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 #840 - Word Week

 The Word of the Week at Just Us Girls as chosen by our host Ina is

This can mean just about anything but I decided to go with bold colors from a paper pack from A Colorful Life. 

I needed something simple to go with it so I cut the MFT Roses in Bloom die from black and then used Neat and Tangled Everyday Labels for the sentiment.  EZPZ.  Both the die and label stamp have been languishing in my stash for quite a while.  

What direction will the word 'bold' take you?  For inspiration, please check out the Design Team and our guest designer Julia Aston.

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The Paper Players #802

The Paper Players has a candle challenge this week and I made a card

What do you think of this for a bright and happy birthday card? The dies are from SB's Just Add Cake kit cut from scraps.  The sentiments are from MFT.  I added some Nuvo drops to the flames and Pico Embellisher to the cherry for a bit of shine.  The background is embossed with the Tasteful Textile folder from SU and the frosting with SB Crackle Paint.  

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Inkspirational #375

Inkspirational has a fun visual prompt for their challenge this time.  Scrabble tiles.  And you can use whatever inspires you from that image.  Here's what I did.

I thought the banners in Simon Hurley's Mantle Decorations would look like Scrabble tiles if I did them in black and kraft.  Using his Mantle Village, I added the houses also in kraft and black with red doors.  What's a Christmas mantle without some greens and then I added the heart from the visual.  The background is Crackle Paint embossing folder from SB. 

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Freshly Made Sketches #752 and NBUS #90

The sketch at Freshly Made Sketches gave me a reason to get out my newly acquired Magical Fuchsia set from Alex Syberia.  

The set includes a press plate and stencil that I used with Altenew inks.  After cutting with the die, I placed it on a panel embossed with SSS Woven Rings folder and added a BetterPress sentiment.  I'm not entirely happy with how this turned out.  I have some ideas to make it better next time.  

Everything but the sentiment is new so the card will go to Darnell's NBUS.

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CAS Mix-Up Challenge for September 2026

I'm hosting this month's CAS Mix-Up challenge.  It's a watercolor challenge with Sunflower as the theme.

This should be a bright and beautiful gallery with all those sunflowers.  Just be sure your card is clean and simple and features watercoloring.  

I totally forgot about another sunflower stamp I have that would have made a perfect CAS card.  Instead I stamped my Dancing Sunflower from Altenew in the corner of my watercolor panel  and colored it with Distress Inks.  The sentiment is from the same set.  

The Design Team has some beautiful sunflowers to inspire you and there are also several videos you can watch listed on the blog.  I hope you'll join us for this fun and colorful challenge.

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Just Us Girls #839 - Die Week

It's Die Week at Just Us Girls and our host Sue would like you to use a "Thanks" die.

My card features SSS Cosmos Duo, colored with Coral Bliss, Heartbeat and Firefly Altenew inks.    The background is the Petal Grid Coverplate from PFS backed with Silver Pearl cardstock from Spellbinders which was also used on the sentiment die from Catherine Pooler.  

I'd like to welcome our guest for this month, Julia Aston.  She and the rest of the design team have some lovely cards to inspire you.  I hope you'll take a peek and then make a card for our challenge.

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Time Out #321 - Theme Challenge

The theme challenge for this fortnight at Time Out is

It took me a while to figure out what to do for my card, until I remembered a sale item I got a while ago.  

That item was the box of popcorn from SSS.  The film strip from PPP was cut from SB Matte Black Treasured cardstock and I found some patterned paper from Paper Rose to fill the centers and make it seem like a negative.  The rule of threes meant I had to add the admission ticket from My Craft Spot, one of the oldest sets in my stash.  It was all placed on a panel embossed with Tasteful Textile from SU.  

This challenge is sponsored by STAMPlorations and the winner will receive a $25 store credit.  

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CAS Christmas Challenge - August 2026

I thought I was going to be too late for the CAS Christmas Challenge but it ends today so I'm just in time.  I hope I'm not breaking any rules by posting a card I made last year but never posted.  I have a big file of them on my laptop and since I didn't bring a sleigh die with me I went searching and found this card. 

All the dies are from Spellbinders Delivering Joy.  The body of the sleigh is glimmer paper I've had for a while and all the gold is from a Recollections pack.  The rest is all cut from scraps. 

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Freshly Made Sketches #751 and NBUS #89

My friend Michele is the host at Freshly Made Sketches and has given us a great sketch to base our cards on.  I made another Halloween card.

I wanted to do something other than squares and the NBUS Penny Black Ripple frame die was on my desk and I used the centers to put my image and sentiment on.  The bat from Unity's Creep it Tweet was stamped on light gray and edged with Black Soot.  The sentiment from the set is white heat embossed on darker gray, edged in white.  To add more fun, I glued the two circles together and popped them up with a paper square.  They fold to the right for mailing. 

The first time with the dies and this image means off my card goes to Darnell's NBUS challenge.

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Just Us Girls #838 - Stencil Week

Denise is the host for Stencil Week at Just Us Girls and it's Anything Goes. 

I chose to stencil Altenew's Sunny Flowers with Gina K Carnation inks and Altenew Forest Glade and Frayed Leaf after stamping them with Toffee Crunch ink for a softer look. I saw Therese Calvird use colored cardstock for a background so I embossed Always Sunshine on light green paper.   The sentiment from the set was stamped directly on the card. 

There is plenty of inspiration from the Design Team and our guest designer Betty Keefe on the blog. 

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The Paper Players #800 and Love Those Pretty Papers

The Paper Players are celebrating their 800th challenge and went back to their very first sketch challenge for this anniversary.  Congratulations on inspiring us for all those years and here's to many more.

I went through all the stamps and dies I had with me and came up with another Christmas card for my stash.

I started with the poinsettia from C9 Festive Blooms, then went searching for some patterned paper to go with it.  All three pieces came from a Vintage Christmas pack from The Paper Studio.  The music piece actually has my sentiment included on it.  A little distressing with Hickory Smoke added a more vintage look to the poinsettia. 

With all that DSP I have to send my card to Love Those Pretty Papers - without the theme. 

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Christmas Kickstart #113 and Jingle Belles

The gals at Jingle Belles are the elves at Christmas Kickstart this month and their chosen theme is "A Friend is for Life and not just at Christmas".  Seems pretty appropriate, doesn't it?

For my card I used the Festive Friends dies from Spellbinders.  The Polar Bear's sweater is patterned paper as is the snowy background that was cut with PFS Blanket Stitch Rectangles.  A little sparkle was added to the penguin's hat to go along with the sentiment from PFS.  

The Jingle Belles have a masculine theme for their challenge and I think this fits so off my card goes to them too.

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Inkspirational #374

The theme at Inskpirational is Garden and I had the perfect set for it.  

I made a shaped card using Concord and 9th Garden Grown stencils, Altenew Inks and Spellbinders Essential Stylish Ovals.   One sentiment wouldn't do so I stamped two on MFT circles and cut one with a sentiment strip die.  They are all part of the Garden Grown set.    

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Freshly Made Sketches #750 and NBUS #89

While looking for something else the new Creep It Tweet set from Unity fell out and I thought it would be great for Cecile's challenge at Freshly Made Sketches.  I'm also sending my card to Darnell's NBUS.

This is actually my second card.  I started a different one then used it as a template as I tried out what I wanted to do.  This one uses Fresh Picked Labels from Spellbinders to stamp my witch on and then a larger one cut in green to frame it. I added Wilted Violet around the edge of the white and Black Soot around the green and DSP from Honey Bee, coloring the eyes and beak with Ohuhu markers.  The lines were hand drawn and the sentiment is from the stamp set. 

This one has MFT squares at an angle in the center and the panel was trimmed to leave a white border.  Now I have two Halloween cards ready for my adult grands. I think they will get a kick out of the image. 

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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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