Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Freshly Made Sketches: A Special Mom

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches and guess what, it's a sketch by me!


I am challenging you to go over the edge! I want to see something hanging off the edge of the card. You might want to consider adjusting the size of the front of your card so that it still fits in a regular envelope.  For example, if your shape goes over the edge by 1/4", make your card front only 4" wide instead of the standard 4 1/4".  If your shape goes over by 1/2", make your card front 3 3/4", etc.  I hope you have fun with this - I'm looking forward to seeing how you handle this challenge!

I recently picked up some flowers and flower dies by Essentials by Ellen, and I thought this sketch was a perfect place to highlight them.  The flowers have a matching stamp set, and I started out using the stamps with my brand new ombre stamp pads, but quickly realized that the stamp pads are simply not in colors that I liked (but it was a great effect!)  I ended up just using the dies and finding paper with an ombre effect so that there is a slight color variation across the flowers.

Special Mom

I hope to see you play along - I love browsing the Freshly Made Sketches gallery and seeing the amazing variety of uses of each sketch!
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The stamp is an old Hero Arts wood block stamp - just a classic stamp that I'll never let go of!  The paper is also hard to find - it's We-R-Memory Keepers Chalkboard 6x6.  
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Monday, April 27, 2015

Taylored Expressions: Petal Pop-Ups 2 Die

In my home, I don't get sweet or elegant Mother's Day cards, my teenage boys and husband always go for the funny and sarcastic kind.  I don't ever make cards for them to give me - that would be making it way too easy for them. But if I did, the following card would be perfect.  (Except they would probably say "I turned out fabulous in spite of you!"

Petal Pop-Ups 2 for Mom

It's such a fun sentiment - I wanted it surrounded by bold and unique flowers.  These are the Petal Pop-Ups 2 die from Taylored Expressions.  There are three sizes as you can see from the big polka dot, the middle sizes and the smaller one on the orange flower.  I bent each petal to get tons of dimension.

Petal Pop-Ups Close-Up

Every once in awhile, I wish that I would get beautiful, sweet and elegant cards - but I wouldn't trade my loud, funny and goofy guys for anything.  I know they turned out fabulous!!

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Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Taylored Expressions: Inspired by Pinterest

Taylored Expressions maintains a fabulous array of Pinterest Boards sorted by product and some by theme.  It's a fabulous source of inspiration and the Baker's Dozen design team is tasked with showing you how we were inspired by a card.  I fell in love with Jen's card found here.


I love the her color scheme!  And I love the texture and patterns.  It's all perfect for a very warm and thoughtful card.  I have to admit that I already knew what product that I wanted to use before I started browsing Pinterest - the Up, Up and Away Cutting Plate.  I had envisioned bright, almost neon, party colors - but I was so inspired by Jen's card that I went with the warm and rustic look.

Taylored Expressions: Up, Up and Away

I was also inspired by her touch of texture and by the hint of patterns - not to mention the blue die cut word and the twine bow!!

I love this cutting plate - it was a must-have for me (even before I was on the design team!)  The balloons, strings and frame are one die cut which makes it really easy to work with. Then there are extra balloon dies you can use to change the colors of the balloons. 

Up, Up and Away Close

A big thank you to Jen and all of the inspiration that she provides!!


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Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge: More Bouquets

Just a reminder that there is still time to play along with the challenge at the Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge: Bouquet.


Our sponsor is Penny Black and there are prizes available!!  Be sure to check out the challenge link above. 

I am using two different Penny Black sets on this card.  A fabulous floral set called Pretty Petals and a set of sentiments called Heartfelt.  I have to admit that I had a lot of false starts on this card.  I was trying to come up with some unique and creative way to totally showcase the gorgeous flowers.  I tried vellum, I tried Distress Inks, I tried a variety of layouts.  But I finally woke up and realized that these flowers can stand alone.  They can be works of art (just check out other design team cards from and also the Penny Black blog), but they can also stand by themselves with the right sentiment and make a great card.

The Little Things

Those simple flowers, blowing in the breeze, just make me smile!!

They can also be elegant.

So Sorry

I hope to see you playing along with the challenge - it's a good time to be thinking about "bouquets". You don't need to use Penny Black to play - but there is a gift certificate available for a randomly selected participant!!

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The red background paper is Stampin' Up's retired Poppy Parade.

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Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge: Bouquet

This is my second post today.  My take on the new sketch at Freshly
Made Sketches if just a post away!

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


We have a new sponsor, Penny Black, for the Curtain Call Inspiration: Bouquet!  A randomly selected participant in the Bouquet challenge will have their choice of a Penny Black gift certificate, while the LEAD will be invited as a Guest Designer in a future challenge!

 Penny Black was gracious enough to supply the design team with a stamp set for this challenge and I picked the Pretty Petals.  It's a lovely set of various natural-looking groups of flowers, many of them blowing in the breeze.  Of course, I had no shortage of Penny Black dies in my own stash to add to the image.

I love the colors in the challenge graphic, so I wanted to be sure to use purples, reds and some soft blues and greens.

Celebrate

The long word die is from Penny Black's Doodles die set which includes three different sentiments.  Besides "celebrate", there is also "hello" and "smile".  The butterfly is from one of my most used butterfly sets, Penny Black's Flights of Fancy.  There is a big solid butterfly and a number of smaller butterflies, both from the top and the side view above.  (If you get their Swirling Wings die too, there's a scrollwork butterfly that fits on top of the solid die in Flights of Fancy.)

I hope you are challenge by the inspiration photo and that you play along!  Remember, you don't have to use Penny Black products.

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Freshly Made Sketches: Zinnia for Mother

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches!


I thought this sketch was just calling out for a tall flower only to discover that I had amazingly few tall flowers in my stamp collection.  But I did have this brand new set from Taylored Expressions - and I absolutely adore the layered look of the flower.

Zinnia for Mother

The design team at Freshly Made Sketches never fails to amaze me.  While I clearly saw this as a sketch for a tall flower - you won't believe the fun and creative ideas the team came up with.  Be sure to check it out - then I hope you play along!

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The inks are a variety of brands and colors that I thought worked well for layering.

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