Ingenious Inkling

Thursday Link Love

Another week of blogland discoveries:

• 9 reasons everyone should have an introvert in their life (or in my opinion, more than one)
• Have lots of baker's twine ... make some fun little pom poms ... or maybe pom pom monsters are more your speed (shown)
• DIY Macrame Key Chains
• These Maple Glazed Apple Fritters look amaze-balls
• Would love to see this art show by Women Sign Painters
• Gorgeous photos of the night sky
• I think I might need a DroodleBook
• Alcohol Ink on Vinyl ... looks like fun
• Amazing photographs of Fireworks Festivals
• How to make your own Paper Mache Pumpkins
• S'Mores Cookies ... yes please
• Tutorial for turning a photo into a coloring page

Have a tremendous Thursday!

STAMPlorations Typografia Christmas

STAMPlorations has been sharing a new collection of Typografia stamps ... you know I am all about the words, so I was thrilled to have the opportunity to Guest Design for the Blog Hop for this Christmas release.  Make sure you start hopping at the STAMPlorations Blog, so you don't miss any of the posts.

One lucky commenter will win a choice of 3 Typografia Christmas stamps with the winner randomly drawn from all comments left on the STAMPlorations blog and participating designers' blogs.

 

Winner will be announced on Tuesday, September 26 (Commenting closes on Monday, September 25).

For Joy to the World, I started by playing with Bo Bunny Glitter Paste and ARTplorations Oh My Stars! Stencil for the background.

I kept it fairly simple with a wrap of seam binding & stamping in Mint ink and embellishing with a few minty gems at the bottom ... I love this combination of greens.

Next up is Blessed Christmas that I stamped twice in red & blue and pieced the sentiment together.

I die cut the sentiment using CUTplorations Crazy Double Running Stitch Nesting Dies and added a tiny sentiment from STAMPlorations Oh Christmas Tree.  Paper is from Gina K. Designs Winter Whimsy.

I had some inky resist fun with my final card featuring the Miracle of Christmas using White Embossing Powder and several shades of Ken Oliver's Color Burst Powders on Watercolor Paper.

I highlighted my image by deconstructing some gorgeous green gem swirl bling from Eyelet Outlet.  I used one of the large Crazy Double Running Double Stitch CUTploration Dies for my panel.

And here's a bonus card using the Miracle of Christmas.

Same technique with clear embossing powder on white Pigment Ink accented with gorgeous new Fancy Long Bling from Eyelet Outlet.

In Bed, Of Course

Tonight I made a quick CAS card for the 2017 Fall Coffee Lover's Blog Hop ...

using STAMPlorations Dark Coffee Stamps.

The Color Challenge at Just Us Girls are colors I would have normally never combined (Burgundy with Orange???) but I made it work I do believe.

And the layout is this week's CAS(E) this Sketch!  I'm also linking up at the Simon Says Stamp Clean & Simple Challenge.

And huge kudos to dear Ms. Amy T for being the Queen of all things Coffee.

 

The Whole Herd

Living in the Midwestern farmland, I love all of the fun farm animal brads from Eyelet Outlet.

 

I gathered the entire herd of Farm Animal Brads together for this fun birthday card using sentiments from My Favorite Things The Whole Herd.

 

 

 

I couldn't find a fence die or punch in my stash, so I created a birthday-fence using a Stampin' Up Candle Border Punch.  It's hard to pick a favorite, but I love that little piggie.

 

I used more of those cute little piggie brads for my next card.

 

 

I grounded my piggies with some fun skinny grass washi tape.  Sentiments are from the same MFT The Whole Herd Set.

 

The new brads will be in the store very soon.

 

Eyelet Outlet Products used: 

• Chicken Brads
• NEW - Cow Brads
• NEW - Goat Brads
• NEW - Pig Brads
• NEW - Rooster Brads
• NEW - Sheep Brads
• Skinny Washi Tape - Grass

Return to Monoprinting

At last year's Art Camp, Lauren and I tried Monoprinting for the first time.  We had so much fun (and so many ideas we hadn't tried) we returned to Monoprinting Round 2 for this year's art camp.  As you can see below, one of the things we wanted to try was using Saran Wrap to create texture, which we loved.

We use cookie sheets for a Gel Press plates and share lots of stencils & paints.  I started out a bit obsessed with this StencilGirl Stencil by Carolyn Dube called Words to Live By (it's the top orange one in the picture above).  I tried it in all sorts of colors with some fun effects.

Another favorite of the day was using the lighter paints to Gelli Print on Navy Cardstock.

I also tried prints with my 6" Gel Press to try to keep my designs smaller for cards.  The top right one in reds and blues was one of my favorites of the day.

All-in-all a roaringly successful day with lots of painty fun.

You can see I ditched my shoes, borrowed Lauren's super-cool apron, and had to have a trash bag on the floor near my side of the table because I managed to spill on my paint cloth.  It's not art if it's not messy.

Is it wrong that we're already looking forward to planning next year's art camp adventures??

Paper Marbling Plunge

When Lauren and I actually get to spend time together face-to-face, we always have our own version of Art Camp.  This year we decided to start our artsy adventures by trying paper marbling.  We used Marabu Easy Marble paints and lots of different papers (and even some fabric).

Due to the potential for mess and the odor of the paints, we decided to move our Art Camp out onto the deck, which worked perfectly.  We set-up a row of glass tables and each worked on our own end using disposable plastic trays to hold the water & paint.

I liked trying the same color combination multiple times to see what different effects I could achieve.  Here is my color study using Red, White and Blue paints on Kraft Cardstock.

I also tried a few in Iowa Hawkeye colors that I thought would be good for some co-worker birthday cards.

I also had fun doing some tone-on-tone designs where I would start with white & a single color (blue in this case) then dip multiple times using more blue ink.

Here are all of my finished pieces drying on paint cloth.  I can't wait to use them to make some cards.

We decided this was the messiest craft we have ever tried, but also one of the most fun.  Thank goodness for odorless mineral spirits to get all of the paint off of our hands and arms.

New York City Adventure - Part 2

On our second full day in NYC, we headed to The Strand to buy books.  I love that I am *in their system* and they will ship my books back to Iowa for me.  It's like Christmas a few days after I return home.  I am seriously in my happy place here.  I am starting to like my new glasses.  I had to get bigger ones this year to make room for the bifocal ... yelp, can't live without it any more.

After The Strand, we headed to The Ink Pad, where i failed to take any pictures ... but in addition to some Concord & 9th Stamps to use with my MISTI, I got this awesome reversible oilskin bag, which came in handy when it started raining a bit later in the day.  It has a fabulous floral pattern on one side (which Lauren pointed out pretty much goes with 90% of my wardrobe) and cute sock animals on the other side.  It was fun that she was checking-in an order from Taylored Expressions, an Iowa company while I was there.

As we walked to the Subway, we spotted Salam Cafe & Restaurant, which looked like a perfect lunch stop.  We both tried Sfeeha for the first time and loved it.

Next stop was Museum of Modern Art (aka MOMA).  We started with the 150th Anniversary Exhibit of Frank Lloyd Wright.  I loved this drawing of overlapping circles.  It was actually a rejected journal cover that he later (25 years later) made into an amazing rug for one of his houses.

Our favorite exhibit by far, was Robert Rauschenberg: Among Friends.

These are 4 of the 97 panels of a work called Hiccups created by Robert Rauschenberg in 1978 ... they are solvent transfer on fabric with metal zippers on handmade paper.  The zippers are so that the panels can be unzipped a rearranged to completely change the display.  

I also loved this work by his wife Susan Weil called Secrets.  She wrote down secrets, tore them up, then reattached them in this textural collage.

After resting our tired feet and knees at the hotel for a little while (and waiting out the rain) we headed out for supper at Barn Joo 35 hoping to have the amazing fried oysters we saw on their on-line menu (another rather weird food love we both share).  Unfortunately, the restaurant was horribly noisy and they no longer served the oysters (they told us they were only served at their main location), so we left to head to the main Barn Joo to see if we could have a better dining experience.  Turns out they have never served fried oysters there (although Lauren and I simply thought you have Oysters ... you serve breaded fried food ... why not?), but we stayed and tried other Tapas dishes.

Fried Asparagus, Truffle Fries and Crispy Tofu for the win.  We finished our gastro-tour with a stop at the tiny Momofuku Milk Bar where we shared a B-Day Milkquake and got a couple of Corn Cookies to enjoy on the train ride home the next day.  All-in-all another near perfect NYC day.

New York Adventure - Part 1

I love visiting New York with Lauren ... it's the one adventure I look forward to all year.

This year we stayed on Murray Hill at the Affinia Shelburne, one of the quietest hotels we've stayed at in the always noisy city.  We get the suite, so we can have the refrigerator for our drinks and breakfast (yogurt and granola with fresh mango from a nearby bodega).

Our first stop was an miniature exhibition called Gulliver's Gate.  It begins in NYC and then moves throughout the world.  We didn't go the Guggenheim Museum this time, but we did get to see the miniature recreation.

We even got to see our faces on the billboard in the miniature Times Square.

The next morning, we headed straight to The Met to see the exhibit on the roof.  This was the first time I had been in NYC when the roof exhibit was open, so I really wanted to have the experience.  It was an amazing view ... and wonderful art.

Next, we had lunch at Cafe Sabarsky ... and discovered we both love house made liverwurst (we have found that we have an unusually high number of relatively odd things in common, which makes for fun traveling together).

 

We also stopped at all three stations on the new subway line to see the art.  We started by hanging out with Chuck Close (literally and figuratively).

Seeing his works in various types of tile mosaics was so fun.  I loved being able to get right up  next to them and touch the texture of the glass.

And as one subway traveler pointed out, "isn't it great to get to start your day saying good morning to Lou".

As much as I love Chuck Close, we decided the Vik Muniz art was even more amazing.

I loved the variation in size and color of the tiles to make the mosaics come to life.

 

Since we first tried Kurkhuri Bindi (Indian Fried Okra) several years ago (at a restaurant that has since closed) we've been on the hunt for it every time we've returned to NYC ... and this time we found it at Dhaba.  We had an Indian feast for supper.

 

The walk back gave us a fantastic view of the Empire State Building, which was lit red for Women's Health Magazine's RUN 10 FEED 10.

A very successful first few days in NYC with lots of old & new experiences to share together.

Jingle Belles Tic-Tac-Toe

We're having a little Tic-Tac-Toe fun at Jingle Belles this week to inspire your holiday card designs.

 

 

I usually avoid glitter like the plague, but this week I built my card around it ... I used Bo Bunny Silver Glitter Paste with my ARTplorations Oh My Stars! Stencil on black cardstock for my background.  

I went with the left column too with Red & Santa as my other two Tic-Tac-Toe elements and threw in some deconstructed Eyelet Outlet Red Swirl gem bling & glittery red wired ribbon as finishing touches.

I hope you'll come join us.  I can't wait to see which row inspires you.

Thursday Link Love

Another week of skipping through blogland:

• Love all of these Blue Paint Colors
• One Bowl Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Frosting (and it's Vegan)
• Kitchen Drawer organization ideas
• Cleaned out my freezer & made this From Scratch Dump Cake this week
• Cinder Block Project ideas (shown)
• Apple Fritters are almost always my donut of choice ... especially if they are warm
• stencil for a Snow White Poison Apple Card
• Butterfly Printable gift ideas
• I love Arancini ... but I've never tried making it at home
• Roasted Butternut Squash Apple Burrata Pizza ... yum

Have a tremendous Thursday!