Ingenious Inkling

Good Friends Are Always In Fashion

The Moxie Fab World is celebrating relationships, including National Girlfriends Day.  I thought the sassy lasses from Milliner Misses were perfect for the occasion.  Since the current Rogue Redhead Rebel Challenge is to "Dress Down" by making a card using only a single piece of designer paper, I incorporated that into my card as well.

My single piece of designer paper is from Basic Grey's new Little Black Dress Collection.  I also stamped the ledger from Relish Reading on peach cardstock to provide a bit more interest to the background.  I used peach colored pencil to highlight my ladies' fashionable chapeaus.  

The sketch is this week's Fall To Layout from the Clean & Simple Stamping Blog, which also works for this week's CAS-ual Friday Challenge to incorporate a tag.

This card is for all my cherished girlfriends ... near & far.

Flashback Friday 16.0 ~ First Tag

The current Flashback Friday Challenge is to repost your first tag.  I went all the way back to August 2007 for this fun little Halloween Tag.

Still love those fun little Reminisce bats & ghosts after all these years ... and really  miss being able to shop at their retail store.

Tomorrow I'm off on a jet plane to meet-up with my dear friend Lauren for some artsy girlfriend fun in New York City.

Friday Flashback ~ First Fall Card

The current theme at the Friday Flashback Challenge is to re-post your very first Fall Card.

The first fall "card" that I posted on my blog was actually a tag for the Caardvarks Tag of the Month Challenge.  This was my tag for month of September that I posted on May 22, 2008.

I still love my circle tree concept, although if I were to make it again today, I probably would use a bit-less-busy background ... although those leaves do scream all-out-autumn.

use, practice, create...and JINGLE!

We're welcoming our first Guest Artist at Jingle Belles this week ... the amazing Gina Cunningham of tyggereye arts.  For 2011, Gina has embarked on a medium-per-month play-along called Use, Practice, Create ... and this month's medium is acrylic paint ... so we thought it would be fun if the Jingle Belles played along.

I decided to try a new-to-me technique from page 37 of A Compendium of Curiousities ... Paint Dauber Resist.  Here's a close-up of one of my fun little holiday tags featuring a cute little owl sticker (I love using up things from my hoarded holiday stash), Distress Inks, and Hero Arts Fabulous Flourish.

Click on over to Jingle Belles to see both of my finished tags, as well as amazing cards from Gina & Lauren.  

I hope you'll break out your paint ... brush it, brayer it, splash it, splatter it, stamp or stencil with it, dab, drip, or drizzle it ... whatever you do, have fun with it.

Wintertime Peace on Earth

Because yet again, at a time when my holiday cards should have long-ago been in the mail, I'm still making them, here are a few featuring Echo Park's Wintertime Collection.  

I always have the best of intentions in January to make holiday cards throughout the year, but some time around February, those intentions seem to fall by the wayside.  Well, for 2011 I have a holiday card-making plan in the works that is going to help me (and hopefully you) Take Back December (sneak peak here).

The first one I made today is a wintry tag for the Happy Christmas Tag Challenge at Something Completely Different.  

Sentiment is from CatsLife Press.  To get the snowmen all to face the right direction on the ribbon, I fed two pieces of wired ribbon through the opening and cut the other tails short in the back.  

The tiny snowflakes are made by trimming off the longer ends of a Martha Stewart punched snowflake (actually, every time I tried to use the punch on glitter paper, a few of those ends kept falling off, so I developed a solution).  I did the corner punched elements before deciding on the glittery snowflakes ... in hindsight, I probably should have decorated the corners differently.

The next one features stickers from the set with this week's CPS Sketch.

I added a gold punched star to the top of one of the trees and some adhesive pearls to finish the design.

Off to try to get a few more done.

Zipper Tree Tag

Since I purchased two zippers when I went to the fabric store, I decided to create another Zipper Tree for the Moxie Fab World All Zipped Up! Challenge, but this time I made it into a tag.  I angled the zipper on the cardstock base working from the bottom to the top and then decorated it with two sizes of gold pearls.

The woodgrain of the trunk is Hero Arts Flower Wood Background and the sentiment is from Hero Arts Ink 'n' Stamp Merry Messages.

This is also for the Our Creative Corner Challenge to make a tag.

Zelda Snowflake Tag

This week's Inspiration Challenge comes from the wonderful home wares of Company C.  Started in a garage by Chris and Walter Chapin in 1994, Company C is now a premier design studio and leading producer of exceptional home furnishings, all infused with their passion for color.

I chose this luxurious Zelda Pillow in Copper and Wine to inspire my holiday tag.  Exuberant, over-scaled blossoms in vivid colors capture the larger-than-life insouciance of Zelda Fitzgerald ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald’s wife and iconic flapper of the Art Deco era.

I loved the unusually color combination and the all-over floral coverage.

I started with copper metallic cardstock and stamped several images before deciding on Hero Arts Stunning Snowflakes stamped in Warm Violet Chalk ink and embossed with Poly Sparkle Embossing powder for a little snowy shimmer.  I love how the all over snowflake design captures the same richness found in these wonderful flowers.  

I die cut my holiday tag for this month's Hero Arts Challenge using the Sizzix Ornate Frame Back #3.  I used a small circle punch to punch out the center of the top snowflake, which was serendipitously perfectly placed, to attach some metallic copper ribbon.  

This tag also works for Sharon's Stamp Simply Challenge to create a tag & the Drunken Stampers Punch Me Challenge (Large Label, Small Label, Oval & Circle punches used).

I stamped one of the coordinating (love that) Hero Arts Four Framed Snowflakes with Warm Violet ink on the copper cardstock and then punched it out with a label punch.  The oval punched sentiment is from Hero Arts Get Merry stamped in Warm Violet on a pale yellow cardstock.  It was accented with two violet pearls before attaching the label to the tag with foam tape for dimension.

I hope you find inspiration.

Blended Batik Christmas Carols

I finally got my hands on Tim Holtz' Compendium of Curiousities, so I was able to join in the fun for this week's Challenge ... Blended Batik.

I used a smaller manila tag with a Christmas Carol image from Holiday Collections.  My Distress Ink colors are Victorian Velvet for the base and Forest Moss for the contrasting color.

I added some crystal snowflakes, Fruit Punch Stickles, and in keeping with the musical theme, some Symphony Tissue Tape to finish the design.   The Fibers are some vintage Bazzill from Fiber Scraps.

This is also for the Christmas Tags Challenge going on at the Caardvarks Blog. 

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.

Merry Christmas Tag

Today I added two more Cropper Hopper storage units to my studio and removed several clear plastic storage units that were bowing from the weight of my stamps. 

In the process of reorganizing, these scraps of paper were on the top of my scrap bin, so I decided to see if I could pull them together in a holiday tag for the Hero Arts challenge.

I love unexpected color combinations for the holidays.  The stamps are Hero Arts Clear Design Holiday Sayings.  I added a little pink sparkle pen to decorate the tree.