Freshly Made Sketches #400!!!

Here is the 400th Freshly Made Sketch! So much fun to play along with such a milestone sketch.

This one came together pretty quickly.

 I had stamped, watercolored, & fussy cut a bunch of the Tim Holtz flowers and had them in a dish on my scrap desk. One of those became the focal point of this card. The card was built on a white card base. I added a tan-colored piece of cardstock to the base and used foam tape to pop up the Blue Swiss Dot patterned paper. The green loops were created with ribbon sandwiched between the tan piece and the blue patterned paper. I created a tan frame using two stitched rectangle dies. The background behind the frame was created using an older Hero Arts background stamp, and the sentiment is from an older Hero Arts stamp set as well.

I finished the card with sequins and a bow.

Color Throwdown #558

Color Throwdown #558 this week:

I decided to go with a simpler card design this week, and I am pleased with the results. 

I die cut the card base using an older Simon Says Stamp heart die and then backed the negative spaces with Herma dot adhesive. Then, I ink blended Distress Ink in Worn Lipstick, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, and Mowed Lawn onto watercolor cardstock. I spritzed the whole piece with Perfect Pearl pearlized water. After the watercolor cardstock piece dried, I die cut it with the same heart die. Instead of removing individual sections to fill in the negative spaces, I carefully picked up the whole die cut cardstock piece and placed it on top of the negative, adhesive areas and pressed the pieces into place. It worked so well!! I was kinda expecting all the little dots to be a nightmare!

I finished the card with a die cut hello, a small stamped sentiment, and a few sequins.

(CAS)e This Sketch #336

I'm coming in under the wire & on the iPad tonight with this week's (CAS)e This Sketch.

I decided to go with a more masculine card this week because I need a few cards to give to my boys who are back in school.I want cards on hand to offer them encouragement when I think they need it. 

Blogging on the iPad is not my favorite & I will try to edit this post and link or share products at a later date when the computer is more cooperative. 

Have a wonderful evening. See ya next week!

Freshly Made Sketches #400 Week 3

Here is this week's Freshly Made Sketches sketch:

Since it is beginning to cool off a little here in the South, thanks to a few thunderstorms, I decided to start working on a few more fall-themed cards. 

I used one of my favorite woodblock stamps from Hero Arts called Design Block Tree (S5037) to create the larger rectangle. The tree was stamped with Versamark and then embossed in WOW regular embossing powder in Rose Gold. The ink blended tree colors are Scattered Straw, Wild Honey, Crushed Olive, and Fired Brick. The olive green rectangle is a piece of scrap cardstock from my stash. The sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp Thanks and Leaves stamp set. 

As always, I finished the card with a few clear, iridescent sequins from my stash.

Color Throwdown #557

This week's color scheme was fun. I decided to go with some ink blending so I could deliberately avoid mixing the yellow and purple together. Yellow and purple together equals mud and isn't a good look on a card.

I also decided to do a predominately one layer card by embedding my sentiment into a background. 

I chose the "You Are Awesome" sentiment from Simon Says Stamp's  Big Scripty Greetings stamp set. I stamped it in black and embossed it on the smooth side of the Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock. I stamped the sentiment onto some scrap paper, cut it out and then adhered it over the embossed greeting. Using an older Hero Arts background stamp called Flower Dot Pattern (CG330) in my Misti, I stamped over the covered sentiment. Once I had a solid stamping on my background (it took a couple of times), I embossed the background as well. 

After I removed the sentiment mask, I used Distress Inks in Dusty Concord, Peacock Feathers, Salty Ocean, and Squeezed Lemonade to ink blend over the complete background. I used pearlized water, made with Perfect Pearls and water, to paint some of the background images. I also splattered the entire background with Perfect Pearl water.

After it dried completely, I added sequins and gems from Lucy's Cards to complete the card. 

(CAS)e This Sketch #335

A new (CAS)e This Sketch is up for the week.

Here is my take:

I remembered that I had bought this Simon Says Stamp Dot Scallop die a few months ago and I knew it would work well to create the wavy lines from the sketch. I have a board on Pinterest that is specifically for color and text inspiration, so I went there to find a color scheme. 

I love, love, love the jewel tones of this color scheme and wanted to represent it in my design. I chose Distress Inks in Fired Brick, Wild Honey, Crushed Olive, Tumbled Glass, and Chipped Sapphire. I ink blended each color onto watercolor cardstock, sprayed each piece with Perfect Pearls mist, & let them dry completely before die cutting them. I used DMC embroidery floss in coordinating colors to stitch the holes of each piece. I layered them on white cardstock and added a die-cut piece on the top and bottom of the cardstock to complete the design. 

The sentiment is from an older Cocoa Daisy stamp set. Using my Misti, I stamped the "Colorful" part first using  Distress Markers, then went back and added black ink to stamp the remaining portion of the sentiment. 

I added matching sequins from my stash to finish the card. 

Freshly Made Sketches #400 Week Two

Freshly Made Sketches is celebrating 400 Sketches by revisiting earlier sketches. Here is this week's  sketch:

This one was fun, and I had several different ideas before I settled on the card I made today. I made a list of some of the other ideas I'd like to try based off this sketch. Here is the card I finally decided to make.

I used a leaf image from the Simon Says Stamp Delicate Flowers stamp set. I stamped and embossed the image randomly on a piece of Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock. I then watercolored the leaves using a mix of Mustard Seed, Crushed Olive and Peeled Paint Distress Inks.  I mixed the Perfect Pearls powder with water. Once I completed a leaf, I went back and added drops of Perfect Pearls to cover the leaf and let it dry. I like how the greens are not all the same and how the Perfect Pearls dried differently on each leaf. It adds interest and depth to the background. I also splattered the Perfect Pearls on the completed background. It dried with a green tint to it because I was using the same brush to paint both green leaves and add Perfect Pearls. Love!

I then added a black strip to divide the background and to ground the die-cut Thanks sentiment, which is from the Simon Says Stamp Beautiful Flowers 2 stamp set. 

I added additional leaves to the die-cut sentiment and then added sequins to complete the card.