Saturday, February 8, 2025

Freshly Made Sketches #672

There was plenty of those colorful MFT card stock pieces leftover from my playtime with Therese... why not cut a few more blooms?  This Bloomin' Cute die from The Stamp Market doesn't take much of that to make the cutest statement!  


I found a sweet little panel of pinpoint debossed card in my stash -
thanks again, Kim - it adds just the right amount of interest to this CAS card.
Jacquie's Sketch #672 was my design inspiration today!


My 'happy dance' sentiment is from PFS Happy Dance stamp and die sets.
Lucky me - I had just the perfect little enamel dots for the floral centers.

I hope your weekend is off to a great start!
=] Michele

Friday, February 7, 2025

Guest Designing for As You See It Challenge #341

I am so very pleased to be guest designing for As You See It Challenge #341!  I only hope they love my card as much as I loved making it!  It is my pleasure to invite you all to play along with me!  Here is their prompt or 'recipe challenge' as they call it...


Now don't be intimidated - I'm betting many of you already use many of these elements on your cards!  For me, the biggest challenge of the five was to use ribbon!
Thank goodness I still have a little bit in my stash!

Okay - are you ready?  Here's my card!


I joined Spellbinders' Small Die club last year just to buy ONE set -
but guess who forgot to cancel it?  OY!  This little set arrived before I 
remembered and I can't say I don't love it after all!

Let's see if I ticked all five 'ingredients' in their recipe:

Celebration: it seems like a birthday card, right?  But MAYBE it's a BIRTH/New Baby card?  Either way, it's celebrating something!

Heat Embossing:  Gold embossing for my celebratory sentiment!

Ribbon:  a silk seam-binding ribbon from years ago from Verve!

Die cuts:  That is where that Birthday Bliss DOM from Spellbinders came in handy!

Pastel Colors:  Wait.  Can kraft card be considered a pastel?  I think so - it IS pastel brown!

Ta Daaaaa!  I did it! and even managed to find a pastel gingham and embossed
it with a VERY old SU! embossing folder - let's see if any of the AYSI designers
notice the SU! Subtle Texture on the clouds, shall we?


Thank you to Heather Cooper who represented her team and sent me really great direction with their invitation, too!  I can't wait to see how the team completed this fun 'recipe!'  Let's go - but don't forget to play along!
=] Michele

Thursday, February 6, 2025

Therese has a challenge for us!

Sorry to barge into your day again!  BUT my wonderful friend Therese of Lost in Paper goes LIVE on her YouTube channel on occasion and I may have coerced her into challenging me and her guests to use our colored cardstock and her friend Mr. Color Wheel to make a card CASE-ing her lovely florals.  

Go ahead and watch her video first then why not pull out one of your layering die sets and play along, too! 

I had a different Alex Syberia Design set than Therese used - but it worked beautifully for the four colors I pulled from my MFT cardstock stash!  Here is where my color wheel took me...


Using a triad of colors: blue violet, yellow green, and two shades of red orange.
Then I cut the layers of ASD's Garden Tweets put them together
with Bearly Arts glue and popped them onto a panel debossed
with ASD's Meadow Magic Cover Die.


A few of those floral layers looked very much like hearts - and I added
one more layer cut from white.  Makes me SMILE - hope it makes
Therese, and the gals at Just us Girls #761 smile, too.



Therese made TWO cards from all the flowers she layered up!  
You can see them right HERE!

=] Michele

Penny Black Sketch meets Color Throwdown colors!

There was no doubt in my mind that I would pull out that gorgeous PB Enchantingly for Sketch #11 from the PB&J New Year Card Making series that uses Sketches to inspire our cards.  HERE you'll find the three ways Jill has used her Sketch... speaking of:


Lucky me - I had the littlest of their Classy Frames ready to go!


Stamped on Canson watercolor card in Archival Espresso ink and colored
using only two inks: Distress Gathered Twigs, and Festive Berries!

I rearranged the flowers a bit - also the die cut word - and added
just a little bit of 'filler' floral from Altenew to round out the focal triangle.


This lovely sentiment is another from the PB Loving Friend set - stamped 
with CP Icing on the Cake.
The die cut friend: PB Friend Edger

Now you might wonder why I used brown for the leaves.  I had this fabulous inspiration from Color Throwdown #826 in my brain, that's why!


I hope the varied shades of pink are allowed - those cookies made me do it!
=] Michele

Wednesday, February 5, 2025

PB Sketch #10

I have two pretty cards using Jill's Sketch #10 over on their PB&J YouTube channel!  If you're watching too, you'll know Sketch #11 hit today - I better get busy!  

Jill has used wreathes for her sketch and after I shopped my stash and found only one wreath die, and not one wreath stamp - but that's okay I had a work-around for that using one of those tiny little stamps from an Altenew set.  There were lots that don't get much attention.  First - here's that Sketch:


I'll share my stamped wreath first... 


While I couldn't find a wreath stamp, I did find an oval shaped die to 
use as a guide.  A very light pencil tracing made free style stamping quite easy!
Altenew Eclectic Bouquet and PF Oval Foliage stamps worked their charm,
and I love the Altenew Misty Moor ink for these.

This wonderful Altenew Rustic Rose was added to my stash during the Christmas sales.
They had me at that bow!  And I just couldn't bring myself to cut off that leaf
so I just moved my panel down to the lower left corner and skipped Jill's detail
around the edge of the panel.


Pinkfresh Studios Layered Wreath, Spellbinders' Christmas Bird Poinsettia die set,
and a beautiful sentiment from Penny Black's Joy & Warmth came together
beautifully for my die cut wreath card - a wee bit less CAS than Jill's example, but 
I couldn't help myself - I doubled the wreath and added more dimension with the
added foliage and pretty Poinsettia! 

          If you have this wreath die you might wonder where that detail comes from?  While
it was still wet I flipped it over and used a stylus on a mouse pad to add it.



The wonderful die that Jill uses to add a little interest to her card panel is another
on my very long wish list - this 'old thing' from Lil' Inkers worked just fine.

You've all been so kind with your comments - will you be as sad as I when this series comes to an end?  Only two more to go!
=] Michele

Tuesday, February 4, 2025

The Flower Challenge #99

We're baaaack!  I hope you are enjoying a most Happy New Year - are you ready to get The Flower Challenge party started?  We can't wait to see all the gorgeous floral cards you will share with us in 2025!

Without further ado, here is our 99th challenge:

I have a new and larger commitment to my Seniors for 2025 - I'd like to deliver to all of them in my area: 380 at the time of this writing!!  YIKES!  SO, on occasion, I'm going to make one of my cards for this challenge into a Christmas card - using the challenge parameters, of course!  Ready?


I used two shades of fuchsia pink cardstocks from Concord & 9th for the main
Poinsettia from HoneyBee and curry card for my SB Poinsettia Corner 
Better-pressed panel and leaves! 
I STILL have plenty of those premade Christmas sentiments - this one
from The Ton.


Honestly this is my favorite shade of pink - isn't it lovely with that curry color?  

Okay, we really love ALL the pink flowers so use what you love, and we'll love it, too!

Let's go see what my talented teammates have created shall we?  
=] Michele

Monday, February 3, 2025

Can we ever have too many florals?

I certainly don't think there can ever be enough florals in my stash!  I've added one from Penny Black - I know, I know... you are thinking that resolution was short lived, right?  But this one is gorgeous, and I had to play along with Jill's PB&J Sketch #9! 


Anything peek-a-booing from the edge of that sweet little curve
would be perfect, right?  As is usual, Jill shares three ways in her video.

Here's where I found the resolve to 'make do' this time - I simply cut a curve
and when one was a bit boring, I doubled it!


Adding a bit of texture to the base couldn't hurt either!

There is another gorgeous bouquet in the PB Enchantingly set.  Painted as red roses my first go around - perfect for The Paper Players and Ann's theme: Love is in the Air!


See if you can find my inspiration:


Pretty obvious, right?


PB Enchantingly; Sugar Pea Designs: Handwritten Letter; Betterpress sentiment.

Okay, my friends.  It's Monday.  You know the drill.  But GOOD NEWS tomorrow The Flower Challenge is returning!!  YAY - I hope you'll all dust off your florals and play along!

Thanks so much, Ann!