Freshly Made Sketches: Lights for a Purple-Lover

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 knew right away what I was going to do with this sketch. I love it when that happens.  I had sorted out all of my Christmas cards and realized I only had five people for whom I didn't have just the right card. My purple-loving workmate was one of them so a string of purple Christmas lights was exactly what I needed to do.  Isn't that just the best part of this hobby?!

I had recently spent an afternoon playing in my Stampin' Up demo's craft room and did a number of cards with this set. In fact, I enjoyed it so much, I ended up ordering it for myself! Probably a silly thing to do because I've already made quite a few with it and there will always the next new thing. So I figured I'd get this one card made with it just in case it doesn't come out to play again.

FYI: The star is not the one that comes with the Merry & Bright dies. There's only one star die and I was too lazy to run it through the Big Shot six times. So I just used a punch to quickly get the six stars.

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

SUPPLIES

Stamps: Stampin' Up Merry & Bright (and dies)

Ink: Stampin' Up Gorgeous Grape and Highland Heather, Taylored Expressions Lavender Glaze, Jelly Donut and Eggplant

Paper: Memory Box Polished Foil Pad and Majestic Hues Glitter Pad

Other: Star Punch

Freshly Made Sketches: Merry Joyful 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!

This was kind of a selfish sketch because I knew that I had some large Christmas dies that I had not yet used so I left lots of open space. Then while I don't use a lot of patterned paper, I love a splash of it so I included the banner/stripe across the bottom. That was the idea anyway.  I couldn't find patterned paper that I wanted to use - none of my paper seemed bright and bold enough to anchor that tree. So I created my own using strips of cardstock in the colors that I wanted. 

The tree is by Simon Says Stamp and it's one of those wonderful dies that does all the work! Not that there isn't a lot that you could do with it, but I think it works just backed by red.  The only fiddly part of it is adhering the centers of the As, Os and Rs. So if I'd actually found patterned paper that I wanted to use, this would have been an extremely quick and easy card.

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

SUPPLY LIST

Dies: Simon Says Stamp Holiday Stack

Cardstock: Taylored Expressions Cilantro, Lime Zest and Cupcake, Stampin' up Poppy Parade and Flirty Flamingo

Other: Stampin' Up Polka Dot embossing folder

Freshly Made Sketches: Peeking Snowman

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! Today we have a sketch by Linda.  On Monday, I posted what I think might have been the cutest die of last year.  Today, I have what is defnitely the cutest die of this year!!

I had seen the Hero Arts Peeking Snowman die set on various online stores but it hadn't made it into my cart yet.  Then one day I saw it used by a couple of popular cardmakers so I went right to my favorite store and popped it into my cart.  I was happily adding other things to my cart (to justify the postage, don't you know!?!)  Mind you, I have a wishlist, so things were going into my cart quickly and while I was doing that - up popped the dreaded "out of stock" warning on the snowman.  I guess I wasn't the only one who saw those cards.  After a month of waiting, this guy finally was in stock and now it's in my collection!

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

SUPPLY LIST

Stamps: The Greetery Sentiment Suite: Christmas

Dies: Hero Arts Peeking Snowman

Paper: Bella Blvd Holly Jolly Christmas

Other: Simon Says Stamps Wooden Planks EF

Holiday Polar Bear

This guy is about as cute as it gets!  He's a Memory Box die from last year and I just could not let another year go by without using him!

The polar bear is the Layered Polar Bear, but his scarf is from Tall Bundled Snowman who is also very cute!  I adore his expression.  He's very easy to put together with just a few big pieces, then his feet.  I did the black on his face by cutting a small black circle and putting it behind the white so I didn't even fiddle with those small pieces.

The paper is Knit Picky from Lawn Fawn.  I LOVE the knit background and his scarf is from the other pattern in the pad.  They each come in multiple colors - so perfect for these wintery scenes. 

The sentiment is from Poppystamps. It's not exactly what I wanted to say but it pops nicely. Wjat the picture doesn't show well is that it is embossed in silver so works well with the winter scene.

So this is my unofficial pick for cutest die from last year - come back for my Wednesday post which will use my favorite cute die from this year!

SUPPLY LIST

Stamps: Poppystamps Christmas Quotes

Dies: Memory Box Layered Polar Bear, Tall Bundled Snowman (just the scarf), Trinity Embossed Edge Circle, Taylored Expressions Stitched Rectangles Stacklets, Lawn Fawn Mini Snowflakes

Paper: Lawn Fawn Knit Picky 6x6 dsp, Taylored Expressions Salt Water Taffy. Michaels Recollections Inkjet Printable Glitter Paper

Other: Wow Polished Silver Super Fine Embossing Powder, Buttons Galore Aquamarine gems

Freshly Made Sketches: Saw That

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

Santa got out his Christmas stationary and wrote one of my sons a note!  I've used this stamp set a number of times for them, and when I saw the sketch for this week, I knew the set would come out again.  Both of my sons are slowly moving into adulthood and they seem to be doing it in a very adult way (at their age, I was not nearly as calm and settled - but it was the 80s!)  So the sentiment does not entirely fit them, but I'm not quite ready to give it up.

I found a scrap of plaid paper and found some bright green to go with it. The notebook paper die seemed a little too big for the sentiment so I decided to add some trees and snowflakes and am calling it Christmas stationary.  The background and the notebook paper is a naturals type white paper with the flecks. I stamped Santa on plain white so his beard would pop and then fussy cut him.

Now I just have to decide which son deserves this!

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

SUPPLY LIST

Stamps: Essentials by Ellen Tis the Season

Dies: Papertrey Ink Spiral Notebook, Stampin' Up Sizzlits Merry Details for the trees (REALLY old!), Lawn Fawn Mini Snowflakes

Paper: Plaid from scrap bin, Stampin' Up Granny Apple Green

Other: Stampin' Up Polka Dots Embossing Folder

Freshly Made Sketches: Christmas Ribbons

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

 

Even though the sketch has circles, my mind immediately saw bows and ribbons. I had that all cut out before I had any idea what I was going to do for a sentiment. I thought about a gift tag or tags but they just hid too much of the ribbon then I realized that this sentiment set by Hello Bluebird was the right size and had multiple options that could work together.

A shout out to Brian King and his blog Stamp with Brian.  If you are into Stampin' Up (or even if you are not), you definitely need to follow him.  Not only wonderful cards - but he also gives color combos and that's my shout out today. I know the color combination on my card isn't all that unique - but it is for me.  It would never have occurred to me to pair Calypso Coral with classic Christmas colors. Not to mention, Mossy Meadow doesn't come out often for me (although as I'm typing this, I really don't why - it's gorgeous).  This is a trio of colors from this post on his blog and I thank him for the inspiration!

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

SUPPLY LIST

Stamps: Hello Bluebird Typed Christmas

Dies: Papertrey Ink Bows Galore

Cardstock: Stampin' Up Calypso Coral, Poppy Parade and Mossy Meadow

Other: Spellbinders Scattered Christmas Embossing Folder of the Month (Oct 2022), Stampin' Up Embellishments Toile Tidings Glitter Enamel Dots (real red), Adhesive-Backed Speckled Dots (mossy meadow), Fine Sparkle Adhesive-Backed Gems (calypso coral)