Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #634

Hello!
Happy Wednesday!  I hope you're having a great start to your week!  We were having a great week until the forecast said snow.  It's almost May and we're still dealing with snow.  Some areas closer to the mountains are supposed to get between 10-20 cm of snow.  That's a fair bit of snow for the spring.  Thankfully our temperatures are supposed to remain above freezing so I'll be praying that it melts!  I need spring and summer to come NOW!!!

We have a fun new sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches today!  Our hostess today is my fellow Rocky Mountain dweller (but the Colorado variety), Kim Singdahlsen! You will love Kim's cards so head over to her blog to be wowed!  Your wish list will grow so be warned!!!  

I'll be honest, when I first saw this sketch I just stared at it and had no clue at all what I wanted to do.  Angles throw me I guess.  I have also been super busy (and a little overwhelmed) at work and so my creative side is definitely lacking.  It took a couple of days of staring at the sketch and the card you see above is what was produced.  It's not my favourite.  It's not even in my top 10!  I had a vision but I just couldn't make it work despite my best efforts!  

Supplies:
Cardstock: Hammermill White Coverstock, Highland Heather

Ink: Milled Lavender, Dusty Concord (Tim Holtz Distress Oxides)

Dies: Paper Florist Dies

Other: Glimmer Hot Foil Machine (Spellbinders), Monoline Stars Embossing Folder (Spellbinders), Basic Rhinestones (SU), Purple Foil (Spellbinders), Be Bold Sentiments (Spellbinders)

We didn't get out for a hike on the weekend.  I was a little sad but I was exhausted from the previous week and knew what my body didn't need was a 4AM wake up and then hauling myself up a mountain!  We won't get out this weekend either since I'll be at a conference and Trevor will be away!  That will make the following weekend even better!

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 have some amazing cards already posted so go and check them out!  You'll hopefully find some inspiration!  

You have until Monday at 1 PM EST to enter this week's challenge!

Have an amazing day!
Jen

 

Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #631

Hello!
Happy Wednesday!  I hope you're having a great start to the week!  Did you get to see the eclipse this week?  We live on the Western side of Canada so we just saw a partial eclipse.  It didn't last long but it was still neat to see.  We had blue, cloudless skies so it was easy to see (with the special glasses of course!).

We've got a brand new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches!  Our hostess is our favourite airline captain, Jen Timko!  Jen is an incredible card maker so head over to her blog and check them out!  Jen is also a great hiker - I can't wait to take her on our next adventure!!!

I wasn't sure what to do with this card.  I had every intention of using a Lovely Layers flower of some sort but that's not what happened!  I decided to keep it nice and simple!  I really like the flowers in the Spellbinders Garden Wreath Add-Ons set.  They're super easy to use!  I hot foiled a circle, cut it out and added a flower!  I used some rose gold foil to cut some leaves and hot foiled a rose gold sentiment then called it day!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Hammermill White Coverstock

Other: Garden Wreath Add Ons (Spellbinders), Be Bold Blooms (Spellbinders), Be Bold Sentiments (Spellbinders), Nested Circles (PinkFresh Studios), Monoline Stars Embossing Folder. 

We were able to get out for a hike last Wednesday.  The weather forecast wasn't looking good so we made sure we were out there for a 7 am start and we were able to get up to the "peak" and back down before the weather hit!  We had the most beautiful weather.  It was incredible  The sun was shining and air was warm!  It was wonderful.  It felt so good to get back out there.  It's "shoulder" season so the trails are muddy and icy and overall just gross.  We will have a few weeks of this before actual hiking season will begin!

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 great cards posted that will inspire you!  The Design Team did a great job this week! 

You have until Monday at 1 PM EST to enter into the challenge!

Have an amazing day!

Jen

 

Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #619

Hello!
Happy Wednesday!  I hope you're having a great week so far!  We are just sort of exiting from the polar vortex that had trapped Alberta in a state of deep freeze for the last week.  I have never been so glad to see temperatures that read -20C!  The good thing is that the sun shines the entire time so I did get out for a walk one day despite it being bitterly cold.  We now have some snow in the forecast which doesn't do a whole lot for me since snow removal in Alberta leaves a little to be desired!!!

We've got a brand new sketch today at Freshly Made Sketches!  Our hostess this is our theatre queen Judy Rozema!  On top of loving the theatre, Judy also makes incredible cards and her blog is full of stunners so go and take a look!  

I had recently purchased these mountain dies from Prism Studio and couldn't wait to use them.  They come as a complete card face and you'll see one of those in the near future but I wanted to just use a little piece of them!  I went to two with the Distress Oxides and ended up as inky as all get out!  It was so fun though!  I wanted to try and get a few masculine cards ready for when I need them over the coming weeks and because I was putting off making the baby card that I actually need (because I don't like making baby cards!).

Supplies:
Cardstock: Hammermill White Coverstock, Basic Black
Ink: All Distress Oxides - Twisted Citron, Shabby Shutters, Mowed Lawn, Broken China, Uncharted Mariner, Lost Shadow, Hickory Smoke , Frayed Burlap, Gathered Twigs, Black Soot

Other: Layering Alpine Lake Scene (Prism Studio), Be Bold Sentiments (Spellbinders), Silver Foil (Spellbinders), Glimmer Hot Foil Machine (Spellbinders)

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I hope you'll head over to the Freshly Made Sketches blog and join in our challenge!  We always love to see what you come up with and if you need any inspiration you'll find it there!

I don't have any hiking pictures for you this week.  It was a little too chilly to be on top of a mountain somewhere!  

I hope you have a wonderful week!
Jen

 

Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #607

Hello!
Happy Wednesday!  I hope you're having a great week!  If you're a Canadian you might have celebrated Thanksgiving on the weekend.  We had a lovely weekend.  Our neighbours came over for Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday and then we enjoyed leftovers Sunday and Monday!  It was lovely!  No hike for us this weekend so no pictures for you.  Sorry.  We decided that we would just enjoy the weekend and get some things done around the house - plus I feel like I spent part of the weekend in the kitchen!  I'm sure you know what I mean!

We've got a brand new sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches!  Our hostess this week our favourite Texan, Amy O'Neill!  Amy's cards are always delightful and she so much creativity!  You need to head over to her blog and check them out!  

At first I stared at this sketch for a while.  I thought about poinsettias and discovered one of the other girls had made a card with poinsettias and since Thanksgiving is over I am moving away from fall cards.  Then I saw a sunflower cut in half already sitting on my desk.  I knew that would work perfectly!  I went with a lot of white on this card.  Maybe a little too much white but we're going to roll with it for now!  

Supplies:

Cardstock: Daffodil Delight, Early Espresso, Copper Foil, Hammermill White

Ink: Crushed Curry

Other: Stitched Squares, Lovely Layers Sunflowers (Honey Bee Stamps), Be Bold Sentiments (Spellbinders), Copper Foil (Spellbinders), Glimmer Hot Foil Machine (Spellbinders), Rhinestones (Honey Bee Stamps)

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I hope you will head over to the Freshly Made Sketches blog and join in our challenge this week!  We'd love to see what you create!  If you need some inspiration, the Design Team has cooked up some amazing cards for you!  

Have an amazing day!

Jen

Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #595

Hello!
Happy Wednesday!  I hope you're having a great start to your week!  I am back from a week in Ontario with my family!  It was such an amazing visit.  We had so much fun with my parents and I was able to see many of my aunts and uncles at a family wedding.  The groom wore a pink tux.  My youngest son (who's almost 15) thought the tux was perfect in pink!  The other's weren't so convinced but I thought pink was a fun choice - how different is pink from the powder blue of the 70's?

We've got a fantastic new sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches!  Our favourite Texan, Amy O'Neill is hosting and she has come up with a great sketch for us to play with!  Amy makes amazing cards and is always sending the cutest ones to her kids so please head over to her blog to check them out!

I struggled with this sketch to start with.  I haven't felt very creative lately at all.  I don't know if it's because it's summer and I'm out of routine, just want to be outside or that I feel very tired by the end of the day and don't feel like crafting.  Summer always gets me out of whack.

My mom blessed me with the Spellbinders Holiday Blooms die set when I was at her house visiting.  I love all blooms and there are many parts of this die set that would work perfectly on a non-Christmas card so I grabbed it and my Be Bold Blooms and started crafting.  Of course I started with colours and gave up and opted for white and gold.  

Supplies: 

Cardstock: Basic White (SU), Gold (SU)

Other: Holiday Blooms Dies (Spellbinders), Be Bold Blooms (Spellbinders), Be Bold Sentiments (Spellbinders), Gold Foil (Spellbinders), Glimmer Hot Foil Machine (Spellbinders)

I thought I'd include some recent hike photos.  We did this one on Sunday!  Trevor let me have 24 hours to acclimate back to elevation and then we headed out on a smaller hike just in case I was sucking wind!  I wasn't!  It was actually really good!  We hiked at Little Arethusa and Arethusa Cirque.  The day before had been super smoky but we were blessed with clearer skies and the perfect temperature.  It was a little chilly to start but we were hot and sweaty by the end.  We also ended up with a windless and person-less summit!  Two of my favourite things!  We also had a marmot on the summit with us.  If you don't know what a marmot is they're like an alpine groundhog.  This particular creature was a little too curious and I was afraid it was going to bite me so we opted to let it have the summit and we headed back down!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I hope you'll join in our challenge this week!  Please head on over to the Freshly Made Sketches blog to get the details and see some of the design team inspiration!  We'd love to see what you come up with this week!

Have an amazing day!
Jen

 

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

 

Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #572

 

Hello!

Happy Wednesday!  I hope you're having a great week so far!  We're having a chinook blowing through so the weather has been so lovely.  Very windy but nice and warm!  I can't believe we're in February and cruising our way into the middle of the month!  I feel like time is flying by!  I'd say we've made it through the worst of winter but I know better than that!  This is Alberta - we've still got months of winter ahead of us!!!

We've got a brand new sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches!  Our hostess this week is the lovely Linda Callahan!  Linda's cards always make me smile!  Please head over to her blog to see how amazing they are!  Linda's sketch is pretty amazing!  I wasn't sure I was going to be able to pull off a card because I had been feeling under the weather but I got one in in the nick of time!  

I might have gone a little foil crazy on this card!  I had ordered some foil plates that first took forever to be shipped and then took forever to get here!  I've been wanting to try them all - just didn't realize I'd use a lot of them on one card!!  The background is also foiled.  I used black foil on black cardstock!  I do love the look - it looks much better in person!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Basic Black, Hammermill White Coverstock

Other: Dazzling Diamonds Foil Plate (Spellbinders), Be Bold Glimmer Sentiments (Spellbinders), Magnolia Glimmer Blooms (Spellbinders), Black Jewels, Gold Foil (Spellbinders)

Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you'll head over to the Freshly Made Sketches blog!  There are some amazing cards there that will inspire you and hopefully you'll join in our challenge!  

I hope you have the most amazing day!

Jen