Ingenious Inkling

You Are the Best

This afternoon while watching the football playoffs, I decided to play with my collection of Pinkfresh Studio pfocuts and join their Create & Connect Inspired by Challenge.  Here's are the two inspiration projects.

 

 

I chose the card as my inspiration.  I started with a piece of 6" designer paper from the Pinkfresh Studio Office Hours collection that has similar colors and the angled color block design.  Next I found a coordinating oval chipboard frame from the Pinkfresh Holiday Vibes Christmas Collection and backed it with a Pinkfresh Studio oval journaling die cut embellishment from Indigo Hills 2 that was inspired by the floral element at the top left of the Inspiration Card.

 

My focal point is also a Pinkfresh Studio Ephemera Die Cut from Indigo Hills 2.

I scattered some enamel dots and finished with a stamped sentiment from Pinkfresh Studio Modern Layered Florals.

I'm also joining the Anything Goes Challenge at The House That Stamps Built.

Wanderlust Dandelion Wishes & Recollections

This week's Wanderlust lesson felt a lot more in my wheel house than the previous ones.  It started by cutting apart pieces of paper bag (I also used two different kraft papers I had on rolls) and painting them with gesso.  Once the gesso dried we added Watercolor paint (I used my new Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolor set I got from St. Louis Art Supply).  I then left those to try overnight.

 

 

I tried every white pen I have in my house with no success to draw my dandelions.  I finally used the spray tube of my Dina Wakely White Gloss Spray to "paint" my flowers.  One of the paint pens I had tried splattered on my page, so I just went with it.

 

I didn't follow all of the instructions in the class (for one thing, to use my own hand-writing) and have finally started trusting my own artistic intuition as I create in my journal.  I just went with the general feel of the class and did it "my way". 

 

I used some Alexandra Renke floral papers, washi tape, stickers and gems.  I finished by stapling my paper bag pages into my journal.

Merry Inchie Christmas

We’re still celebrating Inches and Twinchies at Jingle Belles.

This week I decided to start by stamping some tiny wood mounted sentiments on a background created with Karin Brushmarkers and punched them out with a 1” Square Punch.   In the days of wood mounted stamps, I was quite the tiny sentiment collector.

 

 

I attached them with foam tape on top of a 1 1/4” and 1 3/8” square before placing them inside slimline die cuts from Heffy Doodle.

 

I added an Eyelet Outlet Holiday Coffee Cup Brad for the Shopping our Stash Need a Cup of Coffee Challenge.  I love that it has the word Joy to match my stamp. 

I finished with a wrap of metallic twine.

 

 

I'm also joining Jenn Shurkus for her Get Cracking on Christmas. #getcrackingonchristmas

 

Thursday Link Love

Another week of skipping through blogland:

• how beautiful are these Lemon Cream Brioche Donuts
• printable Star Wars Valentines & Light Saber Wraps for Candy ... super-cute (shown)
• Perler Bead Soap Dish Tutorial
• Caramel Apple Monkey Bread (I never thought of making it with cinnamon rolls)
• No-Sew Fleece Scarf
• Hash Brown Ham Cheese & Egg Cups
• Course Syllabus for making friends as an Adult
• I miss traveling and experiencing public art
• used some extra Fat-Free Vanilla Greek Yogurt to make this Chocolate Yogurt Cake this week ... so good (super-moist but not overly sweet).
• free heart-shaped printables from Graphics Fairy
• I want to try making my own Tuna Poke Bowl
• Pomodoro Technique to help stay focused
• Miso Egg Drop Soup with Kimchi

Have a tremendous Thursday!

Just a Note

When I saw this week's Atlantic Hearts Sketch, I thought it would be perfect to showcase some stickers from {a vintage girl} & her daughter ... remember discount code SMILYNSTEF gets you 15% off your order

 

 

I chose to feature three images from the Sewing Essentials Sticker Set.

 

 

 

I positioned three stickers on blue & brown plaid designer paper.  I paired them with the perfect stamped sentiments from The Greetery Opposites Attract.

 

 

With the Wheel on the Vintage Sewing Machine, I'm also joining the Simon Says Stamp You're On a Roll Challenge.

Let It Snow Again

Our Cable decided to die at our house yesterday, and we can't get a technician until Thursday afternoon, so for the first time since the Derecho I'll be venturing out in the snowy landscape to drive to work ... so why not celebrate with a CAS Snowy design.

I started with inspiration from The Paper Players.

 

I'm also joining the Uniko Studio Anything Goes Challenge by using their wonderful Big & Bold Snow Stamps Set & Coordinating Dies.  I die cut the Big Snow from White & Navy cardstock and stamped the other snowflake images from the set in light grey to coordinate with my strips of designer paper before finishing with the Navy Sentiment.

 

 

I'm also calling this a variation on the Fusion Card Challenge Sketch.

 

 

The Code Word at Addicted to CAS is also Snow.

 

 

 

Let It Snow

The current Challenge at Honey Bee Stamps is all about Winter Wonderland.

 

 

Since we had some snow falling today in Iowa, I broke out the adorable Snowman Stamp from Honey Bee Stamps Let it Snow and used the three shades of blue cardstock from the Just Us Girls Challenge (I thought my ink was a bit closer to my dark blue cardstock, but I'm going with it).

 

I used every snowflake in the Honey Bee Let It Snow Set and finished with the die cut sentiment.

 

 

With my four layers of cardstock, I'm also Layering It Up with Simon Says Stamp.

 

I also took inspiration from the colors and that adorable snowman at Hand Stamped Sentiments Inspiration Challenge.

Translucent Flower Collage

Thrilled to be Guest Designing at The Ink Pad NYC today.

I have started following quite a few collage artists on Instagram, and I am particularly transfixed by creations that layer translucent elements.

Inspired by those designers, today I'm making some collage cards using the wonderful collection of Black & White Translucent Flower Stickers.

I started by coloring a few of the smaller stickers using the Karin DecoBrush Markers.  I loved how I could the markers almost like paint brushes to blend the colors together on the translucent substrate.  I did use my embossing gun to heat set them a bit after a colored to make sure it stayed steadfast.  I also loved how the light ink saturation allowed the beauty of these stickers to really shine through.

 

 

I used several vintage papers from the LB Deluxe Collage Packs to build my collage with the stickers.  I applied some Gathered Twigs Distress Oxide Ink using the Beach Grass Stencil and moving it around to get some random ink on my background.

 

 

Next I applied another torn paper from the LB Deluxe Collage Papers and began affixing my flower stickers ... I just love how you can see the text through the flowers.

 

 

I finished with a sentiment from Picket Fence Studios Walk, Crawl or Run Stamp set on ivory cardstock and a scattering of ivory gems.

 

 

For my next card, I decided to try coloring my flower stickers with Alcohol Ink Markers in monochromatic blues ... they worked well too with more intense colors on the stickers.  To add some inky interest to my  vintage papers, I used the Picket Fence Studios Wonky Rainbow Stencil turned on its side.

 

 

 

Again I love how you can see the text through the stickers.  This time I paired my colored sticker with two that I left just as they come.

 

 

This sentiment is from Picket Fence Studios Here is Where I Work ... because you know there are people in your life who would love to know you appreciate them.

 

 

Hopefully you're inspired to create collage with translucent elements.

 

 

 

There are so many stickers in this collection, you could make collages for days.

 

Self Portrait Solution

This week's Wanderlust lesson was to first draw and then paint a self-portrait.  We started with some collage papers.  I used a torn page of vintage sheet music as well as both sides of a scrap of designer paper.

 

 

Next came the self portrait.  I watched the video ... I followed the instructions ... but it looked worse than things I remember drawing in 2nd grade.   I let it sit overnight, hoping I'd feel better in the morning ... but nope.

So I decided, if in the other lessons I used paint and paper to cover up things I liked ... why couldn't I use paper and paint to cover-up something I didn't like.  I still know it's there ... and I know I had the experience of creating it (which was the ultimate purpose) ... but now I feel more joy when I look at my finished pages.

 

 

 

I had printed my reference photo on a piece of copy paper, so I cut it out and glued it over my painted photo (you can see a bit of my painted hair peeking out).  Then I went back in with some white paint and more gesso to finish the page.

I thought the quote from my Buddha book summarized my intentions for the year, which was the focus of the page.  I also want to seek experiences that bring me Joy and Peace.

a Twinchie Holiday

Our current prompt at Jingle Belles is to create a card featuring Inchies (one inch squares or circles) or Twinchies (two inch squares or circles).

I cute three two-inch squares from some Tim Holtz packaging and then use a collection of Tim Holtz Holiday Ephemera, stickers, and gems to build three little collages.

 

I backed the collages with some Poinsettia paper and then lined them up on a 7" card base before wrapping with some twine.

 

 

We hope you'll have fun going small with us this week at Jingle Belles.