Freshly Made Sketches #16-A Sketch by Tui Nathan

We are back to sketches at Freshly Made Sketches. This week, the lovely Tui has created a wonderful sketch that holds many possibilities!!!  I am so happy to use my new Christmas goodies! For the base of my card I used My Mind's Eye {Lost and Found} pre-folded cards. I am in LOVE with these cards and have been using them quite a bit! There are 50 in the pack with envelopes! So fun!

One of my resolutions this year is to try some more challenges...so that means I am playing along with Flourishes Bring Back Beautiful this week, they are asking for bling.  I went for it and played along! I added some bling in the form of rhinetsones on my butterflies. I also decided to play along with There She Goes and show them my new stamping supplies and also my resolution to play along with other challenges!





My good friend Jen also pointed out that the Colour Throwdown is holding the perfect colour challenge for this card! I saw that last night and decided to add my card to their linky!!

I hope you get the chance to join in with all of these challenges this week. Thank you so much for stopping by and please be sure to check out all the design team samples of these teams. Also I would like to welcome Nina and Jen to our team for January, we are excited to have you onboard!

Freshly Made Sketches Design Team

Lesley Croghan 
Linda Callahan 
Cindy Hall 
Tui Nathan 
Jennifer Timko 
Rita Wright
Nina Forsythe
Jen Sannes

Thanks for stopping by!!!
Lesley 

Stamping 411 Sketch 221-Holiday Lineup

Stamping 411 has a great sketch challenge!  I always love their sketches and this week is a CAS one that I can see myself using again and again!  I have been on a Christmas kick this week and have been trying to decide what I would like to send out for the holidays!

I inked up an old favourite called "Holiday Lineup" and coloured all the little elves.  I made another card with these sweet elves that I will be posting later on.

Card Recipe:
Paper: Poppy Parade, Whisper White, Old Olive and Pear Pizzazz DSP
Inks: Pear Pizzazz, Poppy Parade, Bashful Blue
Stamps: Holiday Line-up, Four the Holidays
Tools: Snowflake Punch, Mini Bell, Bakers Twine, punches

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Paper Players Challenge #55-For Jake

Happy Sunday!!  Today is supposed to be a beautiful sunny day here and I am ready for it!!  On Monday, July 4th, it was my best friend's birthday, she turned...thirtysomething...and I needed a cute card for her!  Jake is a sweet person and so I decided to make a sweet card for her!  We have been best friends for almost 30 years!  Wow! That is crazy to think about! LOL!

This week at the Paper Players I am the hostess and chose the colours from a brand new Stampin' Up scrapbooking kit called "Tickets and Tags".  I decided this would be a great colour combo for a cheery birthday card!

I used Basic Gray as my "Accent" colour to highlight the Poppy Parade and the Baja Breeze colours.  The Baja card base is embossed with dots to match the Poppy Parade DSP.

I also finished the inside of the card with more designer paper to match!  And here is the picture of the finished card below.  I've not been able to see my best friend to give her this card and present yet, maybe sometime this week!

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

Lauri Ingram

LeAnne Pugliese

Nance Leedy

Sandra Azzopardi

Tui Nathan GD

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Smiles,

Lesley

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Picture Perfect Creations #63-Purely Poppy with Barely Basic Gray

I was so excited about the colours this week at Picture Perfect Creations! I love Poppy Parade and Basic Gray is also a favourite of mine!  I went to happily make my card but I did not realize that I had NO Basic Gray cardstock left until I went to make this card, so I needed to improvise! I dug deep into my scrap bin and came out with one 1"x 3 3/4" piece of Basic Gray cardstock!!!  Eeek!  How could I turn that into a card?!!!  Ack!

So I decided I would use black as a neutral on my card, which is okay...I think!  I decided to go for it.  I used some of the DSP from the Level 1 hostess pack of In Colour DSP and I noticed the little flower in the design.  Needless to say, I immediately thought of the wee flower in the "Funky Four" set and went to work, colouring the image directly onto the stamp with my Poppy and Grey markers. Then I punched out the image with my circle punches and popped it up on dimensionals. DO YOU SEE THE STRIP OF BASIC GRAY CS? LOL!  Yes, it is there, on display with a thank you sentiment heat embossed in white on it. I made another thank you card for my school stash. I was praying that I would not stamp the sentiment crooked....whew...it was close!

We hope that you will join the Picture Perfect Creations this week!  Please be sure to visit the other DT Members to see their wonderful creations!  Even if you don't have Basic Gray cardstock, look through that scrap bin and see what treasure you find!!!

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Smiles,

Lesley

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Paper Players Challenge #53-A Sketch by Me!

This week at the Paper Players I am the hostess and I created a sketch for you to try.  I needed to make a card for one of our staff members leaving the school this year. I decided to use Blushing Bride, Early Espresso and Whisper White as my colour choices.  My card measures 4x6" so that the entire staff is able to sign it.

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

Lauri Ingram

LeAnne Pugliese

Nance Leedy

Sandra Azzopardi

Cindy Beach GD

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Smiles,

Lesley

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Color Dare #106-Real Peachy Pears!

Just a quick post from me today as I am heading to school early.  We have a field trip today to meet with our Pen Pals, it is going to be a great day at the beach and waterpark!

This week at the Color Dare, we are using the colours:

Pear Pizzazz, Real Red and Peach Parfait

I decided to ink up the set called "Eastern Blooms" again.  It is retiring at the end of the month!  The red background is embossed but it is hard to see in this photo. We hope that you will join the Colour Dare Challenge this week!  Please be sure to visit the other DT Members to see their wonderful creations!

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Smiles,

Lesley

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Paper Players Challenge #52-Jaydee's Clean and Simple Sketch

This week at the Paper Players, Jaydee has a wonderfully clean and simple sketch for us!  Here is my take on Jaydee's challenge!  Yep, I used the Crimper for my Poppy Parade background!  I love that tool and that colour!  I also decided to use the set called "Easter Blooms" it is retiring at the end of June, it is one of my favourite sets to use!  I also used the cherry blossom from that set on the inside for a little inside "character".

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

Lauri Ingram

LeAnne Pugliese

Nance Leedy

Sandra Azzopardi

Cindy Beach GD

Anyway, I decided to take a couple of photos of the yard and took a quick pic of myself..hehehe...not the best photo, but I was feeling happy because my report cards are done! I also decided to take a photo or two of my peonies!!!  I just love how huge they get to be!!!!  Corey and I just love how hearty they are.  They were planted here before we bought the house and they come out every year.  I love that the garden is self-sufficient! LOL!!!

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Smiles,

Lesley

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Friday Mashup #9-Cards for Kids

Happy Friday everyone! Life has been busier than usual, with work and family!  Summer is fast approaching and I have been enjoying the nice weather, although the past two days have been rain-filled, this weekend promises to be sunny and warm!  I will spend the weekend, working on cards...REPORT cards!  LOL!  I have a few to write but I hope to squeeze in some stamping too!

Today is Friday Mashup Day and it is my turn to host!  I chose a fun photo that I found online and loved the primary colours!  Those colours made me think of cards for kids and so my Mashup Idea was born!!! 

This week for the Mashup Challenge, you are welcome to: 

       1. Create a Kid Themed project. 

       2. Create a project using just the Color Combo.

       3. Or "Mash it Up!" and create a Kid project that uses the Color Combo!

I decided to create a Kid Themed project with my new sets called "Summer Splash"! This fun little set has a lot of great images, perfect for cards for kids! I love the sweet little Octopus!

This is a fairly simple card, made with Concord Crush DSP and Cardstock.  I went Monotone with my project this week but this fabulous set is perfect for bright and cheerful colours!!!

Come on by the Mashup this week and join us! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Smiles,

Lesley

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Picture Perfect Creations #60-For Auntie Nern

This week at Picture Perfect Creations we have a pretty colour combo for you to try!  It is soft and delightful!!  The best part is the chance to use Elegant Eggplant, I just love that pretty colour!

I decided to ink up Nature Walk set and En Francais, two of my favourites!  I wanted the background of the card to be subtle so the butterflies popped!  I used my Stampin' Write markers in Blushing Bride and Pear Pizzazz to ink up the floral image.  The butterflies are actually stamped in Concord Crush by mistake!  Argh!!  I had both purples on my desk and grabbed the wrong one!!!  Only I could do that!!

 

This is for my Auntie Nern who had a pacemaker put in on Tuesday.  She is doing very well and I am happy to say she is on the mend.  We think this pacemaker is going to make her feel so much better.

Thank you so much for stoppping by!  I hope you get the chance to head over to the PPC Challenge Blog to play along with us this week!!!

Smiles,

Lesley

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Friday Mashup Challenge-Embossed Nature

This week at the Friday Mashup Lisa is our hostess and she wants all of you to make nature inspired cards OR just make a card with some form of embossing on it, as she is a big fan of embossing also.

So here we go:

1. Make a card inspired by nature
2. Make a card with embossing on it somewhere
3. MASH it all up and create a nature card that uses embossing somewhere on it!

I made a card full of flowers and I used the Joy Fold Card and had so much fun using some scraps on my table to make it and of course, I used the old Crimper once again!!  That is my "embossed" element on my card!!!  Rather than use the Big Shot, I used the crimper!

I just crimped the top of my card card as the bottom was for writing!  I stamped the leaf on the inside too!

The big flower was punched out using the Extra Large Fancy Flower Punch.  The flower is what is holding my card front down.  The Joy Fold Card is such a great fold!!!  If you have any questions about this card or fold, please let me know!

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you get the chance to play along with the Friday Mashup Team!

Smiles,

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All supplies are Stampin' Up:
Stamps: Flower Fest, Sentiment from Garden Greetings (retired)
Inks: Concord Crush, Pear Pizzaz
Paper: Concord Crush, Pear Pizzaz, Whisper White
Tools: Fancy Flower Punch, Crimper

Paper Players Challenge #45-Birds, Bees, Flowers and Trees

The challenge this week at the Paper Players is from LeAnne and is a Theme of Birds, Bees, Flowers and Trees. I went with the new Flower Fest stamp set that is available for purchase today! May 1st!  I am in LOVE with this awesome set and used the colours Poppy Parade, Peach Parfait and Pear Pizzazz.

Then I used my crimper to crimp the entire first panel of the card!  I LOVE my crimper!! You know, in the summer mini catalogue I was not "taken" with this set but now I love it! It stamps very nicely and I love that I got to use my flower punch too!!!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you get the chance to join us this week at the Paper Players.  On a side note, the sun has been shining all weekend and I am so happy that spring is finally here!!!

Smiles,

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Paper Players Challenge #44- A Sketch from Me

Happy Easter everyone!  It is Sunday and time for another Paper Players Challenge!  This week I am the challenge hostess and have designed a sketch!

I was very excited to receive my Stampin' Up Pre-Order on Wednesday night!  I broke open the set called "Fabulous Florets" and went to work!  I absolutely LOVE it!!  It is a "fabulous" set that will be available May 1st!  I got out my Paper Snips and cut out the flower and popped it up on dimensionals!

I am on a new colour kick!  I absolutely love Peach Parfait and have used it on my card today!  My colours are Peach Parfait, Pear Pizazz and Not Quite Navy.  That ribbon is retired, it was from my first stamping year! LOL!  The Colour is called Blue Bayou and it was on of my most favourite In Colours that Stampin' Up has offered!  I cleaned up my ribbon stash this weekend and decided to use this ribbon on my card!

I also needed to make a birthday card for a dear friend who is celebrating her birthday in a couple of days!  This card won't get to her in time but I am sending it off to her to let her know that I am celebrating with her, even though we are far apart!

I used the En Francais Background Stamp in Peach Parfait ink on Peach Parfait Paper!  I love how it looks!  I also used my Modern Label punch for the side of my card and yep, I finished off the inside too!  I love doing that!

Thank you so much for stopping by!  I hope you will get the opportunity to join us this week at the Paper Players!  Please let me know if you have any questions about my card!  I also want to thank all my blogging friends for your supportive comments over the last couple of weeks!  I appreciated ever single one!

Hugs!

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All supplies are Stampin' Up:
Stamps: Fabulous Florets (Summer Mini Catalogue), En Francais, On Your Birthday
Inks: Peach Parfait, Pear Pizazz
Paper: Peach Parfait, Pear Pizazz, Whisper White and Not Quite Navy

Tools: 1 3/8" Circle Punch, 1 1/4" Circle Punch, Modern Label Punch, Ribbon, Dimensionals, Snips

Paper Players Challenge #38 and Blog Candy!!!

This week at the Paper Players Jaydee has created a simple and sophisticated sketch for us to try!  This is for our new Clean and Simple Challenge that will happen every third week in a month!  We are really excited about this new challenge at the Paper Players!!

Paper Player Tips for creating a Clean and Simple card:

• Focus on the design
• Look for Clean lines
• Few embellishments
• Few layers

Here is the card I created!  My only stamping was the sentiment which is from the Hostess Level 2 set in the current Mini Catalogue called "Something to Celebrate".

I hope you get the chance to join us this week at the Paper Players and show us your Clean and Simple card! 

Don't forget I am offering Blog Candy this week...please click HERE to see the post and to enter!  Good luck!

Thanks for stopping by!

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All supplies are Stampin' Up:

Stamps: Something to Celebrate Hostess Level 2 Set

Inks: Basic Black

Paper: Hostess Level One Pattern Paper In Colour Pack, Black and Whisper White

Tools: Embosslit Beautiful Wings Die, Ribbon Punch, Dazzling Diamonds