Ingenious Inkling

Bowling Birthday

I love when a friend says ... can you make a card for ______________?  I love the challenge of trying to come up with the perfect design for a special someone ... in this case, a birthday card for an avid bowler.

I used digital paper and elements from the Spare Me Digi-Kit by Libby Pritchett and then added a sentiment stamp and chipboard arrow.

I had another request for a patriotic design, which was the perfect opportunity to use my winnings from Dark Room Door from World Cardmaking Day ... New York Volume 1.

I combined the wonderful statue of liberty image with papers from Simple Stories Urban Traveler and a few Idea-ology Seasonal Chit Chat stickers.

Here's a photo I took of the regal lady on one of my New York adventures.

Thursday Link Love

Another week of fun finds from blogland:

• Love this cozy little Hollywood home
• Tutorial for achieving a gorgeous effect by stamping with watercolor crayons
• Using Maps for a gift card holder & embellishments ... love it
• Sausage Biscuit Souffle with Creamy Gravy ... all of my favorite breakfast things rolled into one
• A fun page of printable monsters
• Tutorial for Marble & Fabric Necklaces
• I love Acorn Squash ... I love Mango Chutney ... the idea of combining them seems brilliant
• Love these Painted Acorns (shown)
• A gorgeous Halloween Scrapbook page ... such great dimension wtih digital design
• We don't decorate for the holidays ... but if I did it would be this gorgeous pinecone wreath with cardinals

Have a terrific Halloween.

PS - the winner of the Halloween Washi Treats is Gabby:

Great use of the Halloween buttons w/this sketch! Cool card! :) My fav "adult" Halloween candy is the waaay old-time Brach's Mellowcreme Pumpkins. Like the buttery taste. As a kid, one of the Mom's in the neighborhood made ooey, gooey, marshmallow popcorn balls every yr. We NEVER missed her house! She even sent two extras home w/us ... one for Mom and one for Dad. :D

Posted by: Gabby | October 27, 2013 at 08:38 AM

E-mail me your address & I'll get the goodies in the mail.

Rockin' Birthday

I love textured black cardstock, so I wanted to join the Black Challenge at CASology (click on over for lots of great design ideas for using black).

I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch together with some Inkadinkao Inchies and my favorite India Ink.

I decided to go with a Birthday theme for the Monochromatic Birthday Challenge at Sentimental Sundays ... since black & white are neutrals, my color is a pop of teal with my glitter star and epoxy brad.

Glittery Muse

I love Janet Ribet's card at this week's Muse Challenge.

I knew I wanted a blue Christmas tree and some glitter ... and I ended-up with lots and lots of glitter.

I die cut my Dee's Distinctively Christmas Tree No. 1 from Teal Blue glitter paper from DCWV.  I attached it to a silver glitter background.  I distressed the edge of my landscape, since it was hard for glitter-on-glitter to be visible.

I finished with an EAD Designs Vinyl Rub-on sentiment and pearl flourishes to decorate my holiday tree ... love that sparkle.

Ghouls Night Out!

Since I showed you all of my washi tape yesterday (comment here if you'd like to win some), it seemed serendipitous that today's Catered Crop Recipe Swap is Washi's Up?  I combined it with the colors & inspiration from the {Cupcake Inspiration Challenge} and a sketch from CAS on Sunday.

I die cut my opening and pulled out my violet washi tape to create a background.

Next I die cut my Memory Box Ghost Trio from adhesive felt and finished with an SRM Sticker Sentiment & creepy spider.

I hate when a holiday is fast approaching, and I still have lots of card ideas in my head ... off to get thise one in the mail.

Ornate Autumn Butterflies

Crafter's Companion recently released 8 new embossing folders ... and right now you can pick any 3 of the 6" Embossalicious folders for the price of 2.  These folders fit perfectly through my Cuttlebug and easily cover the entire card front.

My card features the new folder 6" folder Ornate Butterflies.  I love how the embossed lines are wide enough that it was easy to detail cut out one of the Butterflies from the embossed pattern to use as my embellishment.

I used gold and copper shimmer paper inspired by the gorgeous autumn photo at Just Us Girls.  The positioning of the copper on the bottom and gold on the top was inspired by the tall candle ... with the graduated golden pearls like candle flames.

The sketch is from a new-to-me challenge blog ... STAMPlorations.  My sentiment stamp is the always elegant Flowing Happy Birthday stamped in Candied Yam Chalk Ink ... isn't that the perfect name for an autumn card.

Halloween Treats

I've had these Halloween tag stickers sitting on my studio table for several weeks with the intention of making some more Halloween cards to get in the mail ... when I saw this week's Unscripted Sketch, I knew exactly what to do.

Quick, easy & oh-so-fun ... made with paper scraps too (I knew that tiny bit of lime green glitter paper would come in handy one of these days) ... love Dracula's googlie eyes.

I'm also inspired by Papercraft Star with my Witch & Kitty Cat ... and I'm having some fun at the Paper Issues Halloween Hootenanny.

I did some studio reorganizing today.  I picked-up quite a few new rolls of washi tape on my trip to NYC, and was out of storage space ... so I packed up a few rolls (together with lots of 6" designer papers) in a flat rate mailing envelope.  If you'd like them to come live with you, leave a comment below telling me your favorite Halloween Treat before 6pm CST Wednesday night, and I'll draw one lucky winner and get them an envelope of Halloween Treats in the mail (ETA ... you won't be winning the picture below (that's my remaining Washi Tape stash) but you will get an entire flat rate envelope filled with lots of 6" paper, some tape & a Die Cut).

Here's my remaining tape stash ...

Bebunni Birthday

The new Bebunni stamps and CD-ROM were released at Crafter's Companion today as part of their Birthday Week Celebration.  

This is another card made from one of the Bebunni Papercrafting CD-ROM images.

I added a few tiny pearls and a stamped sentiment from Camden Town Male 2 stamped in a combination of Lilac Posies & Angel Pink Memento Inks.

Oh Christmas Sloth

At Jingle Belles, we always look forward to the end of October ... the month that celebrates creatures, costumes & characters.  The current prompt is to create a card that features a *creature*.  

When Lydia showed me this new set Fun with Christmas that featured a Christmas Sloth, I knew I had to have it.  Then once I had it, I couldn't quite figure out how to feature the tiny stamp.  

My husband took a look and said "couldn't you make him into a banner" (yes, after years of providing card critique, he's that good) ... and so I did.  I stamped three Christmas Sloths, colored them with pencils, and added a Ho Ho Ho ... and then finished with some washi tape.

Since I was on a roll, I made a second tag with the fun little Christmas Fox from the same set.

I used an SRM Sticker and some fun rainbow washi tape I found on our trip to NYC.

Congratulations BIG Brother

Tonight I needed some cards for two little guys who just got a new sibling.  When I saw this week's CAS(E) this sketch, I thought a banner would be a good idea for one of the sentiments ... since I didn't have a stamp for the occasion, I printed it on my printer.

Well, I didn't find a plane ... but I did find a cool rocket ship from Starving Artistamps ... so instead of a banner, my sentiment is inside hand-cut rocket fuel flames.  Papers are BoBunny's Blast Off! Collection.  I added a monkey astronaut punched from one of the papers inside my rocket ship.

I added a few Neat & Tangled Sequins for a bit of sparkle.

For the next card, I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch and decided to go with a Halloween theme.

Papers are Cosmo Cricket Matilda & I think the stickers are vintage K&Company.

For this printed sentiment I went with a speech bubble die cut from Talk Bubbles.

Hopefully these will make these little guys feel special with all of the big changes in their lives.