Freshly Made Sketches

I'm slowly but surely plugging away at getting my Christmas cards done and it's getting real. Not sure I'm going to reach my 50 card goal on time. Sigh.  Gone are the days I get cards addressed prior to Thanksgiving. :-)  The Freshly Made Sketches Challenge was perfect for a dies only card...paired with patterned papers from Doodlebug Design's Frosty Friends 6x6 pad.  I used Reverse Confetti's Winter Words and Let It Snow dies.  Easy peasy!

Thanks for stopping by...now it's time to head into the shower then in to work for a 2:00 meeting.

Color Throwdown

Happy hump day and the day we have a new Color Throwdown Challenge for you! Vickie is our hostess and has a really fabulous trio of colors - red, orange and green! I decided to throw in a neutral with some brown pinecones.  :-) Here's my card...

I watercolored on Ranger watercolor CS using Ripe Persimmon and Festive Berries distress markers. I scribbled with the markers then spritzed with water to blend it.  The berries were stamped in Tangerine Tango then "kissed" with a little Real Red ink.  The Merry and Bright Holiday die - by Lil' Inker Designs - was cut from Real Red CS and the stamps with matching dies are from a Papertrey Ink set called Holiday Greens.

Congratulations to Claire Grantham - our guest star stamper this week!  Be sure to stop by her blog and say hello.

For more details on how to play along, head on over to the Color Throwdown Blog and you'll find the information on the right sidebar!  You can also visit the rest of the design team's creations for more inspiration...see links below:
Amy Rohl 
Amy Rysavy
Barbara Anders  
Broni Holcombe   
Jodi Collins 
Lisa Henke
Lori Tecler
Lynn Put  
Vickie Zimmer 
Wanda Cullen (you are here)  
Marisa Ritzen - November Guest Designer

Mojo Monday

Check out this great sketch that Julee has designed for this week's Mojo Monday Challenge! It's another great one and we hope you will play along with us! Here is my take on it - going with a gingham background and rustic style wreath stamp from Verve's Holiday Greetings set in traditional Christmas colors!

I brushed a wee bit of brown chalk over the wreath to have it look like a grapevine wreath...otherwise the image was colored with Copics.  I'm sure the berries shouldn't be green, but I needed green in the wreath (plus I've seen green berries before) - lol!  Clear Wink of Stella brush marker was added for a little shimmer to the stars.
Here's what I used:
STAMPS: Holiday Greetings (Verve).
PAPER: Garden Green, Real Red (SU), Trim the Tree paper stack (SU), X-Press It Blending Card.
INK: Memento Tuxedo Black.
DIES: Stitched square and border by Lil' Inker Designs; Holly by Reverse Confetti; Stitched Fishtail Flags Die-Namics by MFT.
  
For more inspiration with this sketch, click on the mojomakers' blog links below...or...you can go to the Mojo Monday blog and click on the first seven thumbnails.
Julee Tilman (Owner)
Justin Krieger
Lori Tecler
Marisa Ritzen 
Sarah Bigelow
Teresa Kline
Wanda Cullen (you are here)
 
Hope to see you in the gallery!

Inspired Be...All The Little Things

Yay for weekends off and a happy Saturday to all of you blog friends!  It's too early for the ski slopes to be in action yet here in VA, but the gals at Inspired By...All the Little Things challenge blog have gotten their skis ready to inspire you in this great photo! I don't own any ski stamps but was inspired by the criss- crossing of the skis in the photo to use brown plaid paper.  I used PTI's Peaceful Pinecones set along with berries from WPlus9's Fresh Cut Florals.  I couldn't capture the sheen and sparkle of the pinecones, but it's there after adding Martha Stewart carrara marble fine glitter to the cone tips using SU's fine tip glue pen.  The glitter is nice but it covers up the kissing technique I used with stamping the pinecones.  I stamped first with a lighter brown (Warm Wool - WPlus9) then rocked the edges on a darker brown ink pad (Coconut Husk - WPlus9).  The pine needle branches were stamped with Beanstalk and Last Leaf inks (WPlus9).

We're thrilled to have Rosemary Dennis guest with us today!  I've been a long time admirer of her stamping style and she regularly rocks the challenges here at Inspired By!  Welcome Rosemary!

So, let us see how YOU are inspired!  The challenge linky will close on Friday, November 18, at 12:00 pm (PST). Be sure to check out all the inspiration over on the Inspired By blog - the design team has some awesome samples to jumpstart your creativity! 

SFYTT

Good Friday everyone! I had some happy mail on the counter when I arrived home from work at 11 PM...new inks and papers along with one die set from Reverse Confetti (no stamp sets this time)! The RC powers that be have a real talent for combining patterns that I love...script, plaid, chevrons and polka dots!  If you haven't tried any of their paper pads, you really must as they are all gorgeous!  I thought these shades of purples and blues in their new Warm Heart 6x6 pad would pair up nicely with snowflakes.  The  Snowflakes Trio dies from an earlier release are very intricate and I only have success when I add a thin metal shim to my Big Shot "sandwich". This card uses the November sketch for RC's Sketch For You To Try Challenge.
Here's what I used...
DIES: Snowflake Trio (RC), Winter Words (RC); Stitched rectangle, diagonal stripe and circle are all from Lil' Inker Designs; The light blue flags are from MFT's Stitched Fishtail Flags Die-Namics set.
INK: Baby Blue (RC).
Cardstock: Royal Purple, Baby Blue (RC); White (PTI). 

It's WAY past my bedtime, so am signing off tonight (or I should say this morning - lol!).

Freshly Made Sketches

A clean and simple Christmas card for the Freshly Made Sketches challenge!  It's very straight forward, so I'll just get to my enabler's list...

STAMPS: Wreath for All Seasons (PTI).
PAPER: Simple Stories "Cozy Christmas", Vintage Cream (PTI), Metallic Gold CS.
INK: Green Leaf (WPlus9), Cherry Cobbler and Baked Brown Sugar (SU).
DIES: Stitched circle and rectangle (Lil' Inker Designs);  Wonderful Words Holiday Die Collection (Papertrey Ink).

Halloween Birthday

You're probably doing a double take and wondering if I'm senile with the late post of a Halloween card today, but I wanted to share this fun shaker card I created for a coworker who happens to have a birthday on Halloween.  The boot is a stamp and die set by Hampton Art.  The sentiment was computer generated and coloring was using Copics.  My favorite response is when a recipient states they love the card so much, they want to frame it!  Mission accomplished!

DIES: Edge Essentials (Reverse Confetti), Gift Card Holder Tag (Reverse Confetti), Stitched Circle dies (Lil' Inker Designs), Stitched Fishtail Flags STAX Die-Namics (MFT).  
PAPER: Fright Night (Reverse Confetti), Grape Soda and Lime Green CS (Reverse Confetti), White base is by PTI.