Ingenious Inkling

Non-Traditional Holiday Color with Unity Stamp Company

The November Unity Stamp Company Challenge is to create holiday cards in non-traditional holiday colors. 

As I went through my stash, I clearly tend to lean toward sentiments in my Unity Stamps, so I decided to create simple cards by pairing them with Gel Press Prints and Alcohol Ink Backgrounds from my stash.  I loved getting them made into cards.

I started with this fun solid Gel Press print that paired perfectly with Catherine Pooler All That Jazz Ink and a sentiment from Unity Stamp Company Naughty is the New Nice.

 

 

I stamped the Santa Sentiment on a Kraft trimmed tag from my stash and paired it with a kraft card base.  I embossed the background with Snowflakes and applied some direct-to-paper inking to the raised edges.  I love the patina effect it achieved.

 

 

I finished with a strip of gold glitter cardstock & a little Santa Hat sticker.

When I stamped the sentiment the first time, I didn't have quite the right color, so I found a scrap of an Alcohol Ink Background that worked with it.

 

 

Next I used a Purple Alcohol Ink background to create a round card with a sentiment from Unity Stamp Company Let's Be Jolly that fit perfectly inside the smaller circle die.

 

 

I used another stamp from Let's Be Jolly with the same circle die, this time pairing it with a Gel Press Print.

 

 

And my final card combined teal and purple with a sentiment from Unity Stamp Company ... a joyous season.

 

 

I loved being able to pull together this set of masculine holiday cards together so quickly with these great sentiment stamps.

Snowflake Christmas

I had fun spending time in my studio using some Gel Press Prints & Alcohol Ink backgrounds from my stash.

I started with two snowflake Embossing Folder Gel Press Prints that I made during one of the ABC's of Gel Printing Event.

 

I die cut them with Essentials by Ellen Essentials Rectangle Die Cuts.  For the first one I layered a frame cut with the Essentials by Ellen 4-Bar Rectangles Die cut from white cardstock.

 

 

Next I layered on the Simon Says Stamp Big Bliss Snowflake and several Martha Stewart Punched snowflakes from silver glitter cardstock.  I topped them with my favorite glittery YNS Gumdrops enamel dots from Your Next Stamp (love those).  The finishing touch was a Taylored Expressions Simple Strips Christmas sentiment.

For the reverse I used another white frame and some leftover stickers from making my sister's wedding invitations.

 

 

I used two more silver snowflakes this time topped with Gems including the Eyelet Outlet Flower Bling on top of the largest snowflake.  Another sentiment from Taylored Expressions Simple Strips Christmas made this card come together quickly.

For my final card I pulled out an Alcohol Inked and foiled background.  I used the biggest frame from the reverse snowflake panel to frame a pre-made white patterned card base and then used another card from the set to die cut Essentials by Ellen Snowflakes

 

 

I used the Essentials by Ellen Essentials Rectangle Die for my Alcohol Ink Panel but left the frame intact.  I pulled out some more YNS Gumdrops for the Snowflake Centers and finished with a sentiment from Essentials by Ellen Season to Sparkle (apparently discontinued).

Gnome for the Holidays

The November Gina K. Designs Monthly Mix Challenge is to make a card featuring a Critter. 

 

 

The instructions specifically list a Snowman as an option for a Critter, so I figured if Snowmen were in ... then Gnomes meet the Critter criteria too. 

I used the Gina K. Designs / Therm~o~web Gnome for the Holidays Kit.  I die cut the Gnome pieces and holiday tree & then used the stencils to add decorations & stripes.

 

 

I used the Sketch from the CAS Colours & Sketch Challenge with a piece of texty holiday paper.  

 

I'm also joining the Global Design Project Christmas Challenge.

Banner Merry Christmas

We're still creating cards inspired by our 2021 Jingle Belles Banner.

 

 

I started with a dark green piece of designer paper from the Patina Collection of the essential Craft Papers by Craft Consortium that I thought captured the feel and color of the banner.

Next I stamped Impression Obsession Sketched Trees three times starting with the first stamping in Deck the Halls Green at the top and second generation stamping in the middle.  I finished with one more stamping in white craft ink along the bottom.

 

 

I die cut the sentiment from Impression Obsession Christmas Stitched Words from Silver Glitter paper and then backed it with a white/ivory glitter paper.  

I finished with two snowflakes from Impression Obsession Snowflakes Die Set cut from ivory shimmer paper.  I topped them with Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Bling.

I'm also joining the Cut It Out! Challenge at Little Red Wagon to use Christmas Die Cuts.  It's also Anything Goes at Simon Says Stamp.

We hope you come join us for our last holiday prompt of 2021.

Thursday Link Love

Another week of blogland fun:

• How to use Dollar Store ornaments for holiday centerpieces
• if Shrimp & Grits are on the menu, I order it ... but I've never made it for myself
• love these adorable Wood Owls (shown)
• love how this Easy Apple Cake doesn't require peeling the apples
• or maybe Apple Fritter Donut Bread (it's my go-to donut when I treat myself)
• Glazed Apple Tart is looks super-lovely too
• I'm intrigued by Ear Seeding
• Filled Donuts made with Sweetened Condensed Milk
• Baked Cranberry Chicken Sheet Pan Dinner
• interesting article on On-Line Friendships ... I love how so many of mine have transferred to real life despite the distances
• I must try these Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits
• we loved our trip to Columbus ... that area of the country is going on the list for another adventure
• we learned how to make Cheese Balls in Jr. High Home Ec Class.  My mini-kitchen group managed to accidentally drop ours on the floor, so we just rolled it in more nuts & parsley and told our Moms to avoid it at the Parents Tea Party (oh the memories)
• I'd love to try making Hot and Sour Soup
• have you tried SuperCook ... I just found it, and I am going to go through my pantry

Have a tremendous Thursday (and Thanksgiving in the US).

Brightest Spot in My Day

The November Challenge theme at PinkFresh Studio is Wreaths.

 

I die cut the Pinkfresh Studio Indigo Vines Washi Tape with the coordinating Indigo Vines Die Cuts.  I layered the die cut branches over the die cut wreath with foam tape for dimension.

 

 

 

I added a sentiment from the Pinkfresh Studio / Simon Says Stamp Stamptember set You Are Next Level Amazing.  I finished with trios of pearls for the Shopping Our Stash Triple Threat Challenge.

Masculine Cupcake Birthdays

I have changed-up my die storage a bit since this post in 2014 (I now file most of them with the stamp lines), but there are still quite a few dies in my Stamp n Storage Die Cut Box that where I don't necessarily have coordinating stamps. 

I went through the box recently and did some purging and organizing.  Because they aren't with my stamps, I tend to forget about them, so I pulled out a few cupcake dies from the box for some masculine birthday cards.

The first one uses a Cupcake Wish die set from Echo Park together with some gold embossed letterpress tags I also had tucked away.

 

 

I used the Sketch ~N~ Scrap Sketch and paired it with some Eyelet Outlet Matte Enamel Dots (that I love for masculine cards) and a Happy Birthday sticker.  I finished with a foam star to top my cupcake.

 

 

Next I pulled out paper scraps and the Big Cupcake die by Stephanie Barnard for Sizzix ... I love that fun Cherry on top.

 

 

I paired it with a sentiment from Taylored Expressions Simple Strips Birthday.

Joy ~ Love ~ Peace

I added the My Favorite Things Joy, Peace, Love Dies to my inventory this week, so I decided to go ahead and break them out for some masculine holiday cards using the current MFT Color Challenge.

 

 

I used a kraft card base and cut out the words using the remaining three colors.

 

 

I finished with a tiny epoxy star sticker for the top of the tree.

Stay Crafty with Hero Arts Holiday Tags

It's always weird to try to get back into the creative swing of things after being out of the studio for a week plus.  It reminds me of the importance of trying to make something (anything) every day to keep that creative muscle in shape.

 

 

I decided to warm-up with the current Stay Crafty with Hero Challenge to create a holiday tag.  

I inked one of the trees from Hero Arts Stylized Christmas Trees in a rainbow of ink colors finishing with violet for the star on top.  I used the Hero Arts Rounded Rectangle Infinity Dies to create my tag.

 

 

I used this week's Freshly made Sketch for my layout adding two rows of rainbow washi tape.  I finished with a tiny Hero Arts Greetings Christmas Messages and some velvet ribbon and twine.

 

I resisted the urge to bling-up that tree, so I could link-up at 9th Birthday Party at Addicted to CAS where the code word is colourful (or colorful).

 

 

Since I don't wrap gifts, I mounted my tag on a white card base with thin foam for a bit more dimension.

 

 

Yay for a creative start to my Saturday!

Banner Holiday

For our last Jingle Belles prompt of the 2021 season, we're making holiday cards inspired by this year's blog banner, which looks a bit like this:

 

 

I loved the rich all-over green of this year's Jingle Belles banner, so that is what I tried to emulate with my card design.  I used four different colors of Green Alcohol Ink on Silver Alcohol Ink Cardstock including Couture Creations Glitter Alcohol Ink (so cool). 

 

 

Next I tried to use Alcohol Ink Removal ink with snowflakes to get the subtle snowflake effect of the banner, but you can just barely see them.  So instead, I added one large Simon Says Stamp Big Bliss Die Glitter snowflake and three smaller snowflake buttons with green enamel dots in the center.

 

 

For the texty element of the banner, I die cut Simon Says Stamp Joyful from Vellum and the silver inside of a tissue box to complete my design."