Ingenious Inkling

Metallic Copper Birthday

This week's SCS Inspiration Challenge comes from the Etsy Store of Singing Cat Studio featuring polymer clay components colored with mica powders and sealed with a clear, permanent, water-resistant acrylic finish. The artist adds a wide range of elements to her creations, including vintage and antique buttons to contemporary filigrees and stampings.

I was inspired by her Handcrafted Adjustable Mixed Media Necklace with Hand Dyed Silk Ribbon.  I loved the shape, colors, and floral embellishment, so that is what I incorporated into my card design.

Metallic Teal Cardstock was embossed and then rubbed with Copper Metallic Rub-ons to achieve a similar look.

I used my sentiment strip to create a simlar division between the patterns seen in the sections of the pendant.  I added a cooper flower and a few turquoise adhesive gems before attaching to a metallic copper cardstock base.

I hope you find inspiration.

Blue Suede Shoes

See those fabulous royal blue shoes in the Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger Inspiration Photo ... I owned those shoes my senior year of high school.  I bought them for the Football Homecoming Dance ... I wore them in my senior pictures ... I built an entire wardrobe around that awesome pair of royal blue pumps.  

I'm thrilled to see some of those vibrant 80's colors returning to the forefront of fashion ... but I'm not so thrilled to see other trends coming back like the return of 80's leggings and stirrup pants however.

So needless to say, I had to play along with this week's challenge.

I started with a slightly lighter shade of vibrant blue from DCWV's Mariposa Collection for my design using this week's CardPatterns Sketch.  A friend asked me to make a birthday card to give to her twin sister (she pointed out that only her sister was having a birthday ... she was skipping this year :^).

I thought about the things I love to do with my sister (which includes shopping for fabulous shoes, clothes and accessories like those in the photo), and incorporated these fun inchie stamps from Inkadinkado's Girl Stuff together with more papers from the Mariposa collection to pull in the colors from the beautiful butterfly.  I finished with a few A Muse twinkle gems.

This card is also for Sue's 52-Card Pick-up Challenge where she talks about the lyrics to the Jewel song My Hands, which begins with:

If I could tell the world just one thing
It would be that we're all OK
And not to worry 'cause worry is wasteful
And useless in times like these

That's one of the best things about having a sister who is also your best friend ... no matter what the world tries to pound me down with, I knew a few minutes talking with my sister will always help me see things through clearer eyes ... and remind me that we're all OK.

Sushi Dinner Invites

I did something this afternoon I seldom do ... mass produce.  I had a request for a set of dinner party invitations based on this Roll With It card I made in November 2009, so they needed to be identical, which for some reason is a struggle for me.  I think it's because most of my cards are made by "eyeing" the design rather than measuring.  Thankfully this week's CardPatterns Sketch was exactly what I needed to get it done.

The stamps are A Muse Sushi Set which were stamped with Impress Navy ink and clear embossed before coloring with colored pencils and a bit of spica glitter pen.  I attached the sentiment & flowers to the clear block all together before stamping (making sure it would fit inside my 1 1/8" circle punch), which helped speed up the process.  Paper is Basic Grey Cupcake Collection.

It's Your Day

Last month, I was tearing apart a Kleenex box to throw it into the recycle bin and noticed that the inside of the entire box was metallic silver instead of the usually chipboard kraft.  So I decided to save the box, thinking that surely I could figure out something to make with metallic silver chipboard.

Well, quite a few weeks have passed, and that disassembled Kleenex box was still leaning against my work table (narrowly escaping disposal several times), when finally inspiration came with this week's Play Date Cafe Challenge.  I love this fabulous silver kitchen with the wonderful pops of color.

I used this week's Unscripted Sketch for a no-frills mailable masculine birthday card design.

I embossed the silver chipboard with Sizzix Gears embossing folder and punched a circle from the chipboard to frame my main image.  The green paper for the card base & paper-pieced chair is from Pink Paislee's Bayberry Cottage Collection.

I finished with one of my go-to masculine birthday card sentiments from A Muse.

Blue Skies Ahead

This week's SCS Inspiration Challenge comes from the Etsy Store Birdhouse Blessings.  

Steve & Kate (S&K Creations) have been building birdhouses together for 20 years.  They try very hard to make sure that each birdhouse has it's own personality with a whimsical, yet usable design.  My card is inspired by the Flowery Tear Drop Trailer.

I began with a scrap of Basic Grey turquoise DP and added several layers of Washi Paper tape to the bottom for my landscape.  Next I stamped the Tear Drop Trailer from Inkadinkado's Road Trip set in the base.  I stamped the trailer three times more on white cardstock, as well as blue & yellow DP scraps and paper pieced my trailer together.

To bring in more of the yellow and orange from the birdhouse design, I added some yellow plaid clouds using my Die-Namics Cloud die cut and a paper pieced orange kite from the a muse vintage clear set.

I finished with a few touches of Silver Sharpie for the metal elements on the trailer, some red glitter pen for the tail light and kite tail, and a sentiment from the Inkadinkado set.

I hope you find inspiration. 

Hot Hot Hot

The fine ladies at the Gingersnap Challenge Blog have asked me to spend another month hanging out with them as a Visiting Designer ... what a fabulous treat.  Today is the July Chestnut Theme Challenge ... and this month we're going with HEAT (we've got plenty of that here in Iowa for sure).

When I thought of heat, I thought of techniques that use heat ... and one of my favorites is the paper batik technique.  Of course I had to use some fun heat-themed A Muse Vintage Clear stamps as well.

I started with a standard manila shipping tag and stamped the dragon multiple times with Versamark ink and clear embossed.  Next I sprayed with Memories Spray inks in Yellow, Orange & Red, however when they dried, they weren't as vibrant as I'd hoped, so I added PTI Pure Poppy ink by swiping the ink pad directly on the tag surface. 

Next I wiped away the ink from the embossed surface, and then placed the tag between several sheets of plain newsprint and ironed it with my clothing iron, which causes the embossing powder to melt and stick to the newsprint, leaving behind the cool Batik effect (and if you want, then you can stamp over it with Staz On or India ink and the embossed areas will no longer resist).

Here's a close up of the finished surface.

I finished by stamping & clear embossing the sentiment on a scrap of Manila tag that had been inked with the same colors and dried first.  This sentiment makes me giggle every time. 

So don't let the summer heat get you down ... stay inside in your studio and show us your fabulous heat-themed creations.

Got Snow? in July

I thought I'd work on a little Christmas Card Catch-up in July to increase the number of holiday cards in my stash.  I used Jen's Sketch for You to Try (a big Verve gift certificate up for grabs) with some Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses papers.

I used my favorite May Arts Ribbon, a favorite sentiment from A Muse, an Inkadinkado Ornate Snowman, and several Martha Stewart Snowflake punches.  To make the smaller flakes, I trimmed off some of the longer pieces of the punch.  I added some glittery dimensional balls to the center to finish the design. 

Good Day Sunshine

This week's Etsy Inspired Challenge is My Zoetrope, which is full of fun paintings and print like this Sunshine Makes Everything Better that inspired my card.  I used the Kim Hughes Go To Sketch Challenge #4 for my design and fun papers & stickers from We R Memory Keepers 70 & Sunny Collection.

This is another image & sentiment from the fun A Muse Vintage set that I colored with Prismacolor Pencils and blended with a soft eraser.  

I do love lazy summer days. 

Keep calm. Ride on.

This month's challenge at the Moxie Fab World Blog is to create a card that incorporates a bicycle in an innovative way.  My card is inspired by all of the fabulous letterpress note cards I saw on my weekend trip to Chicago.  I love how they utilized white space.

I started with a Fabriano Note Card & stamped the bicycle and sentiment from A Muse Vintage Set in Memories India ink (using this week's CPS Sketch).  I added a bit of color to the bike with a Copic Spica glitter pen. 

**ETA ... I also posted this card for today's TLC at Splitcoast ... One Layer Wonder Cards. 

I think a set of these would be an awesome gift.