Ingenious Inkling

Welcome Little One

My card for this week's Unscripted Sketch features Fancy Pants Baby stickers.

I roated the sketch 90 degrees to work with the text directions on my stickers ... border stickers make great frames ... and I love that sweet little owl.

Mustache Birthday

For this week's SCS Inspiration Challenge we're headed to Bibelot, stores I love to visit when I'm in the twin cities.  I chose this fun talking mustache keyring to inspire my design.

Growing-up in our household, being punny was a highly valued skill ... so I loved the punny sentiments in The Mustache Set from Cat's Pajamas.  I also got the coordinating Mustache Cut-ups.

I found these papers on my recent trip ... they're called Documented from Simple Stories. I love that they have half-sheet label papers in the package (I used one on the center of this 6x5" card design).

This card is also for the *Make it for a Man* Challenge at The Stamp Man.

I hope you find inspiration.

Joy of the Season

This week at Jingle Belles we're celebrating one of our favorite things ... holiday tunes.  We're asking you to create a card (or gift card holder, or whatever else you'll be needing for the holidays) that incorporates music, that is inspired by a holiday song, or that includes a holiday song title.

I started by scanning some vintage sheet music I had in my collection and re-sizing it for my card front. 

Next I stamped Hero Arts Merriest Christmas Wishes in Blue Iris on the music-printed cardstock.  I intended to use the image stamped directly on the sheet music, but managed to flub my attempt at a hand-drawn frame, so I cut out the stamped image and placed it on top of a second piece of the printed music (I always print enough to cover a piece of cardstock) using a blue cardstock frame to cover the flub.  I added red colored pencil to my cardinal for a little pop.

The Hero Arts Sentiment looked a little lonely along the bottom, so I layered on some snowflakes (the smaller one was made by punching the same snowflake and trimming off the longer pieces).

Can't wait to see what you create.

Thursday Link Love

Another fun week of blog discovery:

• Free Father's Day Printables (the cupcake toppers would be good for cards).
• Adding fun temporary hair color using chalk pastels.
• A Round-Up of Ideas for using expired credit cards and used gift cards.
• Texas Sheet Cake ... in Cupcake form ... yum.
• Grilled Eggplant with Tomatoes & Feta ... bring on the summer.
• Photo-Instructions for making your own Origami Embellishments (butterfly shown).
• Cute little free digital owls from Jaded Blossom.
• Gorgeous Raspberry Coconut Macaroons.
• Pencil Photographs of Paul Cadden ... amazing.
• DIY Calligraphy using a Light Table ... now even I can have beautiful handwriting.
• I want a Garden Bench Arbour for my patio ... I really like the one with the storage bench.

Have a tremendous Thursday!

Sympathy Butterfly Trio

Tonight I needed some sympathy cards ... and my stash was depleted.  When I saw the sketch at Try Stampin' On Tuesday, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

These beautiful vellum butterfly stickers make a card come together so quickly, that I did one in another color palette.

A stamped sympathy sentiment and border punches, and they were ready to go.

Flashback Friday 24.0 ~ Masculine

The current Flashback Friday Challenge is to re-post your first masculine card design.  Mine is from August 2007 using a SplitCoastStampers Sketch Challenge.

It was created before I learned to ink the edges of where little white bits show when you punch cheap white core cardstock ... and before I learned how to blend colored pencils using an art eraser ... but I still love the colorc combination & that comfy chair.

Man-Tastic Drink Coffee

When I saw this week's Man-Tastic Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger, I hoped I could find a stamp in my collection with that same shape ... but no such luck.

So instead I went with the same loopy rounded shape found in the Hero Arts Artistic Circles (it reminds me of spirograph creations from my youth) and the great color combination of grey, brown, red & turquoise/teal.  I inked the background stamp with three colors of ink and stamped on light grey cardstock.

I created a tag using chevron paper from Lily Bee Design's Head over Heels collection (love the combination of patterns & colors in this collection..  I used this week's Retro Sketch, but since I was going for a masculine vibe, I replaced the ribbon with layers of washi tape, some punched circles & a laquered brad. I finished with a stickerz sentiment from EAD Designs & attached my tag with foam tape.

This will be a great Father's Day card for one of the many coffee-loving men in my family.

Saturday PhotoHunt ... Creative

This week's Saturday PhotoHunt Theme is Creative ... so many possibilities.  

I went with my first thought which was this piece of art I made in 2008 in Kal Barteski's class when I attended Donna Downey's first Inspired Event ... my first creative excursion that I took all on my own.  It changed the way I thought about myself as an artist ... and about being creative.

Sisters' Weekend 2012

My sister & I are off enjoying a weekend of shopping, eating and most of all laughing ... my time with her recharges my batteries in the best possible way.

One year (pre-GPS) we manged to get lost several times and somehow always ended-up on El Monte Street.  Since then it has become one of our battle cries to cheer each other up when we're having a bad day.  Yesterday, when we were in search of an Estate Sale, we turned the corner and saw El Monte ahead, and both burst out laughing ... so of course it required a picture ... with mustache masks.

El Monte!

Birthday Celebration

My card for this week's Unscripted Sketch features papers and stickers from Authentique's Celebrate Collection.

I adore this color combination & the fact that it can work for both masculine and feminine designs.