Ingenious Inkling

Christmas Tree Shape-Up

We're doing a summertime Shape-Up at Jingle Belles ... making shaped holiday cards ... anything other than a square or rectangle is fair game.

I thought a Christmas Tree shaped card would be fun, so I embossed my long-neglected Christmas Tree die on some patterned paper ... but unfortunately, the embossing got lost in the patterns, so I was going to throw it away and try again.   However, when I turned over the paper, I saw the back was a gorgeous solid ivory metallic, so I decided to use the de-bossed image for my design.

I hand-cut the tree and then attached it to an olive green card base and hand-cut the border.  I added lots of twinkling *lights* and a sparkling star to finish my design.

I'm also joining the Christmas Card Challenge, where the theme is anything goes and Party Time Tuesday where they're celebrating Christmas in July.

Thursday Link Love

Another week of fun blog finds:

•  Art project to make with Scrapbook Paper
• Tutorial for fun Magnetic Sculpture Toys
• No Churn S'Mores Ice Cream ... or perhaps S'Mores Rice Krispie Treats
• Tutorial for making your own Epoxy Embellishments
• Going to have to make some Coconut Snow
• Love these fun Washi Tape Bracelets
• I think Banana Pudding Dip would be a popular office treat
• Tutorial for Framed Shelves (shown) ... these would be great on some of my wall space
• Free Summer Printables
• Summer is the perfect time for Sweet Fridge Pickles
• Love the look of Embossed Metal
• Three-Ingredient Recipe for Chocolate Fudgsicles
• How to make a Bow using your Envelope Punch

Have a tremendous Thursday!

Fusion Challenge ~ Beach House

This week's Fusion Card Challenge is a peaceful beach house with a very versatile sketch.

I created a clean & simple birthday card design using the colors and flowers from the photo.

I used a floral striped Embossalicious embossing folder on the blue cardstock and an SRM Sticker for the sentiment.

 

• Betty J
• Dannielle Robeson
• Deepti
• Jeanne Jachna
• Julia Aston
• Katie Brooks
• Kelly Griglione
• Kimberly Wiener
• Lyndal Higgins
• Lynn Mangan
• Michelle Folland
• Michelle Lupton
• Sindu
• Stephanie Severin <---------- Me

Glittery Wedding

I found the colors at the current Poppy Sketches Challenge to be ... a challenge.  I'm always up for a challenge, so I forged ahead.

I started with Glittery Gold paper from DCWV.  The heart in the sketch made me think of a wedding card, so that's the path I took.

Some vintage stamps from my stash and a few paper punches and I was done.

Tag You're It!

I'm joining the fun at the new challenge blog, Tag You're It!  This week the inspiration comes from the talented Laura Basson.

I wanted to capture the gradiation of color with a white resist on the background and the pop of black ... here are the results.

I folded a card base & die cut my tag using Spellbinders Labels 20 (with the top and bottom trimmed off).  I used versamark and clear embossing powder on Hero Arts Fabulous Flourish.  My embossing was not as clean as I would have liked (too much stray powder), but I went with it anyway ... I'm calling it *distressed*.  I sponged on Distress Ink in Festive Berries, Ripe Persimmon and Squeezed Lemonade.

I finished with a die cut hello sentiment from Savvy and black ribbon ... love how the black just pops with those colors.

♥ right now

When I saw the colors for the current challenge at The Card Concept, I knew I had to join along.  If you came to my house, you'd see this color combination throughout my art collection, in my wardrobe, and even on my cell phone case.

I used the *clean & layered* style for my design, which is centered around a card cut from a piece of 12" Everyday Eclectic Collection by Echo Park attached with foam tape for a bit of dimension.  

I punched my heart from a scrap of the textured lime green card base paper.  The layout is from Pals Paper Arts.

Run

I was a card-making fool today ... and it felt fantastic.  It seems like months since I didn't have to get ready to move, move, or unpack.  My studio is starting to feel like home, and it was great to just spend a day playing with ink.

I'm sneaking in a card for the CASology Challenge theme ... RUN.

I searched through my stamps to find something creative to use ... and settled on Snoopy.

I stamped him on white cardstock with India Ink and clear embossed before detail cutting.  Next I added sentiment bubble from Foxy and sentiment from Too Hip, both from Sweet Stamp Shop.  I finished with a scribble of IG3 Spectrum Noir Marker to help ground the design.

Brave & Proud

The new SRM Challenge was the perfect inspiration to make a card for my nephew who left for basic training.

I combined the color challenge with the sketch layout using SRM Stickers from Express Yourself - Military.

I attached the squares to white cardstock, punched them out with a 1" punch, and mounted them on layers.  I love the clean graphic design.

I'm also joining the Keep It Simple Challenge where the theme is Only Stickers.

Houndstooth Birthday

I'm playing a little Tic Tac Toe with CAS-ual Fridays.

I went with the horizontal center - houndstooth, white & embossing - great for a masculine birthday card, which is perfect for Brown Sugar Challenge For the Boys.

The layout is this week's Freshly Made Sketch.

 

And I'm also linking-up at the Simon Says Stamp Emboss It Challenge. 

Having Hope Builds Courage

This afternoon I made a card for the Unity {be inspired} Challenge.  It felt so good to have a quiet day to putz around in our new home.  I'm still trying to figure out the best studio configuration in our new space, but it's coming along nicely.

I used four of the colors and the card sketch for my design.  Main stamp is Hope Builds Courage and the smaller sentiment is from Empowered Words.