Wednesday, June 28, 2023

Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #592




Hello!
Happy Wednesday!  I hope you're having a great start to your week.  It's been a good week here.  My youngest had his last day of school yesterday which I was so thankful for!  He is now done at the middle school and will go to high school next year with my oldest.  My days of driving him to school are over!!!  Praise the Lord!!!  I'm so thankful to finally be starting our summer vacation.  My oldest has been done for over a week but he's working maintenance at the golf course so we don't see him much!

We've got a great new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches this week courtesy of our favourite French designer, Cecile Ribon!  Cecile's cards always blow me away so you need to head over to her blog to check them out!  Cecile's sketch really stretched my brain.  I struggled with it for a while but I had just used these trees and the dies were still sitting on my desk and I thought they would work perfectly.  I tried one design but didn't like it so opted for an all white Christmas card!


I apologize greatly that the photo quality of my card is poor.  The lighting was terrible when I took it.  We have some rare cloudy skies and it was impeding my ability to take a good photo!  I really love these white sequins from Taylored Expressions.  I had been using them sparingly but I used quite a few in my shaker!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Basic White (SU)
Other: Nested Circles (Pink Fresh), Circle Dies (Spellbinders), Silver Hot Foil (Spellbinders), Joyful Christmas Sentiments (Spellbinders), Evergreens (Taylored Expressions), Sequins (Taylored Expressions and SU)


I thought I'd include some pics of our hike on Friday!  We tackled the Heart Mountain Scramble!  It was a spectacular ridge walk.  No bears on this adventure!  We did see a cute marmot!  You'll see his picture below!  






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 some amazing cards there to inspire you!  We can't see what you create!

Have an amazing day!
Jen






 

Wednesday, June 21, 2023

Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #591


Hello!  
Happy Wednesday!  I hope you're having a wonderful week so far!  We finally got some rain yesterday.  It rained most of the day which wasn't so great for my oldest who had to work outside in the cold and wet but so amazing for our dry ground that is desperate for water!  I think "rainy season" is coming to an end which is sad considering we hardly got any rain.   Life in an alpine desert I guess!  

We've got a brand new sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches!  I am fortunate to be this week's hostess!  I really do enjoy hosting the challenge!  It's so fun to get to see each and every card and read all of your posts!  I love seeing everyone's creativity!  


I tried to get creative on my sketch!  I wanted to pick something that was outside my normal comfort zone!  I am generally drawn to easy, plain sketches so I tried to change it up a little!

I need another wedding card for my cousin's upcoming wedding.  I grabbed my Lovely Layers Peony and got cutting.  I went with white again since I really do love mostly white cards!  I figured a peony was a good wedding flower and it wasn't the Be Bold Blooms!!!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Basic Black, Basic White, Wild Wasabi (SU)
Ink: Garden Green (SU)
Other: Lovely Layers Peony (Honey Bee Stamps), Dainty Diamonds Embossing Folder (SU), Sequins (Honey Bee Stamps), Mini Everyday Sentiments (Spellbinders), Black Foil (Spellbinders), Glimmer Hot Foil Machine (Spellbinders)

Thank you so much for stopping by today!  I hope you'll head over to the Freshly Made Sketches blog and join in our challenge!  I would love to see what you create with my sketch!

Thought I'd share some photos of our recent hike!  The first one is of the mama and baby grizzly we startled when we came up on the ridge.  They were much closer when we first saw them and we cautiously backed up and made noise which scared them off - thankfully!  I didn't take a picture until they were a very good distance away!  This hike was absolutely spectacular!  Amazing views despite being a little on the smoky side.








Have an amazing day!

Jen!



 

Wednesday, June 14, 2023

Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #590


Hello!
Happy Wednesday!  I hope you are having a wonderful week so far!  We are still in the middle of a crazy drought.  We need rain so desperately.  We are supposed to get some rain today and we are praying that it comes.  We didn't go hiking last weekend because there was rain and thunder storms in the forecast (and the last place you want to be in a storm is on top of a naked mountain!) but we didn't get a drop of rain.  The ponds of drying up, some of the towns are going on water rations, everything is starting to die.  It's so sad.  We definitely need rain for our wildfires too!  So praying we do get rain this week!  

We've got a lovely new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches courtesy of the amazing Kim Singdahlsen!  Kim's cards are always so lovely so please head over to her blog to check them out!  I guarantee you'll come away with a wish list of new things you need!!!


Kim's sketch threw me a bit.  I originally thought I could do a Father's Day card but I don't have a lot of masculine products so I got frustrated very quickly.  My Echo Park Bee Happy paper was sitting on my desk so of course I grabbed that again!   I knew I couldn't use the Be Bold Blooms so I grabbed my Honey Bee Stamps Lovely Layers Wildflowers instead!  I added a gold hot foil sentiment and some gold sequins and I was done.  I wish it had come together as fast as that sounded, but it didn't.  Shocking!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Basic White, So Saffron, Wild Wasabi, Basic Black (all SU)
Patterned Paper: Bee Happy (Echo Park)
Ink: Daffodil Delight, Wild Wasabi (all SU)
Other: Lovely Layers Wildflowers (Honey Bee Stamps), Be Bold Glimmer Sentiments (Spellbinders), Gold Foil, Glimmer Hot Foil Machine, Gold Sequins

Thank you so much for stopping by today!  I hope you'll head over to the Freshly Made Sketches blog and join in our challenge!  There are some amazing cards there to set your creativity on fire!  

I don't have any hiking photos for you this week since we didn't get out!  Hopefully I'll have some for next week!

Have an amazing day!

Jen


 

Wednesday, June 7, 2023

Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #589


Hello!
Happy Wednesday!  I hope you're having a great week so far!  Canada is being hit with some pretty crazy wildfires right now.  Ontario and the Eastern part of the country seem to be hit pretty hard right now.  The whole country could use some rain.  Hopefully we'll soon get some!

We've got a fantastic new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches this week!  Our hostess is the amazing Linda Callahan!  Linda's cards are always fantastic!  Head over to her blog and check out those beauties!  


So this sketch might have stumped me.  A lot.  I have a couple of "reject" cards on my desk that I tried but was not happy with at all!  I finally decided to go for an "all white" card.  I hadn't done one in a while and it was about time.  I still love the look of an all white card!  I hope you're totally shocked that I didn't pull out the Be Bold Blooms!  I grabbed the Lovely Layers: Wildflowers from Honey Bee Stamps instead!  

Supplies:
Cardstock: Basic White, Silver Foil
Other: Lovely Layers: Wildflowers Honey Cuts (Honey Bee Stamps), Sentiments for Everyday (Spellbinders), Silver Foil, Circle Dies (Spellbinders), Dainty Diamonds Embossing Folder (SU), Basic Rhinestones (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!  The more the merrier!

I thought I'd share a few photos from last weekend's hike.  There were no falls this time and no grizzly bears - which was a little disappointing!!!
We hiked Black Rock Mountain.  The drive to get there was insane.  It was physically the closest to our home but took the longest because we were driving on these sketchy dirt roads with giant pot holes and then we had to drive down an old river bed!  Super cool but super dusty and slow!




Have an amazing day!

Jen