Ingenious Inkling

Comfy Chair Sketch

I wanted to get something created tonight even though my body is still weary from the time changes and travel woes of the weekend.

When I need a creativity jump-start, I usually turn to a challenge.  I decided to try this week's Sketch Challenge on SCS.  I got this fun textured K&Company paper from a friend while I was in California.  It was a single 12x12 sheet that had 9 different embossed blocks.  I decided to go with the Pumpkin and Olive sections.  To decide on my third accent color, I used this great Color Combination website.  After looking at the different choices, I decided to frame the rectangles in brown. 

I stamped my new Large Comfy Chair stamp that I picked up at Paper Source in ColorBox Chalk Dark Brown ink on a scrap of textured light yellow paper.  When I colored it with the Prismacolor Pencils, it produced a tweed-like effect.  I stamped the AMuse sentiment in the same Dark Brown ink and punched it out using my large and small oval punches from Stampin' Up.  The card base is from a DCWV boxed card set.  This will be a good masculine birthday card to add to my stash.  Remember, you can view a larger photo by clicking on the image.

Cutie Patootie

Here are a few photos of my new nephew Aaron Mason.  He is so adorable (I know I'm biased, but those eyes are amazing).  I'm a very proud aunt who is looking forward to lots of years of spoiling him. 

My brother & sister-in-law are amazing parents, and it was so fun to get to spend time with them.

A baby is a blank cheque made payable to the human race.  ~Barbara Christine Seifert

California Vacation Photos

My weekend trip to see my brother's family in San Jose was marvelous.  However, my flight home yesterday was not so grand.  My original flight out of San Jose was delayed two hours due to runway repairs happening in Minneapolis.  When we finally arrived in Minneapolis, they had canceled all flights to Moline due to the runway repairs.  The only option they gave me was to wait until the next day and fly home on another airline with an additional connection through O'Hare.  I decided to rent a car and make the 6 1/2 hour drive back, so at least I was in my own bed by midnight.  As I was talking to the airport today tracking down my luggage, they mentioned that most of the flights were canceled again today.  What a nightmare.

This is a picture taken at Santana Row. 

This is me with my brother's dog Diogi (D-O-G) on the Bernal trail near the Santa Teresa Spring.  The weather was absolutely perfect.   

Hopefully tomorrow night I can get back into the studio to create.

Here's an Eleanor Roosevelt quote for the day ~ "You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.'

California Dreamin'

No pictures to post tonight because instead of spending the day creating in my studio, I had the blessing of spending it visiting family in California.  I took lots of pictures, but didn't bring my computer to upload them, so I'll have to wait until I return on Monday to share.  My three-week old nephew is beyond adorable (then again, who doesn't think their infant nephew is the cutest baby on the planet).

Yesterday, my first flight was delayed by fog, which meant a mere 20 minutes to make it from one end of the Minneapolis airport to the other.  Thanks to a gracious skycap who drove his little cart with speed and determination, I made it just as the doors were closing for boarding ... but unfortunately, my luggage didn't travel quite so speedily.  It did make it in on a later flight though, so I had it before bed time.  Since it contained quite a few ears of Iowa sweet corn, I wanted to get it unloaded as soon as possible :^)

This morning we hiked on a trail by the Santa Teresa Spring and Bernal Ranch. Tonight we took a walk around the shops in Santana Row where I got to spend some time at Paper Source. I picked up a few rubber stamps, pink & green cotton twill, bakers twine, hemp thread, ribbon, and jeweler's cord.  What a fun creative space to find inspiration and a great reminder to "do something creative every day." 

Enjoy the weekend and take the time to do something creative.

Carpe Cakem

I love cake.  At our house, it is often jokingly referred to as "the other white meat" from this Natalie Dee cartoon.  So, when I saw this adorable sentiment from from Cat Dancing Design by Cornish Heritage Farms, I knew I had to add it to my collection. It is stamped in Lipstick Red ColorBox Chalk ink.  Do you have certain images or sentiments you can't resist adding to your collection?

This is for this week's sketch challenge on SplitCoastStampers.  I knew I wanted to use some wide ribbon for the vertical piece.  I was cleaning off my work space and found this navy card base and a scrap of daisy d's paper, and the card came together from there. 

The Studio G cupcake was stamped and embossed in black.  The cherry and icing were colored with Prismacolors, while the cupcake itself was colored with a Sakura Soufflé pen.

I'm off to California for a long weekend to visit my new nephew, so no new stamping until Monday.  Carpe Cakem! 

Be A Good One

Since I had so much fun with Halloween yesterday, I thought I'd post another one.  This one was created for the {Caardvarks} 5 Star Challenge, which was to use five different embellishments on a card.

I folded a standard card base and then scored both the front and back one inch from the spine.  I taped that section together to create a wider spine for my ribbon.  I covered it with shiny black cardstock and then used my slot punch from the bottom and the top.  This gave me the openings to thread through this fun, wired Halloween ribbon that I picked up at a quaint little variety store in Clear Lake, Iowa.  I love exploring all kinds of shops. You never know where you might find something fun that can make its way into a creation.  I added a tiny little epoxy witch's shoes sticker on the top of the spine. 

The little cat was stamped colored and punched out to make a charm that was attached with jump rings and waxed cotton jewelry cord.  The witches' shoes were colored with Prismacolor pencils.  The final two embellishments were a bat eyelet on the sentiment and a photo corner.  I love using this sentiment with witch images ... it never ceases to make me smile. 

Whatever You Are ... Be a Good One.

Recipe:

Stamps: Stampendous Witches Shoes, SU Edge Eloquence, Michael's $1 on charm

Paper: Reminisce Scary Dots; black, orange, purple and white cardstock

Ink: Memories Black Dye Ink

Accessories: Prismacolor Pencils, Oval Punch, Scalloped Oval Punch, 1/2" square punch, 1" square punch, Pumpkin ribbon, jump rings, circle punches, waxed cotton jewelry cord, epoxy sticker, horizontal slot punch

Rockin' Girl Blogger

Donna at The Stamp Source nominated me as a

She owns a Stamping and Scrapbooking store in Canada ... how jealous am I.

So with the award, I've been charged with nominating five fine bloggers on which to bestow this illustrious honor.  Here are some of my favorite creative sites:

I love Funky Finds.  She searches the web for lots of fun & funky designers who are selling their art work on the web.  One of her posts hooked me up with a lawn chair bag that was a fun birthday gift for my sister.

ArtsyMama - She recently hosted an Artful Blogging party where all sorts of Artsy bloggers came together on one day and posted links to tutorials, givaways and other creative goodies.

Kristina Werner has such a clean, classy design style.  She also posts easy-to-follow tutorials and takes fabulous photos.  I love her color combinations.

Kal Barteski at [i] love life is always inspiring.  She takes adorable photographs & always challenges me to view art in new and innovative ways.

LilyBean's Paperie is filled with awesome projects and fun challenges.  I love her colorful and eclectic style.

Go check them out!

Halloween Tag

This was a tag I submitted to Cards Magazine in May for their October 2007 call.  Enough time has passed that I am assuming they are not interested, so I think it's safe to share.  One of the biggest challenges in trying to get more creations published is figuring out how to mesh my style with the desires of the publications.

This tag is primarily composed of products from Reminisce.  There is no stamping on this one ... only stickers.  These are some of my favorite Halloween colors.  Boo to all of you :^)

Pattern Paper - Reminisce

Self-Adhesive Die Cut Stickers - Reminisce

Green Cardstock - WorldWin DoubleMates

Orange Ribbon - Offray

Green Ribbon - Michaels

Split Negative Shower

For me, most of my stamping happens on the weekends.  So, Sunday nights are always sort of a let down for me as I scrub off the ink on my hands and say goodbye to my relatively uninterrupted creative time and start switching my focus to the work week at hand.  Next weekend I'll be traveling to California to meet my new nephew, so it will be a while before I have another full day of creating in my studio.

Tonight I wanted to try the Split Negative Tutorial posted on SCS this week.  The first task was to find cardstock and ink that matched; after that I had to choose a stamp that I thought would work for the technique.  I chose these Magenta umbrellas because they are outlined by a rectangle frame.  I knew that would help me line things up easier, and I was right.  It is a little tricky to get two images the exact same size. 

The designer paper was from a grab bag I got at Stampology, a great little stamping store in Chicago.  If you travel there from out of state, they even offer a discount.

I've had lots of visits to my blog this weekend.  Thanks to all of you for stopping by to see my world.   I'm almost at 600 hits in just a few short weeks.  I'm working on some    I-Squared Inspiration   to give away when I reach 1,000. 

Recipe: A Shower by A Muse; Two Umbrellas by Magenta; unknown designer paper; Black, White and Bright Pink cardstock; ColorBox Chalk Rouge Ink; Stampin' Up Whisper White Craft Ink; clear embossing powder (it probably would pop more if I used white); Black ribbon; small oval punch, dimensional adhesive.

Studio Space Tour

I love my studio space.  It's full of bright colors and creative artwork.  When we travel, we try to buy at least one peace of art from a local artisan.  Surrounding myself with those pieces inspires me and brings back memories of our wonderful adventures.

My studio is one-half of what was once an attached two car garage.  The former owner and builder of the house converted it to living space by adding pine walls and ceiling.  We often refer to it as our 'chalet'.  The other half of the space is our media area where my husband is often reclining while surfing the internet on his laptop and watching a Cardinals baseball game or listening to XMRadio while I create.

Between the two spaces is my desktop computer where I am often checking out my favorite websites.  I can swivel the screen, so I can see inspiration pieces from my work space for reference.  The original painting above the computer desk is by Nikki Pritchett.  We found it hanging in my favorite place to eat in Evansville, Indiana - Maxine's Cafe. 

To the left of the computer is a storage piece I picked up at Sam's.  I think it's intended use is to store parts in a warehouse or garage.  The bins are large enough to store cardstock and sturdy enough to fill with punches.  I use my hutch to store more art pieces, paper, buttons, ribbons, envelopes and other goodies.  My sit-down workspace is a dining room table that can seat up to 8.  I cover it with bright vinyl tablecloths I buy on clearance, so I never had to worry about how messy my workspace gets.

The center of the back wall is a former fireplace that was cemented in by the former owners during the energy crisis of the 70's.It is covered with a brightly dyed butterfly cloth we bought in Haight-Ashbury.  Above it hangs a coat rack by Brian Andreas.  I have several of his bright colorful pieces throughout my home, but this is one of my favorites.  It says "Anyone can slay a dragon, he told me, but waking up every morning & loving the world all over again - That's what takes a real hero."

To the left of the fireplace is a bistro table that I use for my standing workspace.  I often like to work standing up and this is the perfect height.  The larger art piece on the left wall is by William McNamara entitled Under the Umbrella Magnolia.  The smaller watercolor print is titled "Sunburst Chairs" and is by JoAnne Warren.  Some of my punches are stored in a shoe rack on the back of a closet door. 

Hope you enjoyed the tour.