Freshly Made Sketches #755

Donna's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches had me thinking and going through my stamps/dies until I landed on one I thought would work best.

It may be a little out of proportion and there is no sentiment but the rest is what the sketch calls for.  The background is embossed with Crackle Paint from SB on the top and Honey Bee's Rustic Brick Wall on the bottom which gave me a great place to hang my Altenew Houseplants. 

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Time Out #322 - Inspired By Challenge

 There's an Inspired By challenge at Time Out and we want you to be inspired by the colors of the season where you live. 

As the weather turns colder, mid September can start the changing of colors here in mid-Michigan where I will be until the end of this month and I love the variety that the trees turn.

  

I smooshed panels with a variety of Distress Inks from which to cut the images from Tim Holtz's Foliage Wreath.  It's on a panel embossed with the Dancing Starlets folder from SSS.  

Our sponsor for this challenge is Gina K and the winner will be awarded a $25 store credit along with an invitation to guest design.  

Since we have followers and a Design Team from all over the world, we should see a wide range of colors choices for cards for this challenge.  I hope you'll join us.

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Freshly Made Sketches #753

Karren had the perfect sketch for me to break out my Altenew Clematis for Freshly Made Sketches.

I should have brought my color swatches so I could tell you the actual colors I used for the die cuts and background.  The flower was cut from light pink, inked in the center with Saltwater Taffy DI.  The light green leaf was shaded with Altenew Parrot. The patterned paper is from Honey Bee's Vintage Love and applied to soft gray cardstock.  

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Just Us Girls #837 - Mood Board Week

Lisa is the host for Mood Board Week at Just Us Girls and this is her board.

Sunflowers and butterflies along with bright colors should inspire you to make a card.

I saw Jennifer McGuire cover a card with Spellbinders Sunflowers and loved it.  I should have made enough to cover the entire card but I didn't' want to have to cut any of them down to fill the edges.  They are cut from PTI's Harvest Gold with Wild Honey Distress Ink for shading.  

The Design Team and our guest Betty Keefe have some glorious creations that will want you to make a card for our challenge.  I hope you do.

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Just Us Girls #836 - Word Week

I'm the host for Word Week at Just Us Girls and I have chosen "Water".

I've had to make a couple of other cards featuring water so I had to put my thinking cap on and come up with enough cards to cover them all.  For this one I used all die cuts.

I cut a panel with C9's Wavy Card Front die, then inked the various sections with the Lapis Lazuli set of Altenew Inks.  I tucked the boat from Spellbinders Set Sail under one of the cuts.  

What does the word water bring to your mind?  I hope you'll join our guest Betty Keefe and the Design Team by making a card for the challenge. 

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Color Hues #137

Like a few other crafters, the first thing I thought of when I saw the colors at Color Hues was poppies. 

These BAF Poppies are from Altenew, stamped with their Heartbeat and Vineyard Berry inks .  The leaves don't have a fill-in stamp so they're left in black and white.  For the background, I cut PFS Petal Grid and backed it with black.  A sentiment will wait for a later time. 

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The Paper Players #795

I was crazy not to bring summer stamps and dies with me to the lake when that's what a lot of the challenges will be.  I did bring Spellbinders Oh Buoy! so I used that for my card for The Paper Players CAS challenge - Going to the Beach. 

The background is from a Lawn Fawn pack I got to make baby cards but this sheet looked like a foggy sunrise at the beach to me, especially when I added the seagull and sand.  All die cuts are from scraps.  No sentiment at the moment until I know who it's going to and why.

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CAS Mix-Up July 2026 - Eclipse

Last month you saw the resurrection of the CAS Christmas challenge and today is the restart of the CAS Mix-Up challenge and I'm honored to be on the Design Team.  This month's challenge is

There are a number of videos listed on the blog if you want a refresh on what an eclipse card is.  You can also get inspiration from the Design Team cards.  And remember this is a clean and simple challenge.

An image from Penny Black's Garden Trio was stamped in the corner of Bristol cardstock and colored with Zigs.  The medium Frame It die, also from Penny Black, was cut from the middle and layered 5 times with the image as the top layer.  I didn't know where to add a sentiment without ruining the design so I left it off.

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Time Out #316 - Photo Inspiration

 A photo submitted by team member Carol is our inspiration at Time Out.

I zoomed in on the windows and came up with this card.

The window die is from Memory Box cut in black. The view is a panel with a Rabbit Hole stencil in Salty Ocean for the sky and whatever green was left on my brush for the bushes.  To bring in more color, I used C9's Woven Stripes background stamp in CP It's a Girl ink as my wallpaper but the weave makes it look like the towel in the photo.  Or so I told myself.  lol  

We hope you'll join us for this challenge sponsored by Lawn Fawn.  The Design Team has cards to inspire you and the winner will receive a $25 store credit and an invitation to guest design. 

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Krafty Chicks #825

I'm trying to get some Christmas cards done while the weather says stay in and craft.  Last week I made one for Krafty Chicks and thought I would make another one this week for their CAS challenge.

I love these darling Snowdrops from PTI and while they present them as a Christmas image they could be used for other occasions.  As you know I don't have any Christmas sentiments with me so that will come later.  I will also be making a few more that are not so CAS. 

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Freshly Made Sketches #740

My good friend Michele has a scene sketch over at Freshly Make Sketches so I made a scene - on my card. LOL

Before I could make a scene I had to decide what the focal point would be.  The Spellbinders Country Snowman caught my attention and that meant a snowy scene made with Gina K Masking Magic and Altenew inks.  I had planned to make a lot of Christmas cards while at the lake.  Would you believe I forgot to bring a single Christmas sentiment stamp?  I will have to add one to the card later.  

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Freshly Made Sketches #738

Cecile usually has simple yet interesting sketches at Freshly Made Sketches but this week's took a while for me to wrap my head around.

I used Garden Party from Spellbinder's Just Add Cake kit. It comes with the shaker domes so I had to make a shaker card, cutting the large flower from yellow and using a variety of bits in it,   Distress Mustard Seed was spread down the center before adding the flowers.  I thought the stems could represent the lines in the sketch.  I hope the team thinks so too.  This will have to be hand delivered and I know just the person.  

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Just Us Girls #825 - Stencil Week

It's Stencil Week at Just Us Girls with our host Denise. 

I saw a card by Stephanie Lanzalotto using Altenew's Tranquility Rose and it inspired me to get mine out for this challenge. 

The inks I used are Gina K's Carnation trio and Altenew's Buttercream, Warm Sunshine, Firefly and Grass Fields.  After die cutting, I arranged them on a background embossed with SSS Dancing Starlets.  A sentiment will come later - maybe. 

There are many ways to use a stencil on your card.  I hope you'll choose one and join the Design Team and our guest Kerry in the challenge. 

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Just Us Girls #819 - Mood Board Week

I'm the host for Mood Board Week at Just Us Girls and this is what I found to inspire you.

Here's a larger image so you can better see how many different things you have to choose from.

See that image in the middle?  That's the direction I took.

I used the same umbrella I used a few weeks ago from Honey Bee and filled it with the vines from Altenew's House Plants.  The branch is a die from MFT and the background is patterned paper from Altenew.  I left off a sentiment because I didn't know what to use or where to put it. 😁

I hope you'll join me and my team mates for this fun mood board challenge.

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Jingle Belles and NBUS #83

There is a fun mid-century modern photo to inspire us over at Jingle Belles.  I took the opportunity to use a NBUS Santa die so my card will go there too.

St. Nick was on sale at Spellbinders and I had to have him although I didn't realize at the time that he doesn't fit on an A2 card.  No problem.  I like making Monarch cards (3 5/8 by 7 1/4) and have the envelopes to fit.  Except for the C9 Cranberry everything is from scraps.  The background is the HexSnowflake folder from SB.  I must admit I had to watch a video to see how to put him together and I'm glad I did because she had some good tips. 

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Just Us GIrls #808 - CASE a Designer

Five Thursdays in January means we have a CASE the Designer challenge at Just Us Girls, hosted by Ina.  

A fun new product from Spellbinders was calling my name.

How about a Cowboy snowman?  I think I was drawn to the bird feeder and bunny but the snow wrangler is cute too.  The background was made by inking the Softly Falling embossing folder from SU with SSS Surf Blue.  Everything was cut from scraps, using some Buffalo plaid for his scarf and vellum for the feeder.  SSS Stitched Slopes gave him a place to rest.  

All you have to do is pick a card from any of the Just Us Girls designers and CASE it, giving it your own twist.  Please let us know whose card you chose if it's not obvious and have fun.

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Color Hues #125

I have the honor of guest designing at Color Hues for their current challenge.

I actually used five different blue hues on my card.

This is a mix of two Spellbinders sets, Guiding Light for the lighthouse and birds and Set Sail for the waves and clouds.  I did add a little neutral gray to the card in the form of a rock for the lighthouse to sit on.  

I'm anxious to see what the Design Team has made using blue and white.  Let's go take a look at the blog post shall we?  I hope we inspire you to make a card for the challenge.  

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