Ingenious Inkling

So MOOving

I'm getting ready to head out on a little travel adventure, so not much creative time this weekend.  I finished the day with a quick CAS design using this week's CAS(E) this Sketch.

Stamps is from Elizabeth Craft Designs Farm Greetings.

Santa Trifecta

We're playing a little Tree Skirt Tic-Tac-Toe at Jingle Belles this week.  All you have to do is pick a vertical, horizontal or diagonal row and create a card featuring all three elements. 

I chose the row across the top ... Santa, Bling & Stamping.

I went with a Santa trifecta using three different Tim Holtz stamps from his Holiday Collection and this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch.  I inked with Red Brick, Festive Berries & Gathered Twigs (around the edges of each stamp).

I finished with circles of bling to highlight the Santa face in each design and a Hero Arts Winter Wonders sentiment along the bottom.

It's also Anything Goes Week at the Christmas Card Challenges.

We hope you'll come play with us.

Floral Retirement

Retirement cards are hard for me ... do you have a good stamp set you use for retirements?

I went back through my own archives and found this Teacher Retirement card I had created using a dictionary page.  For today's card, I scanned the dictionary page, so I could re-size it to work with my design (and have it for future cards).

Once I had that part figured out, the rest came together easily using a stamped sentiment from Clearly Besotted Typed Sentiments and this week's Mojo Monday Sketch.

Papers are Authentique Carefree Bundle.

Thursday Link Love

Another week of blogland discoveries:

• I love this kitchen bookshelf
• Gorgeous Frozen Sangria
• Fun Vacation Journal idea
• Idea for storing your Peerless Watercolor Sheets
• Thai Tea SemiFreddo looks so refreshing
• Love the look of Mortar Washed Brick
• Mini Taco Hand Pies ... Peach Hand Pies ... yum ... then again, I think pretty much anything is better wrapped in pie crust
• Fun Monster Door ideas (shown)
• This White Texas Almond Sheet Cake was a hit and quick to make

Have a terrific Thursday!

Piggy Thanks

Tonight I needed a card with a pig ... and you believe a girl in Iowa doesn't have a single pig stamp?  So I make myself a little pink piggy using paper punches.

I punched three circles and shaded them with pink ink.  I used my Stampin' Up Owl Builder Punch for the eyes and mouth and a scalloped circle for the hooves.  I finished with hand-cut legs, ears & tail.

Layout is this week's Freshly Made Sketch and sentiment is an SRM Sticker.

Watercolor Hope

The ladies at Shopping Our Stash are having a little Splish Splash Fun this week.  I decided to pull out my watercolors and paint on some designer paper.  

I painted onto some marbled paper from Dear Lizzy Serendipity collection covering-up the white with a coordinating paint hue.  I used my heat gun to help expedite the drying.

I added a cork flower sticker and a Tim Holtz word sticker to finish the design using this week's CAS(E) this sketch!.  Nothing quite like a little quick, easy, artsy fun.

Thank You.

The Kraft Journal is looking for CAS Thank You Cards, which is right up my alley.  I love kraft cardstock ... and I love clean & simple.

I also love a sketch that uses up scraps of paper on my studio table that would otherwise be going in the recycle ... so the sketch at Atlantic Hearts Sketches was perfect.  The sentiment is an SRM Sticker.

As I searched for flowers to use on my card, I was thinking about how at one time I would have had hundreds of flowers in every shape and color ... and now it seems flowers are sort of *out* on the embellishment spectrum, so it was a challenge to find any in my stash that worked.  I also pulled out some brads, which are also a rather neglected embellishment.  Feels good to use some of those forgotten supplies.

Mondo Magnolia Wedding

I love the color combination in the August Pin-Sights Challenge at Essentials by Ellen.

I was also inspired by the gorgeous floral wedding cake and the pink veil to make a wedding card.

I stamped and die cut the Mondo Magnolia from different scraps of designer paper.  I inked around the edges and assembled the flower turning up the petals a bit for dimension

Since I didn't have any EBE Wedding sentiments, I used the *love* from Brushstroke Christmas together with an SRM Sticker for my sentiment.

Christmas Muse

Today I'm channeling the talented Christmas Muse Betty Wright and her gorgeous design.

I loved the silver with green, the tag, and the pop of dark red, so those are the elements I incorporated into my card.

I combined a silver doily, green holiday papers, a Penny Black Joy holiday sticker, sequins and an SRM Sticker Sentiment together with the sketch from Tis' The Season.  I was just thinking this week how seldom I use ribbon on my cards any more, but I thought this dark maroon ribbon pulled out those colors from the sticker.

Thinking of You

I love the banners in the Paper Smooches Designer Draft Sketch.

... I decided to go with a literal interpretation using scraps of paper that were on my studio table and Paper Smooches Blissful Banners.

It seemed a bit plain when I was done, so I added a paper bloom ... hopefully this card will send some encouragement and cheer through the mail.