Ingenious Inkling

The One and Only You

Each week I am absolutely amazed at the fabulous creations that are made for the Saturday Inspiration Challenge at SCS, but this week's gallery made my jaw drop to the floor over and over again.   The cards inspired by the Hotel Fox are truly amazing.

I've spent more time organizing this weekend than creating, and one of the tasks I accomplished was finally getting my Stampin' Up Define Your Life set completely mounted. 

I loved how Angela (mudflapmamma) from An Ink and a Smile used this set for her Inspiration Challenge card, so I used her card for my own inspiration.

Since I didn't have any wide satin ribbon, I used this wide polka dot gross grain as my starting point.  I found a scrap of matching blue cardstock and stamped a different definition from the set in ColorBox Chalk Blue Iris.  This is a great layout for using some of the wider ribbons in my stash.

Thanks Angela for the inspiration.

(and a thanks to my DH for taking my new profile photo)

Sultry Wedded Bliss

Today's featured stamper is NikiE of My Paper Creations.  I chose her wonderful Papertrey Celebrate Spring for which she won the Papertrey Guest Star Stamper for best use of patterned paper.

I did lots of cleaning, organizing and purging in my studio yesterday and found this lonely wedding chipboard medallion at the bottom of a stack of paper scraps, so I decided that would be the focus of my design.  I swapped Papertrey papers for Basic Gray Sultry DP (did you see Jacksonbelle is running a 15% off sale this weekend with code LABOR08)

My flowers are punched with a large EKSuccess floral punch (I always sponge the edges with coordinating ink to cover the tiny bits of white that show when you punch DP).  The large pearl brads are from the bridal section at Michael's.  I layered on a sequin bloom and pink adhesive pearl on the chipboard sentiment.

Thanks to Niki for the inspiration.

Hotel Fox Three Graces

This week's SCS Inspiration Challenge comes from the Hotel Fox ~ an eclectic lifestyle hotel in Copenhagen, Denmark whose 61 rooms were designed by 21 different artists from around the globe.

For my inspiration, I chose Room 509 - Kings Court I - designed by German illustrator Birgit Amadori.  She created her own mythical fairy tale world in this room that I find enchanting.

In keeping with the mythical theme, I stamped the Three Graces (the daughters of Zeus representing beauty, charm and joy) in Blue Lagoon ColorBox Chalk ink on pearlized Luxury DP by DCWV and clear embossed.  I matted the image on Bazzill Bling brown cardstock and added a couple of wraps of sheer golden ribbon. 

I finished with the friendship sentiment from Stampin' Up's Wonderful Words and added several adhesive golden pearls to accent.

I hope you find inspiration too.

Frightful and Delightful

I seldom have much creative umph left in me on weeknights, but I wanted to make a little something tonight, so I decided to use today's SCS sketch challenge.  I saw where Bad Sherry used a manila tag for the sketch, so I pulled out a tag and used a variation of Tim Holtz' faux bleach technique for my design.

I stamped my Martha Stewart Halloween Fence in ColorBox Chalk Charcoal ink on a manila tag and clear embossed.  I sprayed the tag with Orange Juice and Lavender Tea Memories Mists, and then ironed off the embossing powder between news print (it tones down the brightness of the Mists).  I used a black glaze pen to highlight the crow sitting on the fence.

The papers are from K&Company's Jen Yanok Halloween Whimsy Mat stack and the bats are a Martha Stewart punch mounted on foam squares for dimension. 

I always feel more relaxed after taking some time to create.

Fat Ribbon Flowers

This card combines this week's CPS Sketch with Allison's Suggestive Sunday Challenge ~ Fat Ribbon ~ to use ribbon one inch or wider. 

I've had this wide metallic floral ribbon in my stash for at least 8 years ... I love how it frames the sentiment. 

The Uptown Rubber Stamp Dreams sentiment, Stampendous Agapanthus Cluster and Inkadinkado flourishes were all stamped in ColorBox Dark Brown Chalk ink and clear embossed.  I added several small adhesive gems to the flourishes for accent.  The designer paper is by Crate and has also been in my stash for quite some time. 

I love when I can use some oldies but goodies in my creations.

Richard Scarry & Birthday Blooms

This weekend at SCS was a Virtual Stamping Weekend with lots of Book Club Themed Challenges for cards to complete in 45 minutes or less.

This card was for two challenges ~ Color Purple (to make a card with purple) and The Story of Chicken Little (to make a card inspired by one of your favorite children's books).

I loved the books of Richard Scarry when I was young.  I had a few of his illustrated pages in my stash from a discarded children's book, so I featured one using the sketch from Our Creative Corner.

This card is inspired by today's SCS Featured Stamper Kokirose's card Water Colored Birds.

I replaced her stamped image with this wonderful Wherever They Grow sticker from Penny Black.  I used a Hero Arts Happy Birthday and a "made with love" heart charm to complete the design.  This card is on its way to my Grandma.

It's a gorgeous day in Iowa.  We took a lazy morning drive through the countryside and Palisades-Kepler State Park with the windows down and the wind blowing through my hair ... one of my favorite things to do.

I 'heart' your blog

A big thank you to  Ashley at Heart Hugs who gave me this award last week.

Check out my blog lists on my sidebar for some of my favorite blogs (with a special shout out to Julie of The Write Stuff who just started blogging). 

Masculine Makeover

A friend chose several cards from my gallery, and asked me if I could make them again (using the same sentiments) for a masculine recipient, so I took on the challenge.

This was a case of my card I originally made for Denise's Spring Fever Challenge.  Rather than stamp on white, I used a sheet of Precious Metal designer paper from We Are Memory Keepers.  I also used An Autumn Leaves flourish from Swirls v.2, since it didn't have a floral design.

Both the Flourish and the Inque Boutique Quotopia sentiment were stamped in ColorBox Chalk Dark Brown and clear embossed (which makes stamping on DP pop a bit more against the pattern). 

The original version of this card was originally made for the Caardvarks Purple Snurple challenge.

I changed the chalks to teal and silver and trimmed it a bit shorter, so I could feature the entire believe sentiment.  I also embossed with Mirage EP, rather than dazzling diamonds to tone down the bling a bit for the masculine version.  I only did one coat of the EP, so it has a textured finish.

The original card that inspired this creation was for another Caardvarks challenge ... to make a card using no designer paper.

To keep the punches even, I lined up the edge of the punch with the previously punched opening.  I changed up the color palette to a light yellow and navy and used a different flourish along the side. 

I really love the clean simplicity of this design.

Finally, I re-made this card for sketch challenge 168 at SCS. 

I used a two-sided piece of We R Memory Keepers DP called Explore-Hubcaps for the design.  I swapped the metal brads for some sentiment brads from K&Company.

All of these cards qualify for last week's Stamp Simply Take Two challenge to re-make some of your favorite cards.

Marimekko Floral Screen

This week's SCS Inspiration Challenge are the wonderful umbrellas from Marimekko.  The challenge was suggested by Stampin' Annie. 

One of my best friends was an exchange student from Finland during our senior year of high school (hey Päivi!), so I have always had a special place in my heart the wonderful style of Finnish designers.

The Cuttelbug Floral Screen was embossed on shimmering cardstock from DCWV Luxury Stack.  ColorBox Chalk Chestnut Roan ink was applied directly to the paper by holding the ink pad horizontal (to keep any of the ink from dipping into the de-bossed floral screen design) and clear embossed.  The Outlines Be Inspired sentiment was stamped and clear embossed on the same DP.

For the floral element in the umbrella design, I attached a variety of Primas with brown brad centers with glue dots down the left side.

I hope you find inspiration.

A Touch of Yellow

This card combines Kristina's color challenge #19 with Kazan's Sketch #7 from 2 Sketches 4 You.

I really love the touch of yellow in the pictures, so I decided to use that for my tiny bit of accent color.

I tried my quickie glue pen to adhere the Silver Bells dew drops to my scalloped black cardstock.  It worked much better than trying to use glue dots, although I wonder if they would stay on through the mail?

The white cardstock is stamped with the large flourish from Fancy Pants From the Garden.  I reversed the flourish and stamped it again at the top to cover the entire 7 1/2" length. 

I layered Primas and a deconstructed yellow silk flower with a large black brads.  I used a yellow glaze pen on the tiny bloom on my Stampendous Thinking Window to add another tiny touch of color.

Thanks ladies for such fabulous inspiration.