Coral Poinsettia

Hi and welcome to our first challenge of 2026 over at Freshly Made Sketches where our hostess this week is Amy O'Neill.  Despite making hardly any Christmas cards in the lead-up to Christmas, I decided to make a Christmas card in January - go figure!

I started with a kraft panel on a white card base onto which I stamped the sentiment before embossing with the Subtle EF.  I then stamped a background stamp using white ink onto Oceanside cardstock and die-cut it with a torn edges die.  I also die-cut a small strip of Coral cardstock as a border.

The flowers and leaves were die-cut with light and darker cardstocks and adhered together.  I then went over the edges with some Distress Grit Paste to mimic snow.  I finished with some yellow Nuvo Drops for the flower centres.  I used the leftover elements for the inside of the card.

Thanks so much for visiting.  Please check out the fabulous cards made by the design team.

Products used:

Stamps: Christmas Background (MFT), Poinsettia Bouquets (WPlus9)

Ink: Unicorn White (Hero Arts), Versafine Onyx Black, Canyon Clay, Eucalyptus (Altenew)

Cardstock: Kraft, White, Oceanside, Sage, Coral (Spellbinders), Coral Crush (MFT), Lagoon (Altenew)

Dies: Torn Edges (MFT), Seasonal Sketch (Tim Holtz)

Accessories: Distress Grit Paste, Dandelion Yellow Nuvo Drops, Subtle EF.

Cheers

Karren

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New Home

Hi and welcome!  I'm here today with my card for the latest challenge at Freshly Made Sketches where our sketch hostess this week is Kim Singdahlsen.  Her sketch was perfect for a card I needed to make for my daughter.

Some of you will know that our daughter has moved to Blenheim (about 4 1/2 hours drive from us at the top of the South Island of New Zealand).  She is in her first year of teaching high school in Design and Visual Communications as well as Automotive.  She finally moved into her new home up there a couple of weeks ago and this was the card I made for her to celebrate that.

I created a panel of pink stripes onto a gray card base and onto that I adhered a little house and trees I made using Honey Bee Stamps dies.  I had to do a bit of swapping out between their various house die sets to get windows that more closely resemble hers. I also snipped off some pieces around the roofline. I then took a white panel, die-cut a heart from the centre and stamped a sentiment, before using foam tape to adhere over the die-cut image.

Thanks so much for visiting!  The design team have some gorgeous cards using the sketch so I hope you'll check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  New Home (WP9)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Cloudy Night, Charcoal Suit, Espresso, Volcano Lake, Mountain Mist, Lagoon (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Cement Gray (MFT), Cream (SSS), Sweet Pea, Carnation (C&9), Blush, Tutu, Chiffon (Spellbinders)

Dies:  Spring Cottages, Summer Cabin (Honey Bee Stamps), Infinity Hearts (Hero Arts) 

Leafy Cluster

 Hi and welcome!  Today's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches is from Narelle Farrugia and it played right into my current fondness of stenciling/vintage-looking cards.

Because the purpose of Freshly Made Sketches is clean cards, I didn't distress any elements but tried to give a vintage-y look with ink-blending and stamping onto Desert Storm cardstock.  The foliage is a stamp, die and stencil combo from Simon Says Stamp that I bought in the Black Friday sales but hadn't used until now.  It was quick and easy to put together.

The hot-foiled sentiment was from my already-foiled stash which seems to be my go-to lately when I'm in a time crunch with my card-making (all the time, it seems!)

Thanks for visiting.  Please head over to the challenge blog and check out the wonderful new cards made by our design team - and meet our new team member!

Products used:

Stamps:  Friendship Leafy Cluster (SSS), Vintage Ephemera, Scripted Backgrounds (WPlus9), Distressed Patterns (MFT)

Ink:  Amalgam (Gina K), Rocky Shore, Swamp Green, Oak Moss (Altenew)

Cardstock:  White, Desert Storm (Neenah), Black

Dies:  Friendship Leafy Cluster (SSS), Postal Frames (The Greetery), Hexi-Gem Sentiments Hot Foil and Die (Spellbinders)

Accessories:  Friendship Leafy Cluster stencils (SSS), Gold hot foil

Cheers

Karren

Colour Blocked Poinsettia

Hi and welcome!  I'm the sketch hostess this week over at Freshly Made Sketches and I went back to my roots for my sketch - colour blocking!  Way back in the late 90's/early 2000's when I started stamping, I was particularly drawn to colour-blocked cards.  So decided to come up with a sketch that has a colour-blocked look.

I also decided to make a Christmas card and luckily, I had all of the floral images and sentiment already stamped and embossed so I really just had to work on the background.  I temporarily taped the three panels together and, using my Stampwheel, stamped over all three panels with a background stamp and Versamark ink, several times.  I then carefully removed the red layer and re-stamped, then removed the green layer and re-stamped to ensure good coverage.  Once that dried, I re-assembled it and adhered it to a card base.