In Celebration of Freshly Made Sketches 100th Challenge

Hi Everyone! After some BIG woes with Blogger, I hope that this post will finally stay put. (It disappeared 3 times! ACK!) I am super excited to share my card for the Freshly Made Sketches !00th Challenge Celebration! Every week, the team at FMS shares a fabulous layout for inspiration to get the creative juices working. I am proud to call many of the lovely ladies on the Design Team "friends", so I was over-the-moon when Jen asked me if I wanted to be a part of their celebration. They are featuring a few former Guest Designers for a Blog Hop with this week's challenge. The complete Blog Hop list is on the FMS page.  But the fun doesn't stop there. Do you like prizes? No celebration is complete without treats so check out the challenge to see what a few lucky people could win for playing along! 

I decided to use some all new stamping goodies for my card. I am a huge fan of non-traditional colors for holiday cards, so as soon as I saw the Winter Frost Specialty Designer Series Paper, I knew I had to have it. There is something about that combo of Island Indigo, Coastal Cabana and Smokey Slate that I LOVE! Maybe it is the fact that it is still 100 degrees here in South Texas and the tropical names are perfect for Christmas cards in August. Haha! I went a little heavy on the bling, but that's really nothing new, is it? The new Frosted Finishes Embellishments are the perfect finishing touch and sooooo gorgeous. All of the supplies i used are listed at the end of the post. 

Finally, here is a quick shot of the inside of the card. I used the same snowflakes from the Festive Flurry set along with the sentiment from the Warmth and Wonder set, which is a hostess reward set from the SU Holiday catalog. 

I hope you will stop by Freshly Made Sketches and join in the fun this week. Their Design Team created some gorgeous projects, as always and you can get the complete list of everyone who created projects for the Blog Hop. Whoo hoo!

I also made another card with this same color combo, paper and stamp set for a SU Demo swap earlier this week. Coincidentally, I also used a former FMS sketch for the layout on that card, too. Check back soon for that. :)

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Stampin' Up! Supply List

Stamps: Festive Flurry, Teeny Tiny Wishes and Warmth and Wonder (Holiday Catalog Hostess set)

Paper: Winter Frost Specialty DSP, Island Indigo, Coastal Cabana and Whisper White card stock 

Ink: Island Indigo and Coastal Cabana Classic Ink

Punches: Scallop Border Punch, Word Window Punch, 3/4" Circle Punch and 1" Circle Punch

Accessories: Stylish Stripes Embossing Folder, Houndstooth Embossing Folder, Festive Flurry Framelits, Big Shot, Stampin' Dimensionals and Basic Rhinestones

Featured Designer for Freshly Made Sketches

Hello there and Happy Wednesday to you! I feel like I have been MIA from my blog for a wee bit too long. Lots going on here but ALL good things, so that is a bonus. Just trying to catch up this week. I am SO excited to share with you that I was invited, by my sweet friend,  Lesley Croghan, to be a Featured Designer for her new challenge blog: 

Freshly Made Sketches 

I love the concept of "clean" cards and didn't truly realize how MUCH until I created my card for this challenge. 

So what does FMS mean by a "clean card"? According to Lesley: "We are looking for clean-lined creations but unlike Clean and Simple challenges, we encourage lots of detail and embellishments as long as they maintain a "clean" look to your card."

So, here is my interpretation of this fabulous sketch. Although I centered the main panel on the card, because it seemed to fit better within the lines of the plaid DSP and ribbon. This card also marks the return of my infatuation (read as obsession) with the Button Buddies stamp set. :) I paired it up with some punched flowers from the Itty Bitty Punch Pack and some Bitty Buttons for dimension. It's an "itty bitty bouquet" of cuteness! I also really love the Domestic Goddess DSP that I ripped into for the first time with this card. Totally makes me a fan of Calypso Coral! (Which is a good thing because we weren't really getting along up until now, lol!) 


Although tough to see in the main photo, this card has a lot of dimension to it. Each layer is built up with some Stampin' Dimensionals. I finished it off with some Basic Pearls and a ruffled bow. The sentiment is simple and can be used for a variety of occasions. 

Please stop by Freshly Made Sketches to see what all of the excitement is about. Their Design Team pretty much ROCKS the house and I know they have created some wonderful "eye-candy" for inspiration. (Hugs, ladies!!) Hope you have a chance to play along this week, too! 

Lesley Croghan

Cindy Hall

Linda Callahan

Tui Nathan

Jen Mitchell

Jennifer Timko

Rita Wright

Have a HAPPY day! :) 

Stampin' Up! Supply List: 
Stamps: Button Buddies (awwww, yeah!!) and Friendly Phrases
Paper: Domestic Goddess DSP, Calypso Coral, Pool Party and Whisper White card stock
Ink: Calypso Coral Classic ink (unwrapped it for the first time today) 
Accessories: Pool Party Stampin' Write Marker, 1- 1/4" Circle punch, 1- 3/8" Circle punch, Calypso Coral 3/8" Ruffled Ribbon, Itty Bitty Punch Pack, Bitty Buttons, Basic Pearls and lots of Stampin' Dimensionals
Non SU: circle and scallop circle die cuts