Wednesday, May 21, 2025

Freshly Made Sketches: Birthday Bunny

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! Today we have the first sketch by a new member to our team, Verena, and here’s what I did with it!

Bunny Wishes


I have a lot of cards that I need to make in the next week or so, so the sketch had to work for one of them. None of the cards that I need worked with an actual moon.  I have a couple of beautiful floral stamps that have a nice curve but flowers didn't work for any of them either. Then I remembered this bunny set and one of my card recipients is a bunny lover! I started out absolutely certain I could either find different balloon strings or that I could "bend" the strings enough so that it was clearly the curve in the sketch. I thought I had, but now that I'm looking at my card photo, it's a bit of a stretch that I followed the sketch. The sketch definitely inspired my though. I would never have gone to this bunny set without it and it turns out it is just right for the recipient!

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

SUPPLY LIST

Stamps: Poppystamps Birthday Banners (and dies)

Dies: Spellbinders Floating Bunny (Small Die of the Month March 2022)

Cardstock: Stampin' Up Lemon Lime, Coastal Cabana, Flirty Flamingo, Taylored Expressions Cupcake, Simon Says Stamp Fox

Other: Stampin' Up Glitter Enamel Dots, Spellbinders Head in the Clouds embossing folder

Wednesday, May 14, 2025

Freshly Made Sketches: Sunshine Vibes

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! Today we have a sketch by me that I based on a Christmas card that I did last year and particularly liked (found here). Here’s what I did with it this time.

Make It Better

I didn't quite follow my own sketch.  I had a plan that was going to be exact but guess what showed up unexpectedly the night before I was making the card - my order from the new Stampin' Up catalog and I had no choice but to play with it. I pulled out the open rainbow from Sunshine Vibes but I had to use a fairly wide panel to fit it horizontally which obviously made the panel taller vertically too. That meant I had a lot of space below it for a sentiment but not off the edge as it is in the sketch (and in my original Christmas card.)  You'd think I could follow my sketch, wouldn't you?!

I get so excited when I do the sketch.  I have a firm idea in my head of what the sketch is - then you all blow my mind each time with your creative ideas.  I look forwarded to visiting each and every card that shows up in the gallery.  Have fun!

SUPPLY LIST

Stamps: Stampin' Up Comforting Thoughts

Dies: Stampin' Up Sunshine Vibes, Rectangle Stitched

Paper: Stampin' Up Boho Vibes dsp, cardstock in Mossy Meadow, Petal Pink and Cloud Cover

Ink: Stampin' Up Mossy Meadow

Other: Stampin' Up Muted Palette Dots

Wednesday, May 7, 2025

Freshly Made Sketches: Hedgehog Hugs

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


This is exactly the card that I needed to make for a dear friend who has more going on than any human being should - troubles with her kids, her elderly parents and her own health. She likes cute and pastels and she definitely needs hugs.  I say this because it obviously isn't exactly the sketch simply because it isn't square. But once I saw how it was coming together for my friend, I didn't care!

This is an old Penny Black die called Hedgehog Scene. There are two dies in the set. One has the hedgehog. The second die is the same size with a sun, ground and a tree. It's probably intended to layer but I wanted some color so just snipped the pieces that I needed in different colors. I had the whole square done before I went looking for paper so luckily found this scrap with the right color scheme. (I usually pick paper first so I have a direction for colors.) The dsp gave me the idea of adding colorful dots to the center of the flowers which ended up being just the right cheerful touch.

We had an interesting time this past weekend in our area and especially in our house. According to my son, it was the second time in history that the same town had two game 7s on the same day.  So what's a sports-addicted family to do? Move the dining room table and set up dueling TVs!!


The team on the left, the Denver Nuggets, won! Then very surprisingly, and against all Vegas odds, they just won the first game of the next series.  The team on the bigger TV, the Colorado Avalanche, which is clearly the one we cared most about given the bigger TV, lost.  It was very traumatic because they had pulled ahead and just let it go at the end.  

SUPPLY LIST
Stamps: Mama Elephant In My Heart
Dies: Penny Black Hedgehog Scene
Paper: Stampin' Up Sunshine & Rainbows, cardstock in Balmy Blue, Daffodil Delight and Granny Apple Green