Ingenious Inkling

Etsy Inspired Challenge ~ EmenGee Designs

This week's store for the Etsy Inspired Challenge (EIC98) is EmenGee Designs (which stands for M & G, aka Monica and Grace, the designers).  They have been inseparable friends since they were 14 years old, and now design together for their store.  My card was inspired by this cute little hand embroidered & hand stamped mini clasp purse.

I used a digital stamp called It's A Dragon Fly Day from this week's Challenge Sponsor Robyn's Fetish Digital Stamps.  

Robyn's Fetish Digital Stamps is a division of I Did It Creations owned by Robyn Weinrib.  It is a paper craft shop with its own forum, designed to bring women together in order to showcase their talents & share their creations. One winner of this challenge will receive 3 Robyn's Fetish digital stamps of their choice.  Another winner will receive this adorable Bumble Bees in a Honeycomb mini clasp purse from EmenGee.

I overlaid the Dragon Fly image with a background paper from Vera Lim Design's Live Laugh Love Kit before printing out the square on Neenah Classic Solar White cardstock.   Next, I used Prismacolor Pencils and Spica Glitter Pens to color in the image.

I combined the colored image with K&Company Que Sera Sera papers and a birthday sentiment from Paper Source using the sketch from Everything But the Kitchen Sink.

In just two short weeks, the Etsy Inspired Challenge will be having a very special celebration for our 100th Challenge.  Each designer will be giving away a prize from sponsors that include Unity, Lawn Fawn, Limelight Papercrafts and Charleston Scrapbook Company.  The grand prize winner will get a prize package of 100 items to celebrate our 100th challenge.  Make sure you join us on August 7th for all of the fun.

And don't forget to check out the rest of the Design Team creations for even more inspiration:

Ashley

De

Emily B

Emily N

Joy

Kerry

Savannah

Virginia

Heather (July Guest Designer)

Simple Pleasures

This weeks SplitCoast Stampers Inspiration Challenge comes from Novica.  My card was inspired by this amazing wooden mask called Peace in the Garden by artist Gung Gus.

I was inspired by the combination of the Buddha with flowers and butterflies, as well as the colors.  I stamped the Buddha face from Artistic Outpost's Thai Buddha plate in India Ink on a piece of butterfly and floral designer paper.  I also stamped the butterfly from AO's Happiness and sentiment from AO's Lovely Day.

I used this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch with scraps of paper from Basic Grey and K&Company, as well as a black cardstock mat.  I finished with some of my favorite May Arts ribbon and a Velvet Butterfly colored with Memories Mist and Glimmer Mist.  To get more intense color on the raised portions of the butterfly, I sprayed with the mists, then picked up the butterfly with tweezers and rubbed the raised areas in the extra puddles of spray in my spray box.

I hope you find inspiration. 

Thursday Link Love

Another fun week of finding treasures around the Internet:

• Love this idea of using marshmallows to "frost" a cupcake.
• I want several of the necklaces from Lulu Bug Jewelry ... but especially this one ... what a great message.
• These flour & sugar drawers with glass fronts are going into my "wish list" file for my future dream kitchen.
• One of my favorite things to spend time doing when I was young was cooking in my "play kitchen" with stove, refrigerator and plastic dishes & food.  I love this idea for making your own "play kitchen" from an old entertainment center ... fabulous.
• Love this fun blog ~ Ikea Hacker ~ that shows the things people make from Ikea purchases ... one of my favorites was a tray covered with travel brochures, maps & ticket stubs.
• A great idea for getting more use out of your Martha Stewart border punches ... present decorations.
• Some tips for taking better pictures for your blog.
• Have friends (or your own garden) blessed you with an abundance of zucchini ... here are some recipe ideas for using it up.
• Love this idea for storing colored pencils.
• GingerLoft has some free digital stamps you can download (love the ice skater), as well as some unique digital images for purchase.
• Love this wonderful banner ... this would be so great to make for a wedding shower or baby shower.
• A wonderful tutorial on using PhotoShop's Blending Modes ... with amazing results.
• How about some free downloadable book plates ... I think these would also be adorable to print as cards or post cards.
• And how about making gift bags from newspapers ... what a fun way to recycle.

Enjoy your Thursday.

Party At My Crib

I needed a larger baby shower card for a group gift, so I used this week's Unscripted Sketch with Memory Box papers.  If you make projects using 3 of the July Sketches at Unscripted, you'll be entered for a chance to win some great prizes for their Christmas in July Celebration.

The images from Darcie's Small Beginnings are stamped in Blackberry Chalk ink.  I added some Washi Paper Making Tape and adhesive pearls to the corners to finish the design.   I love how the sheerness of the tape lets some of the paper pattern show through.

Sending You Sunshine

In keeping with the July Heat Theme at the Gingersnap Creations Blog, today's Random Redhead Challenge is Sunshine.  I love the bright hot colors of the DeLovely Collection by Cosmo Cricket, so I used papers and elements from the DeLovely Paper Crafting Kit m to create my sunny card.

I used the chick for the inside of my sun, and then cute strips of paper and attached stickers or smaller strips of paper to the center of the sun's rays.  The sentiment is from DeNami Designs.

Tuesday News

Always a great way to start the day ... my DeLovely Moxie Fab card was indeed declared to be a Trigger Target at the Moxie Fab World Blog, as well as being in the Super Six at Card Patterns.

  Hope your day is Moxie Fab too.

Dharma Initiative Birthday

I've been mulling over ideas for a birthday card for my nephew for several days, and when I saw the Dare to Get Dirty Challenge to make a card with a television show theme, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

He loves LOST (and loves beer), so what better than a Dharma Initiative-themed beer label design.  I also used Dirty Girl Rainy's Sketch for my design.

 
I printed the Dharma Initiative Beer Label from the Internet and dirtied it up using Old Paper and Tea Dye Distress inks (the white paper was too bright for the vintage vintage magazine page about airplanes (ala Oceanic Flight 815) that i used for my base paper.  

The constellation paper & sentiment border design are from DCWV's Natural Matstack and a scrap of Graphic 45's Shutter Speed paper.  I finished with a sentiment from DRS Designs & two metal leaf brads (because there were certainly a lot of leaves on the island). 

As I have said before, one of my favorite things about making cards is that I can always make the "perfect" card for any occasion.  

PS ~ Don't forget, there's a $30 DeNami gift certificate & a $25 Mermaid's Tears gift certificate up for grabs for this week's Etsy Inspired Challenge ... what are you waiting for ... go create.

Velvet Jailbird Halloween

I had a great week of vacation in Missouri with family, but today it was a return to reality with unpacking, laundry, and all of that fun post-vacation stuff.  I finally had a little time to create in my studio before the end of the day, so I decided to try the Embellish Magazine color challenge with Ric Rac.

I started by seeing what color of ric rac I had in my stash, and this orange velvet ric rac was the only one I had in this color palette, so that is where I started my design.  I found this Doodlebug DP that matched the Ric Rac (the base piece is velvet flocked to go with my velvet ric rac) and a scrap of turquoise paper from Basic Grey to go with the Brown & Kraft cardstock.  I used this week's CPS sketch.

I stamped the Inkadinkado Jailbird Halloween in Dark Brown ink on the turquoise DP and again on a piece of orange DP.  I paper pieced the birds and quickly put the design together.  My orange is a titch more vibrant than the color palette sample, but I think it works with this shade of turquoise.  

Here's another favorite photo from our trip that also features some vibrant orange.

Enjoy the week!

Etsy Inspired Challenge ~ Mermaid's Tears Jewelry

This week's Etsy Inspired Challenge comes from the wonderful store ~ Mermaid's Tears Jewelry. The legend of Mermaid's Tears says that the tears (or sea glass) were created by mermaids who sobbed for the tears of sailors lost at sea.  As their tears hit the water, they turned to these magical pieces of frosted glass.  Lovely nurtured by the ocean; tossed and churned; pounded by surf; and rumbled across pebbles to create an amazing piece of beautiful history. 

I chose this lovely Smokey Grey Sea Glass Necklace with Owl Pendant to inspired my card. I loved the silver owl with the soft grey color palette and pearls, so that is what I incorporated into my design.

The papers are from DCWV Green Stack, which seemed perfect since she is recycling this bits of discarded glass into wonderful second-life creations.

I sponged the edges with Snow White ink to soften the colors and added a Zva Creative Pearl flourish cut into several pieces to work with my design.  I stamped "you're a hoot!" from Hero Arts underneath the owl to finish the design.

The sponsor for this week's challenge is none other than the fabulous DeNami Design.  They will give one lucky participant a $30 Gift Certificate.  DeNami was one of the very first stamp companies I fell in love with years ago, and their designs are just as classic today.  Some of the images on my wish list include this Large Winter Tree (how fun would that be to decorate with all sorts of leaves and things), this gorgeous Let It Snow Background (I'm seeing this using alcohol ink resist and lots of glimmer), and any of their sentiments, which are some of the best around.  

So what are you waiting for?  Go get inspired by Mermaid's Tears Jewelry and you'll also have a chance to win any item from the store up to $25 ... how fun!

And don't forget to check out the rest of the Design Team creations for even more inspiration:

Ashley

De

Emily B

Emily N

Jackie

Joy

Kerry

Savannah

Virginia

Heather (July Guest Designer)

Thursday Link Love

I'm off traveling this week, so haven't had a lot of time to go link hunting ... but here are a few favorites I found:

• Love this Broccoli Salad ... but somehow this version seems like it would be even more yummy with those big pieces of bacon and dried cranberries.
• Caramel Cracker Bars ... I haven't made these in ages, but seeing these yummy photos makes me want to make them soon.
• And I want to buy a donut pan just so I can make these Baked Apple Donuts.
• Would love to have something like this reclaimed wood & pipe shelving unit in my house.
• I love stumbling upon blogs ... like sfgirlbybay ... that have such amazing photos ... so inspiring (photo on the post is from this site).
• Here's a fun idea for using your favorite papers to make a whimsical summer wreath.
• How about some more fun fonts (can you ever have too many fonts??)
• Love this house with its amazing pops of color and touches of texty design ... and how fun is the poster over the desk.
• These tissue paper hydrangea pins are amazing ... and what a great way to use up all of those left-over pins & buttons we all have stashed somewhere.

Enjoy the day.