were very bright and cheerful for a birthday card.

Thanks to both challenges for the inspiration!

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

SUPPLY LIST

Stamps: Poppystamps Birthday Banners and die set

Dies: My Favorite Things Party Balloons, Waffle Flower Balloon Ties, Paper Rose Happy Birthday Chunky Layered

Paper: Stampin' Up Gingham Gala, cardstock in Petunia Pop, Lemon-Lime Twist and Highland Heather, Taylored Expressions Sea Salt

Other: Taylored Expressions Sprinkles embossing folder, YNS Stamps Garden Sparkly Gumdrops

Freshly Made Sketches: Pop Heart

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!

This one was a stretch for me and I'm still cringing a little. It's intended for my college-aged niece so I wanted to use a unique color scheme. I pulled out an older paper pack from Stampin' Up named Playing with Patterns that has very unusual color pairings (in my opinion). I've used many of the single color or two-colors patterns from the pack but this is the first time I used one that put them all together.  Not sure I love it. I don't hate it or I would have made something else to show you.

I do like the big heart die - it's Pop Heart from Concord & 9th. It has the fun look that I wanted for my niece. That's probably what pulled the card together for me. I don't really like the card - but I LOVE the heart!  

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

SUPPLY LIST

Dies: Concord & 9th Pop Heart Dies, Taylored Expressions Postage Stamp Edger

Paper: Stampin' Up Playing with Patterns and cardstock in Calypso Coral, Coastal Cabana, Night of navy and Purple Posy

Other: Stampin' Up Playing with Patterns Resin Dots 

Freshly Made Sketches: Birthday Balloon Wishes

Happy New Year!!!  And what better way to start the year than with 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!

I love Cécile's sketch exactly as it is with snowflakes, but before I saw the sketch I had scared myself a little by looking at all of the upcoming birthday cards that I need to make. I had already decided that no matter what the sketch was, I had to make it work for a birthday - thus the balloons!!

The patterned balloons are from Paper Rose. I love their "sparkly" decorations! I found a bigger plain balloon and surrounded it with the decorative balloons. Then following the sketch, I pulled out a pre-printed sheet of sentiments and I closely trimmed the "birthday wishes".  I struggled a bit with the background although it's hard to tell when you see how simple I went. I tried colors and dsp and stitched borders and more. I like where it ended up though. It's fun but the balloons are still the showcase. 

I hope you decide to play along with us. Maybe this will be your first card of a year full of crafting enjoyment!

SUPPLY LIST

Dies: Paper Rose Balloon Trio, Scrapbook.com Nested Stitched Balloons (the big orange one), Essential by Ellen Square Frames

Cardstock: Stampin' Up Mango Melody, Flirty Flamingo, Daffodil Delight, Lemon Lime Twist

Other: Taylored Expressions Embossing Folders: Sprinkles and Diagnoal Stripes, Creative Expressions Birthday Wordies Sentiment Sheets, Pink & Main Enamel Dots

Fa La La Duo

Here are my last two cards for this year!

My oldest son and his girlfriend recently got a cat.  The cat is a "teenager" and came from the streets. He seems to be a loving little guy but also feisty. With the new addition, I wanted a card specifically for him so I got the Stocking Cat die from Simon Says Stamp. Then there was a nice Concord & 9th sale and one of the things I picked up was the Fa La La Inlay die. I thought I was going to be able to walk by this die, but then I saw this card by Amy Tsuruta that only filled in the Fa La La in the upper right corner and I knew I needed it.  It's such a fun and quirky look! With both the cat and the Fa La La on my desk, it was meant to be. (FYI: The bow did not come with the cat set; I just wanted to add a bit more green.)  

It was such a fun look that I decided to use the same idea for a card for my youngest son. (We will all be multiple states apart this Christmas, so he'll never know his idea was copied - although totally different!)  His card centered around the inside sentiment that was just too perfect for us given this December has been all about "when are we getting to Total Wine again (known as Liquor World in my house!) for more bourbon cream....or Wrexham lager...or their #1 wine of the year Harvester Paso Robles"!  He's the beer; I'm the wine, but we're both thrilled by a good bourbon or whiskey!

A lot of thought went into these drinks.  First, there should be a mug of beer on them but I didn't have anything in my collection that was big enough...not that I'm against shopping for more. I did have an old fashioned glass in the Halloween set - Trinity Stamps Creepy Cocktail - and just used it without the creepy parts!  (Hey Trinity Stamps, what about add-ons for this set for other holidays? It's a fantastic set!) I added a big round ice cube which apparently is the way to do it, but I hate them. My son gives me no end of grief that I just use ice from the ice maker.  And, of course, the most important part is the Luxardo cherry! If those small containers of cherries weren't $25, I'd eat the whole thing! (The biggest thrill this season was finding a two-pack at Costco!)  Then the yellow holly berries did start as artistic license but I looked it up as I was writing this and they exist!

I am done and can relax! Merry Christmas to all!!!

SUPPLY LIST

Dies: Concord & 9th Fa La La Inlay

Dies for Cat: Simon Says Stamp Stocking Cat

Dies for Beverages: Trinity Stamps Creepy Cocktails, miscellaneous holly and berries

Cardstock: Stampin' Up Pretty Peacock, Lost Lagoon, Poppy Parade, Granny Apple Green, Crushed Curry, Gray Granite

Freshly Made Sketches: Noel Ornaments

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 was inspired by the sketch but used ornaments instead of circles. I was also inspired by my teammate Jacquie and her card from last week's sketch. She added the five letters from "HAPPY" on top of the five stripes and I loved it! So four ornaments and happily there is a Christmas word with four letters!

This is an older set of ornaments from My Favorite Things but they are exactly what I needed. Fairly small and not decorative so the letters fit perfectly. I picked bright and cheerful colors. Then to add to the fun, I added one of my favorite embossing folders directly behind them - Spellbinders Scattered Christmas. (It was a club embossing folder at Spellbinders and I joined a club just so I could have access to it!)  I tried a number of patterned dsp for the bottom green layer - but so typical for me, I ended up just embossing it with diagonal stripes.

This is our last sketch of the year but we'll be back with more starting on January 1st!  Enjoy the sketch and, if you celebrate, enjoy the holidays!

SUPPLY LIST

Dies: My Favorite Things Christmas Ornaments (old!), Lawn Fawn Cole's ABCs 

Cardstock: Stampin' Up Granny Apple Green, Poppy Parade, Balmy Blue, Flirty Flamingo

Other: Spellbinders Diagonal Stripes Slimline embossing folder and Scattered Christmas embossing folder, Studio Katia Silver Foil pearls

Freshly Made Sketches: The Jolly Season

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

 

I'm always fairly selfish when I'm creating the FMS sketch for the week.  In this case, I had multiple big and fun sentiments in my not-yet-used stash and I thought a quirky background would work for any of them. Doing this sketch forced me into the background and the sentiment!

I pulled out some of the brightest and quirkiest Christmas paper that I had and made the stripes. Then I settled on the "jolly" sentiment from Photo Play. The biggest struggle I had was colors for the sentiment and mini strip on top of it. I can hardly tell you how many backgrounds and jolly's that I cut.  (Sadly, I have to see something in real life to know whether it does or doesn't work.) I really wanted to pull the dark blue from the paper into some element of it, but it just didn't look Christmasy enough. So the paper and strips took about 5 minutes, then that battle of the colors took another hour.  Thank goodness I like the process, because my process is ridiculously long!

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

SUPPLY LIST

Stamps: Photo Play Jolly

Dies: Photo Play Jolly Word/Shadow, Sentiment Strips

Paper: Bella Blvd Holly Jolly Christmas

Other: Buttons Galore Caribbean Sea Doo Dadz

Nordic Noel: Elegant

I posted a Nordic Noel card on Saturday and mentioned that I wanted to do a couple more things with this die set before I moved it out of my not-yet-used stash. Today's card came together quickly and easily so I already have one more done. I think with the stitching and the beautiful cut-outs, the die can stand alone.

While I said it could stand alone, it felt like just the 'noel' on the paper seemed a little flat. I browsed other cards with this set and saw that many have added a smaller sentiment strip. So I browsed my Concord & 9th set and found this small "merry christmas" that seemed to fit perfectly.  The backer is a metallic silver but not super sparkly or bright because I wanted to be sure the white "noel" stood out.  To give it a bit of sparkle, I sprinkled on a few glittery stars.

SUPPLY LIST

Stamps: Concord & 9th Big on Christmas stamp set

Dies: Concord & 9th Nordic Noel

Paper: Stampin' Up Whimsy & Wonder, Misty Moonlight CS, the silver is a scrap so unknown

Other: The Stamp Market Silver Glitter STars