Ingenious Inkling

Here Kitty Kitty Kitty

I found this fabulous Magenta cat stamp at the Ink Pad when I was visiting NYC. Today I got my grubby little hands on the new Basic Grey Max & Whiskers papers (25% off this weekend at Jacksonbelle Embellishments to celebrate National Scrapbooking Day), so I had to combine the two for a fun little card.  

This cat image reminds me of my sister's cat Oslo, so it will likely be heading in the mail to them (although I'm guessing Oslo won't appreciate the effort that went into this cat-themed design).

I used this week's Get Sketchy Sketch.  The cat was stamped in Chestnut Roan chalk ink on a piece of solid DP from the same Basic Grey collection (love when they include the solid papers).  I used colored pencils to add color to his noes and eyes.  I also snuck in some of my Washi paper masking tape, also acquired during my NYC trip.

I finished by punching small flowers from another piece of the DP in this collection and centering them on Martha Stewart punched medallions.  I added a tiny blue bling to the center of the blooms. 

I'm off on another adventure for the next few days ... I'll have another picture-filled report when I return.

New York City ~ Day 4

I won't lie ... by day four, my feet were hurting and my brain was on a bit of sensory overload.  We started the day by walking to Grand Central Station ... quite an amazing place.  We bought a few gifts at the MTA Museum Annex Gift Store ... and a few more at Pylones.  Loved that place.

Next we hopped on the Subway again and headed to the American Folk Art Museum.  I was excited to see the Women Only: Folk Art by Female Hands exhibit.  This amazing Crazy Trousseau Robe was one of my favorite creations.  I just couldn't stop looking at all of the amazing details ... and thinking about how some of those design concepts could be translated into paper (another fabulous reason for traveling with another artist ... you can discuss how those design concepts could be translated into paper).

Our biggest surprise was to find that this Museum is home to The Henry Darger Study Center.  Unbeknown to us prior to this trip, Lauren & I had both watched In the Realms of the Unreal: The Mystery of Henry Darger and were familiar with his story & art.  What an unexpected treat to see it in person.

I also loved this very cool button tree.

 

Next we walked around the area searching for a lunch local.  We finally settled on Chom Chom where we had Kapas (Korean Tapas) that was as beautiful as it was delicious.  These are some of the vegetable rolls we tried, along with shrimp dumplings and Japchae (sautéed Korean sweet potato noodles with beef & assorted vegetables).

Our original plan was to head to The Frick & Asia Society, but I was pretty much museumed out at this point, so instead we did some shopping at the MOMA Design Store & Gift Shop (I found some awesome Washi Paper Masking Tape) and then headed to Momofuku for some pie & cookies to take back to the hotel with us.  

I opted for the infamous Crack Pie (toasted oat crust, gooey butter filling) and a Compost Cookie (pretzels, potato chips, coffee, oats, butterscotch, chocolate chips) for the plane ride home.  Lauren went for the Candy Bar Pie (chocolate crust, caramel, peanut butter nougat, pretzels).  Here's a picture of the FrankenPie (a pie made up of 2 slices of each pie).

We rested at the hotel for a while, enjoyed our pie, and got mostly packed for our morning departure.  Then we headed out for some shopping.  

Our first stop was Toho Shoji Craft and Parts.  That is where I got this very cool butterfly.

Our second stop was M&J Trimming ... talk about creativity overload.

:

I got some different colors of waxed linen thread and some very fun pom pom trim. 

Next we sat on a sidewalk ledge near our hotel for a while in the absolutely perfect cool evening air and watched the people walking home from work.  I was already getting a bit sad thinking about our fun adventure drawing to a close.  We finished with one more walk around the area and supper at an Irish restaurant (which was really our only so-so meal of the trip, and even it was good ... just not as fabulous as every single other food experience).  Here I am hanging out in Bryant Park.

Here are a few more of my favorite pictures fro the trip.  Loved these super cool pants I saw on a patron at the The Met (where even the patrons are works of art).

Self-portrait taken at The Met ... love that amazing textile behind the mirror.

This amazing metalwork from The Met.

 The Artists' Displays (and hot dog vendor) in front of The Guggenheim.

 Thank for sharing my very fun trip with me.

 PS ~ Jacksonbelle Embellishments has 25% off this weekend to celebrate National Scrapbook Day ... go forth & shop.

PPS ~ I was excited to see my Bubble Wrap Butterflies card was chosen as a Ginger Gem for the Take on a Tutorial Challenge at the Gingersnap Creations blog.

Thursday Link Love

Another great week for blogland discoveries:

• Some very cool sewing-themed free digi-downloads 
• And how about some beautiful printable Red Dahlia Paper
• This Stove-Top Casserole sounds like ultimate comfort food to me.
• Here's a great tutorial to make a very fun bracelet from tiny spools.
• A great video tutorial on how to make spiral paper flowers.
• And another great tutorial for creating crocheted scrunchies ... perfect for little girls (or big girls) who like to wear ponytails.
• Love the idea of torn paper collage ... makes me think about magazines in a whole new light.  This one is by Jane of Random Arts ... you can see more here.
• An adorable punch art owl ... perfect for graduation cards.
• A fabulous collection of on-line vintage ephemera.
• Love these pictures of vintage soda pop packaging ... brings back wonderful memories of when my Papa would give us change so we could pull an ice cold glass bottle out of the soda pop machine.

Happy Thursday.

If the Crown Fits ...

Here's another card from the Artistic Outpost Wonderland Collage for the Botanical Challenge at Gingersnap.  I stamped the Alice Collage in India ink on yellow designer paper from Pink Paislee's 360 Degree collection.  

Alice's dress and crown were paper pierced & the trellis and flowers were colored with Prismacolor pencils.  The crown from the set was stamped multiple times to create the background design. I finished with some dark purple ribbon and some sparkle pen on Alice's necklace.

You can see more Wonderland Collage cards in the gallery.

How Tweet & Krafty

Today's Challenge at the Jacksonbelle Embellishments Blog is to make a card with a kraft base.  I combined papers from Basic Grey Urban Prairie with a Maya Road Kraft Journaling Tag.  The great sketch is from Friday Sketchers.

I stamped a little Hero Arts Bird on the Journaling card in Black and clear embossed.  I finished with a punched heart and Zva Creative Pearl Flourishes.  I cut off one tiny pearl from the end of the flourish to decorate my tiny bird.  My mother-in-law loves birds, so I think this will be her Mother's Day card.

This card also works for the Trees & Leaves challenge at the Lots to Do Blog.

Can't wait to see what you make when you get krafty.  Just link up to the post or use keyword JBE103 if you upload to a gallery. 

Create Joy

As soon as I saw Kazan's Sketch at 2 Sketches 4 You, I knew I had to break out another Stampotique lady for their It's a Girl Thing! challenge.  This sassy gal is called The Crafter with Scissors in one hand and what looks like a paper heart in the other.  She seemed perfect to pair with Cosmo Cricket Material Girl papers. The ink is the new Punch Chalk Ink from Hero Arts.

My step-mom collected vintage buttons, and before leukemia claimed her life much too early, she gave a lot her buttons to me to use in my creative endeavors. Whenever I use them, I always remember our many happy times together with a smile.   I thought this pretty pearl button was the perfect accent to pair with the fun button background paper.  

I nested the button on top of a green clipiola for Allison's Everything Old is New Again Clippy Challenge & grounded the panel with a piece of measuring tape paper.  I thought about several sentiments and finally settled on Create Joy from Hero Arts ... because isn't that what we all try to do when we create.

New York City ~ Day 3

Day Three in NYC began with an early morning ride on the Staten Island Ferry (which by the way had one of the best & cheapest gift shops we found on our trip ... great postcards).  The winds were cool, but I braved them and stood on the bow of the ferry for the entire ride out and back ... I loved it.  This is a shot of the other ferry heading back out to Staten Island with Lady Liberty in the background.

Here was my closest shot of the Statue.

And one of me with the wind in my hair.

And one of the view of NYC as we were heading back.

Next stop was Dim Sum Go Go to meet up with the rest of our crew for the Foods of New York tour of Chinatown.  This is me with our fabulous guide Raheem.

The dumplings we had at Dim Sum Go Go were worth the entire price of the tour ... seriously, best I've ever experienced.  If you live within driving distance ... Go Go there.  There are no carts here ... everything is made fresh to order, and it tastes that way.

We tried these five fabulous dumplings ...

With these three amazing sauces.  I refrained from licking the bowls, but I seriously thought about it.  Next we headed to  Peking Duck House for ... of course ... authentic Peking Duck.

We then had some bubble tea and learned about Chinese herbs and medicine.

Followed by barbecue pork, scallion pancakes, and a Chinese Tiger Roll for dessert.  We ended our tour with some delicious plum tea.  Very fun, delicious, and informative way to spend an afternoon.

We did some shopping at Pearl Paint (some beautiful handmade papers, but otherwise severely understocked) & Pearl River before heading to the West Village to check out The Ink Pad (seriously, did you think we wouldn't go there???).

I have never experienced such efficient use of retail space in my life.  Every possible corner (including ribbon rolls hanging from the ceiling was filled with creative goodness ... and they also shipped my goodies home to me.

And since we were already in the neighborhood, we headed to Tea & Sympathy for delicious supper.  Lauren was also able to get her Sticky Toffee Pudding fix ( I had my warm custard on delicious chocolate cake).

We decided to end our day with a night-time trip to the Top of the Rock.  The City lights are so magical at night.

A view toward the river.

Empire State building on the left ... the bright lights of Times Square on the right.

The view looking down to St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Lauren & I hanging out while a very nice lady not only took our picture, but who also took the time figure out how to make the flash work on my camera (I had it turned off for all of the museum photos & couldn't figure out how to make it work again).    

And one last artsy self-portrait taken in the reflection of the Swarovski Exhibit at the top of the rock.  What a very full & amazing day we had. 

   

Do Your Own Thing

I have been admiring these Stampotique images from afar for quite some time.  I finally took the plunge and added several to my collection.  I thought Moth Fab would be perfect for a Moxie Fab Sketch challenge.

I colored her with Shimmerz Glitter paint and added some metallic rub-ons to her hair and the background (image & background are both Cosmo Cricket Storytime Chicken LIttle paper).  Her speech bubble is from Inque Boutique's Quotopia set.  I free-cut the bubble and edged it with Copper Metallic paint pen.

This card is also for the Stampotique Designers challenge to make a Girly Girl themed design.  This is a girly girl that rocks. 

{enjoy today}

 When I saw the color challenge & beautiful jewelry that inspired it at The Play Date Cafe, I realized it would be perfect to highlight this wonderful butterfly embellishment I purchased at Toho Shoji when we were in New York City.  

I also manged to incorporate some of the cool Washi Paper Masking Tape that I got at the Museum of Modern Art Design Store (love how it's translucent, so the pattern of the paper shows through).

The sketch is this week's Card Patterns (I love the simplicity & how it really allows you to features the background and a single 'wow' element).

The sentiment is a favorite from CatsLife Press and the background paper is from the October Afternoon Weathervane Collection called New Pencils.  Here's a close-up of that fabulous Butterfly (it was only $1 and I am now wishing I'd picked up a few more).

Enjoy Today! 

New York City ~ Day 2

We ate breakfast at the hotel Sunday morning.  Lauren brought along some delicious dried cherries, which were the perfect add-in to our oatmeal.  After that we headed out to go explore some museums, but as we rounded the corner on 6th Avenue, this is what we saw (and heard) coming down the street.

It was a NYC Police Department parade complete with color guard and bagpipes.  We never did figure out the occasion for the display, but we think it may have been to celebrate the new class of graduates from the police academy.  

After the last officer marched buy, we headed to the subway to take us to the Guggenheim Museum.  Since I watched the Ken Burns film about the life of Frank Lloyd Wright, I have really wanted to experience this place in person, and it didn't disappoint. 

Unfortunately, no pictures in this museum either except from the ground floor.

The words on the posts were part of the "Contemplating the Void" exhibit in which the Guggenheim Museum invited nearly two hundred artists, architects, and designers to imagine their dream interventions in the rotunda space.

The main exhibit was a photography exhibit called Haunted.  We decided to start at the top of the museum and work out way down (which it turned out meant we viewed the exhibit in reverse order) ... it was such an amazing view to be able to see art 360 around you ... truly magical for me. 

After that, we headed to Cafe Fledermaus in the basement of the Neue Galerie.  We had delicious Gulaschsuppe mit Erdäpfeln (Goulash Soup with Potatoes), Spätzle mit Schwammerln, Erbsen, Karotten & Estragon (Spätzle with Wild Mushrooms, Peas, Carrots and Tarragon), and Brezen & Händelmaier‟s (Pretzel with some of the best mustard I've ever had ... I refrained from licking the bowl).  We drank some delicious Mango – Ingwer Eistee (Mango-Ginger Iced Tea) ... and of course, we had to have dessert.

Yes, these tasted even better than they looked.  We tried the Rehrücken (Chocolate Marzipan Cake with house made Orange Confiture) and Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (Chocolate Cake with Cream & Cherries) ... both scrumptious.

After our tummies were full, we headed to The Met to walk it off.  Here Lauren & I are hanging out with a Sphinx.

This was the most comprehensive museum I have ever experienced ... art from so many countries and periods.  This Tiffany Fountain was amazing. 

Even the storage at The Met was gorgeous.

I loved the modern art exhibit.  Here's Lauren hanging out with Mao.

 

and me with Lucas (by Chuck Close).

One of my favorite exhibits was a collection of works by Richard Hamilton.

After The Met, we walked to Ciao Bella for some delicious gelato.  We did some window shopping and stopped in Dean & Deluca before boarding the subway to head back to the hotel.

We decided on Hungarian food at Dervish for supper.  We had a wonderful meal of stuffed eggplant, stuffed grape leaves, and an appetizer sampler.

 
 Another fabulous, and very full day, exploring NYC.