Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Freshly Made Sketches: Summer Blooms

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! Today we have a sketch by Jen Mitchell.


I needed a birthday card for a new workmate.  It HAD to have a flower because she is a master gardener. I haven't seen her garden yet but she's invited is all over in August for a garden party.  I do know she's in the garden from the time she gets home until dark and then 8-10 hours a day on Saturday and Sunday. I deliberate went for a fun and graphic flower - I didn't want to go for anything realistic and then get the coloring or something wrong - because she would know!

FMS Wishes

Sadly, it took me four tries to get the placement right in the frame.  I had to force myself not to go for five, because I really wanted to move the leaves down so there was a little more weight on the bottom panel!  I love building sets like this one, but they stress me out. That simple flower took 11 stamps and without a doubt, every darn time one won't stamp clearly or will be crooked - and I am just too obsessive to let that happen!

I'm looking forward to seeing what you all create with this week's sketch!

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Thursday, July 7, 2016

Taylored Expressions Retirement Sale

Taylored Expressions is bidding a fond farewell to over 200 products as we retire some of our favorite items with an amazing SALE. Choose from a variety of stamps and dies at up to 80% off retail price -- but hurry, once they're gone, they're gone forever! Check out the graphic to see how you can earn an even greater discount off the sale price and then visit the SALE HERE to start shopping! Additional discounts expire July 17th. 

Let me show you a few things that I have done over the years using some of the retiring products.

This sentiment (including the "merry" die) is from the retiring Very Merry. This is actually a card that I made last Christmas for a British publication that required lots of dies and these particular colors.  I haven't shown it on my blog before so it seemed like the perfect time to bring it out!!

TE Be Merry

Here's a close-up of the dies.  These dies aren't part of the Very Merry set and aren't retiring!

TE Be Merry Close

Besides the great "merry" that comes in Very Merry, there are a number of basic Christmas images done in fun patterns. Here are the holly leaves along with a slightly different "merry" sentiment.  FYI: there are also dies and scallop dies for each of the images. Check them all out here.

TE Very Merry

Here are the supply lists for the two Christmas cards but keep reading - because there are a couple of more retiring items that I want to point out.

Eat, Drink and Be Merry


Very Merry



Another die that is retiring is Pockets & Pages - Part of My Heart. The Pockets & Pages series is perfect for scrapbooking - but I think it works very well on cards too.

Drive Me Nuts
Details on this card here.

Pockets & Pages - Bubble In is perfect to highlight a sentiment.

TE One & Only You
Details on this card here.

This is definitely not a sale to be missed.  Check out the Taylored Expressions blog - and head to each designer's blog to see some of their favorite retiring items!  Or go SHOPPING right away!
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Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Freshly Made Sketches: Balloon Butterfly

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! Today we have a sketch by Jen Timko.


I've been making cards long enough where I remember the days when every single card had an oval. Then ovals went away.  Now I've noticed lots of companies bringing oval dies back (of course, they all have fun stitching now!)  Trends always come back around - and that is my #1 excuse for never getting rid of anything!! Unfortunately I have't purchased any of the fun new sets and I simply didn't have time to go looking deep in the piles for my old binder of Spellbinder dies that includes all my nested ovals.  What I did have easy access to was old embossing folders and I found one that wasn't quite an oval - but has the same look.

FMS Birthday Butterflies

I thought the polka dot was a fun look and I have this sweet Avery Elle More Party Animals set in my not yet used stash - so it seemed like a good match.  I pulled a few random colors  of Copics that I thought would blend well to make a multi-color balloon,  I decided to keep it the focus by using white for the "birthday" die cut. (I layered the die cut three times and as I am looking at the photo I can see that I didn't line it up very well!)

I hope to see you playing along!

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The embossing folder is Sizzix but I've had it for so long, I didn't even try looking for it to link it. 

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Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Celebrations!

We spent last night with dear friends at the Denver Outlaws Lacrosse game ending in fireworks!! (Our families met when our youngest sons' played lacrosse together for years and years.)  It was definitely a celebration!! (The fireworks picture is from last year - my phone couldn't quite capture the awesome show.)


I also wanted to celebrate my friend's decision to leave a job at which she has been unhappy for awhile. It's always a hard decision to venture away from the known into the unknown of a job hunt. She'll be better off in the long run and I wanted her to know I'm celebrating along with her.

CtS Celebrate

I paged through my stamps and came across Paper Smooches Best Buds which seemed like the perfect look for her. I have used the mason jar and flowers from the set a number of times, but hadn't used just the banner.  I cut and colored the banner then got a little stumped until CAS(E) this Sketch inspired me with a banner across a wreath.  I didn't have any kind of a wreath stamp or die that had the same sweet look as the Paper Smooches banner so I did a circle of dots for a more contemporary look.



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