Ingenious Inkling

Good Vibes

I've had a wonderful weekend of peaceful creating in my studio. Since I was already playing with my new Market Street Stamps, I decided to make a card for their Sketch Challenge.  I used the Inspiration of Alice's Patriotic Card at Lily Pad Cards to inspire my design for Lily Pad's Inspiration Challenge.

I used Hippie Chic to make a card sending good vibes to a friend who is a valiant cancer-fighting rock star.

I colored the guitar multiple times with pencils blending with an eraser to try to give it the look of a well-played instrument.  I added the dove for a wish of peace. Papers are Bo Bunny's Liberty Collection.

Let Your Heart Be Your Guide

I still remember that night back in November 2006 when I stumbled across SplitCoastStampers.  I had been getting most of my supplies from Stampin' Up and was starting to feel confident enough about my card making that I was attending some technique classes & crafting cards for people outside my immediate family.   

It was like I had discovered an inspirational wonderland.  I remember telling my husband that night ... I'm signing-up ... and I uploaded my first card.  I also immediately became a Fan Club Member, so I could upload on Sundays (my main crafting day) and check out the inspiration of the Dirty Dozen Designers (being a Dirty Girl is still one of my crafting dreams).  I fell in love with the weekly challenges and how they pushed my creativity ... especially the Saturday Inspiration Challenge, which I have hosted since February 2008.

So, needless to say, I had to join in the annual fun of the Dirty Dozen Design Challenges.

I ordered some stamps this week from a new company ... Market Street Stamps.  The stamps were mailed the same night I ordered them & my postman delivered them yesterday, so I had to ink them up.

I used a vintage US map for my card base (thanks Sis for saving all of the National Geographic Maps for me) with my new Compass Stamps.

I am forever grateful for the community that has brought me such inspiration ... hope you'll join the fun.

Owl Love You Forever

When I saw the fabulous inspiration board at Jay Gee's Nook, I knew immediately what I wanted to make.

My sister loves purple, so I'm always on the look-out for great purple crafting supplies (they are actually pretty hard to find).  When I placed my second order at EAD Designs, I decided to give some of their purple rub-ons a try.  I went with the Silly Owls in Plum ... and like everything else I have tried from EAD ... they worked like magic.  Since the rub-ons are vinyl, they don't tear or slip like regular rub-ons ... much more forgiving.

I added a little paper-punched heart to the owls chest with some foam tape, and I was done ... so quick and easy ... and I love it.

Squares to Cherish

I love afghans ... they remind me of my grandma ... and sitting side-by-side while she taught me how to crochet while we solved the world's problems in an afternoon.  I have several afghans made for me by friends & family that we keep in a big basket behind our television.  We use them to wrap-up in every winter to ward of the brutal Iowa cold.

This week's Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger Squares to Cherish is this beautiful afghan found via Tumblr but originally blogged on Johanna's Vintage.

I wanted to capture a similar color palette, the color blocking (using this week's Sketchbook Saturday layout), and some yarn-like texture in my card design.

Papers are all from My Mind's Eye Stella & Rose Hattie Collection.  I love how the floral pattern captures a simlar feel as the squares in the afghan.  In incorporated texture with a K&Company Fabric Art Butterfly & finished with a rub-on sentiment fron EAD.  

A Haunting We Will Go

I wanted to make a card for this week's CAS-ual Friday challenge, which was to create using a 4"x9" card base.  I also incorporated the coral & navy color combination from this week's Off the Wall Craftiness Challenge.

I also wanted to play some more with the new Artistic Outpost Halloween Treats set ... love those vintage Halloween images.  My husband's serious dislike of clowns inspired my second image choice from Artistic Outpost's Send in the Clowns ... he would say clowns are scarier than any Halloween Goblins.

The sentiment is from AO's Haunted Halloween & layout is this week's Sweet Stop Sketch.  I used a coral colored pencil to add some highlights to my images.

And ... thanks so much to everyone for sharing their favorite summer eats with me ... I got quite a few new ideas to enjoy summer's bounty ... and the winner of my 4th Blog Birthday celebration is ... #22.

Jessica of Card Designs by Jess

Happy Bloggy Birthday!!! My favorite summertime food has to be corn on the cob!!! We just stocked our freezer with it and eat it every chance we can! I am not much of a cook, so don't have any recipes, but eating corn on the cob, cooked anyway is always a treat to me! Thanks for the chance to win some for your favorite goodies!

Posted by: Jessica Wekenman | July 24, 2011 at 12:55 PM

Send me your address & I'll get your goodies on the way.

B is for Birthday

My card for this week's SCS Inspiration Challenge is inspired by this wonderful A is for ... print by Steph says hello found at L'Affiche Moderne.

I loved the colors and the whimsical feel of the design.

I started with a scrap of cloud paper and a scrap of floral Basic Grey DP.  I adhered Pink Paislee Raspberry Holly Doodle Alphabet Stickers to the cloud paper in rows and finished with a Hero Arts Sentiment.

This will be a fun birthday card for my niece since she will be able to read all of the letters herself.

I hope you find inspiration.

Frosty's Blue Christmas

This week at Jingle Belles we have another lovely guest star ... the talented June Houck who is channeling Elvis' "Blue Christmas" ... so we're asking you to create your cards this week with blue as the main color. 

When I think of blue & Christmas ... I think of snow ... and this was the perfect palette for Frost from Artistic Outpost's new Frosty & Friends Plate.  He was stamped on a scrap of distressed white Basic Grey DP & the snowflake background is from Basic Grey's Dasher collection.

I added two stamped bows and a sentiment from the same AO set, before mounting on some Bazill Bling cardstock ... another fabulous "mailable with one stamp" card for the holidays.

My card is also for the Christmas in July Challenge at Delightful Inspiration & Polka Doodles.

And check out the very cool Jingle Belles Feature at Crafty Steals ... not to mention their Christmas in July sale & Sketch Challenge.

Thursday Link Love

Another fun week of tripping through the blogosphere:

• A tutorial for a fantastic cuff bracelet
• I've always loved stones ... and here's a tutorial for turning wonderful stones into jewelry.
• The zucchini have started arriving in the market ... and this week I made this fantastic Chocolate Zucchini Bread using mini chocolate chips ... delicious.
• Love these super-fun wedding invitations ... and REALLY love how they lined the insides of the envelopes.
• Some free Fairy downloads
• Gorgeous bookmarks (shown) made with vintage jewelry
• A Manual Photography Cheat Sheet to help me move away from auto-focus.
• Love this awesome paper cone wreath ... so many possibilities.
• Some printable vintage holiday tickets
• Some awesome retro kitchen themed shower invites ... so fun.
• Would love to have something like this amazing photo display in my house.
• Love how this do it yourself earring holders turn earrings into wall art.
• A great idea for using the leftovers from your chipboard letters.
• This Monogram Button Pillow is a great gift idea for using all of those leftover buttons.
• And you must check out these amazing Paper Houses that Ros made after being inspired by some Thursday Link Love ... so fun.
• This Scarecrow Crunch looks too yummy to wait until Halloween (I confess I had my first Halloween Mellowcremes this week ... actually, I only eat the chocolate ones and a few orange and leave the rest for my co-workers).
• Zucchini Scrambled Eggs ... a great sounding dish for zucchini abundance.
• Don't forget to celebrate my blog birthday with me.

Happy Thursday

Artistic Outpost New Releases

We've got lots of awesome new releases at Artistic Outpost today.

The first is Frosty & Friends, which echoes the sweetness of vintage Christmas cards.  The set features some favorite images from Artistic Outpost's collection of vintage ephemera.

I love this vintage Santa from Frosty & Friends ... just look at those rosy cheeks.  I colored the holly leaves on his hat with colored pencil and added some tiny red pearl berries.  The sketch is this week's CardPatterns with Basic Grey's Wassail papers. I added some Maya Road Pom Pom trim to finish the design.

Before the invention of the drive-thru Walgreens, the apothecary was not just a dispenser of medicines, but also a mix-ologist of tonics, keeper of secrets, and giver of advice.  Antique apothecary bottles are highly collectible in part due to the "mystery" of what could actually be in them.  The Artistic Outpost stylized bottle has a blank space that the product labels fit perfectly into ... or you can hand write your prescription on our vintage Rx pad.

I combined Images from the new Apocathary Set with Prima's Moulin Rouge papers to create this effervescent Fountain of Youth design.  If only it were as easy as drinking from a bottle ...

 

The new Halloween Treats set echoes childhood Technicolor decorations pumpkins, kitty cats, and witches on broomsticks.

This card uses Lucy's Lovely Lines sketch with images from Halloween Treats & Apothecary, as well as Haunted Halloween (love how all of the AO sets work so well together).  Papers are Little Yellow Bicycle's Frightful collection.

Stop by the blogs of the other designers to see what they've created with the new sets:

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

Make sure you also check out the gallery filled with lots of fun samples.

Please note that due to the high volume during new releases that stamp collections may take 10 days to ship.  Artistic Outpost will keep you posted on your order. 

Butterfly Wonder

Another fun opportunity to Guest Design with Inspirational Card Sketches this week using this great layout.

I also decided to incorporate the Shades of Aqua Color Palette Challenge at Ribbon Girls & the Newspaper Challenge from Simon Says Stamp.

I used gel medium and collaged pieces of a Chinese newspaper to create my background.  Then I added a butterfly mask and Dragonfly Glimmer Mist.  I finished with some Tim Holtz paper with an image & sentiment from Artistic Outpost's Think & Wonder.  I died a flower using the same glimmer mist and layered it with a brad for my embellishment.

Don't forget to come celebrate my blog birthday with me.