Ingenious Inkling

New York City 2024 - Day 1

I am so very blessed to be able to spend time in New York City with my card making bestie Lauren.  We were trying to decide last night how many trips it has been ... we know our first adventure was in 2010, and we have migrated trips from Spring to Fall with at least one year off for COVID-19, so likely 11 or 12 trips together through the years.  Lauren has an amazing memory book where we were able to visit memories together last night ... as I said, I am truly blessed.

On our first day, I arrived in the afternoon and Lauren met me at the airport with our emergency peanut butter sandwich and a plan to get to the hotel.  We have stayed at the Cambria in Chelsea.  It is the perfect location for access to Penn Station, and a quiet room with two queen beds (which is trickier to find in NYC than one would think it should be).

 

We unloaded in our room and then we headed to Hudson Yards to see the Fleurs de Viilles Artiste exhibit of mannequins dressed by local florists based on artistry themes.

They were so lovely with each one filled with different flowers ... it reminded me of a mini version of the Rose Parade.

Lauren's favorite was the Surrealism mannequin inspired by Salvador Dali's Feemes Aux Papillons.

 

 

The autumnal colors were quite striking.  Here's a close-up of some of the details.

 

 

I was partial to the one inspired by one of my favorite New York City locals - The High Line.  We didn't walk it on this trip, but we did see it above our heads several times as we ventured to our various locations.  Her head dress really captured the feel of the gardens planted along the trek ... and I would totally wear that skirt and boots.

 

 

We were both drawn to this yellow beauty - the Dance Mannequin inspired by the third section of Alvin Ailey’s Revelations at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

 

 

 

We also love the vibrant colors of the Andy Warhol mannequin.

 

Collactober2024 ATCs

One of the things on the plan for Stephanie & Lauren's Art Camp 2024 was to make some ATCs to exchange with our friend Linda Brun.

I decided to combine that plan with themes from #collactober2024 collage challenge.

 

 

I started with Prompt 03 Red Balloon after I found the perfect red balloon image when I was going through Lauren's Richard Scarry books she has on her cutting book shelves.

I decided to make a torn paper background from designer paper, inspired by some of the art we saw at the New York Public Library Yesterday.

 

 

The sentiment was cut from another children's book on the cutting book shelves.

Next, I tacked prompt 07 - Bouquet.  I started by water coloring a piece of watercolor paper and cutting it down to an ATC.  Next I trimmed down some strips from the painted watercolor paper and wove them vertically & horizontally.

 

 

Next I layered on a thistle bouquet that I found in Lauren's college item box (so much fun shopping someone else's supplies) and finished with some sticker sentiments.

Final ATC was my take on prompt 12 - Call from the Void (I took a rather literal approach after I found the fun little pink phone sticker).

I started with my take on a technique I had saved on Instagram.  I swapped the cardstock for designer paper and changed the number of circles in the grid to fit on my ATC.

 

 

The finishing elements were two dictionary definitions for the prompt.

Overland Park Arboretum & Botanical Gardens

When my sister Darcy and I were in Kansas City, we spent one of our beautiful mornings at the Overland Park Arboretum & Botanical Gardens.  We got in tons of steps hiking some of the trails and enjoying all of the water features and flower gardens.  We even had the luck of spotting a few butterflies and bumble bees.

 

 

Darcy is so much better and capturing the close-up shots, but taking pictures with her did help me get better.  Here's one of hers.

 

 

We couldn't have picked a more lovely morning to be outside with the flowers.

 

 

Here are a few more of our lovely floral views.

 

 

I loved the Monet Gardens with the statue of Monet.  Signs in the various gardens described the sun placement he used to capture the images in his paintings.

 

 

We loved when we were lucky enough to get to spend time with the butterflies.

 

 

 

We also enjoyed a walk through the sculpture garden after we hiked the Bluff Trail.

 

 

We will definitely be making returns trips on our future Kansas City outings.

 

 

Since most of the blooms are gone in Iowa, it was really nice to go just a bit more southward where I get to experience some of the later flowers.

 

Like It's a Bad Thing

The October Challenge at Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers is H is for Halloween.

 

 

I featured one of my favorite Halloween stamp sets, Simon Says Stamp If the Hat Fits.  I stamped the hat on polka dot designer paper and used markers to add some highlights.

 

 

I stamped a sentiment from the same stamp set and attached the hat with foam tape for dimension.  I finished with some coordinating gems.

 

 

I also took inspiration from the Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge theme of Anything Goes.

I'm also joining the Little Red Wagon Challenge where the theme is Black and White with just one other color.

Ghostie Boo!

My friend made me the most adorable little ghost, so I needed a ghostie thank you card.

 

 

I cut a strips of adorable ghosties from some designer paper, matted it with orange cardstock, and then attached it to some night sky paper.  I finished with a puffy Boo! Sticker.

Seriously, isn't that round little guy adorable.

Sweet PINK Christmas Wishes

It's that time again here at Jingle Belles, our favorite prompt of the year: PINK CHRISTMAS! In which you make and link new holiday cards that are predominantly PINK and we (Stephanie and Lauren) donate $2 (apiece!) per card to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation! 

Just to anticipate a few basic questions: Yes, you can link as many cards as you'd like to; and no, your cards don't need to be entirely PINK but it should certainly be the main color! You can use any additional colors that you'd like; and the cards can be any size, shape, theme and style. 

For my card, I started by going to my bin of designer paper scraps and pulling out all of my pink papers (which even included one of my pink sprayed papers that had somehow made it into the mix). 

Next I cut the papers into approximately 3/8" wide strips and then covered my card front with random strips.

 

 

Next I matted my bright pink Christmas tag from Doodlebug Designs Night Before Christmas with white cardstock before using foam tape to attach (the matt helped it pop against the busy paper background).  I finished with a gem in the hole at the top of the tag.

Thursday Link Love

Another week of skipping through blogland:

• Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Bars
• why you should hum
• Cranberry Bliss Biscotti
• how to provide support for a miscarriage
• Cinnamon Twist Loaf
• Apple Pie Pancakes
• Buckeye Brownies
• Apple Cinnamon Sugar Pull Apart Bread
• how to Overcome Perfectionism
• Mini Caramel Apple Cheesecakes
• love this pretty pink elopement
• Chocolate Protein Pancakes
• most Depressing Mainstream Movies
• Brown Butter Apple Shortbread Bars (shown)

Have a tremendous Thursday!

Hey Boo

The newest challenge at Shopping Our Stash is to create a Halloween Card or alternatively create a card featuring colors usually associated with Halloween - Orange, Black, Green, Lime and/or Purple.

 

 

I built my card around this Essentials by Ellen Hey Boo Die Cut Sentiment, which I positioned on two layers of vellum.  I added some Doodlebug Design Shape Sprinkles Eye Balls to the *o*s.

 

 

I positioned the die cut onto a piece of ghosty paper from DCWV Monster Movie paper and finished with a Doodlebug Design Monster Madness Shape Sprinkle.

I'm also linking-up at the Patterned Paper Challenge at Simon Says.

I can't wait to see how you get spooky.

Anniversary Love

One type of card I always make sure I have in my card stash at the office is an Anniversary Card.  I can't even count the number of times over the years where I've gotten a rather desperate sounding call asking if I have an anniversary card available (usually when that special day is the next day ... or even worse, that day itself), so I want to make sure I can always say yes.

I decided to use the Pinkfresh Studio October Ink Blending Challenge to restock.

 

 

Inspiration came from The Paper Players Love is in the Air Theme Challenge.

 

 

I ink blended using the four shades of ink from the Pinkfresh Studio Chasing Sunsets ink quartet onto white cardstock and die cut using the largest Pinkfresh Studio Nested Arches Die.  I gave it a few spritzes with White Silver Shimmer Spray.

 

 

I stamped the sentiment from Pinkfresh Studio Around the Shape: Arches Stamp and die cut it with two of the Nested Arches Dies.  I attached the sentiment arch with foam tape and added a Pinkfresh Studio floral embellishment. 

I attached the entire stacked arch design to a piece of Pinkfresh Studio Designer paper.

Vintage Halloween

I keep all of my Halloween crafting products together in one big drawer (most of my other products are sorted by manufacturer) because they don't seem to really cross into other use cases.  That drawer is open and I'm having fun creating for October (I need to get them done soon & get them in the mail soon the way postal delivery has been working lately).

I'm starting today with the Inspire.Create.Challenge to create and Autumn/Halloween card.

 

 

I built my card around this Journaling card from Simple Stories Vintage Scary Stories.

 

 

I matted it with black glitter paper and used foam tape on top of a lovely Halloween Plaid from Pebbles Spooky Boo! collection (which it looks like has now gone digital).

 

 

I'm also linking-up at the TGIF Challenges with my Halloween color palette.