Ingenious Inkling

Winter Wonderland Birthday

The inspiration Challenge at SCS Stampers this weeks comes from an amazing website ... Wedding Bells.  Since I have family here this weekend, I wasn't hosting ... but I had a few minutes to create this morning while everyone was still in bed, so I thought I would join the fun.  My card was inspired by this great Winter Wedding.

I needed a birthday card for a little guy who is turning one with a snowman-themed party ... I love the puffy white elements with the blue background, so that's what I used as inspiration.

I embossed snowflakes on Core'dinations White Washed Cardstock and then sanded to reveal the blue.  I stamped the Penny Black Frosty in India ink on the same cardstock & clear embossed.  I sanded around the edges to provide more definition to the image against the embossed background.

I flipped over the paper and used the blue side to frame the card & for the Hero Arts It's Your Day sentiment ... doesn't he look like he's ready to celebrate??

I'm joining in at the Free for All Challenge at the Order of the Opus Gluei and the Anything Goes Challenge at Simon Says Stamp.

And here's a picture with my new Hero Arts Stamp set for Ellen Hutson LLC Hero Arts Clear Take 'n Make Challenge.

Family Fun Time

Thrilled to have a surprise visit from my Mom & Sister this weekend.  Last night we enjoyed Tempura and Sushi at Oyama Sushi ... and lots of laughter (oh yeah, and a celebrity sighting of Survivor Philippines Winner Denise who was also enjoying sushi at a table near us).

Today we hit lots of fun stores on a cold & snowy Saturday ... including one of my favorites, Dreaming Bear Designs.

Enjoy your weekend.

Life is Better with Friends

I used fun Studio Calico papers & stamps for this week's Unscripted Sketch.

I combined the fun little chalkboard speech bubble with Midway Alpha stickers ... and those tiny little glittery stars from Jenni Bowlin are the perfect accent ... love that arrow paper too.  Sentiment stamp is from Hey Y'All.

 I'm also joining the 52 week of 52 Card Pick-up ... as well as the Turquoise Challenge at DYSU.

My 10 Favorites of 2012

I love taking a walk down memory lane each year to see where my creative path has taken me (here are links to past years)... here are my 10 favorite non-holiday creations of 2012 (you can see my top 5 holiday picks here).

1. This card was made for one of Lucy's Inspiration Challenges ... and proves that sometimes simple is best ... 7 stickers and a piece of designer paper ... love the summetry and colors in the design ... and the empowering message.

2. Next was this technique card I made for Rogue Redhead Designs sponsorship of Gingersnap Creations ... I loved how the inked masking tape *leather* turned out ... and I loved having the opportunity to design for such a great company this year.

3.  This card was made for my Guest Designer post with Crafty Steals ... I had so much fun designing with the Crate Paper Random Collection ... loved how all of these colors and patterns came together in this design.

4. I love how this wedding card came together ... the colors, textures, clean lines ... even better than I envisioned in my mind (including an EAD Designs Rub-on Sentiment ... the company I miss the most this year).

5.  Another empowering message (I think I'm noting a theme here) and more great papers ... Authentique was another favorite company this year ... also love those Papaya Muse stickers.

6.  I had a bless taking the online class Stretch Your Stamps this year ... and this was my favorite card from that class ... love the clean lines, Paper Smooches & bling.

7. Sympathy Cards are challenging ... but I really loved how this one for the SCS Inspiration Challenge turned out  (I loved having the opportunity to host that challenge for another wonderful year)... I loved had a lot of fun playing with my Distress Stains this year ... while I enjoy clean and simple designs, I also love getting inky.  

8. Paper Piecing is another technique I love ... especially with adorable stamps like these Gnomes from Lawn Fawn ... I love how this little scene came together (this Harvest Gnome card was a runner-up for my final picks)

9. I fell in love with Studio Calico this year, and this card featuring their fun veneer embellishments was a favorite ... I also loved the colors and chevrons in this clean design.

 

10.  Loved this artsy inky design ... while I love Clean & Simple ... like I mentioned above, I also love getting my fingers inky and had fun playing with these great stamps ... also a great encouraging message that makes me smile.

(oops ... somehow this posted & part of the post was missing ... so I'm editing to re-add).

So if you'd like to do a post compiling your favorite creations of 2012, link-up below (I'll close it January 13th), and I'll send a little prize to one random participant.

 

Thursday Link Love

Another week of fun blogland finds:

• Tutorial for fun little Pixie Dust Necklaces ... because seriously, who couldn't use a ltitle Pixie Dust once in a while.
• Do It Yourself New Year's Eve Party Hats
• Fun Cupcake Liner Bows ... adding festiveness to packages all year long
• I had lots of fun playing with Recite and my quote collection (shown)
• Free Digital Snowman Stamp ... cute.
• Love this amazing stamped tray ... the colors are so vibrant.
• Amazed by the fabulous metal wardrobe of Chris Beck.

Have a tremendous Thursday (and a happy new year).

Life is Too Short ...

I've said it before & I'll say it again ... white cards are hard.  I had this entire card finished, and I managed to get a big black inky smudge on the sweater, so I had to start all over ... however, I'm glad I did (and glad I had enough extra paper) because I love the finished card.

While my knitting and crocheting skills are rather limited, I have a sister & dear friend who are both have mad yarn skills, so I wanted to make a yarn-themed creation for this months Paper Trey Ink White & White blog hop.  This is the inspiration photo.

I've been hoarding that floral embossed paper for longer than I care to admit ... I'm always on the lookoutfor cool specialty papers when we travel, especially whites & creams, because I love to use them for wedding cards.  I thought this floral paper would make a fantastic sweater ... and thankfully I was right (using the Shape Up Series: Sweater Die Collection).  I used foam tape to attach the sweater to the card, to keep the white-on-white design from blending in too much.

I tried buttons down the front of the sweater, but it covered-up too much of the patterns ... so instead I used one of my step-mom's vintage buttons as a broach ... here's a close-up of this beauty ... you can also see the wonderful knitted-like texture in the paper.

I cut my sentiment from Purls of Wisdom into three parts to fit it around the sweater ... love that I can do that with acrylic stamps.  I positioned the stamps on the card base where I wanted the words, and then pressed down my acrylic block to pick-up the stamps and keep them all in place ... however, note to self -- stamp the sentiment first before getting the entire sweater finished & attached with foam tape to the card base (hence the inky smudge referenced above).

Here's a fabulous crocheted scarf I received in the mail for the holidays ... a girl can't be sad when she's wearing a rainbow around her neck.

Love Today

The weekly challenge at Studio Calico is to create something using a row of embellishments.  I combined the badges I had from several kits together with some wooden veneer pieces.

I love the combination of patterns & colors, especially the two sizes of chevrons with the polka dots.

Kits used are Murray Hill, Penn Station & 34th Street Card Kit.

Midway Pocket

I had a lot of fun with this week's Sunday Sketch Challenge at Studio Calico.  I'm really missing my sister for the holidays, so I started with the large pocket from the Penn Station kit and decorated it with lots of inside jokes and memories (I couldn't quite figure out how to incorporate a picture of the commemorative cup that I threw-up in when we were riding the Sea Dragon).

Sometime later in the year I'll put a gift card in the pocket and pop it in the mail to her ... and hopefully it will bring her as much joy as it brought me making it.  Kits used include 34th Street Card Kit, Murray Hill & Penn Station.

Here's a favorite picture of us together ... we never pass-up an opportunity to make ourselves laugh.

Happy Holidays.

Love You Dearly

I'm enjoying some peaceful and relaxing time in my studio this afternoon ... I'm watching a light dusting of snow fall and brighten-up the several inches of snow still covering the tree branches & piled on the ground ... truly a white Christmas for us.

I made a card inspired by the Picture Perfect Challenge at Paper Smooches.  I loved that the focus was on text (because Kim's stamps have such great text) and the tone-on-tone design with a tiny pop of blue.

I pulled out all of my Paper Smooches texty stamps and ended up using sentiments from Good Gab, Sentiment Sampler & Pretty Phrases.  I lined the stamps up on a larger acrylic block and did a few test stamps to make sure they were lined-up just the way I wanted them ... I tried the size the sentiments similar to the layout on the inspiration photo.

Next, I tried several tone-on-tone combinations, but finally settled on Chestnut Roan chalk ink clear embossed on kraft cardstock that was filled with threads and texture.

 

I finished with a few light blue plaid hearts from Falling for You stamped in dark brown ink on light blue cardstock.  I think this will be a perfect card for one of my brothers ... because seriously, they all rock.

I'm also joining the Focus on the Sentiment Challenge at Sentiment Sundays.

Why Hello There

I'm joining in at the Speech Bubble Challenge at Two Peas in a Bucket this week ... a fun graphic card design.

This card makes me smile ... the fun patterns and colors ... the kaleidoscope camera ... chalkboard ... and of course the speech bubble all from Studio Calico's Murray Hill Kit.  The layout is this week's Freshly Made Sketch.