Ingenious Inkling

Share Joy Birthday

I've got some new Taylored Expressions goodies in the house, so I wanted to make sure and join in her Share Joy Challenge.

One of the ways I like to share joy is by making birthday cards for all of my co-workers.  I usually try to make them a month ahead, so this one will be delivered in February.

I started with the splatter embossing folder on a scrap of kraft paper (I'm really trying to use scraps whenever possible, and for some reason my brown/kraft folder is the fullest one).   I die cut the cake & balloons treat toppers from a scrap of red glitter paper and backed them with punched circles.  I finished with a sentiment from Big Bold Birthday.  Since it was a clean & simple challenge, I had to force myself to walk away from the sequins.

I'm also joining the Balloons Challenge at Daring Cardmakers.

 

Fused Glass Fun

I've been having so much fun taking a weekly fused glass class.  

The assignment for the first week was to learn how to cut squares and make a simple tile.  You can tell from my tile that cutting squares wasn't particularly my strength, so I embraced the wonkiness and created a design around it.  

 

 

I used colors from my my guest bedroom and did what is called a tack-fuse (at a lower temperature), so that it would maintain its dimension (rather than melting down into a single piece of glass).  I used some of the leftovers to make a few pendants.

The next assignment was to make plaid using four colors of glass.  I chose green, teal, blue & clear.  Here's what it looked like before it was fired.

And here is the tile after its first fuse.  It will go back into the kiln to be slumped (molded) into a small bowl (both tiles are 6" x 6").

Our third project was called a River bowl.  This one goes into the kiln this week.  I can't wait to see how it turns out.  I used a gorgeous teal swirled glass with light purple frit (aka river rocks).

And in class number four, we played with glass powders.  I was able to use some of the stencils from my papercrafting studio, which was fun.

I also made a bunch of pendants (or maybe they will be magnets), using some glass scraps, but I forgot to photograph them before they went into the kiln.  Next I'd like to make more magnets and maybe even some glass monsters.  So fun.

BLING on Christmas

We're celebrating BLING at Jingle Belles ... I will confess, I have a fairly large drawer completely full of bling.  Lately sequins and enamel dots have been a favorite, but today I'm playing with pearls using a technique I call deconstructed bling.  In my stash, I had some adhesive pearl frames that have been there forever (I'm pretty sure I won them in some blog prize).

 

I die cut my Christmas tree from Teal Glitter Paper and then started cutting apart the frames and adding the bits and pieces to my tree like a pearl garland.  I ended-up using two frames to decorate my tree.  I finished with a few random pastel pearls that I had leftover in my collection to add a bit of bling to the night-time snowy sky.

I finished with a sentiment from Essentials by Ellen Merry & Bright (love that cursive font).

I'm also joining the Holiday Challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More ... and Anything Goes at Simon Says Stamp.

We hope you'll break out some of that neglected bling and join us.

Thursday Link Love

Another week of blogland discoveries:

• Thirty Healthy Savory Snacks
• What a fun Stitched Tote (and great technique to use for other phrases)
• Pattern for a cute Crocheted Slouchy Hat
• Banh Mi Salad looks fantastic
• How to make a gorgeous Vintage Handkerchief Scarf
• I may have to make my own Dog Gargoyle (shown)
• Skinny Oreo Cake from Eat Cake for Dinner (love that blog name)
• Crafts inspired by one of my favorite designers - Marimekko
• Fun party-theme ideas ... love the gnome hats
• Beautiful Mixed-Media Journal Page (that would be a lovely canvas).

Happy Thursday!

Eye-Scream

The theme at Shopping our Stash is to make a card inspired by a book.  The theme at Make My Monday is to use your favorite or newest stamp (my newest stamps are Party Monsters from Taylored Expressions).  And ... this is the Masculine Inspiration Photo at The Challenge.

And when you combine all three, you get this (doesn't his googly eye remind you of the headlight).

I've always had a *thing* for Monsters ... and when my sister was little, one of my favorite books to read her was The Monster at the End of this Book.  Since it was a book-theme, I used a page from an old Alice in Wonderland paperback for the panel on my card.

Doesn't my Monster look like he would be Grover's friend.

The layout is the Sketch from the Paper Players.

Washi Love

When I saw the sketch at the As You See It Challenge, I knew I wanted to play with Washi Tape.

Next I layered on two SRM Stickers before finishing with a piece of flair and a red card base.

I'm also joining the Love Sweet Love theme at the TGIF Challenge.

Rex Ray Birthday

Since the inspiration picture was posted early, I was able to join the PaperTreyInk January Blog Hop.  

Here is the inspiration piece ... a gorgeous design by Rex Ray.

 

I took inspiration from the colors, rounded shapes, and wood grain texture.  I thought the balloons in the Party Time Die were reminiscent of the rounded block background.  I die cut it from orange cardstock and then backed it with light woodgrain cardstock.

I paper pieced several of the balloons from coordinating cardstock to imitate the feel of the artwork.  I added some designer paper, which I thought finished the design well.  I stamped the sentiment from the Stylish Sentiments Birthday Stamp set in a light tan to pull int he lighter vertical element in the center of the art work.  The final touch was a little sequin sparkle.

Sprinkled with Fun

Recently My Favorite Things was having a sale each day by stamp designer.  I managed with contain myself until it was Laina Lamb day ... and then I couldn't resist her cute Donuts & Sprinkles.

I used the larger of the donut die cuts and decided to pair it with the current MFT Weekly Sketch Challenge.  Since it was a larger donut, I decided to use a larger card base (6 1/2" x 5" ... which I ultimately cute down to about 6" wide).  I made my stripe 2 inches and used pink cardstock for my sprinkles.  Rather than clue on all of the individual sprinkles, I just die cut the sprinkles from my frosting layer and then cut a second layer in pink and lined it-up behind the white, so that the pink shows through the negative.

The card turned out okay, but the proportions weren't quite right (and I had set-out to make a masculine birthday card and somehow got side-tracked by pink sprinkles).

For my second card, I used the standard 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" card base.  I also went with chocolate sprinkles.  My stripe for this card was 1 1/2" wide.

 

This one seems much more balanced.

I'm also linking-up at the Clean & Simple Challenge at Seize the Birthday.

You Rock

Have you (like me) already been sick enough this winter to resort to using Puffs with Lotion & Vicks?  If so, the only plus-side is that when you finish the box, the inside is lined with a gorgeous silver metallic paper that is perfect for die cuts.

I decided to use that metallic paper for the current Pin-Sights Challenge at Essentials by Ellen.  Here are the Inspiration Photos.

I was immediately drawn to the gorgeous rings, so that's where I started my design.  I die cut the text & diamond from the EBE You Rock Designer Dies set from the inside of my tissue box.

I painted some watercolor paper with Leaf Green Brusho to pull in the various leaf elements from the inspiration pictures and mounted it with foam tape on silver glitter paper.  The finished card is a cute 4 1/2" square ... perfect for writing a little note to let someone know how much you appreciate them.

Today's SplitcoastStampers Inspiration Challenge is from one of my favorite stores ... UnCommon Goods, so I also took a little inspiration from this gorgeous Ruby Chrystal Talisman Ring ... love it.

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

We're still celebrating Christmas Trees at Jingle Belles ... and I'm still trying to work my way through my holiday paper stash.

This week I featured Christmas Tree paper from BasicGrey's 25th & Pine.

I used a great sketch from Sunday Stamps.  The top seemed a bit *naked*, so I added a wrap of ribbon ... I was going to use white, but I like how this light blue pulls out the blue in Santa's Beard (how come I seldom use ribbon any more?).

I liked the sketch so much, I made a second.  I used Spellbinders Labels 20 to cut the top of my cards (one of my favorite die cuts).