Ingenious Inkling

Jingle Belles, Batman Smells

At Jingle Belles, we were thrilled when we found out our prompt fell on April Fool's Day this week ... a perfect opportunity for a Jingle Belles, Batman Smells Prompt ... yes, we're that silly ... sometimes we just sit and giggle at our own silliness ... trust me, it keeps you from taking life too seriously.

So this week' we're asking you to make a humorous holiday card ... it can be snarky, silly, or just plain laugh-out-loud funny.

I started with the fabulous Stella from Bugaboo Stamps because she always makes me giggle.

My card is completely colored using digital paper-piecing with digital papers.  You can watch Kristina's Video here ... or Allison's great tutorials here & here.  I love playing around with the colors and pattern-sizes in my papers (these were large polka-dot papers that I sized way down to work with the size of my image ... finished card is 5 1/2" square).

I finished by adding some stickles to the snowflakes and some colored pencil highlights to the design.

We hope you have fun this week ... use keyword JB14 for uploads to SCS or our Flickr Gallery ... click on over to Jingle Belles to check out Lauren's hilarious take on the LOLCats Christmas.

Secret Gate

This week's store at the Etsy Inspired Challenge is Fresh Metal Jewelry, a shop filled with fabulous statement necklaces.  I chose this Dahlia Fabric Flower Statement Bib Necklace in blacks and greys to inspire my card.

The necklace reminded me of the wonderful black flower ribbon I ran across the bottom of my card.  The streetscape image and sentiment are from a new set from Artistic Outpost called Windows & Doors.  To create my glowing moon, I punched a 1 1/4" circle and used it as a mask.  I sponged Yellow Citrus chalk ink for the base, and then added white & grey for shading.

Thursday Link Love

Some more fun finds from the world wide web:

• Love this great tutorial for paper flowers ... especially the one made with maps.
• A tutorial for a cool Monogram Sign made from pallet wood ... I'd love one of these for my garden.
• A very cute idea for serving healthy spring snacks.
• Design Seeds ... a great site for color inspiration.
• Chalkboard Painted Pots would brighten up the garden ... and you could write messages for the squirrels & birds.
• These beautiful embroidered book covers make me smile.
• A tutorial for making your own printer's tray from boxes.
• Beautiful woodgrain stamp in yellow ... makes me want to stamp wood in all sorts of colors.
• Ashley Barron's Illustrations (shown) make me smile.

Happy Thursday!

Four New Artistic Outpost Releases

Artistic Outpos is releasing four ... yes, you heard that right ... four fabulous new sets.  And for a limited time, if you buy all four & use keyword GATSBY at checkout, you'll get 15% off all four sets.  

All of the new stamp sets are available both as unmounted red rubber sheets for $14.00 or pre-cut and mounted on EZMount cling foam for $22.99 (I'm totally sold on the cling foam sets ... love having the images on a clear piece of plastic & love the perfect detail cut-out of the images.

First up is Gatsby which features Artistic Outpost's version of the main characters from The Great Gatsby in photograph style with deco backgrounds.

I love those great masculine images that are perfect for those harder-to-make masculine cards.  For this one I paired him with Graphic45 Streampunk Debutante Papers.  I finished with a several wraps of brown twine.  This card is also perfect for the Monochromatic Challenge at Catch the Bug.

Next up is Flapper Fashions, a wonderful collection of "flappers" and sentiments.  You will find the size of these dames are PERFECT for card making and mixed media projects.  

For this card I paired my classy lady with papers from Graphic45's Curtain Call Collection (a match made in heaven with this set, if I do say so myself).  I dressed her in beautiful teal from head-to-toe with colored pencils.

One of my favorite things about Artistic Outpost is how fun it is to combine images and sentiments from the different sets.  For this one, I used a sentiment from Song Birds, which fit perfectly with Jazz Music theme of my design.  This card is also for the Make Your Own Holiday Challenge at Card Ideas from the Heart ... my holiday is Song In Your Heart Day ... wouldn't we all be better if we celebrated that?

The next set, Windows & Doors features some beautiful background and focal images that coordinate wonderfully with many other Artistic Outpost images.

I stamped my window in a frame on a piece of 12" Basic Grey Periphery paper.  Then I repeatedly stamped the sentiment along the right side in various shades of blues and greys by stamping and inking again alternating between navy & charcoal to get various combinations of color intensity.  

I finished with a bit of red colored pencil on the flower boxes under the window and a gorgeous wrap of hand-dyed seam binding from Artistic Outpost's Attic Finds,  Since I wanted a smoother look for my ribbon, I pressed it between a slightly warm hair flattening iron ... works like a charm ... I absolutely love the subtle color variation in the beautiful blue dye.

The final set is another book-themed design ... Huck Finn is a collection of collage and illustration images featuring Huck, paddle boats, and that friend of his Tom Sawyer.  

I stamped the steamboat on the left side of my card (after stamping off once) to give it sort of a dreamy-in-the-fog look.  I created a log raft by rolling some craft cardstock and stamped it using parts of the boat to give it a wood-grain effect.  This card is also for the Book Club Challenge at Daring Cardmakers.

Huck and his dog were stamped separately on white cardstock, colored, and cut out with scissors and a craft knife to place them on the boat using foam tape for dimension.  Finally, the great sentiment was stamped on a  scrap of the background paper.  The design was finished with lots of sponging with Distress Inks.  

Remember, for a limited time, if you buy all four sets & use keyword GATSBY at checkout, you'll get 15% off the sets.  Make sure you skip on over to the blogs of the other Artistc Outpost Design Team members to see lots more amazing creations using these new stamps.

• Gerrie Johnnic
• Lisa Somerville
• Judy Hayes
• Lynn Stevens
• Barbara Washington
• Connie Paxman
• Suzanne Czosek
• Louise Granlund

You can also check out the Flickr Gallery to see all of the great creations for these releases.

Happy Spring!

Since the picture for this week's Moxie Fab World Blog Tuesday Trigger captures the hues found throughout my studio, I knew I had to play along ... bright, vibrant colors make me happy.

I found a final scrap of my favorite lime green velvet polka dot paper, so I made that the base of my design.  Next I added a wrap of wide, orange grossgrain ribbon (I got the entire 18 foot spool for fifty-cents at JoAnn's in the clearance bin ... another great thing about loving bright colors ... others often shy away from them, so you can find some great bargains).

I finished with a fun felt baby chick sticker & an SRM Sticker sentiment welcoming spring ... I'm so ready.  

In Iowa, it's a bit too early to start wishing for spring yet, since snow still finds its way into our weather forecasts, but I still appreciate those occasional hints that remind us it will be here soon ... like these pretty little crocus that appeared in my garden today.

Gabrielle Sympathy

This afternoon I needed to make some sympathy cards.  I loved the serene color combination in this inspiration photo from Jay Gee's Nook.  It reminded me of the new Gabrielle Collection from Bo Bunny.

I started with this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch & turned it on its side to work with my Paper Inspiration sentiment.

Lots of sponging with distress inks to bring out the rich hues.  I detail cut the butterfly from a second sheet of paper for my embellishment.

Since I had lots of scraps leftover after making the first card, I used this week's Unscripted Sketch to make another ... I also flipped this sketch on it's side to work with the paper elements I wanted to include.  Snetiment is from Impression Obsession Sympathy Sentiments.

For this one I added some punched butterflies & more distress ink sponging ... such gorgeous papers in one of my favorite color combinations.

 

Once Upon a Springtime

The Challenge at the Let's Get Shabby blog is an Easter or Spring card in the style of Beatrix Potter (ooops, just read the fine print that said it can't be combined with any other challenge ... oh well, it was fun to make any way).  

Since one of the gorgeous samples from the design team was made from Graphic45's Once Upon A Springtime Collection, I went to see what I ahd left.  I have already used up all of the cute little bunny papers, but I thought the fairy with the Easter chick would fit the bill to capture the design style I was after.

I punched the image from the paper and used this week's Get Sketchy layout.  

I added a pearl floral flouish from the Michael's $1 bin, as well as a sentiment & fairy postage stamp cut from the papers from the same collection.  I finished with lots of distressing and sponged Distress Inks to "shabby" it up a bit more.  

Hippity Hop

My card for this weeks SCS Inspiration Challenge is inspired by this adorable Hop To It Bunny Blanket from Ruche.  Ruch describes itself as "a vintage inspired boutique with a modern touch". Ruche is a collaboration of everything that has inspired its founders - fashion, photography, design, and lifestyle.

I picked up a package of felt stickers at Michael's last week in the Easter decorations section, thinking that they would make fun Easter cards for the nieces and nephews.  

Unfortunately, the quality of assembly of the stickers was so poor, that most of them were not useable.  For the two on my card, I was able to remove the eye gems (which were attached to the poor bunnies' ears) and replace them with a black gem where the eye should be located.  I wanted to use the white felt bunny stickers, but there was yucky adhesive left behind when I remove the eyes that would not come off, so pink & purple it is.

When I went searching for papers to coordinate with my little bunnies, I loved that the best match is actually a winter-themed design ... Crate's Snow Day Collection.  I used this week's CardPatterns Sketch for the layout.

The scallops were cut from a piece of the designer paper.  I cut two strips, so the scallops could face outward on both sides, and then wrapped orange ribbon over the space inthe middle.  I finally found a video that helped me understand how to use my Bow Easy (she films with the camera over her shoulder, so her perspective with the tool was the same as mine ... Sharon has a good picture tutorial here) that I've had forever, so that is how I made my tiny little bow.

I punched some grass and used a tiny strip of foam tape along the bottom, so it could stick out far enough to overlap my foam bunnies.  The bunny background is Hero Arts Wavy Leaf Pattern inked with Turquoise and stamped off once to lighten the color intensity.  I finished with an SRM Sticker sentiment.

I hope you find inspiration.

Holly & the Ivy

This week at Jingle Belles we're celebrating holiday foliage ... specifically, the Holly and the Ivy ... but you can also throw in some mistletoe or some poinsettias (which Lauren so kindly reminds, also come in PINK).

I started with a piece of velvet holly paper from SEI's Winter Song Collection for my card base.  Next I started perching glittery cardinal stickers on the branches, and then added some green holly leaves stickers as well.  Our family is filled with St. Louis Cardinal fans, so I have lots of possible recipients in mind for this one.

I finished with a chipboard sticker and border sticker.  Since I wanted my border stocker to overlap the edge of my card ... and didn't want it to stick to everything else ... I used some corn starch to de-stickify the back & then used super-strong double-sided tape to attach just the bottom of the scallops to my card base.

So show us your best holiday foliage creations ... and mark another holiday card off your list.  The keyword for uploading at SCS or flickr is JB13; inlinkz closes at 6pm (EST) on wednesday, march 30th.

Born to Stand Out

After winning at the Friday Mash-up a few weeks ago with my Vintage Valentine, I was invited to Guest Design with them this week.  The theme is the Zoo ... which made me realize, I really don't have that many animal stamps in my stash ... and certainly not many Zoo animals.  

I finally remembered my fun elephant from Artistic Outpost's Send in the Clowns, so that's where I started my design.  I stamped him twice ... once on blue & again on yellow to paper-piece the ball.

Since my Zoo Elephant ran away to be a Circus Elephant, I thought the sentiment from Artistic's Outpost's Think & Wonder worked perfectly.  I finished with the banner flags from AO's Country Life.