Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #705

Hello!
Happy Wednesday!  I hope you're having a great week!  The smoke has finally cleared out here and the skies have been so blue!  It's so wonderful!  We've had some incredible sunrises and sunsets this week!  It's been pretty amazing!

We have a brand new sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches!  Our hostess this week is the amazing Narelle Farrugia!  Please make sure you head over to her blog to give her some love and check out her incredible creations!  

I thought for sure that the first idea I had for a card would be perfect!  Turns out I was wrong.  The second one wasn't perfect either but apparently third time is a charm.  I stuck with a simple white background.  Added some embossing and then kept the strips simple.  I opted for mushrooms for this card instead of leaves because I love mushrooms almost as much as I love fall!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Hammermill White Coverstock, Real Red, Smoky Slate, Basic Black

Stamps: Fall Foliage (Reverse Confetti)

Ink: Detail Black (Pink Fresh Studio), Real Red

Dies: Autumn Wonder (Spellbinders)

Other: Exposed Brick Textured Embossing Folder

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I hope you'll enter into our challenge this week!  Please head over to the Freshly Made Sketches blog to enter your card in this week's challenge.  You'll also find the inspiration you need to kick start your creativity!

This week's challenge ends on Monday at 1 PM EST!  

Have an amazing day!
Jen

 

Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #704

Hello!
Happy Wednesday!  I hope you're enjoying your week so far!  We are still trying to get into the swing of things here.  Getting used to new schedules and the different times that people have to be here there and everywhere.  I'm finding it more difficult to get it all figured out this year.  I think my brain is still in summer mode and rebelling against all the craziness!

We have a brand new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches this week!  Our hostess this week is the fabulous Michele Ferguson!  We have a very special guest with us this week!  Please welcome Donna Mikasa the winner of our Challenge #700!!  Head over to Donna's blog and check out her beautiful cards!   

There sure are a lot of circles on this sketch!  You all know how I feel about circles!!  Needless to say when I saw those circles I automatically converted them to leaves!  It's fall after all!!!  The Fall Florals set from Spellbinders seemed perfect for this card!  

Supplies:

Cardstock: Hammermill White Coverstock, Pumpkin Pie, Cherry Cobbler, Cajun Craze, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Crushed Curry, Rich Razzleberry (SU)
Stamps: Typewriter Adventure Sentiments (Spellbinders)
Ink: Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler, Cajun Crazy, Crumb Cake, Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie (All SU)
Dies: Itty Bitty Strips (MFT), Fall Florals (Spellbinders), Autumn Wonder (Spellbinders)
Other: Hardwood Embossing Folder (SU), Grain and Grunge Gem Stickers (Honey Bee Stamps)

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I hope you'll head over to the Freshly Made Sketches blog and join in our challenge this week!  You have until Monday at 3 PM EST to get your card entered into this week's challenge.  

Have an amazing day!
Jen

Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #703

Happy Wednesday! 

I hope your week has started well!  We're really starting to see signs of fall on our hikes.  Some of the plants are turning colours and I realized that the trees are also starting to turn!  I don't think I'm quite ready for that yet.  Unfortunately here, snow follows very closely behind fall!!!  

We have a brand new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches today!  Our hostess this week is the amazing Karren Johnson!  Please make sure you head over to her blog and check out her gorgeous creations!  

So, I saw that "window" shape and had absolutely no idea what to do with that.  I had absolutely nothing that would work for that.  After a few quick texts to some local craft friends, I had scored the goods!  Thank you Heather and Sheryl!  I still had some leaves on my desk and since I have fall on the brain, I had to make another fall card!  

Supplies:

Cardstock: Hammermill White Coverstock, Cajun Craze (SU), Crumb Cake (SU)
Ink: Cajun Craze (SU)
Dies: Autumn Wonder (Spellbinders), Happy Fall Sentiments (Spellbinders), Garden Meadow Dies (SU)
Other: Distressed Tile Embossing Folder (SU), Grain and Grunge Gem Stickers (Honey Bee Stamps)

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I hope you'll join in our challenge this week!  Please head over to the Freshly Made Sketches blog to check out the cards that the Design Team have posted! 

You have until Monday at 1 PM EST to get your card entered into this week's challenge!

Have an amazing day!
Jen

Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #702

Hello!
Happy Wednesday!  It's September!  How did that happen?  I swear it was June a minute ago!  My oldest started back in his second year at university this week and my youngest started Grade 12 today!  I swear I blinked and they went from babies to adults!  It's insane!  If you're a mom or a grandma I am sure you know exactly what I mean!  We are just coming off of a week vacation as well so I'm really not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow.  It's been a lovely summer working reduced hours.  

We have a brand new sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches!  Our hostess this week is the amazing Cecile Ribon!  Make sure you head over to her blog and check out all of her fantastic cards!  

I had this new Spellbinders die set sitting there just waiting to be used and what could be more perfect for a circle than a wreath?  I love fall and love making fall cards so I was pretty excited to use this set.  My wreath is a little oblong but I couldn't get it to look round and finally just gave up!!!  I added in some fall leaves and of course a pumpkin for that other little circle and called it a day!  

Supplies:
Cardstock: Hammermill White Coverstock, Cajun Craze, Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler, Pumpkin Pie, Garden Green, Early Espresso, Soft Suede.

Ink: Cajun Craze, Cherry Cobbler, Pumpkin Pie, Crumb Cake (SU)

Dies: Autumn Greetings Wreath (Spellbinders), Autumn Wonder (Spellbinders), Happy Fall Sentiments (Spellbinders)

Other: Exposed Brick Embossing Folder (SU)

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you'll head over to the Freshly Made Sketches blog and join in our challenge this week!  The design team has come up with some beautiful cards so make sure you check them out and give them some love!  

You have until Monday at 3 PM EST to get your card entered into this week's challenge!

Have an amazing day!
Jen

 

Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #701

 

Hello!

Happy Wednesday!  I hope you're having a great week so far!  Summer has finally decided to show up here and the weather has been amazing!  We are currently enjoying our vacation.  We decided very last minute to take a trip to Revelstoke, British Columbia.  We've got a lot of hikes we want to tackle.  One hike is supposed to be the most beautiful hike in Canada!  We shall see.  I will keep you posted!

We had so much fun celebrating our 700th sketch at Freshly Made Sketches last week.  I hope you were able to play along with our challenge.  We're now rolling into our next 700 sketches!  I have the privilege of being this week's hostess!  I love to see all the different variations of the sketch!  My sketch has the sentiment being vertical on that last panel but I couldn't find one that fit the bill so I had to leave it horizontal! 

Supplies:

Cardstock: Hammermill White Coverstock, Brushed Gold (SU)

Dies: Christmas Foliage (Spellbinders), Handwritten Holiday Sentiments (Spellbinders)

Other: Distressed Tile Embossing Folder (SU)

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  

You have until Monday at 1 PM EST to get your card entered into this week's challenge!

Have an amazing day!

Jen

Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #700

Happy Wednesday!
I hope you're having a great week so far!  The summer weather has finally arrived - let's just hope the snow stays away for another couple of months so we can actually enjoy it.  

We are so excited to be celebrating our 700th sketch at Freshly Made Sketches!  Can you believe that?  We've been creating sketches for you for 14 years!  I started playing along with Freshly Made Sketches at sketch #16!  You can see that card below!  Crazy to think that it was almost right near the beginning that I started to play.  I joined the design team at sketch #38.  I'm so thankful they've kept me around all this time!  

For this special sketch, we've invited back some of the designers that joined us along the way.  I'm so excited to see the cards that they create!  We sure hope you'll join us this week as well!  Our winner this week will get to be a guest designer for a week with us!!!

Since this is our 14th year, we've picked our 14th sketch as the sketch we're using for our challenge this week!  

I needed a more masculine birthday card and I wanted to use the new paper I had sitting on my desk so I went to town.  The mushrooms are actually cut out from paper in the Mintay paper pack.  I just love mushrooms.  We saw so many on our last hike.  They were gorgeous!  This card came together a lot faster than they normally do!! 

Supplies:
Cardstock: Hammermill White Coverstock, Soft Suede, Cajun Craze

Patterned Paper: Lakeside Memories Basics (Paper Rose), Wildwood Secrets (Mintay Papers)

Dies: Happy Fall Sentiments

Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you'll head over to the Freshly Made Sketches blog and join in our challenge this week!  We can't wait to see what you create!  Feel free to post the first card you ever submitted!  We'd love to see that too!

Have an amazing day!
Jen

 

Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #699

Happy Wednesday!  

I hope you're having a fantastic start to your week!  The summer is flying by!  I am wondering how we're almost at the middle of August already!  We still haven't had a lot of summery weather yet but we're trying to make the best of what we have had.  

We've got a brand new sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches!  Our hostess this week is the amazing Verena Shapiro!  Verena's cards are spectacular so make sure you head over to her Instagram to check them all out!  

I needed a couple of sympathy cards this week and I thought this sketch worked perfectly for them!  So I'm not so great at background blending but I gave it my best.  I added some trees and some blooms and called it a day. I kept the cards simple.  Sometimes I start off simple and then it spirals into complicated!!!  

Supplies:
Cardstock: Hammermill Coverstock, Basic Black

Stamps: Essential Sentiments (MFT), With Sympathy Duo (Waffle Flower)

Ink: Detail Black (Pink Fresh Studio), Twisted Citron, Salvaged Patina, Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Uncharted Mariner, Scattered Straw, Fossilized Amber, Carved Pumpkin (Distress Oxides)

Dies: With Sympathy Duo (Waffle Flower), Harvest Dies (SU), Scenic Adventure Dies (SU), Circle Dies

Other:  Black Rhinestone Jewels (SU), Neutral Matte Dots (SU)

Thought I'd include a few photos from our adventure on the weekend.  

Our adventure started by seeing 5 Grizzlies!  A big male bear ran across the road in front of us and then we came across these three little ones and their mom.  Mom was grumpy (I would be too if I had triplets).  

A gorgeous paddle on Upper Kananaskis Lake.  It was so calm and the weather was perfect!  It was 8 degrees C when we started!!!  But it warmed up fast!

Our first paddle this year which is quite shameful!

This picture just doesn't do the water colour justice!

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I hope you'll head over to the Freshly Made Sketches blog and join in our challenge this week.  

You have until 1 PM EST to get your card entered into this week's challenge!

Next week we're celebrating our 700th sketch!  I can't believe we're at 700!!!  I joined the Design Team at Sketch #31!!  That was a really long time ago!  I can't believe they've kept me all this time!!  You won't want to miss out on our challenge next week so be sure to mark it on your calendars!!!

Have an amazing day!
Jen