Ingenious Inkling

Double Distressed Holidays

It's been a while since I had time to play along with the Compendium of Curiousities Challenge, but the current technique of Double Distress caught my eye.  Turns out it is very easy & has quite a dramatic effect.  I used the Tim Holtz Alterations Ornamental for my tag embossed with the Sizzix Thin Ice Embossing folder with Fired Brick and Black Soot Distress Inks.  The sketch is this week's Two Sketches 4 You.

The sentiment is CatsLife Press decorated with an A Muse micro dot twinkle sticker.  The gorgeous ribbon arrived in my mailbox today all the way from Finland ... one of my dearest long-time friends saw it in her one of her favorite interior shops & thought I might like it for my cards ... is there any better gift than an unexpected surprise ... I think not ... oh yeah, and there was red licorice too ... yum.

This Tag is also for the Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge to make A Tag ... as well as Sue's 52-Card Pick-up Challenge.  This week's theme is "All the Small Things", which this sentiment sums up well ... the things I remember about the holiday's aren't the decorations or gifts ... it's the time spent laughing with family and friends that are the moments I remember and treasure.

Hip Not to Be Square

After my win at the The Shabby Tea Room, I was invited to Guest Design for their November 29th Challenge which is "Get In Shape" ... to make a card or project using no squares or rectangles.  After considering several possibilities, I found a package of Christmas Tree shaped cards from Studio G in the dollar bins at Michael's, and decided it would be fun to decorate those for the holidays.

The first one is for my sister, who loves purple.  I stamped the tree card with Hero Arts Magical Background in Silver and embossed with sparkle embossing powder.  I wrapped the tree (which was easy to do, since they opened by a fold on the top left section of the tree) using wired purple tinsel.  I finished with a few punched star.

The next one is stamped in black with pom-pom ribbon decorations and gold punched stars.

And this one uses strings of red beads (such a great project for those fun embellishments I bought because I loved them, but seldom use) with the background stamped in Versamark and embosessed with Dazzling Diamonds.

And for the last one, I decided to add a sentiment.  It was stamped in Warm Green with Hero Arts Holly Flourish background.  I used one of the other cards as the base for stamping the sentiment from Hero Arts Get Merry! & finished with punched gold stars.

And here's part of my little forest of trees all together.

Can't wait to see the fun shaped cards you create.

Zipper Tree Tag

Since I purchased two zippers when I went to the fabric store, I decided to create another Zipper Tree for the Moxie Fab World All Zipped Up! Challenge, but this time I made it into a tag.  I angled the zipper on the cardstock base working from the bottom to the top and then decorated it with two sizes of gold pearls.

The woodgrain of the trunk is Hero Arts Flower Wood Background and the sentiment is from Hero Arts Ink 'n' Stamp Merry Messages.

This is also for the Our Creative Corner Challenge to make a tag.

Stickles Storage

I was so thrilled that my Dad was able to join us for Thanksgiving this year.  In addition to the requisite turkey, stuffing, and sweet potatoes, he also removed our old dishwasher (not an easy feat since sub-flooring and tile had been laid after the original dishwasher installation) and installed a new one.  The only Black Friday shopping we did was a trip to Menard's for pieces and parts.  We (I say we ... I mostly just retrieve tools, hold the light & clean up, although I did paint the trim boards to go around the dishwasher) also installed a new kitchen electrical outlet by our island, replaced some caulk in the bathroom, and installed a new smoke detector.  

And of course, I had to throw a studio project in there too (see link to prior projects here).  I had seen several possible ideas for storing Stickles.  At first I thought I wanted to go this route, but then realized that counter-space is at a serious premium in my studio, so I would have no where to set it.  So instead, I decided to adapt this idea (see the very bottom picture in the post) to work in my space.

In my studio, I have a gorgeous oak china cabinet that stores lots of stamps, paper, buttons, etc.  I asked Dad if we could modify it to allow me to store my Stickles underneath the top cabinet.

We bought two 24" pieces of thin metal at the building supply store.  Dad pre-drilled eight holes in each before using the sheets as a template to drill the starter holes into the bottom of the china cabinet (it is made of solid oak, so it took some power tools to get this done).  We did play a little game of twister with me trying to hold the metal while he drilled in that tight space.

Here's what it looks like after both pieces are attached ... completely concealed unless you look underneath.

I glued magnets to the bottom of the Stickles bottles using E6000 adhesive.

And voila, Stickles storage.

Here's what it looks like after I returned my baskets of paper & stamps to their space.  

I love being able to make use of new bits of space in my studio ... and I love working on projects with my Dad.  And as a reward for all of our labors this weekend, we went to Duffy's Collectible Cars to check out the vintage vehicles ... a great way to spend the afternoon.

Etsy Inspired Challenge ~ Heartsong

This week's Etsy Inspired Challenge comes from Heartsong Fine Art, which features art created by physican turned artist, Laura Koniver.  Laura's passion is creating art that reconnects you to well-being.  She also offers on-line Health e-courses that do the same thing ... remind your spirit of its innate connection to health and healing (you can see Course Descriptions here & Blog here).  Laura believes that health and well-being are available to us at all times.   She's also offering a 20% discount in the store for Etsy Inspired followers ... just use the coupon code INSPIRED at checkout

I chose her beautiful bottle garland kit to inspire my design.  

This week's sponsor is Karber Digital Designs and they gave the team this wonderful Butterflies image to work with this week.

I used clipping masks to digitally paper piece my image and background and then added highlights with colored pencils after printing. I stamped the sentiment and little bird (which is also paper pieced with yellow DP) from Kim Hughes' Forest Friendzy to complete my design.

One lucky winner for this week's challenge will win two free digital images of your choice from Karber Digital Designs.  Another will win this lovely box of Fine Art Notecards from Heartsong.

Make sure you stop by the other Design Team Member blogs to check out their inspired creations & use keyword EIC116 if you upload to a gallery:

Ashley

De

Emily B

Emily N

Joy

Kerry

Savannah

Virginia

Angie (November Guest Designer)

Postoid People

The Creative Connection Challenge at the Gingersnap Creations Blog this month is Postoid People.

I thought this fun, sort of creepy, stamp I found in my collection was perfect to top Mr. Bones fromArtistic Outpost's Haunted Halloween.  I stamped him on Cosmo Cricket Wanted woodgrain paper and added lots of ink for shading to coordinate with the vibrant colors in the stamp.

After trying several sentiments, I finally decided on this one from Artistic Outpost's Paris Exposition which roughly translates to "What's Up".

Let's see how far we can spread this connection.  Once you have completed your Creative Connection art (CC#3) with a postoid person on your submission, upload it your own blog with a link to the blog where you first heard about this month’s Creative Connection and a link to this post with the following text:

“I am participating in a GC Creative Connection. I heard about this month’s GCCC - Only One - from {insert artist name here} of {insert referring blog name and link here}. Why not play along? Post a creation to your blog mentioning my post and the Creative Connection post on Gingersnap Creations. Let’s all craft it forward and see how far we can get this connection to go!”

I can't wait to see what you create.

Oh Zipper Tree, Oh Zipper Tree

I've had this idea in my head ever since Cath announced her All Zipped Up! Challenge on Moxie Fab World.  Today I finally had time to get the fabric store to get the zipper I needed to put it together.  I was hoping for a green zipper with gold teeth, but had to settle with what they had in stock, which was green-on-green.

The kraft cardstock base was stamped with Hero Arts Stunning Snowflakes using Champagne Versamark Dazzle ink, for the Simon Says Stamp Let it Snow Challenge.  I cut a triangle of cardstock for my Christmas tree base and attached pieces of the zipper moving from bottom to top.  I tied gold elastic cord into double knots and attached the "ornaments" with glue dots.

The tree trunk was stamped with Hero Arts Flower Wood Background and the stars were punched from a gold metallic recycled holiday card from last year (one of my favorite place to get recycled cards is from work because the business cards are often larger & metallic).  The sentiment from Hero Arts Holiday Sayings was stamped in Dark Brown.

You're a True Friend

After stamping the backgrounds for the two Jane's Countryside Cards, there were several "mis-stamped" pieces left over.  I decided to break out my 1" square punch and turn those leftovers into a card using my version of this week's CPS Sketch.  I think the images when featured this way take on an almost Oriental feel.

I mounted the squares on black cardstock and added the elegant fan and sentiment from the Jane's Countryside Set stamped on a vintage book page (the aging of my sentiment tag are all natural aging & no distress ink ... love htat).

Thursday Link Love

More fun finds from my blogosphere travels:

• Love this pretty bunting banner made of fabric samples.
• I also love maps ... and here are some vintage map downloads.
• And via Tsuruta Designs,  a Print Your Own calendar from My Owls Barn featuring lots of fabulous Owls.
• I've never tasted pumpkin I didn't like ... and this Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread looks divine.
• Love this classy clean and simple card design using snowflake punches for ornaments.
• Pugly Pixel & The Graphics Fairy got together and created an amazing Ephemera download.
• Check out this amazing wreath (pictured) made with Basic Grey Jovial papers ... those snowmen always make me smile.
• What a fabulous project making stars from vintage sheet music.
• And how about these big felt flower pins.
• I've always loved smooth worn rocks ... I have little stashes of them around my house ... I love this idea for adding fabric hearts to create a little keepsake.
• It's about time to replace my beloved Tonic 12' guillotine paper cutter ... this is the second one I've worn out (they start cutting wonky and I end up chopping cards up trying to get a straight line) and I'm thinking about upgrading to this Genesis cutter ... anybody used one?
• I got awesome key fobs like these for co-workers one year and they loved them ... I love the idea of those super-classy lanyards too.

Happy Turkey Day!

The Most Perfect Refreshment

One of my favorite things about the new Jane's Countryside Set from Artistic Outpost is how well the sentiments work with other Artistic Outpost images, in this case the house & large shade tree from The Outpost.

I have lots of other ideas for combining the great Jane Austen quotes in this set from other lovely images from Artistic Outpost.  This one uses this week's Eat, Sleep, Stamp Sketch, Basic Grey Capella papers, and some black Zva Creative flourishes.

Remember, Artistic Outpost is having a huge BlackFriday sale until November 30th.