Ingenious Inkling

Lost in Space

This week's SCS Inspiration Challenge website ~ The Pajama Squid ~ was suggested by Kelly (aka schirmcat) of the Gingham Girl.  She loved the whimsical designs and great name ... and I did too.

My card was inspired by this fabulous Space Bibby Mom N Mia Quilts.  I loved those fabulous space themed designs, as well as the contrast of the yellow and orange, so those are the elements I incorporated into my design.

I stamped Blip, Bloop, and Rocket from the Starving Artistamps Urban collectionin Versamark ink on yellow cardstock and embossed with clear embossing powder.  I added a tiny Hero Arts sentiment in the window of the Rockets.  Then, I used my ranger blending tool with Tangerine and Pumpkin Spice inks to cover the entire piece of cardstock.

I trimmed the panel to fit a 4"x8" card and used my ticket punch on the corners.  I finished with sheer orange ribbon and a punched sentiment using the same emboss resist technique.  II used a scallop punch twice to get a more masculine medallion.  I tied several smaller pieces of ribbon around the knot to get the effect behind the sentiment.

I hope you find inspiration.

Playful Birthday

The neutral color palette for Dawn's Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #16 was perfect for a masculine birthday card for the Hero Arts Man Week challenge.

I needed a birthday card for a friend's son who is very near and dear to my heart.  I thought the Hero Arts Playful Animals set would be the perfect place to start.

I stamped the elephant on the kraft card base (for the tail) and then again on gold card stock.  I trimmed around the ear and curled out the end of the truck for dimension.  While searching through my Hero Arts stamps, I realized that the Flourish from the Thank You Flourishes set reminded me of a spray of water coming from the elephant's trunk.  I added tiny gold adhesive bling to the open circles in the stamped design for a bit of sparkle.

 

The sentiment from A Little Note was stamped in Chocolate on Ivory and matted on a gold scalloped circle.  I think it looks like a ball balancing on the water.  I used a light blue copic marker to help ground the elephant in the design.

When I showed the card to my husband, he suggested making a palm tree to fill out the open space on the right side of the card.  I stamped the Wood Finish in Chocolate on Kraft and hand-cut the trunk.  I sponged around the edges for a bit more dimension.  The leaves are punched ovals that were hand trimmed. 

I love how it turned out ... a playful birthday card for a great little guy.

Bonjour Mon Coussin

This week's SCS Inspiration Challenge comes from the French website Bonjour Mon Coussin (Hello My Cushion).  The designers make unique pillow covers inspired by things they find in their world.

My card was inspired by the wonderful design called Windy.  I love how they combined lots of different objects that are affected by the wind.  I was also drawn to the bright colors and graphic images.

I went through my entire stamp collection to find versions of the images pictured in the design (list at the end of the post).  Then I used ColorBox Blackbird chalk ink to stamp them on ivory cardstock.

 

I wanted to keep the child-like feel of the design, so I colored the images with colored pencils and used an art eraser to blend the primary colors.  I finished with a border punched from Basic Grey Cupcake DP to mimic the design of the pillow.  I used alphabet stamps to create the word Windy.

I hope you find inspiration.

Images used: PSX Sailboats, Stampendous Little Things, See D’s toys, October Afternoon Detours, Rubber Stampede Fun Type Alphabet, SandyLion Rouge de Garance Kiddie’s Corner

Upright Alligator Birthday

I thought this week's CPS sketch would be fun to try with my new Actopus to Zelephant stamps designed by Jenn Ski for K&Company.  I love how each letter is a little animal ... and there are also lots of fun larger animals in the set like the upright alligator at the bottom right that coordinates with the cool papers.

 

Because I don't have children, I don't usually find myself drawn to children's stamps ... however, I love to make cards for my nieces and nephews, so I think this will be a great set to have in my stash.

Pinwheel Joy

Sometimes I am really drawn to a stamp set even though I have no idea how I will use them.  That is how I felt about this Kiddie's Corner set from Rouge de Garance. 

Tonight I combined it with Kazan's Sketch #24; Stampabilities Vintage Flourish 03; Cloud paper from Jenn Ski's Actopus to Zelephant;  and designer paper from Memory Box Poppyfinch.

 

The sentiment is from Hero Arts Anytime Messages.  It seemed just perfectfor the design.  The strip of designer paper seemed a bit plain, so I wrapped some thin grosgrain ribbon around the card. 

Tenugui Inspired

This week's SCS Inspiration as suggested by Carol, who had the opportunity to shop at a Tenugui shop while visiting friends in Japan. 

Tenugui are printed cotton towels that have many uses in Japanese culture.  I chose this fabulous all-over bicycle design as my inspiration.  I loved the contrast of the red and white and the repeating images.

I didn't have a small bicycle image, so I used a little Dump Truck for my design.  I stamped it in Versamark and embossed with detail white embossing powder.  I finished with a sentiment from Savvy Stamps on a hand-cut tag with black velvet rick-rack attached with two red staples.

 

I hope you find inspiration.

Vintage Children's Cards

As part of today's Featured Stamper challenge, there was a request to send some blank cards to Shellapoo for her stash of cards she sends to hospitalized children.  I loved this week's CPS Sketch because it has lots of room to feature a large design, which was perfect for these fun illustrations from discarded vintage children's books.

This illustration is from "Stand back," Said the Elephant, "I'm going to sneeze!" by Patricia Thomas with illustrations by Wallace Tripp.  I used text from the book as the sentiment and added the stamped laugh sentiment, which is highlighted with a little sparkle pen.

This black & white illustration is from Commander Toad and the Planet of the Grapes by Jane Yolen and illustrated by Bruce Degen. 

I colored parts of it with Kor-i-noor pencils and added the Fiskars Threading Water punch along the bottom.  The sentiment is from Savvy Stamps.