Ingenious Inkling

Foggy Day in London Town

I combined inspiration from two different challenges to create this foggy London town card (together with stamps from Artistic Outpost).  I used my new cloud template and Pearlescent Chalks to create my cloudy sky.

First, I loved the beautiful scene in this week's Inspired by Purse ... it reminded me of my London Stamps from Artistic Outpost.  

I also loved the colors and layout of this week's CASE Study card by Laura Bassen, particularly the strip of patterned paper and the elevated panel.  Both inspiration pieces had a similar color palette that I incorporated into my design.

I was also excited to see my card made Top 3 at Unscripted Sketches this week.

You Deserve The Best

When i saw this amazing card by Karola Witczak at the CASE Study Challenge, my jaw dropped.  I am forever amazed at people who can incorporate so many elements and so much detail into their design.

I decided to give this design a try incorporating my own style using the colors from this week's CR84FN Challenge (Grey, Yellow & Kraft), since it was perfect for some of my favorite papers ... Authentique's Blissful Collection.

I added flowers, butterflies, yellow pearls, chipboard and an EAD Designs Sticker sentiment from Random Sayings.  The floral image in the oval is Climbing Blooms from Impress, highlighted with colored pencil.

 

Dream Big Rock Star

Tonight, we were re-watching Scott Pilgrim vs. The World ... and I was inspired to make a Rock Star card.

I used Inchies from Inkadinkado & an Outlines square sentiment stamped in India Ink and took my design inspiration from this image from Inspired By with orange, black and a clean graphic design.

And this week's CASE Study card with all of tha great white space and the contrast of the colors with the black sentiment.

Rock on!

Gutsy ... Fearless ... Authentic

When I saw Lucy's Second Inspiration Prompt, I knew it was time to break-out my hoarded Abriana Dimensional Butterflies.

I stayed with a fairly plain piece of Abrianna designer paper for the background, so the focus would stay on the butterflies.  I added three Melody Ross Soul Food chipboard stickers for the CAS-ual Friday Chipboard Challenge.

I always love reading everyone's *one little word* for the year ... I've decided that authentic is my word for 2012.

Authentic: true to one's own personality, spirit, or character; worthy of trust, reliance, or belief.

Owl Love You Forever

When I saw the fabulous inspiration board at Jay Gee's Nook, I knew immediately what I wanted to make.

My sister loves purple, so I'm always on the look-out for great purple crafting supplies (they are actually pretty hard to find).  When I placed my second order at EAD Designs, I decided to give some of their purple rub-ons a try.  I went with the Silly Owls in Plum ... and like everything else I have tried from EAD ... they worked like magic.  Since the rub-ons are vinyl, they don't tear or slip like regular rub-ons ... much more forgiving.

I added a little paper-punched heart to the owls chest with some foam tape, and I was done ... so quick and easy ... and I love it.

Fetch-A-Sketch Gnome

Seriously, how could I note play along with a blog that calls itself Fetch-A-Sketch ... just too fun.  The layout was perfect to feature more fun EAD Stickers.  These Garden Gnome stickers have a slight bit of translucency to them, which helps them blend perfectly into the background paper.

Papers are My Mind's Eye Lime Twist Fly a Kite and sentiment is EAD's Saying Hello Sentiments.  The fun polka dot paper, black framing, and the worm's cute glasses were inspired by this inspiration photo from The Paper Variety.

Here's the versatile sketch.

Yankee Doodles

It's a Scrap Attack at Shopping our Stash this week.  And, since I had lots of patriotic scraps of paper left from my card creations last week, I decided to use them with this week's The Shabby Tea Room Inspiration Photo to celebrate Independence Day.

I used this week's City Crafter Sketch by the talented Ros Crawford for my layout.  Since my Yankee Doodles papers were a bit more cutesy than shabby, I toned them down with some distress ink.

I added a few red stars that were punched from metallic paper and distressed a bit.  I also used up some leftover pieces & bits of some bling flourishes to create some fireworks.

Fine and Dandy Baby

Tonight I needed a gender-neutral baby shower card big enough for a group of co-workers to sign.

When I saw the Inspirational Challenge at the Lily Pad Card Blog, my eyes were immediately drawn to this Masculine Happy Birthday Card by Vicky.  I loved the layout, kraft background, and colors, so I decided to use it as the inspiration for my card.

I assembled my panel using Fine & Dandy True Blue papers from My Minds Eye with a wrap of brown twine.  I stamped my baby carriage from Darcie's Small Beginnings on white cardstock and cut it out to adhere to the background.  I adorned it with some Stampin' Up tiny pom pom ribbon and a few gems.  The sentiment is a Michael's $1 bin find from long ago.

In the process of making this card, I had stamped the carriage in several colors.  I decided to use the orange one to make a second card using the same inspiration ... we've got quite a few expecting babies at the office, so I'm sure it will be put to good use soon.

I used a different combination of papers from the same collection and a wrap of PaperTrey Ink ribbon.  This time I added a scalloped punched border and SRM sticker sentiment along the bottom.

Mission accomplished.

Scandinavian Valentine

The inspiration at The Shabby Tea Room this week is a Scandinavian Christmas.  For me those pretty little hearts and the red & ivory color palette screamed Valentine.

I used this week's Unscripted Sketch, together with the Piggy Back Challenge to use no patterned paper in your design.  

Those fun little inchies from Inkadinkado's Heart Full of Love are stamped in Pure Poppy Ink on Ivory cardstock and clear embossed.  I added scraps of red ribbon between the squares.  The sentiment is from SRM Stickers.

Mitten Weather Mass Producing

I managed to fail rather miserably on my holiday card making throughout the year in 2010, so I needed a bit of mass producing this afternoon ... well, my version of mass producing any way.

I decided to work with one collection - Cosmo Cricket's Mitten Weather 6x6" pad & a 12" sheet of Elements - together with multiple sketch challenges.  The first one is inspired by this week's Cupcake Inspiration and uses this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch.  

The ribbon is Soft White (not quite white - not quite ivory) from Paper Source and coordinates perfectly with these papers.  I added some tiny seed pearls to the centers of the snowflakes.

The next one I used this week's CPS Sketch.  I adorned my tree with chocolate pearls and turned my water lily punch into a poinsettia embellishment.

The final one is this week's Sweet Stop Sketch.  The stockings are adorned with tiny pearls.  I also added some Tim Holtz holiday paper tape, an SRM Sticker sentiment, punched holly leaves, and Memory Box red pearls for holly berries.

I think this will work perfectly for one of the masculine designs I need.

Remember if you're looking for sketches to help with your "mass producing", check the Daily Dare or Allison's Sketch Posts.

Now off to get these in the mail.