Ingenious Inkling

Flood Time Creativity

Due to impending flood waters, we have been out of our home since last Saturday (and I have also been working out of our disaster recovery center, since our workplace was evacuated as well).  

Thankfully, a dear friend took in two refugees and provided us with a safe and comfortable place to ride out the storms.  The other good news is that she has a stamp room in her basement (she was the one who introduced me to stamping so many years ago), so when I remembered at the last minute that I agreed to host the Inspiration Challenge at SplitcoastStampers on Saturday, I was able to pull a card together.

Thankfully the barriers held back the water & the river crest was lower than initially forecasted, so we suffered no damage to our unit or work and are moving back this week.

Our inspiration site is Decorative Dishes.  I chose this Retro Rosana Plate for my inspiration.

I started by stamping Cynthia Diem by Stampabilities in Black Ink.  Then I added two more small sentiment stamps near the bottom.

I used various markers and pens to add red & green highlights and then finished with a few paper flowers for accent.  Not particularly my best work, but given the week I've had, it makes me pretty happy.  

Layout is this week's Freshly Made Sketch.

Jingle All the Way

We're still celebrating Bells at Jingle Belles.

Here's the last card I made before I had to evacuate my studio.

A pre-made card with a glittery sentiment accented with small bells die cut from red glitter cardstock ... love all of the red sparkle.

Thursday Link Love

Another week of blogland finds:

• Free Printable Label Designs
• Chicken Pot Pie is one of my go-to comfort foods
• I would also enjoy a tasty Greek Cobb Salad
• Free Printable Flower Paper
• I always love Erum's Stunning Card Designs
• Would love a fun Backyard Bocce Court
• Love these fun Yarn Pumpkins
• A day spent looking through Design Books would be quite lovely

Have a terrific Thursday.

Treat Yo Self

Since I'm evacuated from my studio, I thought it would be fun to share some of the projects I made during my time as a member of the Dirty Dozen at SplitcoastStampers.

I saw these cute little tiny Shower Puffs in the Target $1 Spot, and I thought they would make fun slumber party favors.

I stamped Essentials by Ellen Mondo Magnolia multiple times in black ink on a piece of bright pink cardstock to create my own designer paper (because this color combination of pink & green reminds me of the preppy attire I wore when I would have been of slumber party age ... yes, dating myself a bit).

I turned over the paper and traced a cupcake holder template (I measured the width I wanted and made a c-like shape; there is no bottom). I taped together the cupcake holder (overlapping the ends quite a bit to add strength) and then lined it with three Doodlebug Doilies that I folded over the sides.

I wrapped the string around the bottom of the Shower Puff to make it sort of look like a cone and then placed the puff into the cupcake holder (continuing to tuck in pieces until I thought it resembled a cupcake). I finished with a wooden banner flag on the top (that I inked pink).

I made a fun gift tag to go with the Shower Puff Cupcake using Sizzix Framelits tickets. I added one of my favorite EBE die cuts with pink ribbon & sequins.

Coffee Lovers Fun

It's time for the Fall Coffee Lovers Card Hop.

STAMPlorations has lots of fun coffee-themed stamps.  For this card I used Sketchy Coffee Cups & Literary Caffeine-ations.

 

I sprayed Whipped Cream Memories Mist on Black Cardstock using an ARTsplorations Bubbles Stencil ... and then I had to just wait for it to dry (okay, I'm terrible at waiting, so I used my heat gun to speed it up a bit).

My coffee mug, sentiment and hearts are stamped on hand-made paste-paper that I made using paper paste and acrylic paints on watercolor paper (such fun).

Flood Watch

We live near the Cedar River, which is now expected to breech its banks this week to its second highest flood level.  

This is the view out our window ... sand bags around our building and in the distance Hesco barriers filled with sand.

We have been safely evacuated and are so grateful for everyone who helped us get our possessions to higher ground and those who are providing us a temporary place to stay.  

Now we just sit and wait ... and I go through serious studio withdrawal.

ghouls, ghosts and goblins

Yes, it's the time of year to start having a little Halloween fun ... and what better way to do it than by checking out all of the great new Eyelet Outlet products in the store.

First ... skinny glitter tape ... yes, you read that right ... your favorite glitter washi tape (with absolutely no glittery mess) now comes in sets of three thin colors (and it's currently 40% off ... yep, on sale too).

 

I combined Silver, Black & Blue for a fun Halloween color palette.

 

Did you catch those fun eyes on my ghostie ... those are brads too (this card uses the small eyes ... there are bigger ones too).  Think about all the fun things you could add some eyeballs to.

 

 

And you can't forgot some fun skull and cross-bone brads ... and of course some new black enamel dots.

 

 

Thanks for having a little Halloween fun with me today.

 

Products used: 

• Glitter Skinny Washi Tape - Pink, Black & Blue
• Glitter Skinny Washi Tape - Silver, Purple & Gold
• Small Eye Brads
• Skull Brads
• Enamel Dots - Vacation

 

Kitty Cat Christmas

It's probably no surprise that the Jingle Belles love BELLS ... so for this week's prompt we're asking you to create a card that features at least one BELL ... it might be a Jingle Bell, a Sleigh Bell, a Church Bell, a Silver Bell ... just make sure we see a BELL.

For some reason I was having trouble coming-up with a bell I liked in my stash, so I went hunting at Graphics Fairy and found this adorable kitty with three bells on his collar.

A gold glitter die cut sentiment from Essentials by Ellen and some Champagne Bling were perfect for this week's Sketch Saturday.

Thursday Link Love

Another week of skipping through blogland:

• A review of some of my favorite midwest cities to visit ... Oklahoma City is next on our list
• Coconut Bread sounds tropical tasty
• Tutorial for an IKEA hack into an Apothecary Cabinet
• 100 Free Christmas Images
• Tomato Salad with Avocado and Onion could be my supper every night in the summer
• DIY 3-D Wall Art (with plastic straws)
• Creative ideas for featuring YOU in art journaling
• Free Coloring Page
• Love this bold chair make-over (shown)
• Tutorial for making your own envelopes with a fun embossed flap

Have a tremendous Thursday!

STAMPlorations Guest Designer

I'm so excited to have the opportunity to Guest Design for one of my favorite stamp companies CAS Challenge ... STAMPlorations.

To celebrate, here's a CAS Card I made using Sketchy Coffee Cups (colored with Spectrum Noir Markers) with a sentiment from Literary Caffeine-ations.

I hope you'll join me on this fun little journey.