Ingenious Inkling

Star Fold Christmas Card

This week's theme at Jingle Belles is Shape-Up for the Holidays ... no we're not asking for jumping jacks or sit-ups ... you just have to create a shaped card other than a rectangle or square.  

When I saw Lynn's Star Fold Card at The Paper Craft Plant, I immediately thought what a fun holiday card that would make ... so I watched the video and started scoring & cutting.  I didn't draw all of the lines like she does in the video ... just made small marks and then scored the lines with my Scor-It (much less erasing that way). I was very pleased with myself that I even got it right on the first try (unusual for me ... there's almost always a do-over).

I started with a 12" piece of lighter kraft cardstock for my star base.  Once it was all cut & folded, I began filling the sections of the star with papers from October Afternoon's Good Cheer Collection.  

I started with the pink snowflake texty paper and then liked the contrast with the red.  As I was reading the Christmas Story from designer paper and saw the reindeer names, I remembered some red flocked stickers I had been hoarding in my stash.  I cut the reindeer pair apart and then added a sentiment sticker from EAD Designs (my second order arrived today ... love these stickers ... they are even repositionable if you need to move them a bit).

I added more papers and another sticker to the inside.  I decide to let the kraft show in some sections rather than covering the entire star with paper because I liked the contrast.

Can't wait to see what shapes you create.

Faux Tooled Leather Boot

We're playing Cowboys & Cowgirls at the Gingersnap Challenge Blog in May.

Technique Junkies Newsletter is sponsoring at Gingersnap this month, so they sent me a few of their newsletters filled with lots of awesome techniques to try.  When I saw this Faux Tooled Leather technique, it just screamed Cowboy Boots to me.

I found a picture of a side view of a roper boot on the internet.  I sized the picture to card size, printed it out on white cardstock, and cut it apart to then use as a template.

I tooled my faux leather using two different embossing folders and then pieced my boot back together again on a cardbase.  I then cut the cardbase around the boot leaving it attached for opening at the top.  I added a bit of faux stitching along where the pieces of "leather" connected using my piercing tool.

Urban Prairie Apron

I've been mulling over this week's Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger picture of the vibrant Pahala Halter from Anthropologie all week thinking about several possibilities.  I wanted to try to create the same bright contrast against a black background for my design.  

When I saw this week's Res-Q challenge to try Emboss Resist, I thought that might be the answer.  Unfortunately, I didn't have a single big bloom like that in my collection, so I went with the Sunflower Backgrounder from Cornish Heritage Farms instead.  

I stamped it on vibrant Urban Prairie Weather Vane paper in Verasmark and clear-embossed.  Next I rubbed an Adirondack Pitch Black Pigment Ink pad over the entire embossed image.  I buffed the ink from the stamped image using a baby wipe and slightly damp paper towel (it took several wipes to get all of the ink out of the details in the image).

Once my panel was done, I had to figure out what to do with it.  The shirt sort of reminds of of an apron, so I used the Just Us Girls Apron Template and cut an apron from my design.  Since the paper was pretty ink-saturated, I framed it  it with a piece of pink designer paper from the same collection & then attached it to a piece of white cardstock for sturdiness and to give me a place to write a message.

I embossed the image a second time on a scrap of the same paper and cut out the pocket (attaching it with very strong double-stick tape since it can be difficult to adhere permanently to an embossed image).  I used an old Close to My Heart image for my pocket tag and added a Prima Say It In Crystals on top of the stamped bloom.  I finished with some knotted gold ribbon through slot punched holes for my apron ties.

Not exactly how I envisioned it in my mind, but I had a lot of fun & I love the finished effect.