Ingenious Inkling

Stars, Stripes & a Unicorn

Every year I manage to make at least one Jingle Belles card that when I'm finished I think ... Who on earth am I going to send that card too??  This Stars and/or Stripes creation would be that card.

This week I discovered a drawer of art supplies that had been misplaced from our flood evacuation last year, which included my patriotic papers.  Also with those papers was the adorable Winter Unicorn stamp set from Lawn Fawn.

And this is what resulted.  I colored my little Unicorn with Spectrum Noir Markers and a silver glitter pen for his horn.  For some reason, the lighting makes my white iridescent sequins look pink.  The finished card is 5 1/2" square.

I also took my inspiration from the current Fusion Card Challenge.

I'm also joining the Holiday Challenge at Addicted to Stamps & More.  We hope you'll come join us ... we're less than six months from Christmas, so if you haven't started, you can begin taking back Christmas one holiday card at a time.

Thursday Link Love

More fun finds from the land-o-blogs:

• I love bread & butter pickles
• Lots of fun Kitchen Back Splashes 
• Pack & Go Lunch Ideas
• I used to love my Teen Idol Magazines
• Great price on Teflon Sheets for your work areas
• These Cider Slushies look amazing
• Amazing Mirror Art (shown)
• And Peach Tea Popsicles look refreshing

Happy Thursday!

Sending You Strength

I needed to make a sympathy card, and since My Favorite Things Deepest Sympathy is one of my go to stamp sets for those types of cards, I decided to use the Wednesday Sketch Challenge.

Only one problem ... no square die cuts in my MFT Stash ... so I had to get creative.  What I did have is the Rectangle Peek-a-Boo Window and a Scalloped Rectangle from my Die-Namics Blueprints 27 set.

Since I felt like I needed at least one more rectangle to be true to the sketch, I used some 1/2 strips of golden cardstock to create the third frame element.  I finished with Eyelet Outlet Paper Flowers & a Champagne Gem Center.  I thought with these neutral tones it was okay to include a flower on a masculine design.

I'm also linking-up at the Anything Goes Challenge at Simon Says Stamp.

STAMPlorations 4th Birthday Hop

We're celebrating STAMPlorations 4th Birthday with lots of awesome new releases & a week-long blog hop and Wishlist Linky Party.

My first card features some of the fun new word dies (Fabulous and You Word Die Set) ... I love big bold words ... aren't those great fonts.

I finished with a few paper flowers & oval gem from Eyelet Outlet.

My second card features the fun new CUTplorations Heart Shaker Balloons.  The cool thing about these die cuts is that they can also be used for *non-shaker* designs by layering the pieces, like I did with my design.

I combined them with the STAMPlorations Gift Row Artsy Border and Sentiment Builders - Celebrate.  I finished with a tiny punched red heart.

Some of the birthday fun details:

• All products in the STAMPlorations store during birthday week and until July 7 will be 15% off. If you use my discount code STAMPGIRLSTEPHANIE you get a 20% discount (which means a total of 35% off on all products, including the new release).
• Heartfelt Rose 3x5 stamp set will be included for free with every order of at least $25 (after discounts & GCs are applied and before shipping)

Prizes:

• Three (3) randomly drawn winners from all comments left on the STAMPlorations blog and participating designers' blogs will each receive a $25 gift certificate to the store
• One (1) randomly drawn winner from comments left on STAMPlorations Facebook page will win a grab bag consisting of new products worth up to $30
• One (1) randomly drawn winner from comments left on STAMPlorations Instagram page will win a grab bag consisting of new products worth up to $30
• Two (2) randomly drawn winners from the Wishlist Link Up will each win the products in their wish list (up to $50 MSRP)

* Commenting and linking up ends on Monday, July 3, at 11:55 p.m. Pacific
* Winners will be announced on July 10 in the June Challenges & Hops winners post

New York, New York

I love drawing inspiration from the world around me ... this week my inspiration comes from ... a Kleenex Box.  Yes, I have been known to buy a box of Kleenex just because of the art on the box ... especially when it is a gorgeous picture of the Statue of Liberty.

 

The colors in the art were perfect to embellish with all sorts of Eyelet Outlet goodies.  I started with Jewel Purple Swirl Bling to frame the left side and top (I love cutting apart my swirls and reassembling them to get the shapes I want ... it gives you so much design flexibility).

 

Next I added some New York Washi Tape along the bottom and embellished it with the larger (5mm) Green Jewel Strips to pull out the green in the background of the design (because the strips are attached with bits of glue between the gems, it makes it so easy to trim to the length you want & attach them straight).

 

 

I thought I was done with my card, but then I saw my the gorgeous paper flowers in my stash, and decided a few layers of those would be the perfect finishing touch.  I combined three different colors & topped my blooms with a gorgeous flower jewel.

Products Used:

• Swirl Bling - Jewel Purple
• New York Washi Tape
• Jewel Strips - 5mm - Green
• Checked Paper Flowers - Blue/Orange
• Paper Flowers - Dark Purple, Dusty Purple, & Blue
• Flower Jewels - Blue/Purple

USA Fireworks

The theme at The Male Room is Fireworks, which is the perfect inspiration to make some patriotic cards.

I started with the sketch from Retro Rubber and We R Memory Keepers Red, White & Blue Collection (one of my all time favorites for Independence Day).  I used two different papers with beautiful fireworks designs.

My sentiment is from Tim Holtz Mini Blueprints 2 that I've had since 2013 (and have never used ... just had to have a lot of these Blueprints stamps, but for some reason haven't used them much at all).

More Coffee & Books

Have you joined in the 2017 Summer Coffee Lovers' Blog Hop?

I don't drink coffee ... but I love the smell and I love it as a steak rub.  My drink of choice is tea (but since so many friend drink coffee, I always love coffee-themed cards in my stash).

I combined my Eyelet Outlet Coffee Brads with my favorite Book Washi Tape.

Sentiment is from STAMPlorations Good Books & Coffee and sketch is this week's CAS(E) this Sketch!

Papertrey June Blog Hop Challenge

Today is the June Blog Hop at PaperTrey Ink with this lovely photo for inspiration.

The ombre vases reminded me of the canning jars on a long-hoarded scrap of Dear Lizzy designer paper, so that is where I started.  I filled the jars with stamps from PaperTrey Ink's Initital Sentiments: Birthday.  I started with light pink ink using my MISTI and then inked the bottom of the stamp with slightly darker pink ink to get the ombre effect on my stamping.

I finished with some Eyelet Outlet glitter enamel dots for the center of the flowers.  I created an ombre background by tearing scraps of pink papers.

I used the stamp inking method with my MISTI to create my ombre sentiment.  This time I inked scraps of designer papers to create the ombre tones in my background.  I finished with a pink bloom, a pink ribbon wrap and pink pearls to bring in the elements of the flower in the inspiration photo.

 

Can't wait to go see what everyone creates.

 

they say it's your birthday ...

I needed to make a musical birthday card so the World Music Day theme at CCEE Stampers was the perfect place to begin.

I started with some never before used Spellbinders Dies that I bought almost two years ago (I know, embarrassing) ... love the headphones.  I used the Fab Friday Sketch to pull it all together.

The sentiment is brand new from Impression Obsession (great summer sale going on through Sunday) and is a lyric from the song this card recipient sang for us every morning on our birthdays growing-up.

It's also an Anything Goes Week at Seize the Birthday.

 

STARS and/or STRIPES

In honor of upcoming Independence Day in the US, we're celebrating STARS and/or STRIPES at Jingle Belles.

I started my design with bold green stripes that paired perfectly with my texty journaling card.  I added a wrap of regal red ribbon using this week's Sketch Saturday Layout.  I finished with white matte enamel dots & a Santa Hat Brad from Eyelet Outlet.

I'm also joining the Patterned Paper Challenge at Simon Says Stamp.

We hope you'll find your favorite STARS and/or STRIPES and come celebrate with us.