Artistic Friend — FMS232

Posted on April 13, 2016 by amyoneillblog

It’s time for another new sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches, and this week our favorite Australian, Narelle Farrugia, is our hostess. Narelle is our personal queen of beautiful layers, so I was surprised at her sketch for the week. But I shouldn’t be surprised — she can do all styles beautifully!

I love this sketch! You can do so many things with it. I ended up pulling out my Awesomely Artistic stamp set for this one. I love this set, and it makes such quick and easy cards.I started with a white card base and smooshed on some Mint Macaron ink. Once that dried, I stamped the floral arrangement with black ink (stamped off once) and added some black splatters and a few embellishments. Easy-peasy, I tell you.

I am off to Salt Lake City today to attend OnStage (Stampin’ Up’s convention). I’m excited to see old friends and the new catalog, and not have to cook dinner for a few nights. 🙂 It’s always a fun time!

We’d love for you to play along and join us with this week’s challenge. Make your own card using the sketch and add it to the gallery. You should hop on over to the Freshly Made Sketches site to see what the design team made for a big dose of inspiration!

Enjoy your Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday Blooms Blessing — FMS231

Posted on April 6, 2016 by amyoneillblog

Another Wednesday…another sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! And this week our fabulously talented friend from New Zealand, Karren Johnson, is our hostess. Look at this fun sketch that she has for us:

One of my favorite stamp sets in the Occasions Catalog is Birthday Blooms. I love the sentiments and the flower stamps are absolutely gorgeous. And I just haven’t used it enough. So I pulled it off my shelf and had some fun watercoloring.

I stamped the image on Shimmery White cardstock and watercolored with Blushing bride, Watermelon Wonder, Mossy Meadow, and Old Olive ink using an aquapainter. I applied some Gold Wink of Stella Glitter on the flower center.

A strip of Birthday Bouquet dsp is angled to the side, and the sentiment is from the Rose Wonder stamp set. I embossed it on Basic Black cardstock with White Stampin’ Emboss Powder.

I think I am going to save this one and stamp Happy Mother’s Day on the inside of the card for my mom.

We hope you’ll join us and play along with the challenge. We love seeing what you create in the gallery! Meanwhile, be sure to hop on over to the Freshly Made Sketches site for a big dose of creative inspiration from the design team.

Enjoy your Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by!

Donuts Just for You — FMS230

Posted on March 30, 2016 by amyoneillblog

Are you ready for another sketch challenge over at Freshly Made Sketches? Well, it’s Wednesday, so that means that it’s time for one. And this week, our talented Canadian friend, Jen Brum is our hostess. Here is the great sketch she has for us:

I pulled out a stamp set that hasn’t seen ink in a while — You’re So Sweet. I paired it with some Cherry on Top dsp. I love this paper!

I thought this card would be cute to tuck in with a birthday present that one of my girls can give to a friend. It’s always good to have those on hand. I keep a basket of cards from which they can choose on my desk, and they’ll look through them and pick one that they think their friend will like whenever they need one.

We hope you’ll play along with us this week! Meanwhile, you should hop on over to the Freshly Made Sketches site for a dose of creative inspiration from the design team. They always inspire me!

Enjoy your Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by!

A Bunch of Awesome Blossoms — FMS229

Posted on March 23, 2016 by amyoneillblog

It’s time for another new sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches, and this week our sweet friend in Florida, Cindy Hall, has a fun sketch for us.

This sketch had me stumped for a while, but as I was looking through my stamps for something that would fit on three small squares I came across a stamp set and coordinating punch that I hadn’t used before, Grateful Bunch and the Blossom Bunch Punch. This set just didn’t appeal to me much when I saw it in the catalog, but once I stamped with it, I loved it and I thought that the flowers could be substituted for the squares in the sketch. Yes — I’m probably stretching that last part a little, but I was truly inspired by the sketch.

I used a color scheme of Calypso Coral, Cucumber Crush, and Basic Black. Because I love the pretty stitching on the leaves, I chose to keep the card really clean and simple, and let the flowers be the only other pops of color.

We hope you’ll join us and play along this week! Meanwhile, you can jump on over to the Freshly Made Sketches site to see what the rest of the team made for a big dose of inspiration.

Enjoy your Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by!

A Sunburst of Thanks — FMS228

Posted on March 16, 2016 by amyoneillblog

It’s already time for another challenge over at Freshly Made Sketches. And this week Kim Singdahlsen, who just made a major career change to an accountant and jumped into her first busy season head first, is our hostess. I admire her so much! Here is what she has for us this week:

I have to say that this one stumped me for a while. But that big circle kept calling sun to me, so I went in that direction because I love the Sunburst Thinlits die.

I punched a 2-1/2″ circle from the It’s My Party dsp stack, and layered a vellum circle (from the Circle Collection Framelits) underneath it just for a little bit of added interest. The sun’s rays and sentiment were stamped with stamps from the Sunburst Sayings collection.

This was all mounted on a card base of Kraft Cardstock (love this stuff). A little gold button and baker’s twine finish it off. Super quick and easy card!

We hope you’ll join us and play along this week! We love to see what you create. For a dose of inspiration, jump on over to the Freshly Made Sketches site to see what the design team created. You’ll be impressed!

Have a great Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by!

Thank You Botanical Blooms — FMS227

Posted on March 9, 2016 by amyoneillblog

It’s time for another sketch challenge over at Freshly Made Sketches, and this week the ever-clever and talented Linda Callahan is our hostess. And look at what she has for us:

One set I haven’t used enough is the Botanical Blooms set. This is such a well designed set. I love the two-step stamping and the unique coordinating dies. Since Linda’s sketch says that the two focal images can be any shape, I took advantage of that and made mine a flower and leaf.

I used a color combination of Calypso Coral, which looks really red in my photo for some reason, and Old Olive and So Saffron.

I stamped the leaf directly on the card base and cut out a coordinating vellum leaf which I placed over it, slightly to the side.

The dsp on the side is from the Pretty Petals dsp stack, and the sentiment is from the Something to Say stamp set.

One of the dies that I love in the Botanical Builder Framelits Dies collection is the vine, which I used on the side. It adds a fun, unique touch to the card.

We hope you’ll join us and play along with the challenge. It’s always fun for us to see what you post in the gallery. For a big dose of creative inspiration, hop on over to the Freshly Made Sketches site and see what the design team made this week.

Enjoy your Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by!

Global Thanks — FMS226

Posted on March 2, 2016 by amyoneillblog

We have another sketch ready for you over at Freshly Made Sketches, and this week our hostess is Rita Wright. She is so talented and makes beautiful things that inspire me every time. Here is what she has for us this week:

I love this sketch! I needed to make a thank you card, and knew it would be perfect for what I wanted to make.

My daughters both go to an International Baccalaureate school, and there are many international students at this school. The principal at the school takes the time to meet with each student’s parents to formulate and discuss a graduation plan for the students. I am so impressed that she takes the time to do this personally. So when I was thinking about making a thank you card after our meeting yesterday, I immediately thought of the Going Global set.

Since many of the coordinating products for this set are more on the masculine side and the card’s recipient is female, I went in a different direction. I started with a piece of black and white dsp from the Have a Cuppa dsp stack.

I stamped (after stamping off once) the World Map background stamp with Soft Sky ink onto a piece of the Perfectly Artistic dsp. This is a Sale-a-Bration offering that is a limited-time product. It’s sales period was only through February 15, but it has been temporarily extended because there is still some limited inventory. I can’t guarantee it will be available for long, so if you didn’t already get it, you’d better hurry.

The globe image from Going Global was stamped with Daffodil Delight ink on Whisper White card stock. The sentiment is from the Greetings Thinlits Dies.

I added a few fun embellishments and tried to keep it pretty flat since it will be going through the mail.

We hope you’ll join us and make you own card using the sketch! We love looking through the gallery and seeing your creativity. Meanwhile, spend your time wisely and go see what the design team made at the Freshly Made Sketches site. You’ll get a dose of inspiration!

Enjoy your Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by!

Apple of My Eye — FMS225

Posted on February 24, 2016 by amyoneillblog

It’s time for another sketch challenge over at Freshly Made Sketches, and this week Jen Mitchell is our hostess. She is so talented at making clean cards with a little grunge and a lot of style. I love the sketch she has for us this week:

I was a little creative with my use of the sketch this time. I’m not sure what happened. One thing kept leading to another, and before I knew it I was more off course than I intended. But hopefully, you can see the sketch when you look at my card (just squinch up your eyes a little if you don’t — ha!).

I started by inking up my apple stamp from Apple of My Eye with Hello Honey ink. I then took a sponge dauber and sponged on some Cherry Cobbler ink around the edges. The sentiment was stamped on top with Basic Black ink. I cut it out with my paper snips when finished.

I used the Alphabet Rotary Stamp to stamp the “You are the” pieces. The dsp is from the Have a Cuppa dsp stack.

We hope you’ll join us and make your own card using the sketch. You can jump on over to the Freshly Made Sketches site to see what the design team has created for a big dose of inspiration.

Enjoy your Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by!

Blooms Note — FMS224

Posted on February 17, 2016 by amyoneillblog

It’s Wednesday again, and that means we have another sketch for you over at Freshly Made Sketches. This week, our hostess is our lovely and talented pilot friend, Jennifer Timko. And you will love her versatile sketch this week:

I felt like doing a little watercoloring, so I pulled out the Birthday Blooms stamp set.

I used some Blushing Bride, Calypso Coral, Pear Pizzazz, Old Olive, Soft Sky and Crushed Curry inks to color the image on watercolor paper using an aquapainter.

The tiny scalloped edge on the side was cut from Basic Black card stock with the Tiny Wave Stampin’ Trimmer Rotary Cutting Blade.

I also applied some gold Wink of Stella onto the flower center to add a little sparkle. The sentiment is from the Picture Perfect set.

We hope you’ll join us and make your own card for the challenge and post it in the gallery. We love looking through all of the different interpretations of the sketch. Meanwhile, be sure your to drop by the Freshly Made Sketches site for some inspiration from the design team.

Enjoy your Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by!

An Eclectic Valentine — FMS223

Posted on February 10, 2016 by amyoneillblog

This is my week to be the hostess over at Freshly Made Sketches, and I really hope you’ll like the sketch and play along. I have been having fun designing collage-style cards lately, so that is how I designed the sketch.

And since Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, I decided to make another card for the occasion. I pulled out my Groovy Love stamp set, and then just kept pulling more and more sets off the shelf. I think I ended up using an eclectic mix of four stamp sets. I was out of control!

I started by making a watercolor wash on some watercolor paper using Pink Pirouette and Pool Party inks. Once that was dry, I stamped the row of hearts from Birthday Blooms and the row of sideways chevrons from You’re So Lovely with Melon Mambo ink, and added some washi tapes.

The focal heart is from Groovy Love and was stamped with Melon Mambo ink. The pretty yellow circle on the layer beneath it is from You’re So Lovely and was stamped with Daffodil Delight ink.

The sentiment is from the Bloomin’ Love stamp set and was embossed with White Stampin’ Emboss powder on Basic Black card stock.

I hope you’ll play along and create your own card with the sketch! I love seeing how other people interpret the sketch and use it in their own ways. Meanwhile, be sure to stop by the Freshly Made Sketches site and see what the rest of the design team made. You’ll be wowed by their creativity!

Enjoy your Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by!