Freshly Made Sketches #700

Hello friends.  Freshly Made Sketches hit a BIG milestone this week...their 700th challenge and 14 years of challenges!  WOW!!  That is definitely worth celebrating!!

A simple and fun sketch that really packs a punch, and I definitely had FUN playing with this one!!  I used an older Gina K layering stencil (Spectacular Sunflower) and came up with this sweet little card...

I stenciled with yellows, oranges, and Faded Brick which is a deep and dark reddish brown color (Gina K) and cut into quarters.

I layered the 4 quarters with a piece of Faded Brick cs and then layered that to a PFS Dotted Postage Square in white and attached all to a white 4 1/4 x 4 1/4 square card base.  I used the smallest Dotted Postage Square die to stamp my sentiment from the So Many Sentiments stamp set (Gina K) and then finished with a few Disco Ball Sequins (also Gina K) and some twine.  Sunflowers are in full bloom in my neck of the woods right now, so it seemed appropriate to use one on my card to celebrate this milestone challenge!

The DT has wonderful cards to share with you for inspiration, so check them all out right HERE and then play along.  This challenge is open till Monday, Aug. 25th @ 3:00PM.

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

Butterfly Shaped Cards

Hello friends.  A few weeks ago, my sweet friend Bonnie made a post (HERE) showing some BEAUTIFUL shaped butterfly cards and was kind enough to send me a couple since the die is out of stock.  I loved her white on white with touches of gold butterfly and had to CASE her as soon as they arrived! (I should also note that Bonnie was inspired by Donna Mikasa's card HERE)  Bonnie also sent me a bunch of colorful florals to use on my butterflies, but I really liked the white on white look, so I'm saving all the die cut flowers for something else.  Here's what I came up with for my first card...

 I embossed my front with SSS's Blossom Field embossing folder and then added flowers and sprigs from different Spellbinder's sets.  The butterfly shape is from SB's So Many Butterflies which unfortunately is out of stock and no idea if they'll replace it.  

I did cut a few of the sprigs from gold mirror and glitter card stock, and all the rest from white. I added gold sequins to the antennae and one flower center, and also a gold butterfly (SU!) to the center of the bloom on the left.  I finished with a thank you sentiment using PTI's Tiny Tags stamp & die set and attached with gold thread.  Slightly different than Bonnie's and Donna's, but not by much!  I just love the look of white on white with touches of gold...so elegant!

 My 2nd card is basically the same as the first, although I did use my pink blending brush to lightly go over the raised areas of the background embossing (same embossing folder as the first card).  I love the delicate look the addition of the light pink gives the card.

I did add a few pink glitter gems (SU!) to the flower centers and also on the tiny tag.  I was so tickled with the way both of these cards came out and will definitely be keeping my eyes open for either the SB's dies to come back in stock or similar dies that would work for these cards.  THANK YOU SO much Bonnie for sharing with me...stamping friends are truly one of God's greatest gifts!! 

I will be adding these cards to the Triple B Challenge as I have 2 of the 3 elements (butterflies & blooms) needed to play along with this challenge.  It is open till Sunday, August 31st @ 8:00PM.

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

Color Hues #116 - BLUE & RED

Hello friends.  Hard to believe it's the middle of August already, isn't it?!  Hope you've all been having a great Summer...I have, but I could definitely do with a bit less heat and humidity!  It is better than snow though, so you won't hear me complain anymore!  

We do have a new challenge for you here at Color Hues, and our sweet hostess Julie B. has chosen the color pairing of BLUE & RED.

Besides Christmas cards, I've been trying to ramp up my stash of birthday cards, and especially birthday cards that are not floral and can be gender neutral.  I think this one qualifies...

I know I use this layout and The Greetery's Delightful Digits Die quite frequently, but it works so perfectly for birthdays and guys and kids, so I just keep using it and changing up a few things here and there!  I used The Greetery's Glow Hot Foil plate to create the fireworks on the background of the Crimped Circle Die (also The Greetery) before adding the sweet bunny from CCC and Anita Jeram's Sundae Funday stamp which was colored with Copics.

My "celebrate" comes from The Greetery's Birthday Blooms and I thought it was quite fitting with the foiled fireworks.  I finished with a few red gems (PFS).  

We have lots of wonderful cards to share with you from the DT and our Special GD Leslie that you can check out right HERE for inspiration, so check it out and play along with us.  This challenge is open till Friday, Aug. 29th @ 9:00AM and we can't wait to see YOU in the gallery!!

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

The Flower Challenge #105 Reminder - ADD EMBELLISHMENTS

Hello friends.  Just a friendly reminder that there's still time to play along with us at The Flower Challenge where we're looking for you to add EMBELLISHMENTS to your FLORAL cards.

I used a very similar layout and color scheme for this reminder card as my first card that you can find HERE.  Let's take a look...

 

I started with a cream colored card base again, and then added a pink layer die cut with The Greetery's Deco Frames die, and then added the Sweetest Frame stamped on cream cs and die cut with the coordinating dies.

I used The Greetery's BotaniCuts: Hollyhocks dies to create my florals with scraps of pink and green cs. The flowers are multi layered and I did do a bit of ink blending to the pieces to get the layered look to show up better.  I also added glitter along the edges of the petals and PFS's Gems: Clear with Gold Dust to the flower centers. 

Here's another closer up where I was hoping you could see the embellishments a bit better, but the light was not being my friend the day I photographed this card.  Trust me that IRL that this card sparkles and shines with the added glitter and gems. 

The DT has some lovely examples of adding embellishments that you can find right HERE, so check it out and play along with us.  This challenge is open till Monday, Aug. 25th @ 9:00AM.

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

Peace On Earth Christmas Challenge #93

Hello friends.  Still in Christmas mode this week and playing along with the Peace On Earth Christmas challenge.

My sweet friend Michele gifted me an early Christmas gift of Simon Hurley's (Spellbinders) Playful Penguins die set, and they were just too CUTE not to play with right away!!  There's 3 penguins in the set and here's what I came up with using just 2 of them...

 Aren't they cuties?!!  I love the little guy on the left with his Rudolph nose and antlers...totally melts my heart!!  After die cutting from scraps and piecing them together, I added them to the background I made using a PFS stencil called Wintry Forest and residual ink on my turquoise blending brush.  

 It's not real clear in my photos, but I also added a white embossed ice chunk (MFT) to ground them and also make it look like the bottom of the card is a lake.  I did add foam tape behind the penguins for a bit of dimension and then finished with a sentiment from PB's yuletide wishes.  

Edited to Add: I was encouraged to add this card to the Christmas Kickstart Challenge where they are looking for WREATH'S, and since this little dude on the right is holding a wreath...

I will definitely be playing with this set again and also using that 3rd penguin, so thank you again Michele for gifting me this FUN set!!  The gals over at the Peace On Earth challenge have some awesome inspiration to share with you, so check it out and play along.  This challenge is open till Thursday, August 14th @ 8:00PM.

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #101 - Let's Wreath It Up

Hello friends.  Still very HOT & HUMID in my neck of the woods, so I'm going to try and stay cool with Christmas cards this week.  The Christmas Kickstart Challenge is looking for WREATHS this time around and I have a PFS stencil set that hasn't seen ink in quite a while, so...

Using the Thrill of Hope Wreath stencil set, here's what I came up with...

After stenciling the wreath in greens and eggplant inks, it still looked a little plain to me, so I ran it through with a SB's embossing folder called Holiday Floral Swag that has empty space in the middle and seemed like it would be perfect for the wreath.  I love how that worked out!!

I added my sentiment using PFS's Christmas Sentiments stamp & die set (die cutting 3 times for a little extra dimension) with the eggplant ink to coordinate with the berries.  A few Disco Ball Sequins (Gina K) and a piece of eggplant ribbon from my stash finished off my card.

If you need to add to your Christmas stash, or even get started, check out Jo and her guest elf Greta's cards for a little inspiration, and then play along right HERE.  This challenge is open till Sunday, August 31st.    

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

Bee Happy

Hello friends.  I'm playing along with a couple challenges today...the DD - Bee Happy Challenge and the Freshly Made Sketches Challenge.  The DD challenge is obviously about Bee's and Kim from FMS's has a wonderful postage sketch to follow, so I combined the two.

And here's what I came up with combining the two challenges...

I'm a BIG fan of WF's Postage Collage stencils, stamps, and dies, and think there's only a couple of the many, many sets they have that I don't own!  For this card I used the die that cuts out the grid of postage stamps and then colored just 3 of them using the Postage Collage Coloring Stencil (for the gray & white stripe stamp) and the Postage Collage Rose Stencil for the other 2 stamps.  I then cut them apart for the individual stamps and layed them out in the sketch pattern on my card base.  

I also added a die cut honeycomb piece from SU!'s Honey Bee set, along with a large and smaller bee also from the same SU! set.  I used WOS on the bees wings, but obviously does not show up on my card.  The top right stamp has foam tape behind it for a little dimension, and also the sentiment strip from Gina K's All At Once Greetings.  Pretty CAS and I love the way this one turned out!

Lots of great inspiration from both DT's to get your mojo started, and you can check out the DD Challenge right HERE and the Freshly Made Sketches Challenge HERE.  The DD Challenge is open till Sunday, Aug. 17th @ 8:00PM and the Freshly Made Sketches Challenge is open till Monday, Aug. 11th @ 3:00PM.

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

Christmas in July with Michele 2025

Hello friends.  Michele and I finally got together last week (while it was still July!) to do our annual Christmas in July and had a blast stamping, stenciling, laughing, chatting and eating together.  It never gets old, does it my friend?!  I have 4 cards to share with you today, so let's get started!

  I had a brand new set from Altenew called Festive Triangles that Michele and I both had fun with, and here's what I came up with.  Actually this is a bit of a CASE from a card that Laura Bassen did...I just changed up my colors a bit. I think what hooked me was the sentiment stamped right over the stamped triangles...perfect for an almost one layer card!

Michele brought her The Snow Notes dies (SB) for me to play with...I just LOVE these caroling snow dudes!!  My background was embossed with an OLD SU! ef called Winter Snow, and then I added the snow dudes with their polka dotted scarves using dsp from PTI.  Michele also brought her Skinny Ric Rac die (also PTI) and I cut one from red to outline my festive carolers. Aren't they just the cutest?!!

My 3rd card features a set of stencils from PFS called Holiday Botanical Background that I stenciled with shades of greens and then added different sized Ruby gems (PFS) for the berries.  (It SHINES a lot more in real life!!!)  The die cut sentiment is from a set that Michele stamped and die cut for me from a WF set and fit perfectly in the center of this stenciled frame.  

Michele had made a post (HERE) using those cute snow dudes and this wonderful dsp that she was kind enough to bring me some of to play with, so I got busy with this little cutie from Cottage Cutz (Winter Snowman) and die cut his hat and scarf from one of the polka dotted papers. I used a PTI die (Bold Borders: Polka Dots Die) and one of the backsides of the dsp that was a solid pink to create a frame for my snowman and used another piece of the dsp for the center rectangle.  I just LOVE pink & red together and this dsp puts them together just beautifully!  The sentiment is another from the WF set that Michele stamped and die cut for me.  

So there you have my additions to my Christmas card stash, and I even have a few more in the works that I'll post at a later date!  Took me a while this year to get going on my Christmas cards, but now that I've started, I'm back to being hooked!  I love making all kinds of cards, but I really think Christmas card making is my favorite!  Make sure you check out Michele's post (HERE) to see what she made using some of the same products...I know she'll blow us all away as usual!!  And thanks Michele for the yummy lemon pie you brought for dessert...it was SOOOOOO good!!  And of course for sharing your goodies to play with!  I love our get togethers and friendship...it's the best!!

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

The Flower Challenge #105 - Add Embellishments

Hello friends.  A new month and time for a new challenge here at The Flower Challenge, where this month we're looking for you to add EMBELLISHMENTS to your FLORAL cards.

Since I add embellishments to just about every card I make, this was an easy challenge for me!  Using products from The Greetery, here's what I came up with...

The Greetery just celebrated their 6th birthday and sent a freebie with each order, and this little cup/vase was the starting point for my birthday card.  I cut it from Honey Nut cs (PTI) and ink blended it a bit for some shading and dimension, and then filled it with flowers from the Best Bouquet Details dies using cream colored cs and ink blending with pinks for the blooms and greens for the leaves.  I framed out the cup/vase with The Greetery's A2 Stitched Scallops Die and the Sweetest Frame stamp & die.

I added everything to a cream colored card base and then finished with a birthday greeting on the cup/vase and a few PINK GEMS (PFS) for my embellishments.  

The DT has awesome cards to inspire you to use your embellishments on your cards, and we can't wait to see you all in the gallery!  You can check it out right HERE to play along.  This challenge is open till Monday, Aug. 25th @ 9:00AM. 
  

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

Color Hues #115 - PINK & GREY

Hello friends.  Happy August and welcome to another challenge here at Color Hues where our sweet hostess Carol has chosen the color pairing of PINK & GREY for the next two weeks.

I love this color pairing and went back to one of my first purchases at PFS (years ago!) and brought out the Daisy Wreath to play with.  Take a look...

I foiled the outline of the wreath with the coordinating foil plate from the Daisy Wreath set using SB's Speckled Prism Foil and then used the matching stencils to add my pinks and greys.  My background was also stenciled using PFS's Simple Plaid Stencil and grey ink.  

 I finished with an embossed sentiment on grey cs using Gina K's All At Once Greetings, a couple pink gemstones, and a piece of white & silver baker's twine. 

The DT and our Special GD Arlene have some awesome cards to share with you for inspiration, and you can check them all out right HERE.  This challenge is open till Thursday, Aug. 14th @ 9:00AM. 
 

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!