Celebrate with a Balloon — FMS169

Posted on January 14, 2015 by amyoneillblog

Are you ready for another fun sketch challenge? Well, we have a good one for you over at Freshly Made Sketches this week. The always fabulous Jennifer Timko has a versatile sketch for us to work with this week:

I have a new box of goodies from the Occasions and Sale-a-Bration catalogs, and I’ve barely had a chance to look at it yet. I carved out a half hour yesterday and decided that the sketch lent itself to one of the new balloon dies in the Balloon Framelits Die collection.

I used the framelit on the pretty piece of dsp from the Birthday Bash Specialty dsp collection. I stamped the balloon and confetti on a piece of Whisper White card stock and placed it behind the dsp with dimensional adhesive. Behind that, I layered a piece of Night of Navy card stock and used a Calypso Coral base.

I added some sequins and hand-cut the sentiment. It all came together pretty easily and quickly. I love having a great sketch with which to work!

We hope you’ll be able to play along and post your own card to the gallery. You can check out what the rest of the design team created at the Freshly Made Sketches site for some inspiration.

Enjoy your Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by!

Hey, Camera! — FMS168

Posted on January 7, 2015 by amyoneillblog

We’re ready to get back to it at Freshly Made Sketches, and to kick things off I get the pleasure of hosting this week’s challenge.

I pulled a stamp off the shelf that I hadn’t used in a while, Snapshot, and I paired it with some fun dsp from the Flashback collection.

I watercolored the fun camera with an aquapainter and re-inkers. And then I added some Crystal Effects to the lens of the camera. I also looped some twine behind the top panel.

We hope you’ll join us and create your own card using the sketch as your inspiration. For some truly great inspiration, you should drop by the Freshly Made Sketches site and check out what the design team made this week. They always inspire me!

Enjoy your Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by!

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!

Grateful for So Much — FMS164

Posted on November 26, 2014 by amyoneillblog

I love this week of the year! The kids get the whole week off from school and this year my husband has been able to take the week off from work, so we are getting lots of family time. We don’t have much planned — a little cooking and baking, going to see a couple of movies, a little shopping, and visiting some family. I love it!

Another thing I love is this week’s sketch by the oh-so-talented-and-lovely Jen Brum at Freshly Made Sketches. She has such a good one for us this week:

I wanted to make one more Thanksgiving/Fall themed card because the Christmas train is coming in a hurry. I pulled out the Seasonally Scattered set and stamped it with Cajun Craze ink on a strip of Very Vanilla card stock. I then layered some burlap ribbon and Natural 5/8″ Chevron Ribbon over the stamped image.

I stamped the sentiment from the For All Things stamp set over the banner image from the same set. Colors used were Crushed Curry and Bermuda Bay. This card came together pretty quickly. I will use it to send to my MIL to thank her for her preparations for our Thanksgiving dinner.

We hope you’ll be able to join us and make your own card using this sketch. We love to see your creations in the gallery. You can check out what the design team made at the Freshly Made Sketches site for some inspiration.

Enjoy your Wednesday! 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!

A Thanksgiving Snapshot — FMS162

Posted on November 12, 2014 by amyoneillblog

It’s Wednesday, and it’s time for another sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches. This week we have the fabulously talented Kim Singdahlsen as our hostess, and look at what she has for us:

It’s a great sketch, I tell ya. When I first saw it I thought of all of those cute Project Life cards in the Seasonal Snapshot collection. I decided to make a Thanksgiving themed card before I run out of time.

I love how easy it is to make cards as well as scrapbook pages with these cards and embellishments. I also used the Mingle All the Way stamp set for this card.

We hope you’ll be able to make your own card using this sketch. We love to see what you make. You can check out what the design team made using the sketch at the Freshly Made Sketches site.

Enjoy your Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by!

CAS Bloom — FMS161

Posted on November 5, 2014 by amyoneillblog

Another Wednesday, another great new sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches. And this week the super talented Linda Callahan is our hostess. Look at what she has for us:

This is a simple and versatile sketch, and I struggled and struggled with it. I was determined to use a certain stamp set with it, and after two hours of trying to make it work and filling up my trash can, I pulled an old favorite off my stamp shelf and I was finished in less than ten minutes.

I hadn’t used Blooming with Kindness in a long while, and I love this set. I used a color combo of Kraft, Strawberry Slush, and Hello Honey.

I kept it very clean and simple, and when I’m struggling with a card that is the best route for me.

We hope you’ll join us and make your own card with this sketch. If you do, please link it to our gallery so we can see it too. We love looking at what you make. You can check out what the rest of the design team made at the Freshly Made Sketches site for some inspiration.

Enjoy your Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by!

Thanks with Heart — FMS160

Posted on October 29, 2014 by amyoneillblog

Are you ready for a new challenge over at Freshly Made Sketches today? Well, it’s Wednesday and that means we have a new sketch for you to try. This week our hostess is the oh-so-talented Rita Wright. I love her blog! She not only shares her fabulous creations, but also such fun pictures of her beautiful toddler. Here’s the sketch she made for us this week:

When I saw that big circle for the focal image, I immediately thought of using my #Hello set. I love this set! And to think this set wasn’t even on my first order when the annual catalog came out. It has turned out to be one of my favorites! It makes for fast and easy cards, and the images are so fun.

I paired the stamp with the Flashback dsp. I love the colors and patterns in this package.

We hope you’ll join us and make your own card for this sketch. We always love seeing what’s in the gallery. Meanwhile, you can see what the rest of the design team made over at the Freshly Made Sketches site. They are always inspiring.

Enjoy your Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by!

Stache-ing through the Snow — FMS

Posted on October 22, 2014 by amyoneillblog

Look at this fabulous sketch that Jen Mitchell has for us this week over at Freshly Made Sketches:

Jen is a CAS genius! She has such a knack for making beautiful CAS cards. And I think this sketch is perfect for CAS cards.

I wanted to use this fun Santa image from the Santa Stache stamp set. I think “jolly” is such an appropriate description for this Santa.

He makes me smile. I colored him with my Blendabilities markers and used the coordinating Mustache Framelits die to cut out and pop us his fun mustache.

I thought this pretty snow-themed dsp coordinates so well with the fun sentiment. It’s from the Nordic Noel pack.

We hope you’ll join us and create your own card for the challenge. Meanwhile, you can see what the rest of the design team made at the Freshly Made Sketches site.

Enjoy your Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by!