Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Sketch #277


We at TMS would like to express how thankful we are for each and everyone of you - our followers, our participants and our sponsors.  We appreciate the support you give us.  To our followers here in the United States, we wish a very Happy Thanksgiving holiday to you. May the day bring gratitude, a bountiful table and a memorable time with those you love. 

This week we're sponsored by Dies r Us.


This week's sketch is brought to you by Nina.  She's off on vacation but she didn't leave us to enjoy the Mexican sunshine without inspiration.



I have layered a white card with a piece of green. To the left, I have adhered a panel from a K&Company Christmas pad. I made my own slide using a Sizzix die and dark green card, and my "ribbon" is a piece of lovely metallic gold paper. I placed my paper "ribbon" under the side panel rather than over it because I did not want to cover any of the sentiment or design on the panel. 

I do wish that I had placed my slide a little more to the right, but once glued down, I could not move it. I added a green pearl to the center of the slide and also to the upper right corner of the card. 

This is a lovely design -- simple, and yet very versatile. It can be quick and elegant or whimsical and fun. It can be layered (such as mine) or straight to the card front. This is a good sketch for Christmas cards (and keeping the postage reasonable) but it can also just as easily be used for any other occasion from Birthdays to Easter.

Friday, November 21, 2014

"SEA"sons Greetings


Sami of Sami's Stamps has put together a fun set of images this week. They are quite unique for Christmas in that they are all lovely mermaids -- hey, just right for the tropical Christmas, eh? They are really quite pretty, and the DT discovered that many of them can be multi-functional in that they are not specific to Christmas. Here is a thumb nail look at all the images:



To have a better look (and also to see the beautiful samples the design team have made), you'll want to go over to Sami Stamps' blog HERE.

I used the beautiful Candy Cane Mermaid. Keeping with the sea theme, I've used predominately aqua and blue-green for my colors. After coloring the mermaid, I did brush some Stickles Star Dust along the side and onto the very bottom of her tail.

 My card is a white base. I had not planned to use the white base and had cut the dark aqua shape to be the card base. Alas, the die slid down a bit on one side so that when I ran it through the cutter, one side of the top was not attached to the back. I just ended up cutting the two pieces completely apart and adhering one to the white square base. I then cut the next smaller die using the aqua patterned paper (believe it or not, that came from a Christmas pad called "Old World Winter" by the Paper Studio).

I inked around my image piece using ColorBox "aqua."  My dies are DooHickey by Magnolia and were a special order set available early last spring. I cut three of the sea grasses, lightly brushing the aqua ink here and there on the die cuts to give them a little more depth. I did not, however, ink the little jelly fish. 

The flowers are a combination from my stash. They are by Prima, WOC and Recollections. The sea shells are some I've had for a very long time and they were purchased in a package, not personally collected (sigh). 

I did computer generate my sentiment, and I refrained from making the sea portion of the greeting large (as in my blog title) because I thought that was just a bit over the top for my lovely card (grin). 

Please stop by the blog and have a look at all the lovely cards. There is no new challenge as our challenges run for the entire month, so if you haven't joined in yet, you still have time. We'd love to see what you do with a Sami Stamps image. Also remember that there is a special offer (sale) on all images that runs through 31 December 2014. A perfect time to pick up some of Sami's beautiful images!!

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

TMS and Daydream Designs

Welcome to another sketch challenge.  This week's sketch is inspired by Jessi and it's another great canvas for creativity!

We have a wonderful sponsor this week that I am thrilled to have join us.  We're sponsored by Diane's Daydream Designs.



We are delighted to be able to sponsor this fun challenge and to offer a prize to a happy winner! Visit Daydream Designs store for our full line of whimsical, hand-drawn digi images, sentiments, papers, embellishments, and more for all your crafting needs. Images are usually in both JPEG and PNG with 300 dpi resolution, are resizable and our crisp, black-line sentiments can be recolored in most photo editing programs. We promote family-friendly, wholesome products with many Christian-themed images and scripture verses. There is sure to be something for every crafter and every project whether digitally created or traditionally designed. 

Visit our Daydream Designs blog for tons of inspiration from our Dream Team Designers. Diane Noble, Owner/Illustrator

Here's the awesome sketch we get to play with:



I have used the image Snowbaby Love Outline Set  for my card. It is a lined drawing which I printed off and colored with Copic markers. Unfortunately, you cannot see the snow as it does not photograph well, but I added Stickles to it so the glitter gives a shimmery effect.

The card base is cream (again, doesn't seem to show well in the photo -- must work on the lighting before next week). I've placed a layer of goldish colored snowflake designed paper on top as my background. I then used a strip of red and white scrap from a pad I purchased last year (or maybe the year before) from Michael's Crafts across the card. (I missed that extra little strip at the bottom of the main strip until I'd completely finished my card -- one of those didn't see for looking things.) I stamped the sentiment onto scrap of the white X-Press It card on which I'd printed my image and then cut it into a fish tail banner. I have added a green button and a tiny red dotty bow. I finished the card off by punching a corner piece from the background paper and adhering it to the right corner of the image.

We very much enjoyed see the beautiful entries in last week's challenge. Please join us again this week (no twist, just the sketch). Stop by the TMS blog to see the other inspirational cards (we have three guest designers this week as well as the TMS design team).

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Father Christmas



I have pretty much gotten all of my Christmas cards made for this year. Just have a few more that need inside sentiments/verses and some envelopes that need to be made and they will all be ready for addressing. Truth be known, I had a stack left over from last year that didn't get mailed out, so I had a good head start on the project. Sad state of affairs, eh?

This is one that I made last Wednesday when I went up to my play date with my girlfriend whom I visit every other week. This was a fairly simple card but turned out quite lovely. The papers are from a K&Company 12" x 12" pad that she purchased last year. The card weight, red and ecru, are from our stash. The Father Christmas topper is from a new kit that we each bought from Crafter's Companion. Isn't it lovely? We printed it off with the computer and mounted it to the red card. Then we added sparkle. I used Stickles (I think Star Dust) which I haphazardly "painted" along the top and the right side only. We did try glitter embossing powder, but the glitter did not stay on the paper as well as the Stickles glitter did. (NOTE: If you do use glitter embossing powder, put it on and heat set it before you add the topper to the red matting else the adhesive will melt and your image will come off the matting.)

I made the red bow which is adhered to the left corner of the image with a glue dot, and the Merry Christmas sentiment is from the K&Company pad which we cut into a "ticket" shape using a die. The ticket may have been a bit "over kill" since the image has printing of merry Christmas in different languages, but we felt the card needed a little something at the bottom there, and we were trying to keep the card relatively flat for easier mailing. 

Hope you like the card. I am quite fond of vintage Father Christmas images, and the cd which comes in the Crafter's Companion kit has several of them for me to use.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Pumpkins and Leaves




Are you ready for another sketch?  This one was created by Nina and is a great one for your creative juices to flow as they wish!  It's also the Judged Challenge so we've got a fun and added twist to go with the sketch. In addition to using our sketch, we want you to use


PUMPKINS & LEAVES

Our sponsor is Digital Delights by Looby Lou

Now, since I've been without internet and am just now getting back online, let's get started!  Here's our sketch....





I've used Pumpkin Scottie as my image and I've used Copic markers for coloring. The overall card is rather simple, keeping the emphasis on the delightful image. For the back layer, I embossed a piece of orange using a leaf embossing folder. I matted it with brown card. I matted my image with brown card. The card base itself is brown card with a layer of mustard colored card. For the upper left corner, I've combined two amber gems stones with a little pumpkin resin embellishment. The pumpkin was a light orange and did not show up well on the mustard card, so I took a deeper orange copic marker and colored. The sentiment is a dimensional sticker that I found in my stash.

Go on over to the Tuesday Morning Sketches blog and have a look at the samples the other DT members have made for you. Then, pull out your supplies and join us this week in our challenge. REMEMBER, to be eligible for the wonderful prize provided by our sponsor, you must follow the sketch AND use leaves and pumpkins on your card.

Have a great week!

Friday, November 7, 2014

Lovely Fall Friends

New Release: "Lovely Fall Friends" and Challenge #19: "Anything Goes."




 Click HERE to enter the shop! New Freebee and $2.00 Deal have been added!

As you can see, it is time for another release at Sami Stamps. I have chosen to use the "Lovely Native Fairy" image for my card. I colored her with Copic markers using fall colors of orange and yellow, and I've continued the fall colors with my paper choices,

The base card is dark, chocolate brown, then there is a layer of a slightly lighter brown, top with a piece of rust which I've embossed using an Anna Griffin embossing folder. The DP at the bottom, the scalloped circle and behind the sentiment are all from a My Mind's Eye 6" x 6" pad called "Darling Deer." The brown ribbon is by Ribbon Boutique by Hobby Lobby, and the orange, velour flowers are by Petaloo.

Please stop by Sami Stamps Blog to have a look at the beautiful cards the DT have made to inspire you and to show off this lovely release. We'd love to have you join this month's challenge -- anything goes with a Sami Stamps image.