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

 

Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #696

Happy Wednesday!
I hope you're having a great week!  We are experiencing some super wet weather.  While rain is normal in a lot of areas of Canada through the summer, rain is not normal here.  We are usually in drought conditions and dealing with forest fires all summer but we've had so much rain in the last week we're getting ready to build our ark!  I actually had to turn our heat on today because it's dark and cold and the temperature is supposed to dip close to freezing tonight.  It's crazy!!!  

We have a brand new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches today.  Our hostess this week is the extremely talented Jen Mitchell!  Her cards are fabulous so please head over to her blog and give her some love!  

I had these butterflies sitting on my desk and thought they would work nicely for this card.  Who doesn't love a pretty butterfly?  My craft room is a disaster and one of my jobs this week/weekend is to clean it up!  I still have a stack of stuff sitting on my desk and I need to put it away so that my desk can actually look clean again!!!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Hammermill White Coverstock, Basic Black, Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight

Stamps: Hello Sunshine (Waffle Flower)

Ink: Detail Black (Pink Fresh Studios)

Dies: Hello Sunshine Piercing (Waffle Flower), Butterfly Blossom (Waffle Flower), Stitched Rectangle (Lil Inkers)

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.  You have until Monday at 3 PM EST to enter your card in this week's challenge.

Have an amazing day!
Jen
 

Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #692

Hello!

Happy Wednesday!  I hope you're having a good week!  We have had the craziest weather here.  We finally got some rain.  A lot of rain.  It rained for about 36 hours straight.  That is unheard of here (at least for the past few years).  We ended up with a lot of water!  The mountains however got a lot of snow.  My friend Annie and I got to hike in that snow on Sunday.  You can check out those photos below.  Let's just say that hiking for hours and hours through knee deep snow towards the end of June seemed absolutely crazy.  You can check out some of the photos below!

We have a brand new sketch this week over at Freshly Made Sketches!  Our hostess this week is the amazing Narelle Farrugia!  Narelle's cards are gorgeous so head over to her blog to check them out!!  Narelle would have liked the hike I just did.  Climbing, snow oh and some bears too!!!!

I had made a recent trip to The Paper and Ink Boutique!  I had some gift cards from Mother's Day that were begging to be used!!  I saw these pretty butterfly dies and I couldn't resist!  Who can resist a good butterfly?!  I knew they would be perfect for this sketch!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Hammermill White Coverstock, Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo, Bermuda Bay, Black Foil Cardstock.

Stamps: Hello Sunshine (Waffle Flower)

Ink: Detail Black (Pink Fresh Studio), Scattered Straw (Distress Oxide)

Dies: Butterfly Blossom Die (Waffle Flower), Hello Sunshine Piercing Dies

Other: Cobblestone Stencil (Hero Arts)

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you'll join in our challenge this week!  Head over to the Freshly Made Sketches blog and you'll be inspired to create!!  We always love to see how unique each card is!  You have until Monday at 1 PM EST to get your card entered into this week's challenge.

Hope you enjoy some photos from our hike on Sunday!  This was a 4 peak day - Little Ware, Mount Ware, Surveyor's Ridge and Prospectors Ridge!

The view from the top of Mount Ware

Another view from the top of Mount Ware

Hiking to our next destination - this was a 4 peak day!

That mountain behind us is what we have to hike up!

We made it up peak 3!!!  

The first bear we came across on our way in

The third bear we saw!

The second bear we saw - all three are black bears.  This one is a cinnamon bear!

I hope you have a wonderful day!
Jen