Ingenious Inkling

Wishing you a YETI Christmas

Have you started building your holiday card stash?  

An Eyelet Outlet Santa Hat Brad can turn almost anything into a holiday card ... even one of my favorites ... a Yeti (this guy is from Frantic Stamper).  I die cut him twice from both sides of a piece of Core'dinations Cardstock & then layered them with a bit of a shadow.

 

I used the same paper for my sentiment from Hero Arts Clearly Kelly's Fa La La La La and tore the edges, so you could see both colors.  

 

This Yeti does look rather jolly to me ... he's the creature I'd like to have with me when I go to cut down my Christmas Tree (mostly because he could help me carry it back to the car).

 

 

Those fun Peppermint Candy Brads look good enough to fill my Grandma's Candy dish that was always filled with delicious hard candies for the holidays.

 

I'm also adding my card to the Score One for Christmas challenge at SplitcoastStampers Falliday Fest.  The scored lines were already in the paper (the navy cardstock were some recycled program covers), so I just made them a bit deeper ...  they also helped me line-up my Peppermint Candy Brads.

 

Make sure you get your Eyelet Outlet Christmas order now, so you have plenty of time to finish those holiday designs.

Save Water, Drink Wine

I had fun with another Falliday Challenge ... Block Stamping.  I inked my rectangle acrylic block with Distress Oxide Inks - Seedless Preserves at the top, Picked Raspberry at the bottom, and then Abandoned Coral in the middle blending it into the other inks.

After the ink dried, I realized there was still ink on my block, so I stamped a second time, which gave it a sort-of-speckled effect that I love.

I used designer paper from Amy Tangerine's Better Together and coordinating cardstocks using the October Sketch for You to Try from Reverse Confetti.  The sentiment on my block-stamped background is from Reverse Confetti Big Notes & then I framed it with All Framed Up Confetti Cuts.

The finishing sentiment is from Reverse Confetti Clink.

L'Artiste Shoe Inspired

I love shoes ... the more unique the better ... and if they're also comfortable, it's a total win.  That's how I feel about L'Artiste Shoes by Spring Step, so that is what I chose for this week's SplitCoastStampers Inspiration Challenge.

This L'artiste Simonetta Boot inspired my design.

I loved the navy with all of the fun colors and flowers, so that was my inspiration.

STAMPlorations Bloomtangled ATC was stamped in Navy Ink and clear embossed.  Next I added all sorts of Fireworks Shimmer Sprays to get the combination of fun colors.  The shoes from STAMPlorations A Girl and Her Shoes was stamped in Navy on a scrap of the sprayed paper.  I finished with a sentiment from STAMPlorations Walking Boots on a purple Ombre Card Base.

Come join us and find some awesome inspiration (and maybe even a pair of cool shoes).

I'm also linking-up at If the Shoe Fits at Shopping Our Stash.

PS - Birthday Box Prize Winner is Nora of A Creative Touch - send me your mailing address to smilynstef at aol dot com, so I can mail your goodies.

Happy Birthday!! How cool that it is on October 7th!!!

My favorite cake is whoopee pie cake. It basically is chocolate cake from scratch, whoopee pie filling in the middle and then home made chocolate frosting on top. I could eat the whole thing it is so yummy!!!

I hope you have a FABULOUS day today treating yourself!!!

Posted by: Nora | October 07, 2017 at 09:18 AM

♥ Pink Christmas... for the Cure! ♥

It's our favorite time of the year at Jingle Belles ... when the Jingle Belles make Pink Christmas cards and Lauren and Stephanie (aka the Jingle Belles) will each donate $2 per linked-up card to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

For my first pink card I started with the fun Christmas Kitty Stamp from Technique Junkies and colored his hat & nose with a combination of pink markers. 

The sentiment stamp is a favorite from CatsLife Press (which seemed appropriate). 

The reminder of the card was made using paper scraps from my stash, including the vertical border that was recycled from a mother's day card.

And remember, if you don't celebrate Christmas you can do pink Hanukkah, pink Solstice, pink Kwanzaa or pink New Year cards instead.

Thursday Link Love

Another week of blogland finds:

• Tutorial for a cool Resin Paperweight
• Pretty Cross-Stitched Bookmarks ... and tips for Cross-Stitching on Paper
• I bet these Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls smell like Autumn
• I would like a swing in my home
• How to make Faux Concrete Pumpkins (shown)
• Free Halloween Printables
• This time of year I find myself craving my annual piece of carrot cake
• Kitchen Cheat Sheets
• Free Vintage Sewing Patterns
• Love the bold colors (and awesome shower) in this Condo
• Crispy Parmesan Roasted Potatoes ... yes please
• Tutorial for a Mini-Envelope Journal

Have a tremendous Thursday!

Falliday Fun

It's Falliday Fest at SplitcoastStampers, so I've been trying all sorts of new techniques.  First up is called the Dendritic Technique.  I applied Teal & Gold Metallic Acrylic Paint to two transparencies and then smooshed them together.  I pulled the transparencies apart, and then I applied the paint to white cardstock (and will be saving the cool inky transparencies for future cards).

I framed my painted paper with gold glitter paper using a sketch from a new-to-me Challenge Blog, Paper Craft Crew Challenges.

I added some Eastern Gold Vinyl Stampin' Up Stickers and gold adhesive rivets together with a teal stamped sentiment from Stampin' Up Background Bits.

The next challenge was to make a card with leftovers on your studio table.  When I tried the Alcohol Ink Bauble technique, I had several pieces of Alcohol Yupo paper leftover, so I die cut one of the pieces with a Die-Versions Happy Birthday Solo Die Cut on my table.

I added a sentiment from one of the many new stamp sets sitting on my table (yes, I've been shopping a lot lately) ... Technique Tuesday Sassy Birthday.

March of the Toys

So many of the Eyelet Outlet brads are perfect for realistic cards ... but today, I'm looking at my brad collection through the eye of creating my own Toy Story.

I started with March of the Toys Designer Paper from the Carta Bella Toy Box Collection and then created my own Toy Box Parade.  I started with a few pieces of Building Block Washi Tape to help ground the parade (remember you can click on the pictures to see a larger view).

 

Next I went through my entire brad stash and pulled out any that I thought would be found in a Toy Box.  

 

 

 

 

I added a winter sled (one of the new Fall Brads), a fun little convertible car (doing a wheelie for my brother), a motorcycle, cartoon fish, a stuffed giraffe, a fun Monster, a Toy Army Man ... and of course some building blocks.

 

 

I finished with a dump truck (one of our favorite toys because we could play in the dirt and rocks), another wheelie car, a stuffed lion and round brads for some bouncing balls.

 

I had so much fun creating my card, there will likely be more toy-themed designs in my future.

 

Eyelet Outlet Products used: 

• Building Block Washi Tape
• Building Block Brads
• Winter Sled Brads (New in the store)
• Army Men Brads
• Fun Fish Brads
• Monster Brads
• Car Brads
• Baby Animal Brads
• Motorcycle Brads
• Truck Brads
• 8mm Summer Brad Mix

Autumn Dotty Blessings

I picked-up the Concord & 9th Dotty Turnabout Stamp when I was in NYC at The Ink Pad, and finally had the chance to ink it up.  I chose my most Autumn-like colors from my Distress Oxide Ink Collection (Antique Linen, Fossilized Amber, Wild Honey & Peacock Feathers) for Lori's Autumn Blessings Challenge at the Falliday Fest at SplitcoastStampers.

There is a grid on the back of the stamp set that helps you mark the center.  Then all you have to do is keep the stamp lined up on the marked center of your piece of cardstock as you rotate (you can see the mark in this photo).  Then with the paper positioned in the MISTI, you just rotate it a quarter-turn and stamp with the next color of ink.

I started with Antique Linen & then Fossilized Amber on a 6" square of ivory cardstock (you can see the pencil center mark below ... hint, wait until your ink dries completely before you try to erase the pencil mark ... don't ask me how I know this).

I finished with Wild Honey and then finally Peacock Feathers.

I ended-up trimming my piece to 4 1/4" x 5" and added a sentiment from Simon Says Stamp You Got This from STAMPtember.

I added a few sequins to finish the design.  

When I got back from NYC, I realized I had already purchased this stamp (Yep ... sometimes I like things so much, I buy them twice) ... so the extra brand new stamp set is included in my birthday box of goodies that will go to one lucky reader who leaves a comment on the BIRTHDAY BLOG POST (not here).

Memories

The next Falliday Fest Challenge for me was trying the Stamping with Gelatos Technique.  I can't believe I had never done it ... and I also couldn't remember the last time I used my Gelatos (and that I knew where they actually were in my studio).

I updated the technique by using my MISTI.  I was able to ink each portion of the stamp using a single color.  Then I could stamp ... spray ... and ink again.  It allowed me to get a beautiful rainbow effect with my Hero Arts Starry Night Brushstroke Bold Prints background.

 

After my background dried, I added a sentiment from Hero Arts Remember using this week's Just Add Ink Sketch.

I finished with some felt leaves to bring out the red & orange in the background.

Alcohol Ink Christmas Ornaments

Today is the first day of Falliday Fest at SplitcoastStampers. 

One of the first challenges was Get Drunk! ... to create a card using any tutorial involving alcohol inks.  I chose to use the Alcohol Ink Baubles tutorial to turn my alcohol ink designs into ornaments, trying them on Yupo paper for the first time.

I posited my alcohol ink background behind two Spellbinders die cut ornaments.  I used silver glitter paper to die cut the ornament tops ... and then recycled the inside of a Vicks Tissue box for the ornament hangers & my die cut words from Essentials by Ellen Merry & Bright.

I decorated the insides of my ornaments with some Eyelet Outlet Square Jewels.