Traditions of Fresh Sketches

Hello Stamping Friends!

I am still trying to catch up with some specific card needs, but sometimes it is good to just make a bunch of cards for my general stash.  The best way to do this?  Grab a pack of designer series paper and a bunch of sketches.  Over the last 3 days, I have been working on the remnants of a long-retired package:  SU's Autumn Traditions.  (I think it came out when soft suede was an In-color.)  I really need to use my supplies, so I dug in with several past Freshly Made Sketches, then peeked in yesterday to grab the current one.  Two of the sketches are squares, but I don't have any square envelopes, and just wanted to keep things simple, so all of these are A2 cards.  Here goes!

Instead of giving a play-by-play, I will list supplies here at the top, since all of the cards are similar.  I used SU card stock in more mustard, soft suede, always artichoke, elegant eggplant, and whisper white.  Along with the Autumn Traditions dsp, I used some eggplant paper and a bit of ruby red from my scraps.  The ink is more mustard, always artichoke, and elegant eggplant.  Punches and dies include circles, scallop circles, ovals, Sizzix leaves, SU banners and word bubbles.  Stamps used are all SU:  "Hello Again," "Happiest Birthday Wishes," "On Your Birthday," "Just Sayin'," "Wetlands," and "Blessings from Heaven."  Some seam binding, brads, and enamel dots are the finishing details.  Now, to get all of these pictures in place!

  

Whew!  I think these look pretty as a set.  I'd like to say all of this DSP is gone, but alas, I still have some scraps left.  I plan on throwing some cards together today with the rest, instead of putting them away to gather dust again.  Wish me luck!

Thanks for coming by!

Inky {{{HUGS}}}
Kim

Fresh Binge of Sketches

Hello Stamping Friends!

Today, I have several thank you cards to post.  Over the last couple of months, I have been busy prepping for a diocesan volunteer appreciation event.  It was held last week, and I finally feel like I can breathe!  So many things filled my calendar in March & April, so my stamping suffered a bit.  This weekend, I had fun creating again. Even though these cards are all related to last week's event, it felt like fun, not work.  Since I needed a lot of thank you cards, I decided to use one pack of designer series paper.  With that, I thought it would be fun to binge on some sketches...actually LOTS of sketches!  The clean and simple designs from Freshly Made Sketches provided the perfect solution!  I went to their page of past sketches, and printed off badges for #270-#285!  Since #285 is still current, I am posting that first.   A few of the sketches are off a bit, but that happens when you are trying to make lots of cards in a sitting. Hopefully, I'll finish the other cards tomorrow while hubby is at work. For simplicity, I'll post supplies here, then I'll add photos...

Paper:  SU thick & regular whisper white, SU night of navy, SU Floral Boutique dsp
Ink:  SU night of navy
Stamps:  sentiments from SU "Wetlands," "Very Versatile," "God's Blessings," "So Very Much"
Tools:  word window, decorative label, modern label, heart, scallop trim, flower punches, doily die, dimensionals
Embellies:  SU enamel dots, ribbon from Offray

It's been dark and rainy all weekend, so some of the navy details are hard to see.  All of the cards have a white base, except one.  I goofed, had to cut off the front, then mounted it to a navy base.

I love the hearts on this sketch!

The ribbon cuts off some of this huge sentiment, but with some tweaking, I'll probably make more of these.

It's tough to see the layers with the monochrome, but this is one of my favorites.

I made 2 of these, because I messed up (blurred) my sentiment...twice!  LOL

Another card where the layers are hard to distinguish, but I love this CAS sketch!

















Here's the card that ended up on a navy card base.  "One of these things
is not like the other..."

Plus, another blurred sentiment meant I had to pull out my punch for an extra element.  But it's close, right?













Finally, this sketch was turned...for fun!




Whew!   I hope I didn't bore you!  Kudos if you made it all the way through!







Inky {{{HUGS}}}
Kim

Paisley Set

Hello, and Happy Monday!

I had grandiose plans for Saturday, which was World Card Making Day.  Usually, I am out of town on the 1st Saturday of the month, but there was a change in plans, so I thought "I'll stamp all day."  Instead, I ended up working on my speaker blog posts, since I have 2 presentations later this month.  (It's Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness month, so I shared some thoughts here.) BUT, I did manage to make 4 cards, then 2 more yesterday.

My first card uses the Freshly Made Sketches challenge seen here.  I had only glanced at my reminder email, knowing I needed a pennant.  Now I see it is lower than the top of the card.  Oh well...I'm happy with the results any way!  As I look at this, I realize I still need to finish off the inside of these cards before I mail them.

The second card uses a SCS sketch found here.  It's definitely modified because of the size of that quote.  In addition to WCMD, Saturday was the Feast of St Therese of Lisieux.  She's a "rock star" among Saints in the Catholic Church, known for her "Little Way."  Mother Teresa's (now St. Teresa of Calcutta) quote here is actually inspired by Therese, so I thought it was a perfect day to bring out this stamp.










Each feature "Paisley Petals," like my header on this blog!  One of my favorite ways of using a lot of dsp (especially if I have been hoarding it for a long time) is to use sketch challenges.  I only did that with 2 of the cards; the others were made with no challenges.


The materials are as follows:

• Card stock: river rock, bravo burgundy, not quite navy, whisper white, and very vanilla
• Ink: not quite navy, river rock
• Stamps: Stampabilities (Praying), Mother Teresa quote from a big box store, unmarked
• Embellishments: bakers twine, enamel dots, brads, twill ribbon, taffeta ribbon 
• Tools: Beautiful Wings embosslits, scallop circle punch, Vintage wallpaper embossing folder

While I didn't stamp as much as I thought I would this weekend, I am very happy with the cards I did complete. Thanks for stopping by!


Inky {{{HUGS}}}
Kim

Freshly Made for a Special Grad

Hello, and Happy Memorial Day!

I haven't been around lately; one of my brothers-in-law passed away last week.  Bruce & I spent a lot of time over in Indiana with family.  It has been an emotional week.  Yesterday, I was thinking of the stack of graduation cards I still need to create.  Family, friends...lots of different schools so lots of different colors.  Last night I saw a post on Facebook which gave me much needed cheering up.  John is the only child of some dear friends.  He was born 4 months prematurely...I kid you not.  No one knew if he would ever go home, or if he would ever celebrate a birthday.  Well, this weekend,, he graduated from high school!  Check out this AMAZING picture of PURE JOY!

So, I got up out of my stamping slump, and made this card, using two challenges, Freshly Made Sketches and The Paper Players.  I took the left vertical column in the Tic Tac Toe challenge.

The card uses elegant eggplant and crushed curry card stock and ink. My stamp sets used are "Extreme Elements," "Tassle Time," and "Delightful Dozen."  The stars were die cut with an old Sizzix die.  After I stamped on the whisper white and taped the stars down, I ran it through my Big Shot with the diagonal stripes embossing folder.  The sentiment is matted with long-retired perfect plum dp.  Both the sentiment and graduation cap are popped up.  Finally, I added nearly ancient SU purple twine.  Can't believe how long I have had it!

Well, one Grad card done; about 8 more to go!  YIKES!

Hope to post later this week...thanks for stopping by!

Inky {{{HUGS}}}
Kim

Playing with More Challenges

Hello Friends!

It's Thursday, and I rarely post on Thursdays.  My internet was down for much of the day, so some work was not accessible to me.  I have some Audible books downloaded on my Kindle app, and decided to finish a novel.  I often stamp while listening, so that's what I did this afternoon.  Now, after rebooting my router I am able to get back on the computer.  I still have quite a mess to clean up!

My first card combines this week's challenges at both The Paper Players and Freshly Made Sketches.  One of my brothers-in-law was admitted to the hospital on Tuesday for numerous health issues.  He will be there a while, so I wanted to make a card.  A song at church is called "On Eagle's Wings," based on Psalm 91.  Inspired by that, I used this image and stamp from Our Daily Bread Designs.  The card base is early espresso.  I stamped on very vanilla, using soft suede for the eagle and midnight muse for the verse.  My sponge dauber created the sun, in crushed curry.  I started using a blender pen on my bird, but the suede ink smeared (duh!) so then I just used markers.  I sponged some river rock and pool party in the sky.  The strip of dsp is from SU's "Comfort Cafe."  Two enamel dots finish it off, and conveniently cover one of my smudges.

Next, I have a card for today's Way to Use It challenge
at SCS:  In Stitches.  I rarely play along with this one, and considering the theme, it's odd that I did.  We were challenged to use actual stitching, or sewing images...something along those lines.  I have no stamps that work with that. I thought I had an image from a swap, but didn't find it.  I did have these bulky designer brads from SU...don't ask me why I bought them but not the coordinating stamps or paper!  Any way, I used a different swap image (unknown name) which I colored with blender pens and water coloring.  I doodled my own stitches and added the brad and some ribbon.  The sentiment is from  "Because I Care."  This card also goes with an old challenge at The Paper Players...working on that 2016 goal!

Since I am trying to make two of my cards these days, I do have near duplicates made today.  That means I made 4 cards and 1 huge mess today!  Thanks for coming by!

Inky {{{HUGS}}}
Kim