Ingenious Inkling

Tie a Christmas Ribbon

This week at Jingle Belles we're creating with Ribbon & Trim. 

In my very earliest card-making days, ribbon was often my only embellishment, so it was fun to revisit the ribbon wrap technique. 

 

I wrapped three different ribbons around my card front and attached them to the inside with clear packing tape.  Then I attached another * inside front* to my card to cover the tape. 

I layered on on felt snowflakes and a silver glitter sticker (to coordinate with my silvery hand-painted paper and two silver ribbons) and finished with a sentiment flag from my stash.

Thursday Link Love

Another week of blogland discoveries:

• these Coconut Brownie Bars are described as a Mounds Bar on steroids ... works for me
• love these Psychogeographies by Dustin Yellin
• Secret Adventures of Toys
• this Sticky BBQ Chicken reminds me of what my Granddad used to grill
• love the idea of these colorful nesting bowls
• how pretty are these Rhubarb Cheesecake Bars
• Joy is a Verb colorful illustrations
• the Colors of Money
• I always order Ricotta Pancakes if they're on the menu, but I've never made them

Have a tremendous Thursday.

Huzzah!

I was thrilled to be the winner of the first ever Instagram Blog Hop by Three Room Studio Stamp Company out of Canada.  

I had fun creating this cute little card with stamps from their It's a Ponderful Life and Yay! Stamp Sets.

I started with a speckled cream cardstock and stamped the cute little frog and masked him.  Then I stamped the lily pad for him to sit on and masked it too.  Then I added some glaze for his froggy eye balls.

 

I added several grasses and cat tails to create my little scene and then filled it in with colored pencils.  I finished with a scattering of dragon fly friends from Believe in Fairies to keep him company.

I considered lots of sentiments, but as I kept looking at this one I kept hearing the old Budweiser Whassup! commercials (the newly released commercials have been fun too) and this sentiment made me giggle, so that's what I went with. 

Hopefully it will make someone else smile.  

And since nothing says Summer Fields quite like a frog pond, I'm also linking-up at the Country View Challenge. And the theme at CAS on Friday is Animals.

I'm also joining the Anything Goes Challenge at the Fourth Room Facebook Group ... if you've got stamps from Three Room Studio, come join the fun.

Makeover Monday - Christmas Paper Scraps

When I made these Birthday cards on Saturday, I realized just how many paper scraps I had ... so I decided to do another paper scrap card for Makeover Monday.  I took my inspiration from this holiday card from September 2011.

 

I used the same Top Note Die with scraps focusing on my blues and greens.

 

Instead of a circle sentiment, I used a few stickers I had on my studio table and used a sticker sentiment.  I finished with some silver holiday trim.  I feel like that cardinal is going to dive bomb the cardinal and steel his cute little stocking cap.

 

Unity Hop

 

Today we're hopping with the Growing in Unity Gals for a chance to win a fun prize pack.

 

I used the fun New to the Crew Set to paper piece this fun little Onesie Card for a fun little Baby Card.

Make sure you stop at each stop & leave a comment for a chance to win.

1. enia : https://jazzypaper.blogspot.com/
2. Miwa: https://miwannascrap.blogspot.com/
3. Kathryn: https://kathrynscards.blogspot.com/
4. Kim: https://mykraftkloset.weebly.com/blog
5. Jessica: https://polkadotorchard.com/polka-dot-orchard-blog/
6. Stephanie: https://ingeniousinkling.typepad.com/ <<<<----------- YOU ARE HERE

Alcohol Ink Rainbows

A few weeks ago during a crafty video call, I had fun making sheets of alcohol ink covered Yupo Paper (with one silver paper thrown in for good measure) and before I knew it, I had created a rainbow. 

With suggestions from my crafty friends on the call, I added Therm-o-Web Silver and Gold DecoFoil to quite a few of the Pieces (you just place the foil on top of the Alcohol ink and it sticks where the bits of ink are still wet around the edges of pools) and some Alcohol Ink metallic mixatives to others.

 

This week, I decided I wanted to find a way to turn my rainbow of beautiful papers into cards.  I settled on the My Favorite Things Snow Drifts Cover Up Die because it had 8 pieces, which worked perfect for my 8 colors.  I used the Jennifer McGruire trick if using a piece of tape to hold each die together as a removed it, so I could easily remove the pieces I wanted as I assembled each card.

I die cut a 9th time using black card stock, so I could use the black frame to position the pieces on my heavy cardstock white card bases.  I did some facing both directions.

 

I wanted to keep the overall card design fairly simple and mailable, so I started with a single Greenery Die from The Stamp Market cut from heavy white cardstock.

 

I paired with with a simple sentiment flag from Essentials by Ellen Pure Magic.  These will be going out to crafty friends who have been the color in my world during the past few months.

 

I just love how they turned out.  Here are a few more up close.  The finishing touch was adding some clear adhesive dot embellishments.

 

It doesn't matter what order the rainbow is in ... it still makes me smile

 

When was the last time you played with your Alcohol Inks?

Hero Sketchy Birthdays

Thrilled to see a sketch from the oh-so-talented Julee Tilman at the Stay Crafty with Hero Challenge today.

 

 

I needed masculine birthday cards, so that's what I decided to focus on. 

I pulled out my Hero Arts Infinity Rounded Rectangle Dies and picked three that would work with the sketch and grabbed my bin of patterned paper scraps and decided to use those for my cards together with my sticker stash and the Happy Birthday Sentiment from Hero Arts Hay Party Animals.

 

 

I used quite a few BBQ themed stickers on the first one with some red enamel dots.  Stuck on You! (using Stickers) is the theme at Shopping Our Stash this week.

The theme at Just Us Girls is a Wild Card Challenge to use Two or More different Patterned Papers (there are at least three on most of the cards - the large and small rectangle and the vertical strip).

 

The next one features a a scrap of paper I found in my scrap bin that I had stamped when I made this card in 2017 with Hero Arts Starry Night Brushtroke Bold Print paired with some patriotic designer paper scraps and summer stickers.

The last two featured some fun monster stickers from my stash ... you know I love my monsters.

 

Love those fun little roller skates.

 

I can never get enough of that cute monkey paper ... it seems so perfect with the mustached monster.

I'm also joining the Cut It Up Challenge where the theme is Boys will Be Boys using Die Cuts (all my cards use three dies from the Hero Arts Infinity Dies).

Thanks Julee for the awesome sketch ... and for #staycraftywithHero for helping me restock my Birthday Card Stash.

Snarky Stampers I is for Ink

I was crowned the Queen of the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers a few weeks ago, so I have the lovely pleasure of guest designing with their I is for Ink Challenge today.

 

I had fun taking the Online Card Class Spring Card Camp with Jennifer and Kristina and learning how to create my own inky striped background using ink blending and tape ... it was so relaxing and fun. 

I paired my stripes with the lovely big bloom from Gina K. Designs STAMPtember set from Simon Says Stamp Amazing Flowers ... I love how the open blooms look with my stripes.

 

I added a Sticker from Tim Holtz Idea-ology Big Talk Snarky Stickers, which is how I feel a lot of days unfortunately ... but I am so grateful for those who do.  I finished with a sprinkling of black bling and multiple mats.

I'm also joining Cute Card Thursday where the theme is Stripes.

 

And at the Inkspirational Challenge it's all about Funny Sentiments ... yep, I'm linking-up there too.

BLING-a-Ding-Ding

We're still creating with Bling at Jingle Belles this week.

This week I combined a double-dose of Glitter with some Chunky Bling for a big dose of sparkle. 

 

I love this off-set die cut technique for an extra-dose of elegance. 

 

Dies and Stamps are from Taylored Expressions.

We're All Pretty Bizarre

This week's CAS(E) This Sketch! is all about the sentiment, so I had to find a good one ... and that usually means I turn to Ink Road Stamps ... and a Pretty Bizarre Generation X Quote from the Breakfast Club, which seams to pretty much sum up a lot about the way I feel lately.

 

I used the colors from this week's Color Throwdown to stamp the four icons from the four characters ... I kept it clean and simple with just a single pearl in the center of the crown.