Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #500!!!!

Hello and welcome to our 500th sketch at Freshly Made Sketches!  I can't believe we're at 500!!!  I kinda think this is a pretty good reason to celebrate!  You definitely need to head to the blog and check out the details on what's going on!  There are prizes to be won people!  You will not want to miss out on this celebration!  

Our hostess this week is the amazing Linda Callahan!  She has a fabulous sketch for us on this momentous occasion!  You will definitely want to head over to her blog to check out her slew of incredible cards!  

I feel like fall has arrived here in Alberta.  I am so tempted to get out my pumpkin collection just so I can enjoy it a whole lot longer than normal!  The temperature has dropped here considerably and while Ontario is getting super hot and super humid weather, we are getting cooler, more fall'ish temperatures!  Call me crazy but I could live with these temperatures all year round!  I don't miss the extreme heat or humidity!

Anyhow, I love the new Intricate Leaves dies from Stampin Up!  I love the Harvest Meadow DSP and decided it would be perfect to go with my fall leaves.  As a side note, there are no "colourful" leaves in Alberta.  I am going to miss that part of fall!!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Basic White, Cajun Craze, Bumble Bee, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Soft Succulent

DSP: Harvest Meadow

Stamps: Beautiful Autumn

Ink: Early Espresso

Other: Intricate Leaves Dies, Stitched So Sweetly Dies, Dainty Diamonds Embossing Folder, Twine, Dimensionals

I hope you will join our celebratory challenge this week!  All winners will be picked at random so everyone has a chance to win!  

Please head over to the Freshly Made Sketches blog and read through all of the details.  We can't wait to see what you come up with!

Have an amazing day!

Jen

 

Freshly Made Sketches #95

Hello!
Happy Wednesday!  I hope you are all having a great week.  I consider this our first week of summer vacation since we don't actually have anything planned!  I am super excited!  If only the weather would cooperate and we would get some slightly cooler, less humid temperatures!

Today we have a new sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches.  Our hostess this week is our fabulous Narelle Farrugia!  She is the queen of layers and beautiful bows.  Her card this week is no exception!

I must say that this sketch threw me for a loop.  I am not the queen of layers and I never know what to do when there are several "boxes" to work with.  I may have tried a few versions of this card before I decided on this one!  I'm a little bummed that the Perfectly Preserved stamp set has retired.  I must say that I do love it.  I paired some Calypso Coral up with the new Crisp Cantaloupe!   I am somewhat satisfied with the results.  I added a little Dazzling Diamonds on the flower bunches to make them sparkle!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Calypso Coral, Crisp Cantaloupe
DSP: Tea for Two
Stamps: Perfectly Preserved
Ink: Calypso Coral, Early Espresso, Old Olive
Other: Cannery Framelits, Itty Bitty Banners Framelits, Basic Rhinestones, Dimensionals

Thanks for stopping by!
Please head on over to the Freshly Made Sketches Blog and check out the beautiful creations the Design Team has come up with!

Have a wonderful day!
Jen

Reverse Punched Butterfly

Hello!

I hope you're ready to start the week!  We had a great weekend and spent today getting ready for the week ahead!  The boys were awfully tired by the time bedtime rolled around.  They spent a LOT of time outside this afternoon driving their monster trucks!  The golf course beside us isn't open yet so they were taking advantage of the sand pit on Hole #10!

Today's card isn't for a challenge.  I had seen some great reverse punch cards and wanted to give one a try!  Unfortunately I didn't realize how dumb I am sometimes and I should have put the punched out piece on dimensionals.  That being said the reason I didn't was because I really wanted the seam binding at the top!  That's my story and I'm sticking to it!!!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Very Vanilla

DSP: Tea for Two 

Stamps: Honestly...I don't know!  I used my mom's and I don't remember what it was!!!

Ink: Basic Black

Other: Elegant Butterfly Punch, Word Window Punch, Very Vanilla Seam Binding, Basic Pearls, Dimensionals

A few pics from our March break.  My mom graciously lets the boys use the floor of her living room to set up trains!  The trains are only there when the boys are there and come down as soon as we leave!  Jacob can usually be found "bum up" watching the trains go around and around!  He is impartial to red tankers!  Caleb loved the snow banks in my parents backyard.  He loved jumping off of them and doing fancy dives!  So funny!

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you have a great week!
Jen!

Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #77

Hello!
I hope you are having a great week so far!  We are in the middle of our March Break (how can it be the middle already?!).  The two boys and I have taken a little trip to visit my parents for the week!  My husband is at home working...I wonder if he's enjoying the quiet?!  We are having a blast here!  My boys couldn't be happier!

Wednesday brings us a new sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches!  The fabulous Jennifer Timko brings us this week's sketch!  This card is my second take on the sketch.  The first one did not fair out so well...ugh.  Sometimes I wonder about myself!!!

I finally decided on making a very blue and white card! I love blue!  I was going to use midnight muse but then changed my mind and went with Night of Navy!  I also love, love, love the Secret Garden stamp set and dies!  Who doesn't love dies?!  I embossed some flowers up in white and I was ready to go.  I must thank my sweet mom who let me use ALL of her supplies!  I opted out of bringing anything with me this trip!!!  I'm so thankful for her!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Night of Navy, Whisper White

DSP: Night of Navy

Stamps: Secret Garden, Itty Bitty Banners

Ink: Versamark

Other: White Embossing Powder, Basic Rhinestones, Square Lattice Embossing Folder, Blue Twine, Ribbon Slide, Dimensionals, Bitty Banners Framelits

Two little pictures of my little boys!  Caleb's job this week is to help Papa with wood.  Papa loads the wheelbarrow and brings the wood to the door...Caleb then hands it all to Papa!  He's been a great help and done it so willingly!

Monster truck driving is always a favourite activity around here!  Each of the boys has a truck to drive and they are CRAZY!  The snowbanks are a bit of an issue but they are slowly learning!!! 

Thanks for stopping by!  Please check out the Freshly Made Sketches website to see the fabulous card the design team has created for you!

Have a great week!

Jen!

Just for You!

Hello!
Hope you had a great weekend!  We had a much quieter weekend which was very nice!  I got my baby shower invitations done (yay!) and I was even able to get some scrapbooking done.  I'm no where near caught up but that's okay!

I decided to tackle the Paper Players and Dynamic Duos Challenges today with one card!  I loved the colours challenge this week at Dynamic Duos! Soft Suede and Crumb cake have got to be my favourite colours!  Pair those up with Very Vanilla and I'm in heaven!

I really loved the sketch at the Paper Players.  I had trouble with the circle and finally decided to just cut out the flower from the Blooming with Kindness stamp set.  It took me a few tries with the butterflies until I was happy with them.  I added a little clear embossing powder to get them to look a bit darker!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede
Stamps: Papillon Potpourri, Booming with Kindness, Itty Bitty Banners
Ink: Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Versamark
Other: Clear Embossing Powder, Woodgrain Embossing Folder, Basic Pearls, Very Vanilla Taffeta Ribbon, Bitty Banners Framelits Die, Elegant Butterfly Punch, Dimensionals

Thanks for stopping by!
Have a great day!

Jen!

Freshly Made Sketches #58

Hello!
I hope everyone is having a great week!  I am slowly getting back into the swing of things after a week of absolute chaos!  I have a card that I created for last week's Dynamic Duo's challenge that I never got around to even taking a picture of (letting along entering the challenge) because Caleb came home last Wednesday with a mild case of a stomach virus...thankfully he heals quickly!  That was just the icing on a very busy week!

This week is looking a bit better!  Today is Wednesday which means a new sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches! Today's sketch comes from the incredible Narelle Farrugia!  If you haven't checked out Narelle's cards, head on over to her blog!  She is fabulous!

As always when it comes to me and making cards you all know that this was probably not my first card right!  The first card I tried was a Christmas card.  It didn't turn out so well.  The next card was a birthday card...that one made me very frustrated...next was this one!  I think I'm okay with this one!

I wanted to get out the Summer Starfruit since it's a colour that I don't really use much.  I thought it would work for this card.  Throw in a butterfly and some bling and I'm totally happy!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Whisper White, Summer Starfruit, Basic Black

DSP: Patio Party

Stamps: Papillon Potpourri, Itty Bitty Banners

Ink: Basic Black

Other: Large Delicate Doilies, Bitty Banners Framelits, Basic Rhinestones, Elegant Butterfly Punch,  Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, Circle Punches

Thanks for stopping by!  I hopefully will be back tomorrow with another card!!!

Have a great day!

Jen

Retro Sketches Apples

Hello!  I can't believe that the long weekend is over!  At least here in Canada we had a long weekend and it was a nice one!  We are now back at home in Burlington and settling into the routine here!  Tomorrow should be an interesting day.  The boys are already asking to go back to Grannie and Papa's house!  Heaven help me!

Today's card is for the Retro Sketches challenge.  I saw online somewhere people who were making cards for their kids teacher's for September.  I figured that might not be a bad idea!  Get in good early!!!  Jacob's teacher and I are already friends so maybe I should be buttering up Caleb's new teachers!

I used the Perfectly Preserved again....but NOT the jar (you should all be proud of me!).  I threw in some buttons to mix it up a little!  I do love being able to stamp and cut out those shapes so easily with the framelits dies!  I wanted to keep this card clean and simple...just so that if I wanted to replicate it a few times it wouldn't take me forever!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Basic Black, Whisper White

DSP: Brights DSP Stack

Stamps: Perfectly Preserved, Tea Shoppe (Sentiment)

Ink: Basic Black. Real Red, Gumball Green

Other: Cannery Set Framelits, Brights Buttons, Dimensionals, Floss

Today's cute photos (okay, so they're cute to me!) are from today's hike to Hilton Falls.  The falls aren't really falls at this time of the year but there was more water than I expected!  It was a great family outing and the boys had a blast!  

Thanks for stopping by!  I'll be back tomorrow (or Wednesday morning) with this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge card!

Have a great day!

Jen

That Little Jar...again!!!

Hello!
Well, we survived Monday!  I wasn't feeling very good yesterday and was pretty much down for the count all day.  I am SO thankful I was at my mom and dad's for most of yesterday and my mom let me sleep in the afternoon and made all the meals for my boys.  My parents are so good to me!  What would I do without them?  Today I feel MUCH better!  My mom and I took the boys to the beach this morning for a bit (picture below).  The water here is very low due to a severe drought so there wasn't much water in the Ottawa River for them to have fun in...at least the marked off swimming area but they still managed to have fun!

Okay...I used the jar again.  I can't help myself...I LOVE it!  I am not using it for my Freshly Made Sketches card this week though...I promise!  Today's card is for the Dynamic Duos and Create with Connie and Marie challenges.  I needed to kill two birds with one stone today!  I love Early Espresso and Crumb Cake!  They have to be my favourites!  The new Early Espresso Core'dinations cardstock has to be one of my favourites.  I didn't have an SU sanding block handy but my mom did happen to have some sandpaper in her craft room today!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Early Espresso, Very Vanilla
DSP: Natural Composition Specialty
Stamps: Perfectly Preserved
Ink: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso
Other: Cannery Set Framelits Dies, Lacy Brocade Embossing Folder, Early Espresso Ribbon, Adorning Accents Edgelits, Bitty Banners Framelits Dies, Dimensionals, Basic Pearls

Bathing Beauties! 

Caleb and my mom are planning an Olympic party to have later this week.  Today Caleb decided he wanted to make flags for different countries for decoration for this party.  So this afternoon he and my mom made all 13 of these cute flags.  I thought he'd maybe sit through 2 but he did all 13.  She cut the paper and he glued it all together!  It was so sweet!  I can't wait for the party on Thursday!

Thanks for stopping by!
Have a great day!

Jen

Sunday Stamps Challenge #10

Hello!
Happy Sunday!  I hope everyone is having a great weekend!  I can't believe it's Sunday already!!!  Where does the time go?

Today's card is for the Sunday Stamps challenge!  I was asked to be a guest designer this week for them which is such an honour!  This is a great challenge and if you haven't had the chance to check it out you need to hop on over to their blog and give it a whirl.  They alternate between sketch and colour challenges and this week is a great (but challenging) sketch challenge!  Most of you know how I feel about shapes that don't have 4 corners but my fellow FMS Design Team member Jen Mitchell reminded me that ovals and circles are just square with really round corners!!!

I decided to use the Tea Shoppe stamp set for my card.  I also wanted to crack out the Natural Composition Specialty DSP from SU.  I have wanted to give it a try since it arrived at my door!

In hindsight I think I should have cut out the tea cup handles but alas!  I do love those little teacups!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Midnight Muse
DSP: Natural Composition Specialty, Comfort Cafe,
Stamps: Tea Shoppe, Sentiment....I can't remember..I just found it on the table!!!!
Ink: Midnight Muse, Cajun Craze,
Other: Basic Pearls, Midnight Muse Satin Stitched Ribbon,  Oval Punch, Scalloped Oval Punch, Word Window Punch, Dimensionals

Thanks for stopping by!
Have a great day!
Jen

Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #43

Hello!
Sorry for the lack of cards lately!  Our church VBS started this week and we have 530 kids!  I'm exhausted!!!  Man I feel old!   I've been getting home, getting the boys lunch and then realizing that there isn't much time left in the day!  Tonight I had great intentions of card making but the main light in my card room blew both lightbulbs and my husband hasn't quite gotten in to change them!

Tui has a great sketch for us this week at Freshly Made Sketches!  LOVE the rectangles again!  I decided to change up the sketch angle a little since I really wanted to use my Perfectly Preserved again!  I do really love that little jar!  I added some Dazzling Diamonds to the flowers to make them sparkle a little more!  I sometimes go a little too far with the bling!

Thanks for stopping by!  My husband just informed me that we're out of "regular" lightbulbs so he's replaced my "regular" lightbulb with a halogen so I imagine I'll be wearing sunglasses in there tomorrow!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Raspberry Ripple, Gumball Green, Whisper White, Early Espresso
DSP: Chock Full of Cheer
Stamps: Perfectly Preserved
Ink: Early Espresso, Raspberry Ripple, Gumball Green, Versamark
Other: Dazzling Diamonds, White Embossing Powder, Woodgrain Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Basic Rhinestones, Cannery Set Framelits Dies, Bitty Banners Framelits Dies, Early Espresso Bakers Twine, Rhinestones,

Jar of fun!

Hello!
How is your weekend going?  We had a good day...my husband is starting to feel good again though I believe I may be succumbing to the dreaded plague!  My body is fighting hard.  Mommies can't get sick can they?

I have another sneak peek card today!  There will hopefully be one tomorrow too if I get it finished!  I absolutely loved the new Perfectly Preserved stamp set (and coordinating dies!!!)!  It's so cute and perfect for any season really!

It's hard to tell from the picture but my pear is actually embossed in the new Gumball Green Embossing Powder!  Who doesn't love that?  I think Gumball Green is my new favourite colour!  The ribbon slides are also new and work perfectly with the ribbon!!!  Just something different from a knot or bow!

Thought I'd include a picture of the boys this afternoon!  Caleb decided to create a "car" out of a Stampin' Up! box...well, after I pulled out some ocean life stickers for them his car quickly turned into a submarine!  Hilarious!  They had a ball Friday and Saturday decorating their submarines!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Early Espresso, Raspberry Ripple, Whisper White
DSP: Be of Good Cheer
Stamps: Perfectly Preserved
Ink: Early Espresso, Raspberry Ripple, Versamark
Other: Whisper White Embossing Powder, Gumball Green Embossing Powder, Cannery Set Framelits Dies, Ribbon Slides, Early Espresso 1/4" Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon, Argyle Texted Impressions Embossing Folder, Dimensionals

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great day!
Jen

Card Sketch Challenge Tea Cups

 Hello!
I had a few minutes this afternoon to start on a card...not the card I need to be working on but a card none the less.  I used the sketch from Splitcoaststampers Card Sketch Challenge (SC370).  The example sketch has an optional front panel/pocket which I decided I would try to incorporate.

It all started out well until I realized that no one would probably realize they are to untie the knot to open the panel!  Perhaps a little tag indicating "Open" is in order!!!

I do love the new Tea Shoppe stamp set from Stampin' Up!  For anyone who truly knows me, you know how much I LOVE tea, tea cups and tea pots!

Well, I did bootcamp two nights in a row and I'm feeling much like rubber...maybe even worse than rubber!  I think closer to spaghetti!



Supplies:
Cardstock: Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, Calypso Coral
DSP: Everyday Enchantment
Stamps: Tea Shoppe
Ink: Calypso Coral, Crump Cake, Pool Party, Lucky Limeade
Other: Very Vanilla Taffeta Ribbon, Dimensionals, Vintage Wall Paper Embossing Folder, Modern Label Punch

Thanks for stopping by!