Ingenious Inkling

Musical Leafy Vines

I was blessed to receive a large bag filled with pages of vintage sheet music from a friend.  As I went through my treasure trove, I discovered several drum line pieces that were sized for marching band ... absolutely perfect for the front of a card.

Hero Arts Leafy Vines is one of my favorite stamps right now ... no matter how I use it, it looks good (here stamped in Art Print Brown Memories ink ... I love how the ink just sinks into the vintage paper).  I added a sentiment & flower embellishment using this week's Freshly Made Sketches ... and the Just For Her Challenge at Hero Arts.

Scatter Sunshine

I had a blast getting inky today ... when I saw this awesome Inspiration from the Inspired By Challenge, I knew immediately how I wanted to create my background (which I should have photographed before I covered most of it up).  The technique is also perfect for the My Time to Craft Challenge to use an old book or newspaper.

I loved all of the little boxes of text, so I broke out my Vintage (circa 1943) Audel's Handy Book of Practical Electricity (all of the graphical drawings are great for guy cards) and started cutting pages into squares and rectangles & creating my collaged background.  

Next I stamped the Hero Arts/Studio Calico Plano twice to pull some teal into the background like the inspiration image.  After attaching to my card base, I added lots of distress ink around the edges.  I also loved the little postage stamp image at the bottom left of the Inspiration Photo, so I rescued a Forever Stamp from a package I received in the mail (my sister-in-law always uses the funnest stamps).

Next I went searching for an umbrella image and found it in a discarded vintage children's book ... Big Max.  I used my oval cutters and then added lots more distress ink.  The sketch is from Hand Stamped Sentiments ... although my sentiments are actually a collection of Heidi Swapp Sentiment stickers, which had the perfect vintage feel for my design.

Here's a close-up of my collaged background ... in this case, I love how the text shows through from the other side of the thin vintage paper.

Butterflies in Paris

The March Challenge at Crafter's Companion is Vintage ... all you have to do is link-up a creation featuring at least one Crafter's Companion stamp and you'll have a chance to win a $30 gift certificate.

The Stamp-It Australia images are perfect for vintage collage stamping.  I combined images from Birds & Butterflies, French Travels and Sentiment Swirls.

After stamping, I did lots of sponging with Vintage Photo Distress Ink & Old Paper Distress Ink.  I distressed the edges and added it to a Kraft card base before adding a champagne pearl flourish and some teal gems to finish the design.

I'm also joining the Anything Goes Challenge at the Love to Create Challenge Blog.

Vintage Spring Blooms

This week's SplitCoast Stampers Inspiration Challenge comes from the fabulous designs of Spoonflower where you can design your own fabric, decals or wallpaper. I chose this Fabric Border from the C'est La Viv Collection to inspire my design.

I started my design with the front of a vintage get well card.  I bought a large scrapbook of vintage get well cards at an estate sale, and love giving them a second life.  I stamped the Tim Holtz Mini Blueprint Bunny in Artprint Brown ink on the vintage paper from the inside of the card.  I inked him, colored his little bow tie with Spectrum Noir markers, and added some tiny bling before placing him in the flower bed.

I covered the get well sentiment at the top right with an SRM Sticker sentiment since these vibrant blooms just screamed spring to me.  I added another SRM sticker sentiment at the bottom.

The layout is from Sketch Saturday.

Spring has also Sprung at The Order of the Opus Gluei.

Vintage Love & Lace

I wanted to make another card for the Love & Lace Challenge at the Hero Arts Blog.  I pulled a wide panel of vintage lace from my stash and adhered it to pink cardstock for the base of my design.

I used the colors from this week's Play Date Cafe, since I thought they had a vintage 50's diner feel.    The elegant Happy Birthday sentiment is from Hero Arts Sending Smiles Messages.

Since the challenge at A Blog Named Hero is to create a card in a vintage style, I added some vintage buttons to my design.  I paper pieced my camera (yes more Moxie Fab Camera Craze with the stamp & matching die from an Archiver's exclusive Hero Arts set ... my last one I promise ... even my husband said, you sure do like your cameras) using the three vintage colors from the challenge & added a pearl for the flash.

The layout is this week's Retro Sketch.

Vintage Post Card Designs

My mother-in-law is downsizing to a smaller living space, so she gifted me with a vintage scrapbook from her youth.  It is filled with all sorts of papers cut from advertisements and packaging.  I wanted to use one of the post cards I found in the stash (the back said it was a sample mailed out to try to get people to buy an entire set) to make her a card.

I love the beautiful aged coloring on the card, so I only added a bit of peach cardstock to frame & pull those colors out in the design.  A strip of Graphic45 Song Bird paper across the bottom with a Tim Holtz cardstock sticker finished the design.

This is another vintage card from her stash that appeared as though it was cut from some sort of magazine or packaging ... perfect for a masculine birthday card design.

I added a frame (toned down the peach on the frame a bit with some old paper distress ink) and an SRM Sticker sentiment ... stickers are perfect for vintage one-of-a-kind elements, since I don't have to risk making a stamping boo-boo ... also I never have success getting white stamping to show-up with this sort of definition.

Vintage Post Card

For my Postal-themed JIngle Belles card this week, I created my own *vintage* post card using three different holiday stamp sets by Artistic Outpost and lots of Distress Ink sponging.  I love that the tiny little dear is delivering the mail.

I used the Saturday Card Sketch from Two Peas, which suggested that you use themed papers for an every-day card.  Since I was making a holiday card, I switched it up and used some non-holiday papers for my design (specifically the Postale Collection from 7Gypsies ... love those postage-themed designs that come in both white & off-white color palettes).

I added a label-punched sentiment flag and some chocolate snowflakes to finish the design.

Vintage Fireside Holiday

I used another vintage holiday card from my stash for this week's Vintage Style card for Jingle Belles.  The main image and the sentiment were cut from the front of the same card.  I added a bit of Tea Dye ink to the sentiment to tone down the brightness a bit with the darker image.  I kept this week's card Clean & Simple again (because vintage doesn't always have to mean shabby chic).

I also added a vintage button from my button bowl (tied with some red cord) using this week's CardPatterns Sketch.  Designer paper is from Basic Grey.

Remember, link-up your Vintage Style creation by 6pm EST on Wednesday for a chance to win an awesome batch of goodies from Lauren's Just Enough Stuff Etsy Store.

J is for Journey

This week at Less is More, they're creating projects inspired by their blog header.

I loved the two-tone color palette, the flourishes and musical elements.  I started with beautiful paper and elements from the Simple Stories Documented Collection (I love how they have shrunk down the pages of journaling cards in the 6x6" pad).  

I added a strip of vintage sheet music from my stash and some sponging with Old Paper Distress Ink.  I stamped Hero Arts Love Chain at the top right to complete my wedding card design.

While I love the finished product, I'm not going to link-up at Less is More because they've disqualified me in the past for not meeting their definition of clean & simple (I believe this one wouldn't have enough *white space* to meet their qualifications).

However, this monochromatic palette is perfect for this week's Dynamic Duos Challenge to use Crumb Cake and one other color (in my case Dark Brown)

Vintage Style

We have the oh-so-talented Linda Brun joining us as our lovely guest star at Jingle Belles.  Linda has lots of vintage photos and Christmas cards, so she thought Vintage Style would be a great creative holiday theme (and she's even giving you two vintage images to download at the Jingle Belles Blog).

Last year, I bought a box of scrapbooks at an estate sale.  It was too crowded to really see what they contained, so I took a risk ... and ended-up with the mother lode.  The scrapbooks belonged to a girl named Virginia Chance who apparently saved almost every card she ever received.  She apparently had two lengthy hospitalizations, so there is one scrapbook filled entirely with get well cards.  The others contain letters, cards, memorabelia ... and of course some vintage Christmas cards.

I cut out the front of one of the vintage cards and mounted it on red and kraft cardstock frames.  I re-attached the Greetings sign using foam tape for a bit of dimension & added red pearls for accents.  I love how the paper naturally aged in the pre-acid-free scrapbook.  The left of the card was covered by another card in the book, so it didn't get as much exposure to the light.  Remember ... Vintage doesn't alwyas have to mean shabby chic ... it can mean clean & simple too.

I'm also including this card at the DYSU (Do You Stack Up) Challenge where they're celebrating Blue Skies & Clouds (I do love a cloudy hazy blue winter sky like the one in my card).

PS ~ there's an awesome prize from Lauren's Etsy Store ~ Just Enough Stuff ~ that you won't want to miss.