Freshly Made Sketches #24-A Sketch by Rita Wright and the Play Date Cafe

Hello blogging friends! Hope you are enjoying your week!! Our Freshly Made Sketch this week is from my good pal Rita Wright!  Rita has come up with an awesome sketch that is SO versatile.  I have so much fun making this card!!! I also LOVED the colours over at the Play Date Cafe and so I went ahead and created a Get Well card for a dear friend.

I wanted to create something cheery and happy!!! I was discussing my lack of MOJO with blogging pal Jaydee and she suggested that I go back to the basics and look at cards that I have made and have been proud of. I noticed that I used to use background stamps more and so I went and dug out some old favourites. Thank you Jaydee for your creative and wonderful advice!

Supplies Used: 

Stamps: All SU! Hostess Set-Simply Soft, En Francais, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Woodgrain Background Stamp

Papers: Peach Parfait, Pool Party, River Rock, Whisper White

Inks: Copics, Memento Black

Extras: Scallop Border Punch, Pearls, Modern Label Punch, Baja Breeze Ribbon, Butterfly Embosslit Die, Big Shot, Embossing Folder, Word Window Punch

I sure hope you have the time to join us this week at Freshly Made Sketches and be sure to check out the Play Date Cafe!  

Merry Monday Challenge #9-A Sketch from Torico, A PRIZE from Torico and BIRTHDAY WISHES for Torico!

Before we get started, I wanted to send  BIG Happy Birthday Wishes to Torico!!!  Happy Birthday my friend!!! Be sure to visit Torico's Blog to leave her some birthday love!!!

Welcome to another week at Merry Monday!  The idea behind this challenge is to get a head start on your Christmas cards!  Each week, I choose one Merry Monday Winner who will then be a future Guest Designer for the challenge!  So get out your Christmas supplies and let's get to work!   Torico has designed our final sketch for the month, and it is awesome!!!!  She is also offering up a PRIZE to the winner...please read on for details!!

 With the sketch, you are welcome to jazz it up or to keep it clean. 
Have fun with it...flip it, change the shapes, or 

move the sentiment anywhere on your card...as long as the main sketch is still visible.

This is Torcio's last week at my Featured Designer and I loved working with her!! Thank you Torico for sharing your amazing talent and for being a part of my challenge!  I adore your sweet digital images and had so much fun using them on my cards!!  Torico's card is below, and as always, it is stinkin' cute!!! 

Torico's Card

My Guest Designer is my dear friend and one talented lady, LeAnne Pugliese.  She created a beautifully soft card with so much gorgeous detail on it!!! Thank you for joining me this week LeAnne.

 LeAnne Pugliese's Card

I decided to ink up the little snowman from Torico's digital stamp called "Snowman Family".  I cut out the smallest snowboy and then popped him up on a "snowflake styled" doily cutout by Martha Stewart. One of my favourite stampers, Kim S, led me to find these doilies!!! I love them! Thanks Kim!

Supplies Used:

Stamps: "Snowman Family" by Torcio, Sentiment from SU!

Inks: Copics, Memento Black

Paper: Marina Mist, Black and White, Paper Doilies from MS

Extras: Nestabilities tags, Sheer Ribbon, embossing folders

A PRIZE FROM TORICO!!

This week Torico is offering three of her digital images to one random winner!  

For a chance to win, all you have to do is play along.  

The winning participant will get to choose the three images they would like from Torico's store!   

Thank you Torico for this wonderful prize!

Merry Monday Challenge #8 Winner

What a terrific week at Merry Monday!  Thank you to all my dear blogging friends for joining me last week. I would also like to thank all of the new participants who joined in on the fun as well. Welcome!!!  

After looking through all the entries very carefully, I kept coming back to Kim's cool Christmas creation!  I love her bright and happy card! The stamped image is wonderfully festive and the sentiment is so much fun, I am sure the recipient of this card would start singing and tapping their toes as soon as they saw it!  "OH! Jingle bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle All the Way!"

Kim Evans

Congratulations Kim on being this week's winner! I would like to invite you to be my Guest Designer for Monday, March 5th.  I will email you shortly!!!

Tomorrow is the final sketch for February and at the end of every month, there is a prize for one random participant for tomorrow's sketch! You will have all week to join the fun!  I hope you are able to stop by and play along!  I cannot believe we already have 8 cards stashed away for Christmas!!! Way to go!! 

The Paper Players Challenge #84 & CAS-ual Fridays {Getting "Punny" with a Bunny!}

Today is Sunday and that means another challenge from the Paper Players. This week LeAnne is our hostess and she has a wonderful sketch for us!!!  I love that it comes with room for three things...it took me forever to narrow down which three things!

I decided to "interpret" the sketch and the three circles suddenly launched an idea in my head!  This week at CAS-ual Fridays, they are looking for cards with "puns" in the sentiment. I knew just the sentiment I wanted to use, and so I went to work to create this "cheer you up" card because "Everyone Needs a Friend Who Is ALL Ears"...right?

Supplies Used:

Stamps: Seniment (AMUSE), Bunny from Pink Cat Studios

Paper: Black, White and Blushing Bride DSP

Inks: Copics, Memento Black Ink

Extras: Pretty in Pink Ribbon

I coloured the bunny's ears and noses with my Copics and then outlined them with a neutral Copic Marker.  The DSP is from an old Hostess pack from SU and is in the colour Blushing Bride.

We hope that you will join the Paper Players Challenge this week!  Please be sure to visit the other DT Members to see their wonderful creations!

The Paper Players Design Team

Ann Schach

Anne Marie Hile

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Lesley Croghan

Nance Leedy

Merry Monday Challenge Reminder!

There is still time to join in this week's Merry Monday Challenge!  The challenge is open until Saturday, February 24th at Midnight (PST).  To play along, please CLICK HERE.

The Play Date Cafe and Pals Paper Arts

Tuesday is here and I wanted to share I card I made for a couple of challenges.  I used some Echo Park Designer Paper called "Be Mine".  The flower is the Prima Donna Petals dienamics die from My Favourite Things.  

The sentiment is from a retired set from Stampin' Up called "Something to Celebrate". I used the SU! Bird Punch to create the leaves.  I sponged the flowers with some Pink Ink, to add some depth to it.   I hope you have a great week, thank you so much for stopping by!

Challenges: The Play Date Cafe and Pals Paper Arts.

Merry Monday Challenge #8

Welcome to another week at Merry Monday!  The idea behind this challenge is to get a head start on your Christmas cards!  Each week, I choose one Merry Monday Winner who will then be a future Guest Designer for the challenge!  So get out your Christmas supplies and let's get to work!

This week's sketch is another simple sketch that you are welcome to 

jazz up or to keep clean. Have fun with it...flip it, change the oval shape, or 

move the sentiment anywhere on your card...as long as the main sketch is still visible.

My Featured Designer for February is Torico. She has created a very pretty card and her background was created with a stamp! Be sure to visit her blog for the information on how she created it.

Torico (Featured Designer) of Birdie Brown

My Guest Designer this week is Sherry, she has created a beautifully serene holiday card! Thank you for joining me this week Sherry!

Sherry Eckblad of Button Junkie

My card is a bold and bright Christmas creation, meant to be light-hearted and fun! I am so happy to have another card done for my Christmas stash!

Supplies used:

Digital Stamp: Winter Bear by Torico

Stamps: Hero Arts, SU!

Inks: Island Indigo, Copics

Papers: Cosmo Cricket "Chaplin", Tangerine Tango, Island Indigo

Extras: Big Shot, Sizzix Dies, Top Note, Snips, Ribbon (ret. SU!)

Merry Monday Challenge #7 Winner

Another week has come and gone, thank you to everyone who joined me for last week's Merry Monday Sketch Challenge. I looked through all of the cards and the one card that I just adored, was beautifully coloured and had such fun, pretty colours for Christmas.

The Winner of Sketch #7 is: 

LeAnne Pugliese

Wee Inklings

I thought LeAnne's card was absolutely adorable!  Isn't that sweet snowman cute, all bundled up and looking for a warm winter kiss? I also loved the combination of papers she used and the pretty shading behind her image.  The glitter on the snowman's hat was the perfect finishing touch!

Congratulations LeAnne, you are this week's winner at Merry Monday. I hope you will join me as a Guest Designer on Monday, February 27th.

Tomorrow I am back with another simple sketch.  Torico and Guest Designer Sherry have created amazing cards!!!  I hope you will join us in our mission to get our Christmas cards started and almost finished in time for December 2012!

Clean and Simple Man Card for the Paper Players

When trying to decide on a theme for this week's Clean and Simple challenge, Anne Marie suggested "man" cards. I loved the idea of creating a CAS card for a man!!!  I also decided to use the fabulous sketch over at A La Card Monkey for my layout! I just loved it!!  They are looking for moments and this sketch! So I chose an important moment in all of our lives...birthdays!

**ALSO, The Paper Players are having a Design Team Call through Sunday February 26th at Noon (PST). CLICK HERE for more information and to apply.

We hope that you will join the Paper Players Challenge this week!  Please be sure to visit the other DT Members to see their wonderful creations!

The Paper Players Design Team

Ann Schach

Anne Marie Hile

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Lesley Croghan

Nance Leedy

CAS Balloons for Three Challenges

I have been dabbling in clean and simple cards, trying to add "less" but sometimes I find myself wanting to add more!  I used the colours from the Colour Q, the sketch from Cardabilities and the CAS-ual Fridays Challenge to create a party card with Ribbon.

Supplies Used:

Stamps: Celebrate from AMUSE

Inks: Basic Black

Paper: Tempting Turquoise, Real Red and Pretty in Pink, White

Extras: Word Window Punch, the Large Oval Punch and the 1 1/4" Circle Punch, 

Baker's Twine, 1/8" Vanilla Grosgrain

The ribbon is in Very Vanilla and the bow is tied with my stash of Baker's Twine, taken from the photo inspiration at Colour Q.  The balloons were created with my Word Window Punch, the Large Oval Punch and the 1 1/4" Circle Punch, all from SU!  I decided to round the bottom corner of my card for some interest.

Merry Monday Challenge #7 Reminder and Design Team Call at the Paper Players

There is still time to join me at Merry Monday this week!  You have until Saturday at midnight (PST) to add you creation!!! To link up your card, please CLICK HERE.

I also wanted to mention that there is a Design Team call on until next Sunday at the Paper Players.  To see the call, please CLICK HERE.  All designers are welcome and any crafting product is welcome.

Freshly Made Sketches #22-A Sketch by Jennifer Timko

Wednesday is here and another sketch at  Freshly Made Sketches! This week the talented and lovely Jennifer Timko is our hostess with the mostess and she has come up with a great sketch that can be blinged up or left clean and simple!

I decided to ink up an old favourite of mine, "Because I Care" from Stampin' Up. It was a hostess set and I loved it SO much! I also used the script stamp from "French Foliage" and the sentiment is from "My Friend". This card was inspired by two challenges, the colours at CR84FN and the Our Creative Corner Challenge which is the theme "Best Friend" and it must include a floral image. In order to achieve the two-toned look on my flower, I inked it with my Stampin' Write Markers.

Supplies Used:

Stamps: All SU!- Because I Care, My Friend, French Foliage

Inks: Lavender Lace, Old Olive, Basic Gray

Papers: Whisper White, Old Olive Marker, Lavender Lace Marker, Basic Gray for Sentiment

Tools: Crimper, Big Shot, Striped Embossing Folder (Sizzix)

We hope that you will join Freshly Made Sketches this week!  Please be sure to visit the other DT Members to see their wonderful creations!