Ingenious Inkling

Mexico Adventure

Here are a few more photos from my trip to Mexico.  We stayed at the Excellence Resort in Riviera Cancun, which I would highly recommend.  Here's one of the views from our portion of the beach.  They would hold weddings out on the end of the pier.

Here is my view from the beach.  We stayed in the Excellence Club, and our private beach had plenty of seating and little huts to provide shade to limit my sun exposure.  I highly recommend the upgrade to this portion of the resort.

We spent one day going to Tulum to explore the Mayan ruins.  For $5, they would use your camera and take a few pictures ... sort of like photo booth with live people.

We had a beautiful day for exploring with lots of puffy clouds.

And there were lots of iguanas exploring the landscape too.

I loved that we could watch the sunrise each morning from the balcony of our room.

And of course, I loved the seafood ... I ate lots of ceviche.

It was the most relaxing vacation I remember ... lots of reading, laughing with friends, and floating in the pools ... now it's back to snowfall and reality.

Chiclectic Thanks

I wanted to give this week's Chiclectic Moxie Fab World Trigger a try ... I love the color combination, but the busy patterns were a bit intimidating.

I used Lily Bee Design's Head Over Heals Collection & the Third Thursday Sketch from the Crafty Steals Blog.  I didn't have any hexigons (note to self ... need some), so I went with circles.  I stamped the teal doily paper with Hero Arts Artistic Circles to bring more black into the design.

The sentiment is an EAD Designs rub-on.

One of a Kind

This card uses the February Sketch For You to Try ... featuring K&Company's Abrianna papers together with some hoarded embellishments ... glitter stickers, bubble stickers, and 3-D butterfly stickers.

I added a little Blackberry Chalk into the edges for a big more definition between the layers ... love those vibrant hues.

Writing the Story of Your Life

At the Bo Bunny Blog this week, the Card Challenge Tuesday sketch theme is love.  This was perfect, since I needed to create an Anniversary Card.

I used a combination of papers from Bo Bunny's Gabrielle Collection together with stamps from Creschendoh & Hero Arts, a rub-on sentiment from Random Words by EAD Designs, and a Memory Box Kaleidoscope Butterfly die cut ... and of course the center piece of my creation ... a lovely crocheted paper circle I received from One Crafty Mama.

I die cut the butterfly three times & layered two colors togehter for the wings and added a third color for the body.

Here's another card I made using the sketch (confession ... this was actually the first card I made before I realized that even though I read the *love* theme in the challenge post, I completely forgot about it in the 5 seconds it took me to walk from my computer to my studio table ... although I suppose I could stretch and say that sending anyone a card for their birthday is an act of *love*).

For this card I used Bo Bunny's Blast Off! Collection.  I punched some additional stars from the green paper and added them with foam tape for a bit of dimension in my sky.  I finished with an EAD Design white rub-on sentiment and a spaceship & a star sticker.

Point

The theme for today's Saturday Photo Hunt is Point ... who knew there were so many definitions for that word.

I went with this art composed of Pointing Fingers from the National Gallary of Art in Washington DC.  I love that one of my favorite Chuck Close paintings (made entirely of fingerprints) is in the background.

Mexico Beach

My card for this week's SCS Inspiration Challenge was inspired by this Island Beach Photo Wall Mural from Creative Wallcovering.

I printed one of my photos from our trip to visit the Mayan ruins at Tulum last week for my card base.

I stamped a sentiment from Crescendoh's Ordinary Sparkling Sentiments in India Ink and added a few sparkling adhesive gems.

What a fun way to preserve & share a memory from our wonderful trip.

Copper Snowflakes

For my second card for the All Buttoned-Up Prompt at Jingle Belles, I chose to go with one of the alternative options ... brads.

I attached a copper brad to the center of each of the large snowflakes in this pre-cut border.  I attached the border to a copper metallic card base with foam tape for dimension (which also keeps the brad backs from being "lumpy* on yoru card) ... here's a close-up of that tiny bit of extra dimension.

I finished with a big bold holiday rub-on sentiment from EAD Designs.

Admit it ... you've got containers of brads (and if you're like me eyelets) ... break them out and find ways to make them *new* again.  You have until Wednesday, February 22nd at 6pm EST to link-up your design.

Thursday Link Love

More fun finds from around the world wide web:

• Free journaling tag printables & more.
• Lots of ideas for turning old windows into art.
• Patterns for adorable crocheted Amigurumi Cats (shown).
• Tutorial for using friendship bracelet techniques to customize your ear-buds.
• A step-by-step tutorial for creating your own custom brushes in PhotoShop.
• 21 Tips for improving your photography skills.
• Love these lamps made from recycled children's toys (you can translate from Swedish to English with google).
• A tutorial for turning left-over clear packaging into fabulous die cut flowers ... I especially love the fabric ones.
• Love this idea of Scribble Cards for children ... so many possibilities.
• Tutorial for making your own glimmery ink pad.
• Quilled Fringed Flower tutorial ... lots of options.
• Hot Cocoa Cookies ... yum.

Have a terrific Thursday.

Faux Leather Missing You

The Random Redhead Challenge at Gingersnap Creations is to create a project using a faux technique.  Since I had so much fun with masking tape last week, I decided to use it again to create a faux leather background.

I sponged ink onto green Tim Holtz DP and then die cut my leather label to form the background for my lonely little cat.  

Our Challenge is again sponsored by Rogue Redhead Design ... I used the cat from Just Sayin' and the sentiment from Relish Reading.  For the circle backing my sentiment, I added a second layer of ink and embossing powder to create a darker leather finish.

 

Owl Always Love You

Another fun little Valentine for the CPS Anniversary celebration ... this time Sketch #242.

I found a sheet of K&Company Postage Stamp valentines that I forgot about from last year.  I cut out the owl & used two colors of coordinating cardstock.  

The lighter is embossed with conversation hearts and the darker is stamped with Hero Arts Grid Pattern.   I added a little valentine tag attached with a brad & several punched hearts to finish the design.

Here's the fun little boy card I made with this original sketch in October 2011.