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Wednesday, February 24, 2021

Freshly Made Sketches #474

 Welcome to Freshly Made Sketches #474!

I love a great, versatile sketch like the one Judy Rozema has given us this week! I wanted to play with watercolors so pulled out the Zig Real Brush markers and The Stamp Market Color Me Happy stamp set to play around.




The paint brush, set and sentiment are all stamped and heat embossed first before the watercolor is added. I ended up doing the sentiment panel twice because I felt the first attempt, with the rainbow wash of color on it, was too busy. Instead I took a leap of faith, held my breath and added the color directly onto the card base before popping the uncolored sentiment strip over it. The rainbow option is saved for another card on another day.



Check out the fabulous Clean Team cards and play along with us this week at Freshly Made Sketches!

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie


Tuesday, February 23, 2021

CASology Simple Studios Blog Hop

 Welcome to the CASology Simple Studios Blog Hop!

The design team members are sharing our creative spaces today! If you didn't come here from the CASology blog, you can go back there to start and make sure you hit every blog along the Hop.

After years of working at the kitchen table and transitioning from a closet shelf to a full armoire of storage space, when we moved into this house my husband and I finally had a shared office. Initially we had a pretty even split of the room but all added storage was for me and suddenly I controlled about 75% of the space. 

Don't feel too bad for him.  He moved into a much bigger room with a TV and couch and also uses 75% of our master bedroom closet space. 

This photo from the door gives a nice overview of the room including the pup's second bed. In the before times she would always sit in my doorway when I was crafting and was thrilled when I brought in the bed so she could join me in the room. Now that we're rarely home alone she isn't spending as much time here.


One early, smart decision was to remove the closet doors so a 4x4 IKEA Expedit storage unit would fit along the window wall. This holds all my paper, most stamps, dies, embossing folders, stencils, Zig brushes, colored pencils, stamp platform and extra adhesives.

I might rearrange the categories every now and then, but have found Jennifer McGuire's fridge bins and storage pocket idea to be a winner. 




A favorite storage find is the pencil holders for my Copic markers. I hunted these down in several HomeGoods over at least a year and love that I can store the markers by color families. And I love how pretty they are on my desk.
 



My desk rarely looks this clear, but I don't keep anything other than the cutting pad and my paper trimmer here full time.  

When my husband left the space, I added a second desk so I could bring in the computer and sewing machine from another room. This table became the new home for my Big Kick and a bin of paper scraps. All scraps are organized by color and stored in stamp storage pockets.  It is amazingly easy to keep tidy!





My most used tools and adhesives are stored on another favorite, the IKEA rolling cart. It fits nicely in the corner and rolls over to my side when I'm at the desk. I love this thing so much that it gets to go on retreats with me.




The two drawer units behind my desk store all my inks and the bottom drawer holds 12x12 papers from my scrapbooking days. They came from Fred Meyer's at least 15 years ago when we lived in Washington.




Although Stefan was happy to leave the office to me, he was even happier when he realized my other crafting supplies squirreled throughout the house would all fit in here with him gone.  The timing was good as our son wanted to get rid his bigger Expedit so we ended up trading it for my smaller one. You know I was a little sad about the color. 




This one holds knitting, cross stitch and sewing supplies as well as paper crafting items like rubber cling stamps, buttons, washi tape, twine, punches and paper pads.  

Everything is always a work in progress as I try to balance the need to keep things neat and tidy with not forgetting what is tucked away out of sight. I hope you have enjoyed this look at my space and let me know if you have any questions.

The next stop on the Hop is Milka!

I hope you hop along and comment at every stop by Thursday, February 25th at 11:59 pm CST for an opportunity to win at $20 gift certificate from Simon Says Stamp! 

Jacquie


Wednesday, February 17, 2021

Freshly Made Sketches #473

 Welcome to Freshly Made Sketches #473!


I absolutely adore Amy's fun sketch this week! While cleaning out the office a few weeks ago a ran across a couple pieces of the prettiest Altenew wide washi Joyce Mehrberg shared with me during one of our long ago crafting dates. I knew this was going to be the star of my design.





The washi was added to a white panel and die cut with a stitched edge rectangle. A couple linen card stock panels are cut as well, with the smaller one also used to cut the washi panel into three pieces. After the Altenew Thinking of You sentiment was added in dark blue, the panels are assembled and added to an indigo card base.

I love the contrast between the smooth washi and linen texture.



Check out the terrific Clean Team designs and play along with us this week at Freshly Made Sketches!

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie




Tuesday, February 16, 2021

CASology Challenge #384: FOX

 Welcome to CASology Challenge #384!



I only have one fox image in my stamp collection and it just wasn't inspiring a design this week. A quick trip through Pinterest for ideas started me thinking about creating an origami fox. This is the video I used to make my fox head.

Origami is much easier with super lightweight origami paper but I had to work with the papers I had on hand. The Lawn Fawn woodgrain paper worked best and added a bit of interest to the design.




A sequin headband helped cover up a few rough edges and add a bit of festive flair to the design.




Check out the terrific design team cards!

Jacquie Southas (you are here)


 
We are looking forward to seeing how FOX inspires you - just remember to keep it Clean & Simple! This is a two week challenge, so you have until 9 AM Monday, March 1st (CMT) to link your card to the CASology blog.


Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

Wednesday, February 10, 2021

Freshly Made Sketches #472

 Welcome to Freshly Made Sketches #472!



I found Narelle's sketch a bit of a challenge this week as a reconciled what to do with the background while still letting the strips take center stage. The Stamp Market Heart & Hugs large swoopy heart was a perfect fit. After cutting a red heart, a second heart was cut in white so the center piece could be heart embossed for a little extra interest and texture.




A Lawn Fawn Scripty XOXO provides the sentiment, is backed by patterned and popped up over a strip of Pixie Dust Glitter Paper and a PTI heart border.



I hope you check out the amazing Clean Team cards and play along with us this week at Freshly Made Sketches!

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie


Tuesday, February 9, 2021

CASology Challenge #383: ENVELOPE

 Welcome to CASology Challenge #383!



I pulled out an older MFT Gift Card Envelope die and a ziplock bag of assorted heart die cuts that were leftover from other projects to get started with my card this week.




Sentiments from the Pretty Pink Posh Floral Hearts stamp set are heat embossed on three of the hearts before they are layered popping out of the envelope.  The heart embossed panel adds a bit of extra interest while preserving the white space of a clean and simple design.




Check out the fabulous design team cards!



Jacquie Southas (you are here)

Guest Designer: Rahmat!

 
We are looking forward to seeing how ENVELOPE inspires you - just remember to keep it Clean & Simple! This is a two week challenge, so you have until 9 AM Monday, February 15th (CMT) to link your card to the CASology blog.


Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie


Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Freshly Made Sketches #471

 Welcome to Freshly Made Sketches #471!

I took a little bit of creative license with Karren's fabulous sketch this week as the lines reminded me so much of the new MFT Winter Wreath stamp set sitting on my desk.




The stamped wreath is colored with Copic markers and a simple sentiment added to the center. 




I hope you can join in the fun with us at Freshly Made Sketches this week!

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie