Ingenious Inkling

Cosy Christmas

Crafter's Companion is releasing some great new Christmas/Winter stamp sets in her Little Bit Festive line today designed by the talented Sheena Douglass.  Here are some cards I made using these lovely new images & sentiments.

I started by repeating the cross-stitched heart border from Ivy Borders on lightly patterned kraft cardstock from DCWV's Crafty Christmas Mat Stack.  Next I randomly colored some of the hearts with my DR6 Spectrum Noir Marker.  I used this week's CAS(E) this Sketch layout by adding a strip of washi tape, a negative heart punch, and the sentiment from Farmhouse Christmas.

For my next card I combined the new sentiment from Snowy Wellies with snowflakes from Sheena's previously released stamp set called Ornate Snowflakes.  The snowflakes were stamped on designer paper using Salty Ocean Distress Ink.  The sentiment was stamped in India Ink on the same designer paper and colored using my Spectrum Noir BT6 marker.

I die cut the sentiment and sponged the edges with Distress Ink before attaching to the frame.  I finished with a few Tonic punched snowflakes and blue adhesive gems.

Explore

The Mapquest Challenge at CAS-ual Fridays was the perfect opportunity to break out my Old Globe die cut from Die-Versions.   

I started with a page from one of the many vintage atlases in my book collection and this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch.

I started with a dark green card base & cut my globe from the same paper.  I backed it with light blue cardstock for contrast against the map background.  I finished with an *explore* sentiment ... it will be a birthday card for a guy who loves to travel.

Be Well

This week's Freshly Made Sketch was perfect to feature a vintage children's book illustration from my collection of discarded library books.  This one came from a book called Owl at Home by Arnold Lobel.  

Many of the pages had been scribbled on with an ink pen, but this one had been spared ... I thought it was perfect for a Get Well card design.  It coordinated perfectly with papers from DCWV's Natural Cardstock MatStack.  All I had to add was a sentiment from Catslife Press.

I love being able to give discarded books a second life.

You Can't Turn Back the Clock

I used a banner die cut and coordinating stamp to create a Birthday Card for this week's Unscripted Sketch.

I combined some wood grain paper with designer papers and added a party hat & sentiment sticker that says "You can't turn back the clock, but you can wind it up again!" to finish the design.

Baby Baby

One of the things I love about hosting the Inspiration Challenge at SCS is that it keeps me constanly on the look-out for things to inspire design ... today at the office, I actually told a co-worker the combination of patterns in her shirt would translate to a great card design.  

Tonight my inspiration comes from an unexpected source ... a bottle of Sun Bum Sunscreen from Uncle Dan's ... seriously, how cute is that yellow monkey face on the wood grain background.

I started with parquet wood grain paper from Studio Calico and added my own bit of yellow fun.

I die cut the elephant silhouette from yellow adhesive felt & then stamped my cute little Hero Arts ellie in brown.  I used one of my brown Spectrum Noir markers to color the heart.  The banner was die cut from coordinating cardstock and then stamped with a sentiment from Catslife Press ... love the combination of upper & lower case letters.

I hope you find some unexpected inspiration this week.

Most Wonderful Time

Today the Crafter's Companion Design Team is excited to play along with Paper Craft Planet for their weekly sketch challenge and we would love to have you play along too.  Here's the fun sketch and you can find more info on the PCP Blog too!  If you would like to play along, upload your card to the PCP Gallery and tag it with SK061413.

 

Here's my take on the sketch featuring a Crafter's Companion Stamp from the Stamp-It Holiday Collection called Wonderful Time combined with holiday papers from Echo Park's Season's Greetings Collection.  Since my sentiment is on my center piece, I swapped the sentiment in the sketch for a wrap of ribbon.

I added a few yellow pearls to coordinate with the yellow centers of the poinsettias.

Oh, and in case you wondered ... there is a prize!!!  For each comment left on the blogs listed below, you will be entered into a drawing for a $20 gift certificate.  ALSO, if you play along on our sketch challenge, you will be entered into the drawing again (just make sure you upload your card to the PCP Gallery with the tag listed above).   Deadline to enter your comments and/or sketch challenge cards is June 21, 2013 at midnight (ET). Entries can be uploaded to the PCP Gallery. 

Now here's who is playing along with us today ~ don't forget to leave some love for your chance to win the Crafter's Companion Gift Certificate!

Christiana Reuling -- http://christygetscrafty.blogspot.com/

Denise Coulter -- http://lalasworldblog.blogspot.com

Khristen Foss -- http://khristenscraftroom.blogspot.com

Stacy Harper-Watson -- http://scrapwithstacy.blogspot.com/

Stephanie Severin -- http://ingeniousinkling.typepad.com <<---- You are here

Trena Brannon -- http://trenastampinhq.blogspot.com

Kendra Wietstock -- http://kendrawietstock.blogspot.com

Deb Felts -- http://withastampandasong.blogspot.com/

Pam Hornschu -- http://1pamperedstamper.blogspot.com/

Susanna Boyd -- http://www.cardoftheweek.com/

Spreading Holiday Cheer

We're still getting sketchy at Jingle Belles this week.

While last week's sketch card started with the background paper ... this week's design started with my glittery snowman 3-D sticker ... I love the fun ball trim at the end of his scarf.

I went to my cardstock scraps and found three pieces to coordinate with my snowman ... and finished with an EAD Designs rub-on sentiment ... couldn't be much easier than that.

I hope you'll join us.

Thursday Link Love

More fun finds from the land of blogs:

• These Leggy Storage Jars make me smile
• A round-up of lots of unusual cookie cutters
• Love these DIY word bracelets (shown)
• These Fluffernutter Bars sound amazing (pretty much anything that includes Marshmallow Fluff is amazing in my book)
• Love these book/magazine holders made from old vinyl albums ... albums also make an excellent photobooth background
• Embroidered Leaves ... amazing
• Crafty Space to make you drool
• A free blank face download ... this would have been perfect to keep me occupied when I was young (and likely still today)
• Stunning Shadow Paintings by Rashad Alakbarov
• tutorial for fun little no-sew fabric gift bags

Wishing you a tremendous Thursday!

Vintage Vagabond

When I saw the Liba Hand Painted Tableware in this week's Vintage Vagabond Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger photo, I immediately thought that I might have an embossing folder with a similar pattern in my stash ... and my hunch was correct.

I embossed some grey Black Magic Core'dinations cardstock with the folder and sanded for contrast.

To pull in both the metal and circular elements in the design, I decided to feature one of my step-mom's vintage metal buttons that she shared with me before she died ... I love being able to incorporate beautiful pieces from her collection into cards for my family members.  The patina on the flower was so lovely that I used a wrap of purple satin ribbon to bring out the color contrast a bit more.

Flora Bunda Fun

The Product Focus at SplitCoast Stampers this week is on the fabulous Embossalicious Embossing Folders from Crafter's Companion.  I had fun trying a new technique using the Flora Bunda 6" Embossing Folder from Crafter's Companion (I love that its easy to use at its original size, or trim down for other card sizes).

I started by embossing vellum (which is pretty just like this) ... love great detailed impression.

Next I applied my ink pad directly to the raised surface of the vellum.

On the left is Memories Archival Vermillion ... on the right a much juicier Picked Raspberry Distress Ink pad (you can see the *wetter* pad got more ink on the unembossed surface) ... there's no right or wrong ... just a different effect.

Next I trimmed the vellum down to my standard card size (4 1/4" x 5 1/2").  I used Crafter's Companion Permanent Tape Runner on the back of the vellum and it didn't show through at all when attaching to a white card base (and held it tight).

Unfortunately, I realized that I should have been more patient and waited for the ink to dry first ... and ended-up with inky fingers.

I grabbed a dry baby wipe that was on my work table (I'm sure a paper towel or other cloth would work too) and gently ribbed in small circles over the card front picking-up the rest of the wet ink ... creating a softer look to my design.

Here's the finished card with a wrap of coordinating ribbon ... perfect for so many occasions depending on the sentiment I decide to include on the inside.

For my Picked Raspberry inked card, I attached to a Kraft Card Base, which produced a completely different look than the white ... you can see, even with rubbing off the excess ink, a juicier ink pad produces a slightly different background look.

Now go have fun with vellum, inks and embossing.