Ingenious Inkling

Thursday Link Love

More fun finds from the land-o-blogs:

• These fun Travel Tanagrams would be great gifts for the nieces & nephews (who am I kidding ... I'd love a set for my desk)
• Naked Turkey Bruschetta Burger looks like an awesome summer lunch ... or how about Caprese Chicken
• Love the design of this house ... wood floors, tons of white, and vibrant colors everywhere you turn ... heaven
• 10 Unusual Uses for Kool-Aid ... I'm going to try it in my dish washer
• Who would have thought that plastic spoons and cardboard (shown) could produce such cool mirror frames
• Pancakes for Dessert ... the Brownie Batter ones look amazing
• And ... while you're thinking of those high calorie pancakes ... a photographic series showing what 200 calories of different foods look like (bring on the kiwi and the puffed wheat).
• Sharing photos of your Happiest Moment
• This geeky Wedding Seating Chart made me smile
• Bisquick Peach Cobbler always reminds me of childhood ... and this Peach Raspberry Buckle looks divine
• A magical Artsy Project
• Love Art by Ana Montiel that explores repeating patterns
• Three-Ingredient recipe for no-bake edible yogurt/ice cream bowls ... fun & yummy
• A great Bucket List with something for everyone

Have a terrific Thursday

Barkley Christmas

Crafter's Companion has released two new Barkley Lines ... Everyday & Christmas.  Here are a few cards I made with the fun Christmas Papercrafting CD (there's a great deal right now if you buy both).

This holiday mail image makes me smile (doesn't that printed image look like it's been watercolored??) ... and the coordinating snowflake paper (which you can colorize yourself) is also printed from the CD.

This time Barkley is joined by a friend.  I love the fun paper buttons that are included with the embellishments.

Another view to see the foam tape dimension.

And one more Barkley cutie ... I love all of the great details like the ribbon border & cute little paper bow.

Those *metal* framed holiday ornaments are just too fun (there's a whole page of them).

Ho Ho Ho.

Live Colorfully

Tonight I really wanted to make something, even though my crafty mojo seemed to have gone AWOL ... so I went with something easy, like making a card Inspired by a Favorite Hero Artist at A Blog Named Hero.

I decided to start at the top of the Web Artist List with the talented Lucy Abrams.  In particular I took my inspiration from this fun design.

Rather than stitching paper strips, I created a similar feel using washi tape.

And with those vibrant hues, a sentiment from Glow Girl seemed perfect ... stamping on washi tape can be tricky, but I used India Ink and clear embossing powder to keep it from smearing.

Save Water

Tonight I made a quick CAS card using this week's CAS(E) this Sketch layout.

I used this week's Color Challenge from The Paper Players (I thought my blue was a bit *greener* until I photographed) and some new Round of Cocktails stamps from Unity.  I used clear embossing powder on my beer bottle before detail cutting to give it a more glass-like look.  

I recently placed an order from Stampin' Up and decided to pick-up a pair of their Paper Snips (because in my opinion, a girl can never have too many scissors).  These have quickly become my go-to scissors for detail cutting ... they are a bit larger than other pairs in my stash, but have a nice thin blade that's sharp all the way to the end.

The fun Tilted Banner die cut is from Simon Says Stamp & I used some foam tape for dimension & a tiny bit of bling (just because).

Barkley and Friends

Crafter's Companion USA will be releasing a new stamp line next week ... the oh-so-adorable Barkley.  I have a few sneak peaks for you today.  

I will confess, I'm not usually a fan of animal images when I create, but this cute little puppy reminds me of my first puppy, so Barkley really make me smile.

For this release, I got to try out the PaperCrafting CD ... another first for me, and another confession ... I love it.   I had so much fun colorizing my designer papers and embellishments, so I could print out all of the coordinated elements and assemble my card ... and seriously, how cute is that little guy.  I love how the printed image looks like it's been watercolored (even my husband said *wow* when I told him it was printed).

Once again, all of the elements were printed from the PaperCrafting CD ... all I added was a white cardstock base and some thin black cardstock frames when I assembled my card.  

I'm linking this cutie up at the Birthday Card Challenge at the Moxie Fab World blog.

Both of these cards are made from images, embellishments, and papers from the Everyday with Barkley Collection.

What if ...

I had fun die cutting doilies from designer papers for this week's Unscripted Sketch.

This Tim Holtz sentiment really speaks to me ... and is also perfect to encourage a friend who's summoning up the courage to face life's challenges head-on.

My Dad was here last weekend, and of course that meant shopping for home repair supplies. One stop included Harbor Freight where I picked-up this four piece Pick & Tool Set which was absolutely perfect for removing all of those tiny little pieces from my doilies ... you just never know where you're going to find some perfect crafting tools.

Have a Beer

This week's SCS Inspiration Challenge comes from the amazing cakes from The Pastry Studio.   Since we have lots of beer lovers in our family, I chose this cake shaped like a beer mug to inspire my design.

I used stamps from Unity and my Spectrum Noir markers (GB4 & GB8 ... love how they blend even on colored cardstock) to color my mug.  

My original plan was to dab on some Snow Cap Acrylic Paint for the foam, but when I went to use it, it had dried into a gooey blob ... in a bit of synchronicity, I was still able to use an old paint brush it to paint on the goo for some textured foam (but would prefer to restore it to is more useable paint-like state of anyone knows if that's possible?).

I am also so excited to announce I was recently certified as a Colorist for Spectrum Noir.  I had never tried markers before I started designing for Crafter's Companion, and have been so pleased at the learning curve using their great video tutorials.

For my layout, I flipped this week's Retro Sketch on its side.  I'm also joining the Love to Create Challenge Blog for their Ribbon & Bling Challenge.  And the A.R.T. Card Challenge is celebrating Masculine Birthdays.

I hope you find some inspiration.

Deer Family Holiday

Since I went inky for last week's Jingle Belles Cardstock Christmas design, I decided to go clean & simple this week.  

Crafter's Companion's Deer Family was stamped in Rhubarb Stalk Memento Ink and then die cut with an Octagon Die cut.  I matted it with a another die cut in coordinating cardstock, for the July Die Cut Challenge at Crafter's Companion (just use at least one Crafter's Companion product and a die cut for a chance to win a $30 gift certificate).

I finished with silver ribbon, glitter pen & silver beads using the sketch from Crazy for CAS.  I'm also joining the Christmas In July Challenge at The Paper Players.

It's also Christmas in July at CAS on Sunday.

Thursday Link Love

More fun finds from the land of blogs:

• A quick and easy idea for making mini-pizzas (everyone has more fun when they get to make their own pizza just the way they want it)
• Love the photos from this Fancy Dress Fusion Wedding
• I've been drinking flavored waters lately (shown) and they are so refreshing
• This post got me thinking ... I want my life to taste like a fresh chocolate chip cookie with a little salt on top ... what a great description
• Asian Tuna Salad sounds like a perfect summer supper
• 10 reasons it's not worth getting upset
• Tutorial for fantastic Scribble Necklaces
• This DIY Scarf Headband makes me smile ... more Scarf Ideas here
• Fabulous magazine works art from Robert Labossiere
• One happy memory I have from Sunday dinner at Grandma's was that she always had Green Goddess Dressing
• I love Miranda July ... so I signed-up for these fun e-mails
• I've been dreaming of my very own fire pit ... and this colorful one might just do the trick.
• Pina Colada Frozen Fruit Bars look like the perfect summer cooler.

Have a tremendous thursday.

You Glow Girl

Tonight I needed a birthday card, and after looking through my saved challenge, I had an idea ... however, I told my husband that the odds were that it would take at least two attempts to create my card.  

Iwas close ... it actually took eight tries.  I've said it before, Clean & Simple designs are the hardest because there is no where to hide your mistakes (which in this case included failed stamping, crooked stamping, off-center stamping, finger prints & smudges).

My idea started with the One Layer Card Mini-Challenge at the Hero Arts Blog.  I also wanted to combine it with the Playing Favorites Challenge at A Blog Named Hero.  

One thing I've always loved about Hero Arts is that they make the most awesome sentiment sets.  This card uses four stamps from my favorite ... It's Your Day (together with two from Glow Girl and one from Find Joy).

Then when I saw this week's CASology Challenge was Neon, this card idea was born ... I used Hero Arts Neon Orange, Green & Pink together with India Ink.

I'm also joining the Let's Get Wordy Challenge at Crazy 4 Challenges ... since this card is all about how to feature words.