Christmas Thanks — FMS167

Posted on December 17, 2014 by amyoneillblog

Wow! Time is flying! It’s like our clocks get set on fast forward during the two weeks before Christmas. We have one last sketch for you for 2014 at Freshly Made Sketches, and our Australian friend, Narelle Farrugia has a great one for us. She is so talented with layers, so it is fitting that she has given us a sketch with some fun layers:

My husband and I both lead small groups of 10th graders at our church each week. This is our second year to do this, and I really love it. I am amazed at the faith that some of these youth exhibit while only being 15-16 years old, and I admire their commitment to develop their relationship with Christ. One of the boys in my group gave me a Christmas gift so I needed to make a thank-you card.

I thought that since it was for a Christmas gift, I could use Christmas themed stamps. That also made it a little easier to make a masculine card since many Christmas sets are pretty gender neutral.

I thought this sketch was perfect for pulling out some of my leftover dsp. Both of these patterns came from the Trim the Tree dsp stack. I used my Festival of Trees stamp set and coordinating punch for the focal image. The “thanks” is from a stamp in the Lots of Thanks stamp set.

We hope you’ll join us in this last challenge of the year. We’ll be back on January 7th with an all-new sketch for you. Meanwhile, you can drop by the Freshly Made Sketches site for some inspiration from the design team.

Enjoy your Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by!

Sledding in the Snow — FMS166

Posted on December 10, 2014 by amyoneillblog

It’s time for another challenge over at Freshly Made Sketches, and Karren Johnson, our favorite Kiwi, has a versatile sketch for us.

I still had a couple of the cute sleds from the Watercolor Winter Simply Created Card Kit, so I grabbed one and watercolored it with some Cherry Cobbler and Smoky Slate ink.

I paired it with some of the pretty dsp from the All is Calm Specialty dsp collection. I added some silver ribbon and glimmer paper. Pretty easy.

We hope you’ll be able to join us and share your own take on the sketch this week. We love looking through the gallery at all of the work you create. Meanwhile, you can go see the design team’s awesome work at the Freshly Made Sketches site.

Enjoy your Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by!

Glittered Snowflake — FMS165

Posted on December 3, 2014 by amyoneillblog

It’s time for another sketch challenge over at Freshly Made Sketches, and this week the fabulously talented Cindy Lovell from Germany is our hostess. I love everything Cindy makes, and her sketch this week is no exception.

I had my new My Paper Pumpkin kit on my desk, so I immediately thought of using the snowflake from the kit as the focal image on this sketch.

I ran the snowflake halves through my Xyron machine and applied Dazzling Diamonds glitter over it. The dotted background and sentiment are from stamps in the recent My Paper Pumpkin kit.

We hope you’ll join us and make your own creation using the sketch this week. We love looking through the gallery and seeing what you make. Meanwhile, you can check out the rest of the design team’s work over at the Freshly Made Sketches site for some inspiration.

Enjoy your Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by!

A Christmas Bauble

Posted on December 1, 2014 by amyoneillblog

After having a whole week off with family it’s so hard to get back into the normal routine. I didn’t set foot in my craft room for the whole week, and while I missed it, I had such a great week spending time with the kids and my hubby.

We put up the tree and the other Christmas decorations on Saturday. So when I sat down to make a card last night, I immediately pulled the Christmas Bauble stamp off my shelf. It’s so fun to pull out all of the Christmas ornaments out of the boxes — I forget about some of them and get to rediscover them while decorating.

I stamped the ornament on Whisper White card stock and colored it with my Blendabilities (which are on sale today only!), and then hand-cut the ornament. I placed it on a card from the Seasonal Snapshot Project Life kit. The sentiment is from the Watercolor Winter Too set.

I’m not very good at coloring — I have trouble staying in the lines, let alone blending my colors well. But it is so fun! It’s therapeutic.

Enjoy your Monday! Thanks for stopping by!

A Simple Kraft Christmas — Monday Montage #33

Posted on November 23, 2014 by amyoneillblog

Welcome to another Monday Montage blog hop! We have nine different bloggers ready to share their creativity with you. All you need to do is click on the “Next” buttons at the bottom of each post to work your way through all of the participants.

I have really been drawn to our Kraft and Crumb Cake card stock lately. It gives such a warm and cozy looks to Christmas cards, and I love it. I’ve also been drawn to super simple cards lately. At this time of year, I just don’t have the time to spend on crafting like I wish I had. So I have to keep things simpler.

For this first card, I punched out three trees from Crumb Cake card stock with the Tree Punch and sponged the edges with some Whisper White Craft Ink. I also sponged the edges of the card layers, and stamped the sentiment from the stamp set included in the November My Paper Pumpkin kit.

This was a super simple and quick card to make.

On this card, I used some of the Kraft card stock, which I love, love, love. I stamped this pretty sentiment image from Cheerful Christmas, which I colored with my Stampin’ Write markers onto Whisper White card stock.

I added a few simple embellishments and tilted the focal panel a little to the side. Easy-peasy.

You’re ready to hop on over to the super talented and always amazing Breelin Renwick’s blog by clicking on the “Next” button below. If you’d rather work your way backwards, I won’t judge. Just click on the “Back” button to venture over to the ever creative and inspiring Wendy Weixler’s blog. Either way, just make sure you work your way through all nine blogs.

Enjoy your Monday! Thanks for stopping by!

Peace & Joy Amongst the Stars — FMS163

Posted on November 19, 2014 by amyoneillblog

It’s time for a new challenge over at Freshly Made Sketches, and this week the lovely Cindy Hall is our hostess. I love how all of Cindy’s cards have such fabulous details, and her sketch this week is a great one.

I love stars, and the Bright & Beautiful set was the first thing on my wish list when I first saw the Holiday catalog. But have I actually used it yet? No. Not until this week. I’m not sure why. Stars are an easy go-to for me for birthdays or graduation cards, but I guess not so much for Christmas cards. I decided that I really needed to ink these pretty stars up, so I pulled them out for this sketch.

I have been itching to use this Gorgeous (with a capital G) silver satin ribbon for a while now, so when I saw the sketch I knew it would be perfect. I planned my color combo based entirely on the ribbon. 🙂

The smaller stars in the background were stamped with Silver Encore ink and the large star was embossed with Cherry Cobbler embossing powder.

We hope you can make time to join us with this challenge. We love seeing how you interpret the sketches each week. You can see what the design team did with the sketch over at the Freshly Made Sketches site for a little inspiration.

Enjoy your Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by!

Trees with Gold

Posted on November 17, 2014 by amyoneillblog

Here’s another card I made using the Watercolor Winter Simply Created Card Kit. Everything is die cut and/or embossed for you, so all you need to do is watercolor the images you like.

I added the button and bakers’ twine on this card. And the stamp is from the Good Greetings hostess set. All of the rest came from the kit.

Enjoy your Monday. Thanks for stopping by!

Snowflake Joy

Posted on November 14, 2014 by amyoneillblog

I’ve got another card for you that I made using some of the supplies from the Watercolor Winter Simply Created Card Kit. This card was super simple to make as the snowflakes, sentiment, and tiny circles are all die-cut and ready to use.

At one time the “j” in the “joy” was dotted, but it must have fallen off between finishing the card and taking the picture. I’ll have to add another one on there before mailing the card.

Enjoy your Friday! Thanks for stopping by!

Mad for Christmas Plaid

Posted on November 8, 2014 by amyoneillblog

I love this Christmas plaid dsp in the Trim the Tree dsp stack. It just looks so warm and cozy. I would love to have wrapping paper like this to wrap all of our presents under the tree. Hmmm….I wonder if I could find that.

I also love this wreath stamp and coordinating framelits. It’s so easy to line everything up — stamping-wise and cutting-wise.

Enjoy your Saturday! Thanks for stopping by!

A Nutty ‘Stache

Posted on November 3, 2014 by amyoneillblog

I’ve made a couple of cards now with the cute Santa from the Santa Stache stamp set, but hadn’t made any using the nutcracker stamp. So I thought it was time I inked him up.

I colored him with my Blendabilities and added a little Santa & Co. Designer Washi Tape on the side. I then punched out a few stars from a scrap of Crushed Curry card stock using the Confetti Stars punch and glued them down on a Marina Mist card base.

A simple and quick design.

Enjoy your Monday! Thanks for stopping by!