Ingenious Inkling

Everything But the Kitchen Sink

The Everything But the Kitchen Sink Challenges have moved to their own blog, and to celebrate they're hosting their first ever sketch challenge, which was inspired by Courtney's fireplace mantel.  The prize is a $25 gift card to Two Peas in a Bucket. 

I had scraps of Basic Grey Marrakech paper and navy cardstock left over from my card this morning, so that is what I started with for my design.  The squares are punched with a 1 1/4" square and the card is slightly smaller than 4 1/4".

I tried different stamps for my focal image, but couldn't seem to find one that worked.  When I started rummaging through my embellishments I found this lone Prima flower from the Hey Girlfriend, Spring Has Spring! card kit, and loved how it looked with these patterns.  I sprayed the flower with one of my new favorite crafting finds ...Pearl Glimmer Mist ... it gives a perfect subtle all-over sparkle.  I finished with a tiny Hero Arts sentiment from Bird Greetings (punched with  word window & heart punches).

PS - I was very excited to see my cards made the Fab Five at 2 Sketches 4 You this week ... woot woot!
 

Belief in Goodness

Today's featured stamper at SCS is the very talented TreasureOiler.  My design was inspired by her Friend to Friend card.  I wanted a masculine design, so I changed the stamps, papers, colors, and border punch (one of my favorites, EK Success Dotted Wave). 

Since my main image was a favorite sentiment from River City Rubber Stamps, I replaced the sentiment at the bottom with part of Hero Arts Graceful Leaves.

Lazy Saturday Drive Through the Corn Fields

My husband and I have a rare weekend off together with no plans.  He suggested we go for a drive in the country, so we decided to head north and check out the Edgewood Locker.  Because of the wet fall, there are still quite a few crops in the fields and lots of tractors on the roads, so there was lots of activity to see on the drive.

The place was hoppin' when we arrived.  Outside was a chalk board advertising a special on Brats.  The first meal I remember eating in Iowa was grilled Brats (aka Bratwurst), so for me, they have a special connection to this state.  We didn't need 48, but we did get some Sweet Onion, Pineapple, and of course Cranberry & Wild Rice for the holidays.

The store had all kinds of meats and cheeses, and they were very reasonably priced.  We ended up coming home with Ranch Cheese Curds, Smoked Pork Chops, an assortment of ham and beef sticks, and lots of other meats for the freezer.

Here's my dear husband carrying all of our wares (the freezer bags from Aldi's are perfect for keeping road trip foods cold).

 
 All-in-all a very relaxing drive resulting in lots of fun new foods to try.

I Hope You Dance

I love hosting the Inspiration Challenge on SCSeach week ... I feel like it stretches me and brings out a level of creativity that often surprises me.  This week I fell in love with the Etsy store of Lorelie Kay Designs ... the way she combines vintage elements into such a fun and funky style really speaks to me.  Particularly, I loved this I Hope You Dance Tiny Dancer Ballerina Resin Collage Ring.  I immediately had an idea in my head for a card design and had so much fun bringing it to life.

Initially I thought I would scan a page from a dictionary, but the font size didn't quite work.  So instead, I copied a definition for Dance from an internet dictionary multiple times into a Word document using 11 pt Byington font.  I adjusted the line length so that the definition would start at a different place in the line each time.  I used 1 1/2 spacing between the lines & printed the definition on Ivory cardstock.  Next, I trimmed each line into equal sized strips of paper.

I randomly adhered the strips of paper to a piece of Turquoise Basic Grey paper and then trimmed the finished piece into 4 1/4" square and attached it to a dark brown card base.  The Wordsworth Dancing Girl was stamped in Dark Brown into the background, using foam underneath so I could press down hard enough to get the ink in between the strips of paper.  I finished by highlighting a few of the words with Pebbles Pearlescent Chalk.

I hope you have fun & find inspiration.
 

Thursday Link Love

Here are some of my favorite links from the week:

• I've been thinking about a new recipe to try for the family Thanksgiving feast ... maybe Pumpkin Snickerdoodles ... Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pecans and Gorgonzola ... or Apple Strudel Bars.
• Love this amazing Paper Christmas Wreath ... I think it would be fun to make for different holidays.
• These elegant Fabric Flowers make me want to head to the fabric store.
• Snowballs are one of my favorite guilty pleasures ... I think I'll have to bake this fun Snowball Cake for my birthday next year ... then again, there's Raspberry Zinger Cake too.
• These fabulous framed collages are pure magic.  I'd love to try the concept for cards.
• I really want to watch this documentary Between the Folds about the intriguing art of paper folding.

Happy Friday!

Invent a New One

I needed to make a couple of masculine cards tonight, so I decided to create both a vertical and horizontal version of Kazan's Sketch #39 from 2 Sketches 4 You using Basic Grey Archaic papers.

The first features one of my favorite sentimentsfrom the Stampers' Anonymous Tim Holtz Collection, as well Stampabilities Vintage Flourish 03.

The second card features another great sentiment from Inkadinkado.

 
 
 

Santa's Village

I've always loved Webster's Pages, so when I saw Ellen Hutson had 6"x6" papers in her shop, I decided it was time to take the plunge.  This fun paper called Santa's village works perfectly for CPS Sketch 141. 

I added stamped snowflakes, presents, and a sentiment from Hero Arts Clear Design Holiday sayings.  I also added Distress Stickles in PIcket Fence and Rock Candy to the snowflakes and fun patchwork roof, and some Antique Bronze Stickles to the door for an all over glittery shimmer for the Hero Arts Puttin' on the Glitz! challenge.  Unfortunately, the glitter glue lightened the Maroon stamped snowflakes, so they look a little pinker than I'd like, but I still love the overall effect.  The finished card is 5 1/2" square (I trimmed a 1/4 inch from each side of the page).
 

Owlways in my Heart

The current challenge at the Embellish Magazine Blog is to incorporate this wonderful color combination with owls. 

As I was putting away my October Kit of the Month from Unity Stamps, I noticed it contained an adorable owl and equally cute sentiment, so that was the start for my design.  I was also inspired by the layers of colors in the owls eyes and nose/beak in the photograph collage.

The background is embossed with the Pebbles Impressabilities plate.  I spritzed the coral cardstock with water before running it through my Cuttlebug.  I love the subtle textured design.

I stamped the owl on the ivory cardstock for the legs, and then three more times to paper piece him together.  The heart on the sentiment is also paper pieced. The corner punch is from EK Success, and the green & ivory layers were cut with Nestabilities.  I attached the ivory cardstock to brown cardstock and hand-cut the middle layer.
 

Embrace Giggle Grove

It's another gorgeous day in the midwest, so I think I'm going to fore-go my usual studio time for some time in the great outdoors.  I did make a quick card while watching CBS Sunday Morning (my favorite weekend morning routine) for today's SCS Featured Stamper Challenge. 

My card was inspired by chrisations.ink's Stumped card.  It reminded me of the Giggle Grove Trees from Unity ... unfortunately, those images turned out to be considerably larger than I remembered, so I had to alter the design a bit to make it work.  The finished card is 4" x 8 1/2".

When Spellbinders were on sale for 40% off at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago, I finally broke down and decided to add some to my collection ... of course, when I went to check out, they were all out of stock, but I did get rain checks and finally picked them up on Friday.  I used the Classic Ovals Large to cut out my image and the Giga Scallop Oval punch for the frame.  The sentiment is from Unity's Bevy of Butterflies and Cornish Heritage Farm's Scratched Grid Backgrounder is the base.
 

Tis the Season of Joy

While I had all of my vintage goodies out on my craft table, I decided to do one more blocked sketch - Sketch #40 at Card Patterns.  I love how the Crafty Secrets Christmas Time Vintage Cuts work so beautifully with the Basic Grey Wassail papers ... makes the card come together oh so quickly.

It's too soon to tell, but I'm feeling like I might actually have most of my holiday cards done by December this year ... then again, it could just be wishful thinking.