Ingenious Inkling

Neutral Noel

For our next prompt at Jingle Belles, we're celebrating a Neutral Noel by creating cards inspired by those homespun pillows from Pottery Barn.

I loved the pretty wreath pillow, so that's the inspiration I used for my first card.

I punched lots of leafy branches from textured gold metallic paper and attached them to a textured shimmer paper to create my wreath.  Next I added three sizes of adhesive pearls and an EAD rub-on sentiment ... I love the simple elegance of the design.

We hope you find inspiration too.

 

Wedding Love

Tonight I needed to make a wedding card, so I combined this week's Play Date Cafe colors (and wedding theme) with the Laura Bassan's fabulous card from CASE Study Challenge.

 

 

I stamped a vintage couple image from A Muse in charcoal (several have asked me if it's availble anywhere, and I am unable to find it) and added an EAD Designs rub-on sentiment.

The lacy paper is from the Sassafrass Mix and Mend Wee Bundle.

Thursday Link Love

Another fun week of capturing my blog-tripping adventures:

• Love these sweet little crocheted bowls (shown) ... I'd love one to hold binder clips on my desk at work.
• Lots of awesome vintage downloads.
• A photo tutorial on how to use a nestability die to partially cut around an image.
• Tutorial for turning toilet paper into fun embossed and inked embellishments.
• Cookie Dough Dip ... with chocolate graham crackers ... apples ... yumm.
• The Big Book of Names & Faces would be such a great baby gift ... especially for families spread throughout the country ... or world.
• A recipe for Basic Sweet Scones ... a favorite weekend treat.
• Erum's tutorial for creating a gorgeous flower.
• A video tutorial for making this beautiful ribbon wreath.

Have a tremendous Thursday.

 

Uncommon Misses

This card is for the March Sketch Challenge at the Authentique Blog.  I combined papers & trims from their Uncommon Collection with the Milliner Misses from Rogue Redhead Designs.

I snipped through a scalloped border to create a pennant & added some tiny butterflies to embellish the Misses' hats.

Beautiful Flowers

I love shopping at Ellen Hutson's store ... and I love seeing what beautifully colored thank you image will be included when my order arrives.  I save all of the little envelopes (there's always some ribbon too) in a basket & today I decided to re-purpose several of the beautiful flower images into cards.

I pulled the colors for my card from the hues of this lovely Lavender in a Teacup.  The sentiment is Hero Arts.  The Sketch is from Simply Stampin' Challenge, but I realized after creating they require you to use at lease one Stampin' Up image, so I won't link-up there.

The next one features a window box full of blooms (Lockhart's In the Window, Roses) & this week's Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge.

Papers are some of the last scraps in my stash of Graphic45's Once Upon a Springtime Collection.

Velveteen Blossoms

This card combines the Velveteen Stamping Technique featured at the Hero Arts Blog this month with the Moxie Fab World Cure for the Winter Blues Challenge.

I stamped the background with the same stamp Sherri used in her Video (the Leaf and Flower Background) and then inked the solid bloom from the Sweet Threads set and stamped it multiple times.  The solid petals provided a great resist for the pigment ink.   The font of With Sympathy sentiment is narrow, but close-up you can also see the pattern in the design.

I will admit it took me several tries to get it right.  The chalk ink gave the best contrast with the white pigment ink, but I couldn't wipe after stamping like Sherri did in the video or I just ended-up with a big smudgy mess.  Here's a close-up view of the blooms.  

 

The layout is this week's Unscripted Sketch ... perfect for this CAS, easy to mail design.

In My Heart

Another masculine Thinking of You card using 7Gypsies paper and a vintage Hero Arts wooden stamp sentiment.

The layout is this week's Fetch A Sketch.

Sending Caring Thoughts

Life has been so darn unfair to several friends and family members lately ... and I feel so helpless being miles away ... so I channeled my love & concern into some cards to send across the miles.

The first one uses Fall To Layout #180 at the Clean & Simple Stamping Blog together with papers from My Mind's Eye Fine & Dandy True Blue Collection.

The Hero Arts Starbursts were stamped in a combination of Prussian Blue & Aquamarine Chalk ink to get the color I needed to coordinate with the paper (inked with Prussian Blue, stamped off once, and then inked with Aquamarine).  I love how the pattern of the paper shows through the blooms.  

The sentiment from Hero Arts With Sympathy was stamped on the same DP in India Ink and clear embossed to help it stand out against the background design.

The next card uses a scrap of the same My Mind's Eye paper with a black brocade paper from My Mind's Eye Lost & Found Sunshine Collection.  The stamps are from the Hero Arts With Sympathy Set.

I used the same ink combination, but stamped the flower a second time for the lighter impression.  The layout is the current Freshly Made Sketch.

Both cards are also for this month's Hero Arts Blog Fabulous Flowers Challenge.

Flashback Friday 21.0 ~ Paper Piecing

The Flashback Friday 21.0 Challenge is to re-post your first ever paper pieced card.  I went all the way back to November 2009 for this fun little robot card ... lots of detailed paper piecing for my cute little Bloop.

I still love theese happy colors and the embossed background ... always fun to revisit these older designs.  

Go take a walk through your blog posts and join the fun.

Vibrant Hydrangea

This week's SCS Inspiration Challenge comes from the wonderful cakes of Superfine Bakery.  I chose this gorgeous Hydrangea Cake to inspire my design.

 

I loved the contrast of the pinks with the vibrant yellow.  I used pink & green inkpads on my Hero Arts Hydrangea & then added some colroed pencil highlights ... it's also perfect for the Fabulous Flower Challenge at the Hero Arts Blog.

I added hot pink borders and a vibrant yellow DP background to finish the design.  The tiny sentiment is vintage Hero Arts.

I hope you find inspiration among the cakes of Superfine Bakery.