Freshly Made Sketches #579

 Welcome to Freshly Made Sketches #579!

Jen Timko is the Clean Team designer behind the fabulous sketch this week! I cut a larger MFT Mini Scalloped Stitched Oval first before deciding to go a size smaller and extending the oval visually by surrounding it with a rainbow of leaf die cuts.

To keep things simple, one die was used to cut five leaves in rainbow colors and a second one used to cut the same colors in a lighter shade. An oval was penciled onto the panel and the darker die cuts spaced around it first and the the lighter die cuts filled in the space between them.

The Simon Says Stamp Sending Happy Thoughts sentiment is stamped onto the oval and the smaller sentiment head embossed and added. The sentiment oval looked a little bare, so a flower die cut was added and surrounded by a few sequins. More sequins were scattered around the rainbow oval before the center panel was popped up over them.

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

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

Freshly Made Sketches #578

 Welcome to Freshly Made Sketches #578!

I am hosting the sketch this week and came up with something simple that allows a lot of creative leeway for our card making friends!

I started with the PTI Penned Elegance sentiment and Simply Graphic Full Flowers (duo fleurs pleines) dies that remind me of the orange California poppies that were on their way to an all out superbloom again this year until another atmospheric river hit us. 

For a bit of interest, the orange panel is embossed with Taylored Expressions Rosy Posey folder, a section cut out and the two remaining pieces popped up over the card base. A couple of white flowers are added to the channel for even more texture and interest.

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

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

Freshly Made Sketches #577

 Welcome to Freshly Made Sketches #577!

I was already thinking about Easter when I saw the trio of circles in the fabulous Judy Rozema's sketch this week, so it became a decision on whether I was going with bunnies or eggs in my design. As you can see, eggs won out. 

We celebrate Greek Orthodox Easter so I wanted to highlight the red eggs that are always part of the day.

A piece of glossy paper was colored with alcohol inks and Distress stains to get the deep red color and the shine of the finished eggs polished with olive oil. The Poppystamps Egg Cetera die is cut several times and my three favorites added to an oval plate stamped with the PTI Simply Spring Borders sentiment.

Finding the dye for red eggs is challenging, especially if there is a big gap between western Easter and orthodox Easter, and I don't really want to buy a set of dye colors just to get the red so a few years ago I explored options for natural dyes. To my surprise, boiling eggs with yellow onion skins leave us with the perfect red. I've already started saving the skins for this year.

  

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

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

Freshly Made Sketches #576

 Welcome to Freshly Made Sketches #576!

How fun is this scatter of circles from the talented Clean Team designer Amy O'Neill!? There are so many images that can be substituted for the circles and I went with balloons for a rainbow birthday card.

The three smallest MFT Balloon Stax dies were used with a rainbow of scrap cardstock to cut more balloons than needed, allowing me to play a bit until I was happy with the diagonal line floating from the bottom left to top right of the panel.

A knot was formed on the waxed thread before it was slipping onto the balloon ends and held in place with a dot of adhesive. Once dry, the threads were trimmed and some woven through the MFT Happy Birthday Script die cut. The sentiment is cut twice, with a black layer under the white to help it pop a bit on the panel. If you have this die, you will have noticed the "H" is actually upside down to fit the space a bit better.

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

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

Freshly Made Sketches #575

 Welcome to Freshly Made Sketches #575!

Although I would love to  use a flower or butterfly in the circle element of this fabulous sketch from Clean Team designer Karren Johnson this week, the next birthday card needed from me is for my darling husband. Anyone who knows Stefan, knows that he is fueled by coffee all day, every day, which made it easy to pull out coffee based sentiments and images.

What you may not know is that I have a thing for woodgrain anything and my favorite travel coffee mug is a sweet woodgrain design from Nespresso. When I saw this wood paper sitting in my stash I had to replicate my mug. The one Stefan is pretty much forbidden to use because of his track record for forgetting travel mugs while out and about.

The wood paper (yes, actual thin wood) is cut with a Hero Arts Coffee Cup die and the MFT Perk Up sentiment added. I am fine with the image not stamping crisply as it reminds of a burlap printed coffee bag. A green panel is embossed with a Sizzix/Tim Holtz embossing folder, the MFT Coffee Order sentiment stamped on a kraft panel and the travel cup popper up over them.

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

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie