Ingenious Inkling

Feet Dangling Over the Side

When I saw the current Paper Crafts Third Go-To Sketch Challenge, I decided to see if I could make one more card out of the circle stickers from the 7 Gypsies 97% Complete Collection (you can see the first two cards here).  

I found eight stickers related to love that I thought would work for an anniversary card.  Since the colors were so varied due to the stickers coming from multiple collections, I tied them together by grounding each on a  1 1/4" circle punched from dark brown paper & using the same brown paper for my card base.  The background is Basic Grey Manila (love this stuff).

I used another sticker for the sentiment (click through for larger view) ... it says, "Then we sat on the edge of the earth with our feet dangling over the side, and marveled that we had found each other. ~ Erik Dillard" ... love that.   

Quick, easy & a fun way to use up those leftover stickers.

Eggstra Special

A nearby town recently passed a backyard chicken ordinance, and this card is for a friend who was one of the first to add a a chicken coop to her large garden lot.  I didn't have a chicken stamp, so I printed this hen from downloaded clip-art on some brown cardstock and added some color with Prismacolor pencils.

 
I used this week's Get Sketchy Sketch and Basic Grey Max & Whiskers papers for the layout.  The sentiment is from My Favorite Things What's Crackin'? set stamped on Basic Grey Manila paper (the pattern reminded me of chicken wire) & used a square punch to create the sentiment flag.

This card also works for the Corrosive Challenge to make a card related to food ... what better food than farm fresh eggs.

More Masculine Cards

I decided to use up the rest of the Fancy Pants Papa Card set for two more quick and easy masculine designs.  Stampers Anonymous Dance of Life was stamped directly on the journaling card with dark brown chalk ink.  I added a few layers and a couple of punched borders, and I was done.

The second card features another journal card.  Since the sentiment was about the journey, I stamped the Hero Arts Postage background & used a couple of corner punches to finish this simple design.

 Now I have a quick gift set ready to go.

Snoring World Champion

I loved this week's Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger, a card by Jessica Witty from PaperCrafts Card Creations.  

I loved the layout; how the elements were unified by using the same image/color for each background square; and how Betsy mentioned using the layout to feature some of those "filler" embellishments left in our stashes.

I think I own every single sticker page from the 7 Gypsies 97% Complete Collection.  Most are half used, but I just can't bear to part with what is left.  This layout was the perfect opportunity to use some more.

Each sheet has five 1" circle stickers, so I went through all of the pages and found 9 that would work together for a Father's Day card (with Snoring Wold Champion as my favorite ~ click through for a bigger view to read the tiny print).  I punched 1 1/4" squares from a light linen cardstock to unify the mixtures of colors in the stickers.  I the mounted the squares on a scrap of brown Cosmo Cricket DP.  I finished with some knotted Silver Sage Twill tape, which also helps unify the color palette.

I liked the result so much, I decided to make a second card using the same stickers for a sister-themed design.  This time I used black squares on the linen cardstock base.

Rather than use ribbon on this design, I used more of the sentiment sticker strips to finish the design.  What a fun way to combine stickers from multiple sets into a cohesive design.  

Be A Good One

It's a Virtual Stamp Night weekend at Splitcoast Stampers and the theme is "All May's Showers".  This card is for the WaterMark Challenge (keyword MAY10VSND) hosted by Kelly.  I used Champagne Versamark to stamp the Scratched Grid Backgrounder on my card base, but as sometimes can happen, the ink didn't react with the cardstock that I used, so I ended up clear embossing it to bring out the texture.

The rest of the card is a from the rest of the Papa Card set page by Fancy Pants.  I used this week's Unscripted Sketch for my masculine design.  I used two different star punches and my favorite Dotted Wave Border from EK Success.

Spring Saturday

I went to the Farmer's Market this morning & remembered to take my camera.  I enjoyed a fresh Apple Cider Donut for breakfast ...

Picked up some wonderful spring onions ... 

... and of course, some tomatoes.  I always buy the "uglies" ... I sort of feel sorry for them ... and they taste just as yummy.

On my way home, I stopped and admired my neighbor's flower garden.  I feel so blessed to live so close to a master gardener and her beautiful flowers.  The poppies are in bloom, which is one of my favorite times of the year.

... and of course the daisies

and a rogue poppy living among the daisies ...

... and some trailing roses too.

I think this is lupine, but I'm not entirely sure.  Thanks to the reader who advised this is Foxglove aka Digitalis.

She even has a wonderful sitting circle in the middle where you can relax and enjoy the beauty around you.

Summer Tomatoes

This week's SCS Inspiration Challenge comes from the online store of Crate & Barrel ... pages and pages of serious eye candy.  I chose this great Tomato Vine Dishtowel as my inspiration.  I loved the vivid colors and how the tomato plant took front & center in the design.

I stamped the Tomatoes image from Impression Obsession on yellow Basic Grey Origins designer paper with India ink and clear embossed.  Then I repeated three more times (2 times on green Origins DP and once on red Basic Grey Fruitcake DP).  

I cut all around the outside of the first green image.  Next, I cut out the red tomatoes and paper pieced them on top of the green.  Finally, I cut out the green stems and pieced them on top of the tomatoes ... perfect busy work while watching TV.  I finished with a little colored pencil shading to add some depth (and cover a few boo boos).

I added  a black border to my panel and angled a rectangle of Fruitcake DP underneath.  The sentiment is from PaperTrey Ink's Green Thumb set.

I thought this card was perfect for the Order of the Opus Gluei challenge to make a card with a Seasonal Icon ... nothing says summer to me like fresh garden tomatoes (and oh my goodness you have to click through and check out the awesome blog banner they made using Gina's Of the Water digital kit). 

I hope you find inspiration.

... and Many More

I used this week's Get Sketchy sketch to make a quick masculine birthday card for a co-worker.

 
Paper is two-sided Papa Card Set by Fancy Pants (solid on card base and message card in the middle & another cut-up for center border).  I finished with a sentiment from Hero Arts Essential Messages and a sticker from SRM Stickers (for their Celebrate Life challenge). 

Thursday Link Love

Another fun week of skipping through the Blogosphere:

• This tutorial reminded me of when we used to make Cinnamon Toothpicks in grade school.
• What a fun idea to use a carved pencil eraser to stamp your own bunting.
• I ordered a Bobble to take with me to the gym ... extra incentive to drink more water.
• A super-easy & super-fun idea for making your own fabric tape.
• Amazing scrapbook pages made with Cosmo Cricket papers & embellishments ... the detail astounds me.
• Love this idea for combining paint with a a tracing wheel for some awesome faux stitching.
• Rinchies ... round inchies ... who knew you could fit so much art into such a tiny space.
• I made Beef Lombardi Casserole for my lunches this week (using less cheese with a mix that included freshly grated local Parmesan/Blue Cheese from Acoustic Farms) ... I love have individual servings of meals to take on the go.
• Flower-making techniques are everywhere lately ... here's a tutorial for some very funky fabric flowers (as seen in the picture).
• I love creating with butterflies ... and here's a gallery of pictures of real butterflies to inspire you.
• Artistic Outpost released three great new sets ... and you can get 15% off one (or all) of them using keyword SUMMER2010 at checkout.
• I think I need a fun little gnome for my flower garden.
• What a cool background tutorial using texture paste.
• Roni's new adorable short haircut has me thinking about cutting my hair shorter for summer.
• Getting excited about my annual stamping store trip to Chicago coming up soon ... any other places we should try to hit during a whirlwind day?
• Love this sketch card winner ... what a great combination of patterns and elements.

Happy Thursday!

Flourished Thank You

This week's Jacksonbelle Challenge is Black Accents ~ make a card with 1 neutral color, 1 other color, and black.  I love the creamy golden yellow papers in October Afternoon's Thrift Shop collection with the pop of black.  Use keyword JBE107.

The DP squares are 1 1/2" inches & the sentiment is from SRM Stickers.  I finished with Zva Creative flourishes.  I seldom use the entire flourish as it is packaged.  In fact this one is actually pieced together from three different parts.  I love their great versatility.

For more inspiration, be sure to check out the blogs of all of the Jacksonbelle Rockstars!

Dawn Lusk

Julie Lacey

Heather Pulvirenti

Windy Robinson

Amy Tsuruta

Pam Varnell

Lynda Benden

Tobi Crawford

Jill Dunn

Heather Lee-Reppen

Shemaine Smith

Lindsey Botkin