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

Freshly Made Sketches #574

 Welcome to Freshly Made Sketches #574!

Can I confess that diagonal lines usually put me in a panic? I don't know why, because Jen Brum's sketch is perfect for using strips of patterned paper, washi tape or border dies and punches, whether as the main design or to create a base for a cluster element, but for some reason my creative mojo goes into a panic when I see them.

It was thinking about a family member moving through the final push of a major milestone that had me searching for an old favorite Altenew Figure Effects stamp set and Zig Real Brush Markers this week.

The image and sentiment were heat embossed on a watercolor paper panel and a section masked off to color in the path next. Once the diagonal line was established it was easy to add the grass and sky sections without further masking.

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

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

Freshly Made Sketches #573

 Welcome to Freshly Made Sketches #573!

I absolutely love Kim Singdahlsen's fabulous sketch this week! My first thought was to use strips of patterned papers for the vertical stripe element, but a new MFT Paint Strokes stencil had me playing with inks instead. 

A decision to make the stripes in ocean colors had me reaching for MFT Life's a Beach stamp set. The sentiment was heat embossed with Versamark ink and a clear embossing powder first and then the top portion of the panel masked to give a straight edge for the inked paint stroke "waves".

Staying with the beach theme, a few rows of twine "sand" add interest to the top edge of the panel.

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

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

Freshly Made Sketches #572

 Welcome to Freshly Made Sketches #572!

I missed last week's sketch mostly because COVID derailed my plans to get it done before we made a quick trip to Vancouver to help my mother-in-law celebrate her 90th birthday. Thankfully it was a short illness this time around and I was testing negative in time for my flight. Earlier in the month our lemon tree produced enough fruit to juice and freeze about 100 lemon cubes so I had citrus on the mind when I saw Linda's fabulous sketch for this week.

I love that the Memory Box Small Citrus dies can be used to make any citrus fruit and decided to watercolor pink grapefruit this week. Once the leaves and fruit were dried, the cluster was added to a strip of MFT Colorful Canvas paper. The MFT Itty Bitty Celebrations sentiment is added last and general enough for the card to be used for any type of celebration.

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 #570

 Welcome to Freshly Made Sketches #570!

I love the sketch from super talented Jennifer Timko this week so much! I've had the Simply Graphic Duo de Carapaces (Shell Duo) dies for a while and had in the back of my mind the lobster would be perfect for a Valentine, anniversary and/or birthday card for my dear husband. He is my lobster. 

My lobster sitting on a Wplus9 Dockside life preserver die was the starting point for the design. I went looking for an anchor washi tape and found this fun boating scene instead. Two staggered strips are taped across the top of a white panel.

The Mama Elephant Love Quotes sentiment is stamped on another white panel before it is embossed with the vertical stripes and adhered below the washi. A few wraps of twine are tied off where the pieces join and then the lobster popped up over them.

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

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

Freshly Made Sketches #569

 Welcome to Freshly Made Sketches #569!

I'm hosting the challenge this week and created a design that would work for a large sentiment, but, as always it seems, ended up going down a different path.

The MFT Heart Tree die is cut from a white panel, with all the bits and pieces saved, then adhered to a slightly large red panel first. A second tree was cut from red giving me a lot of bits and pieces to put back into the negative areas of the tree. Some have just a white piece, while others are layered with red first, then white. The hearts were layered with white first then red. It was a bit finicky but came out exactly as I hoped.

An MFT All About Dad sentiment is heat embossed in platinum and a few extra leaves used to hide the adhesive and finish the design.

I'm excited to see what you create with the sketch this week! 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 #568

Welcome to Freshly Made Sketches #568!

 

I had so many ideas swirling when I saw Judy Rozema's terrific sketch this week. My first thought was to use speech bubbles for the squares, but the design wasn't coming together so I took a break to play around with the new to me MFT Love You Gnome Matter What stamps.

This sweet gnome with his pouch of hearts ended up taking over the design and the squares became hearts. And it looks like gray is definitely going to be the supporting color for my Valentine's this year.

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

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

Freshly Made Sketches #567

 Welcome to Freshly Made Sketches #567!

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday break. My daughter was caught up in epicenter of the airport chaos and instead of a 3 hour direct flight, ended up rerouted with an overnight in Texas before arriving at a different airport from the original plan 24 hours later. We definitely consider her to be one of the lucky ones!

I'm happy to get back into a routine and knew immediately that Amy's fabulous sketch would work perfectly for a Valentine card.

A scrap of patterned paper is used for the panel where the three PTI From The Heart dies run down the side. The middle one is popped up at the top for a bit of dimension and adhered flat to the panel at the bottom as I didn't want it floating above the sentiment.

The Lawn Fawn Scripty XO die pairs perfectly with the patterned paper and is cut from craft foam for more interest and dimension.

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

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie