Ingenious Inkling

Gel Press Snark

The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers are creating with G is for Gel Printing this week ... and you know there's no way I'm passing-up a chance to combining two of my favorite things.

 

 

I went through my Gel Press prints and pulled out two especially grungy and visually interesting ones with color combinations I loved.  I paired them with sold card bases in coordinating colors using this week's Sketch from The Paper Players.

 

 

My Snark is a Tim Holtz Small Talk Snarky Sticker that I embellished with some Love from Lizi Peel-offs and another gold dimensional sticker from my stash.

 

 

More Tim Holtz Small Talk Snarky stickers and Love from Lizi Peel-offs ... and I couldn't resist some Doodlebug Eyeball Stickers.

 

 

Ardyth Inspired Sakura

I was thrilled to see that one of my favorite inspirations is the Featured Stamper at Splitcoast Stampers today, so you know I had to join the celebration of Ardyth.

While I have a list of her recent techniques on my list to try (seriously, if you haven't subscribed to her YouTube Channel you should), I decided it would be more fun to wander back into her extensive gallery for my inspiration.  I chose this gorgeous card from March of 2017 as my Inspiration.

 

 

Ardyth developed a wonderful LIMES Technique to use when you're making a card inspired by another stamper, so I followed her technique for my card.

• LIST (things about the design that inspire you) - for me it was the large bloom, the four color inking technique, the layout and Mother's Day
• INCLUDE (things you want to include in your design).  I decided to keep 3 of the 4 (I passed on Mother's Day and went for an encouragement/birthday card instead)
• MODIFY - I decided to use a different Mondo Bloom from Ellen Hutson and to go with four different Distress Oxide Inks for my color.  I also added a mat to the white card base.
• EXCLUDE - I passed on the glitter on the flower
• SPIN - instead of glitter, I added gems that coordinated with my flower color; I also positioned my sentiment differently to work with my bloom; and used foam tape for dimension.  Additionally I added some spin to the inking technique that I'll talk about below.

 

 

I used these four colors of distress ink on my paper together with the Essentials by Ellen Mondo Sakura Stamp and Die.  The Distress Oxides combined together more than the contrast that Ardyth got with the Distress Inks she used.

 

 

 

I started by spraying it with Cosmic Shimmer Pearlescent Spray, which gave a slight reaction with the ink.  Then I went in with splattering of Gem Pink & Gem Violet from the Gansai Tambi Gem Color Paints which got me to the contrast I was hoping for in my design.

 

 

The sentiment is from Essentials by Ellen Besties with gems from Pinkfresh Studio Essentials Gems.

Thanks to Ardyth for Inspiration today & every day.

Clothed in Strength and Dignity.

I picked-up a new Penny Black She Builder Stamp Set at Scrapmania over the holidays and decided to ink it up for a card to mail my Gran.  It's also perfect for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge where the theme is Something New.

 

I decided to pair the new with the old - a 2007 Penny Black Stickeroo called Pen & Ink, which I used as my main image.

I finished with a simple scattering of gems.

Candy Cane Christmas

We're still creating with no calorie Treats & Sweets at Jingle Belles this week as we Get Fit for 2022.

I built my card around the classic holiday treat - the Candy Cane.

 

 

In my Christmas scrap drawer I found the candy cane circle and a scrap of candy cane paper that worked perfectly together. 

The green strip was the reverse side of the Candy Cane paper.  I finished with some red gems and a stamped sentiment from The Ink Blot Shop Mixed Holiday Greetings.

Thursday Link Love

Another week of blogland shenanigans:

• 10 Creative Ways to Declutter
• French Dip Pinwheels
• 9 Ways to Stay Present
• Homemade Oreos using a cake mix
• Tutorial for making Custom Push Pins
• Smash Burgers
• How to Make Friends in Midlife 
• Chocolate Cherry Éclair Cake
• love this dreamy duplex
• have you made Cake Goop?
• Medicine Storage Ideas
• cool Cityscape Window Blinds
• Apple Fritter Cake
• this makes me want to find more Sentimental Gift opportunities
• Nutter Butter Bars (shown)
• pretty Brown Bird Images

Have a tremendous Thursday!

Love is Sweet

I picked up a few sheets of tiny Valentine's Day Puffy Stickers from American Greetings at Target last week.  When I saw the small squares on this week's Sketch Saturday, I knew they would be perfect to feature a few.

 

I started with a piece of red & pink polka dot paper that picked-up two of the colors in the stickers, then I added light teal for the other sketch elements.

 

 

I originally put the yellow squares directly on top of the polka dots, but it felt too noisy, so I cut a square of kraft cardstock to ground them before adding my stickers.

The sentiment is a chipboard Lucky Charm Lucky Us Thicker.

 

 

I'm also joining the In Love Challenge at Time Out Challenges.

 

 

And with that cute little cup of coffee, I'm joining the Coffee/Tea Time Challenge at Cupcake Inspiration.

Across the Border

The current challenge at Shopping our Stash is to use Border Punches or Border Die Cuts.  

 

 

I pulled out my collection of neglected border punches and used them to make a paper wedding cake with some lovely opalescent shimmer paper.  I combined lots of different border punches to decorate.

 

 

 

I finished my decorating with some Love from Lizi Peel-off Stickers, Daisy Flower Stickers and a wedding sentiment.

Do you have some neglected Border Punches you'd like to show some love?

You are Enough

The January Challenge at the Memory Box Blog is to create using Alphabets. 

 

 

Unfortunately, I don't have any Memory Box Alphabets in my stash, so I used some Alphabet Stickers that I paired with lots of other Memory Box products.

I started with the Memory Box Butterfly Swell Die with one of my Gel Press Prints.  Since I pulled the print using super-fine gold paint, I had thought I would use a matte gold paper behind the butterflies, but when I tried different Memory Box Glitter papers, the black is what really made it pop (lesson to remember, try different options before deciding).

 

 

I added some Memory Box Fairy Jewels to the butterfly centers.

 

 

The sentiment is FLY from my sticker alphabet letters paired with a stamped sentiment from Memory Box Best Life Typewriter Sentiments.

Happy Heart Day

The January Stock Your Stash theme at Reverse Confetti is Love is in the Air.

 

 

It is the perfect opportunity to use my new Big Love Confetti Cut.  I die cut the base in black and then die cut the letters and heart in Red Glitter Paper.  I attached the glitter paper with foam tape for dimension.  I added a little pink glitter heart from my stash on top.

 

 

 

I found this red and pink Gel Press Print (pulled with sheer silver metallic paint) that I used for my card base.

 

 

I finished with a red ink stamped sentiment from Reverse Confetti Words of Love.

Standing in Front of a Salad

When I saw the current sketch at TGIF Challenge, I thought of paper scraps.

 

 

Before I went hunting in my humongous designer paper scrap pile, I decided to focus on the colors from this week's Just Us Girls Color Week Hues (light blue & silver with white).  This is the pile I returned with.

 

 

Next I decided to use some pre-made white-on-white pattern card bases I had in my stash for a bit more visual interest with the rather simple sketch design.  The final decision was using some snarky sentiment stickers for one of the horizontal rectangles.

 

 

While I was cutting things up, I went ahead and made a second card.

 

 

I finished with scatterings of pearls. 

 

 

Those sentiments both make me smile ... I think they'll both go in the mail today.