It’s Wednesday again (in case you’re keeping track) and that means it’s time for another new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.  This week our hostess is Lee Ann Barrett, who does amazing things with all types of coloring mediums.  Take a look at the fun sketch she has for us:

I pulled out a set I hadn’t used in a while, To a Wild Rose, and stamped the flower several times, some on card stock and some on watercolor paper.  I also hadn’t watercolored in a long time and I’ve seen some really pretty watercolored cards recently, so I wanted to give it a go too.  Coloring is always a stress reliever for me, so it sounded like a good idea for these days.

Here is the watercolored card.

I am not a Purple person, but this Spring I have been drawn to it.  The card base is the new In-Color, Purple Posy.  I used a mix of Purple Posy, Highland Heather, and Gorgeous Grape inks to watercolor the purple flower.  The yellow flower has Daffodil Delight, Crushed Curry and Mango Melody inks.  The leaves have Granny Apple Green and Old Olive inks.

While I was waiting for these flowers to dry, I used the stamps to color in the flowers on this other card.  The stamp set includes three stamps for the flower — one is an outline, which I stamped first with black ink.  The next stamp adds a base layer of color for the flower, and the third stamps adds a top layer of color.

Here is the stamped-only card.

I started out by stamping off the base layer stamp once to obtain a more muted color, and then stamped the top layer of color with full strength ink.  I used Purple Posy and Daffodil Delight inks for these flowers, and Pear Pizzazz ink for the leaves.

So which one do you like better — the one with watercolored flowers or the stamped flowers?  I think if I was better at watercoloring, I’d like the first card best.  The colors are more vibrant.  However, I kinda like the softer look of the second card.  Hmmm…..

We’d love for you to join us and create your own card using the sketch!  Meanwhile, be sure to stop by the Freshly Made Sketches site to see what the design team has created for your inspiration.

Enjoy your Wednesday!  Thanks for stopping by!

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If you noticed the title of this post, you probably noticed that this is a milestone anniversary at Freshly Made Sketches.  It is our 400th sketch!  I’ve been on this team for a while, and I LOVE the ladies on this team!  It is such a kind and supportive group, and we have been through a lot of life’s ups and downs together.  It’s like another family.  I couldn’t remember exactly how long I had been a part of the team, so when I looked back I was shocked to see that I joined the team with sketch #76.  That was back in March 2013.

Lesley Croghan started this challenge site eight years ago with the idea of creating cards that were clean (but not always simple).  We have a couple of members who have been on the team since the very beginning — Jen Mitchell and Linda Callahan.  To celebrate this 400th milestone, we are shaking things up a little bit.  We are starting out the month by re-using our very first sketch, which also happened to be our 100th sketch when we celebrated that anniversary as well.  We have some more fun surprises as the month continues.

I pulled out the To a Wild Rose stamp set for this one, thinking one of the roses would be good for the heart shape in the sketch.  I played with some dsp squares for the two square elements in the sketch, but I couldn’t get happy with anything.  Then I decided to just stamp two flowers as background for the focal flower.

I started with a base of Seaside Spray, which is one of the new In Colors.  I paired it with a flower made with Grapefruit Grove and Calypso Coral ink.  The vertical strip was die-cut from Vellum card stock using one of the coordinating Wild Rose Dies.  The sentiment is from the Well Said stamp set.

We hope you’ll join us and create your own card using the sketch!  We love to see what you make.  Meanwhile, be sure to stop by the Freshly Made Sketches site to see what the design team has created for your inspiration.

Enjoy your Wednesday!  Thanks for stopping by!

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It’s time for another new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches, and this week it is my privilege to be the hostess.  I came up with a pretty simple sketch, but I think it leaves lots of room for creativity.  Take a look:

Whew!  It has been a whirlwind the past couple of weeks.  My middle child graduated last week, I planned a Senior dinner event for over 150 people for her school, and I just got back from our church’s youth camp with 600 others.  I am ready for summer vacation!    Another thing I’m ready for is the new catalog, which went live yesterday.  My card today features one of the new sets in it, and it is so fun to play with.

This flower is like a 3-step stamp set.  I started by stamping the outline with Mango Melody ink.  Then I used some So Saffron ink to stamp the broad-filling image.  Lastly, I stamped some Crushed Curry ink on top with the third stamp.  It will be so fun to play with different color combinations with this set.

For the background panel, I sponged some Balmy Blue ink and added some Artisan Textures splatters.  I love the fonts used in this set, and this sentiment was included with it.

I hope you’ll join us and create your own card using the sketch!  We love to see what you make each week as we browse the gallery.  Meanwhile, be sure to stop by the Freshly Made Sketches site to see what the design team has created for your inspiration.

Enjoy your Wednesday!  Thanks for stopping by!
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