Freshly Made Sketches: Nordic Hello

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!

 

I know the sketch said "any shape" but I was really drawn to the oval. Twenty some years ago, we used ovals on every other card but not so much these days with all of the other fun options. From there I had to figure out what to do in the oval but I quickly landed on a couple of dies from my favorite Nordic line of dies at Poppystamps. 

This is kind of an unusual card for me because I don't generally use pink. I have nothing against pink but there just aren't any people in my life to whom I would send a pink card. I was flipping through my cardstock looking for some bold oranges and yellows for the butterfly but the deep pink just jumped right out at me. I actually think it's due to my first week of retirement. I know that sounds odd, but hear me out.  I'm very much a Type A personality - the right tasks get done at the right time and nothing gets missed. I add things to my to-do lists even if they are already done just to give me the satisfaction of crossing them off! This even applies to my cards - each one has a purpose or someone in mind. But in my first week of retirement, I have very intentionally tried to immediately set a habit of slowing down and doing things for the sheer pleasure of it. When the pink jumped out at me, I was ignoring it but then my next thought was that I liked pink so why not do something different for the sheer pleasure of it! 

NOTE: I used the Delicate Details embossing folder from The Stamp Market. It gives a nice, crisp and dimensional image. However, my clean and simple eye saw all the detail in the leaf and butterfly and, while I liked the look of the folder, I wanted it to be more subtle so I ran it back through the machine with just two plates to squish the pattern a bit so it was clearly in the background. 

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

SUPPLY LIST

Dies: Poppystamps Nordic Belle Butterfly, Nordic Sweeping Branch and Hello Poe Script, Taylored Epxressions Stitched Stacklets Oval and Petite Scallop Oval

Cardstock: Taylored Expressions Guava, Pink Champagne, Cupcake, Cilantro, Peapod and Granny Smith

Other: The Stamp Market Delicate Details embossing folder (run back through to squish the pattern a bit)

Freshly Made Sketches: Grateful

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

I recently noticed that one of the clearance products at Stampin' Up was their Autumn Leaves die set. I hadn't gotten it when it was originally out because it turns out there really is a point where you can have too many leaf dies - but I'd always liked the set, particularly the dies for the leaf veins. When I saw they were $11 (that's REALLY cheap for Stampin' Up and it's a big set!), it was meant to be. They showed up the day I was going to make the card for this sketch and obviously, those circles are supposed to be leaves!

I actually started out with true autumn colors.  Then after I cut two of the leaves, it just felt wrong to me to post an autumn card. I always feel like autumn cards only happen in autumn . (Oddly, while I have posting "rules" for autumn cards, Christmas can be posted any time!) So I switched directions and created the first card with brighter colors (even though it will be for Thanksgiving) and I felt much better posting it. But I just couldn't leave the first one undone!

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

SUPPLY LIST

Stamps: sentiment from Stampin' Up Falling Leaves (long retired)

Dies: Stampin' Up Autumn Leaves (retired), Tasteful Labels (retired)

Cardstock: Bright: Granny Apple Green, Berry Burst, Timid Tiger, scrap of gold

                    Rich: Crumb Cake, Cajun Craze, Pretty Peacock, Pecan Pie, Oxidized Copper

Other: Stampin' Up embossing folders: Pinewood Planks, Distressed Tile 3D

Freshly Made Sketches: Independence Day

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

The picnic basket is an OLD set by Papertrey Ink named Vintage Picnic.  It has multiple baskets and even more toppers and has survived all of my downsizing efforts so I must like it. The sentiment is from the Simply Sentimental series by Trinity Stamps. It's the kind of set I adore because it has multiple "happy" stamp and dies (most can be stand-alone) with even more add-on words including "Independence Day".

Using "Independence Day" was particularly important to me because not only is it my country's celebration but it's my personal celebration of independence. Tomorrow is my last day of work EVER. I am retiring!! I think I'm excited but that mood changes hourly.  I am excited to be leaving work but I am unexpectedly anxious about retirement. There's the financial side (will we outlive our savings), there's the keeping busy side (I've never been a sit around and do nothing person) and then there's the concern of how do I keep from killing my husband (in 35 years, we have never spent this much time together - in fact, we haven't really spent even average time together with work travel and opposite schedules). We have planned carefully for all of it so it all should work.

What I don't have a plan for is where cardmaking stands with all of it. I'd like to think I'd spend so much more time in my craft room but I also know that I have 60 less cards to make every year if I'm not making birthday and Christmas cards and others for office mates. I'll eventually search out a church ministry or veterans organization or something like that - but as I've been sharing on my blog, we are also planning to move so I'm not going to get overly involved in anything here. I only share about one card a week right now although I make more - so maybe my commitment for now is to take the time to photo and share the others.

So Happy Independence Day to the U.S.A. and to me!!!

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

SUPPLY LIST

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Vintage Picnic (and dies), Trinity Stamps Simply Sentimental - Happy (and dies)

Cardstock: Stampin' Up Crumb Cake, Poppy Parade, Azure Afternoon, Blueberry Bushel

Sunday Stamps: Paper Posy Thank You

I saw the gorgeous colors at Sunday Stamps and just had to play along. I love the corals and blues, and especially the two rich colors as accents.

I needed a thank you card this week and I already had a plan of using this new-to-me floral die set. I absolutely love the variety of flowers and especially the embossed detail.  My card uses just a handful of the options and I'm looking forward to using all of them.  It's from Concord & 9th and I have a number of bold sentiments from them to balance the flowers so for this one, I found a "thank you". 

I had all of this sitting on my desk but just hadn't quite figured out what to do with it all until I saw the color challenge. Not only did I use the colors but I clearly was inspired by the big image! A big thank you to Sunday Stamps for the inspiration!

SUPPLY LIST

Dies: Concord & 9th Happy Thanks die, Paper Posy dies

Cardstock: MFT Peach Bellini, Coral Crush, Lazy Day, and Jalapeno Popper, Stampin' Up Night of Navy

Other: Concord & 9th Paper Posy embossing folder, Stampin' Up Pinewood Planks embossing folder and Muted Palette Dots