Ingenious Inkling

Together in the Same Direction

Tonight I needed to make a wedding card, and realized I have no wedding stamps in my collection.  In the past when I've needed to make cards for a wedding, I have always borrowed from my best stamping friend's stash, but tonight it was short notice, so I needed to make do with what I had.  

So I went with one of my stamping theories ... when in doubt, go with a sentiment ... this one about Love is from Verses.

This week at the Sweet Sunday Sketch the challenge is to pick a sketch from the archives.  Since I always enjoy seeing how things began, I went with the very first sketch from January 2009 with Magical Wishes papers from Webster's Pages.

I finished with some layered punched hearts.

Thursday Link Love

More fun finds from the land of blogs:

• Love this idea for storing acrylic stamp sets.
• I love foods that combine sweet with salty ... and this Texas Brittle looks amazing.
• Nicole's Owl Towels are just toooooooo stinkin' cute.
• A fun tutorial for making a super-cute monkey face.
• I have this cool new stamp maker on my wish list.
• When I read magazines, I tear out any pages that interest or inspire me and save them in clear binder pages for future reference.  I love this idea of turning those pages into fabulous wall art.
• Love the way Rebecca turned a Bingo card into a Halloween card by using bats for place markers ... very clever.
• How about this fantastic fall wreath Vicki made from scraps ... ♥ it.
• Very cool tutorial for turning a second hand table into a jewelry organizer ... i really need one of these.
• Love these awesome Kirigami Fall Decorations ... I think a smaller version would be awesome on the front of a card.
• My husband loves the classic refrigerator Bran Muffins ... I think I'll have to give this healthier version a try.
• Love Alissa's amazing pages documenting something she learns each day ... it inspires me to remember that each day has something to teach me.
• I'm feeling inspired by this fabulous 3-D texty art ... and this leaf carving is nothing short of amazing.

Happy Thursday!

Hair Had Always Been Important

Tonight I needed to make a birthday card for a co-worker whose very first job was selling beauty supplies ... and who we love to tease about "the good old days".

This vintage image from Artistic Outpost's Hair Is Important was just perfect for the occasion.

I used this Kazan's Sketch 62 from 2 Sketches 4 You together with the Act 49 of the Curtain Call Color Challenge, which were great for a masculine design.  I love how the design of the curtain in the stamped image is similar to the patterns of some of the fabric in the stack.

I stamped the image in Blackbird Chalk ink on Vanilla cardstock and added highlights of colors from the color palette with colored pencils.

I'm a Ginger

I'm so excited to announce that I am one of the newest members of the Gingersnap Creations Design Team.  

Check out all of the awesome creative souls I have the joy of designing with:

Creative Team Founding Femmes:

Alison Manning - New England Stamper
Sharon Briss - Ill Tempered Ink

The Gingers:

Dan - My Crafty Life
Debby Boltman - Debby's Stuff
Helene Huber - Lotsa Scrap
Jean Franks Beck - Bluebird Paperie
Jo Capper-Sandon - Jo Blogs
Joanne Wardle - Made by Joanne
Jules Eickmeier - A Toast to Altered Art
Katy Fox - Postcards From the Attic
Laura Liddell - As Happy As...
Linda Ledbetter - Studio L3
Lynn Stevens - Trash to Treasure Art
Penny Bennington - A Penny for Your Thoughts
Petra Berendsen - Kunterbunt Cottage
Stephanie Severin - Ingenious Inkling
Suzanne Brookfield - Simply Scrapbooking Memories

Contributing Artist Team:

Hels Sheridan - Ink on My Fingers
Jennie - The Artistic Stamper
Lucy Edmondson - True Colours

Winter Wonderland

Here's another holiday card made with images from Artistic Outpost's Sleigh Ride stamps for the Christmas Stamping All Year Long Challenge.  This week's challenge is to be inspired by a holiday photo ... I picked up on all of the wonderful reds in the holiday image, as well as the ribbon bows on the Christmas tree.

I stamped the sentiment and holly leaf flourish in Versamark on white cardstock and sponged with various colors of red distress inks.  I added tiny pink pearls for "berries" with the holly leaves and finished with wide ivory sheer ribbon.

You Make Me Wanna Hoot!

I found a fun new challenge this week ... Cupcake Inspiration. Who doesn't love a cupcake? This week's inspiration comes from these adorable owl cupcakes from Cotton Candy Bakeshop.

The owls reminded me of this free Cutie Hootie download from MeredithF.  It was perfect for this week's Sketch For You to Try.

I printed the card element on ivory cardstock and colored the crown with glitter pen.

The background paper is from October Afternoon's Fly A Kite Collection.  I stamped the Hero Arts Designer Woodgrain in brown on kraft cardstock for the other sketch elements.

I finished with a layered punched heart.

Happy Monday!

Order, Calm, and Clarity

The theme for this week's 52-Card Pick-up Challenge is Simplify.  Sue is giving away a page of sentiments that focus on this concept.  I built my design around this wonderful sentiment from Hero Arts Treasure the Moments.

Hero Arts Delicate Blossoms were stamped in India ink on white cardstock and again on a piece of K&Company Que Sera Sera paper.  Used my oval cutter cut cut around the flowers and then paper pieced each of the blooms, extending several beyond the frame.  I love the simple beautiful of these gorgeous blooms.

I used the same paper for the base of the card.  The sketch is this week's Order of the Opus Gluei.

Floral Journey

I love the colors of the Embellish Magazine Challenge ... so perfect for my favorite Pink Paislee Queen Bee papers.  

And since the theme is backgrounds, I broke out a fabulous large floral climbing blooms stamp I purchased from Impress, as well as adding a little French text background as well.

I used this week's 2 Sketches 4 You for my design.

The floral  image was stamped in Charcoal on the Pink Paislee paper.  I stamped off the French text background several times leaving a bit more ink along the bottom and top of the panel.

Next I added three sizes of tiny white pearls to the centers of the flowers.  I paper pieced several flowers on very pale yellow DP and added a black gem flower center.

I finished with a texty block sentiment attached with foam tape for dimension.  

It's Your Day

Last month, I was tearing apart a Kleenex box to throw it into the recycle bin and noticed that the inside of the entire box was metallic silver instead of the usually chipboard kraft.  So I decided to save the box, thinking that surely I could figure out something to make with metallic silver chipboard.

Well, quite a few weeks have passed, and that disassembled Kleenex box was still leaning against my work table (narrowly escaping disposal several times), when finally inspiration came with this week's Play Date Cafe Challenge.  I love this fabulous silver kitchen with the wonderful pops of color.

I used this week's Unscripted Sketch for a no-frills mailable masculine birthday card design.

I embossed the silver chipboard with Sizzix Gears embossing folder and punched a circle from the chipboard to frame my main image.  The green paper for the card base & paper-pieced chair is from Pink Paislee's Bayberry Cottage Collection.

I finished with one of my go-to masculine birthday card sentiments from A Muse.

Etsy Inspired Challenge ~ Indigo Twin

This week's Etsy Inspired Challenge (EIC107) comes from a very fun store called Indigo Twin.  The store is filled with one-of-a-kind paper clay folk art sculptures.  The Indogo Twins are Kirsten and Cortney, identical twin sisters who have always enjoyed creating art together.  

I fell in love with this wonky little Smiling Pumpkin Trio, so I used it to inspire my card design.

I stamped the large pumpkin from Artistic Outpost's Vintage Halloween three times with Indigo Ink on orange cardstock and clear embossed.  I cut out each pumpkin and used a white opaque pen to color in the eyes.  

To make my pumpkin stems, I rolled a piece of kraft cardstock into a tube using double sided tape at the end to hold it together.  I used a craft knife to cut a slit in the top of each pumpkin and then slid the stem inside, securing it from the back.  I twisted some copper wire to make a stem.  I used foam tape to attach the pumpkins, so I could shape them a bit for dimension.

I finished with the sentiment from the set and two ghost brads.  The background paper is from Reminisce.

This week's Etsy Inspired Sponsor is Black Leaf Studios.  They have all sorts of fun digital printables, including this cute little Flop Flops Clipart that will go to one lucky winner.

Another winner will get this cute little paper mache cupcake & set of four Sweet Cupcake Tags from Indigo Twin.

Make sure you stop by the other Design Team Member blogs to check out their inspired creations & use keyword EIC107 if you upload to a gallery:

Ashley

De

Emily B

Emily N

Joy

Kerry

Savannah

Virginia

Kim (September Guest Designer)