Ingenious Inkling

Madison, Wisconsin Foodie Trip

Yesterday a friend and I took a road trip to Madison, Wisconsin to do some grocery shopping.  We loaded our car with coolers and grocery bags and went in search of new and different food discoveries.  I took my camera with me, but did a terrible job of actually taking any photographs.  I think I was probably just too overwhelmed with all of the fun food finds.

Our first stop was The Calico Bean Market in Dubuque, Iowa.  I love their spices, soups, and seasoning mixes.  I was sad that our favorite espresso steak seasoning rub has been discontinued.  I also love the grapefruit jelly slices (as evidenced by the empty space in the basket where I removed two bags to take with me).  They will also ship all of their delicious foods around the country.

In Madison, we explored Whole Foods (so many fun food samples) where I found everything from freshly made pineapple salsa to fabulous holiday truffles.  After that, we were off to Penzeys, the land of spices.  I picked up refills for our vanilla sugar and also tried the new Penzeys cinnamon blend.  Next we stopped for lunch at Himal Chuli, which serves Nepali Cuisine.  There were so many delicious sounding dishes, but I settled on the Aloo Gobi Tarkari with Roti and Dal.

The Tarkari was a stew of carrots, peas, cauliflower and potatoes simmered in turmeric, coriander, cumin, fresh garlic, and ginger.  The roti was a dense whole wheat bread.

The Dal was a wonderful soup with lentils, mixed beans, and fresh herbs on top.  I also had a refreshing Mango Lassi.

Our final stop was Trader Joe's where I got all sort of yummy holiday treats (can you say dark chocolate sea salt caramels).  

What a great food day ... I'm sure we'll try it again in the spring.
 
 

Peace Tree

Today's card is pure kismet.  Yesterday, I drooled (yes, I'm not ashamed to admit that this woman's creations often leave me staring at my computer screen with mouth wide open in amazement) over Birgit's (Biggan) Christmas Tree card that she created for the SCS Inspiration Challenge.  I knew it was an idea that I would have to "borrow" in the future.  Then last night, I saw that Lauren had created a Christmas Tree with a similar concept using torn scraps of designer paper (another borrow-worthy technique).

So today, Biggan is the SCS Featured Stamper, so it was just the push/kismet I needed to combine both techniques into my Peace Tree design.

This entire card is made from scraps (my scrap bin is currently overflowing).  I used a new Martha Stewart boarder punch on various scraps of blue papers (there's some Fiskars, K&Company, Cosmo Cricket, and who knows what else in the mix). 

I overlapped the strips on a large rectangle of scrap cardstock.  I found a Christmas tree clip art on the internet, sized it in Word, printed it on white paper, and cut it out for my template.  I used temporary adhesive to attach it on top of the layers, and then cut around it to form my tree.  At the bottom, I cut the background paper slightly smaller than the attached strips, so the bottom strip would hang-over for the base of the tree.

I finished with some sparkly wired ribbon, one of my favorite holiday sentiments from Catslife Press, a tiny punched star for the top of the tree, and Crystal Stickles garland for overall sparkle.  The finished card is a big one (6" square), so it will likely be tucked in with a gift rather than mailed on its own.
 

Roll With It

This week's SCS Inspiration Challenge comes from the fabulous fabric buttons found in the Etsy store of aimoobaroo.  I love buttons, but I am particularly drawn to fabric buttons.  When I saw this great sushi set (which sold today), it reminded me of the A Muse Sushi set that I bought on our Summer Chicago Road Trip that I had never inked up.

The background paper is from Basic Grey's Granola line and reminded me of layered Ginkgo leaves.  I also wanted to incorporate the dark green from the buttons background.  The sketch is Cheryl's Bonus Sketch from 2 Sketches 4 You.

The images are stamped in Warm Green, clear embossed, and colored with Spica Glitter Pens.  I also used A Muse Circle Frames Mini Set and several pieces of dark green ribbon to finish the design.

Tomorrow I'm headed off with a friend for a Foodie Road Trip to Madison, Wisconsin ... Trader Joe's and Whole Foods here we come.
 

Making Years Count

Tonight I needed a very plain and simple masculine card with a hunting theme for a co-worker.  I used the CPS 142 sketch.

 
I've had this K&Company Hunting Embossed Paper in my stash for years.  I cut out one of the ducks for my embellishment and have it floating on knotted green ribbon.  I sponged the sentiment with brown and green inks for a camouflaged look.

Happy Friday.

Glee TV

It's been a long time since I've actually wanted to watch TV instead of creating in my studio ... but Glee ... Modern Family ... Flash Forward ... and V ... have all caught my attention. 

So I don't have any cards to show tonight ... but I do have a picture of me back in my own Glee days.

Yes, that's me on the left ... rockin' Delta Dawn.

PS - There are some really cool Christmas digi-stamps for free download until midnight Thursday at the Cutting Cafe.
 

Trimming Eskimo Kisses

This week's challenge at the Hero Arts blog is to use trimmings.  Today's cards featured scraps and trimmings that would otherwise be thrown away.  This week's Got Sketch? card sketch is a perfect design for using up some paper scraps (especially those pieces I trim from a 6" square to make a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" card). 

I save all of my scraps from my 6" paper pads by tucking them back into the pad between the pages, so all of my collections stay together.  These trimmings are from the Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses collection.

Hero Arts Holly Flourish Background and Holly Flourish Borderwere stamped in Versamark on cardstock scraps and embossed with Polysparkle embossing powder.  The Large Christmas Circle sentiment was stamped in Currant on a scrap of white and embossed with the same glittery powder.

My snowflake embellishment was made by layering a Martha Stewart Snowflake with a second different punched snowflake ("trimming' off the longer pieces) and a snowflake that was "trimmed" from a Jolee's corner element.

Everything But the Kitchen Sink

The Everything But the Kitchen Sink Challenges have moved to their own blog, and to celebrate they're hosting their first ever sketch challenge, which was inspired by Courtney's fireplace mantel.  The prize is a $25 gift card to Two Peas in a Bucket. 

I had scraps of Basic Grey Marrakech paper and navy cardstock left over from my card this morning, so that is what I started with for my design.  The squares are punched with a 1 1/4" square and the card is slightly smaller than 4 1/4".

I tried different stamps for my focal image, but couldn't seem to find one that worked.  When I started rummaging through my embellishments I found this lone Prima flower from the Hey Girlfriend, Spring Has Spring! card kit, and loved how it looked with these patterns.  I sprayed the flower with one of my new favorite crafting finds ...Pearl Glimmer Mist ... it gives a perfect subtle all-over sparkle.  I finished with a tiny Hero Arts sentiment from Bird Greetings (punched with  word window & heart punches).

PS - I was very excited to see my cards made the Fab Five at 2 Sketches 4 You this week ... woot woot!
 

Belief in Goodness

Today's featured stamper at SCS is the very talented TreasureOiler.  My design was inspired by her Friend to Friend card.  I wanted a masculine design, so I changed the stamps, papers, colors, and border punch (one of my favorites, EK Success Dotted Wave). 

Since my main image was a favorite sentiment from River City Rubber Stamps, I replaced the sentiment at the bottom with part of Hero Arts Graceful Leaves.

Lazy Saturday Drive Through the Corn Fields

My husband and I have a rare weekend off together with no plans.  He suggested we go for a drive in the country, so we decided to head north and check out the Edgewood Locker.  Because of the wet fall, there are still quite a few crops in the fields and lots of tractors on the roads, so there was lots of activity to see on the drive.

The place was hoppin' when we arrived.  Outside was a chalk board advertising a special on Brats.  The first meal I remember eating in Iowa was grilled Brats (aka Bratwurst), so for me, they have a special connection to this state.  We didn't need 48, but we did get some Sweet Onion, Pineapple, and of course Cranberry & Wild Rice for the holidays.

The store had all kinds of meats and cheeses, and they were very reasonably priced.  We ended up coming home with Ranch Cheese Curds, Smoked Pork Chops, an assortment of ham and beef sticks, and lots of other meats for the freezer.

Here's my dear husband carrying all of our wares (the freezer bags from Aldi's are perfect for keeping road trip foods cold).

 
 All-in-all a very relaxing drive resulting in lots of fun new foods to try.

I Hope You Dance

I love hosting the Inspiration Challenge on SCSeach week ... I feel like it stretches me and brings out a level of creativity that often surprises me.  This week I fell in love with the Etsy store of Lorelie Kay Designs ... the way she combines vintage elements into such a fun and funky style really speaks to me.  Particularly, I loved this I Hope You Dance Tiny Dancer Ballerina Resin Collage Ring.  I immediately had an idea in my head for a card design and had so much fun bringing it to life.

Initially I thought I would scan a page from a dictionary, but the font size didn't quite work.  So instead, I copied a definition for Dance from an internet dictionary multiple times into a Word document using 11 pt Byington font.  I adjusted the line length so that the definition would start at a different place in the line each time.  I used 1 1/2 spacing between the lines & printed the definition on Ivory cardstock.  Next, I trimmed each line into equal sized strips of paper.

I randomly adhered the strips of paper to a piece of Turquoise Basic Grey paper and then trimmed the finished piece into 4 1/4" square and attached it to a dark brown card base.  The Wordsworth Dancing Girl was stamped in Dark Brown into the background, using foam underneath so I could press down hard enough to get the ink in between the strips of paper.  I finished by highlighting a few of the words with Pebbles Pearlescent Chalk.

I hope you have fun & find inspiration.