Ingenious Inkling

We Three Beers

The theme at Jingle Belles is We Three Kings ... make a card that features THREE of something.  For my card, I chose the fabulous Reinbeer from Your Next Stamp.

 

It's a loose interpretation of the Sketch at The Paper Players (inspired by Designer Laurie Schmidt's Gnome Card) ... the googly eyes are the top three ... and the Christmas Trees are the bottom three.

 

I'm also linking-up at the Share the Love Challenge at Your Next Stamp ... I realize that too is a bit of a stretch, but hear me out.  My husband's love language is Beer ... each week I go on the hunt for the perfect beer for him to have with the meals I'm making.   I also love to find ways to use Beer in my cooking as well.  I don't drink it ... but he says I'm the Best Beer Buyer because I always buy beers he wouldn't choose for himself ... but that he loves.  So for us, Reinbeer Time is Sharing the Love.

 

And it's Anything Christmas at The Holly and Ivy Challenge.

We hope you'll share your trio with us at Jingle Belles.

 

Miss Your Face

I couldn't resist playing with the new Making Faces Dies from i-Crafter when they arrived in the mail today. 

I wanted to make a girlfriend card.  As I have aged (and experienced more life changes) many of my besties are now scattered across the US ... and no longer on the same block.  When I see stories about a group of women buying a big house so they can live together ... or forming their own little tiny house community so they can retire together ... I imagine how fun it would be to be somewhere like that with all my besties (and oh what a craft room we would have).

 

I made three girlfriends using the hues from the current Color Throwdown (I want those gloves) and the fun CZ Designs Sentiment Strips Miss You Hey Bestie from Simon Says Stamp.

 

The layout is this week's Tuesday Morning Sketches.

 

I'm also joining the Anything Goes Challenge at Simon Says Stamp.

Thursday Link Love

Another week of blogland discoveries:

• Crafty Trends for 2020
• Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Icing ... I do love a good sheet cake
• I'd love to try to recreate this Confetti Fabric Pattern on paper
• I've never tried a Chocolate Shortcake
• Ten things you probably didn't know about C.S. Lewis
• love seeing pictures of Snow Sculptures
• We always stop at Momofuku Milk Bar when we're in NYC
• Sticky Note Art (one shown)
• I never had pickle wraps until I moved to Iowa ... and I love Pickle Wrap Dip
• free Printable Valentines
• Frustration usually does it for me
• I want to try to make some chunky applesauce

Have a tremendous Thursday!

Green Dinosaur Birthday

I told you I might re-visit this week's CAS(e) this Sketch! ... and tonight I did.  After a long day of mentally taxing work, I wanted to create something easy (that was not mentally taxing) ... so tonight that meant washi tape and a collection of stickers.

I used Green for the Cute Card Thursday Challenge and my intention was to make a St. Patrick's Day card (hence the gold tape in the middle)... only one problem ... literally no St. Patrick's day stamps or stickers.  I did however have a big green dinosaur and a Let's Party SRM Sticker, so a little boy's birthday card was born.

 

Balloons, gold metallic sentiment (hard to photograph because when I shined light on it to show the metal, you couldn't read the words) and of course ... a cupcake.  No rocket science ... but cute and fun, so I'm happy.

 

Better Together

Global Design Project just happens to have a color challenge that matches the colors of the scraps of cardstock on my studio table ... how perfect.

 

It also matches the remaining little valentine cards ... so I made another Galentine (had to use a marker and add a bow to my other sloth).

 

A sticker sentiment, bling for the bows, and puffy heart sticker finish the design.

Also joining Simon Says Stamp where the theme is All Loved Up.

Makeover Monday - Layering Die Cut Stencil Valentine

I'm back for another Makeover Monday.

This week I chose this Valentine from February 2017, which was the first (and I believe only) time I have used these rather expense Birch Press Designs Caprice Heart Layers Die Cuts.  When I saw Jennifer Mcguire's video this week on how to turn these layering die cuts into stencils, I figured it was the perfect time to give it a try.

 

I die cut the three hearts from a scrap of kraft cardstock on my desk, and then die cut one more time to create my mask.  Since I intended to cut out the heart, I used the mask for all the layers.  I used Jennifer's technique of then cutting out the center of the 4th die to create a white heart frame.

I used three of the inks from the Pink Fresh Heart Beat Quartet - Coral Reef, Passion Fruit and Berrylicious.  I couldn't find enamel hearts in my stash to match these colors, so I used a little foam heart sticker in the center and two Eyelet Outlet Pink Hearts at the top.  

The sentiment is a die cut from Simon Says Stamp Everyday Words on a Line for another Galentine.  And I'm still joining Sam's Use My Stuff Challenge - Love (those sentiment dies were unopened ... and yay for using my heart dies a second time).

Happy OWLidays

Tonight I wanted to combine the sketch from the Fusion Critter Challenge with the Lawn Fawnatics Challenge For the Birds Challenge (because birds are critters too).

 

And, to make it a little more fun, I'm using three of the colors from the Just Add Ink Challenge ... I used Bermuda Bay, Lovely Lipstick & Call Me Clover.

 

I found a piece of Christmas designer paper that has those three colors, so that's where my design started ... and one of the cool things about Art, is that your reality can be any color you want, so why not have a Bermuda Bay Christmas Owl created from Lawn Fawn Winter Owl ... with a coordinating paper-pieced scarf (of course).

 

Sentiment is from Lawn Fawn's Simply Winter Sentiments.

 

One more holiday card ready to go.

Pigeon Crapping on My Heart

The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers is offering up A is for Anti-Valentine as their theme this week.

 

I couldn't resist pulling out a few stamp sets from The Ink Road and stamping-up a few quick cards.

The first is from the fabulous Phoebe of Friends ... a polka dot card base with sentiment from Ink Road's The One With All The Stamps.  I used white paint pen to add a little pigeon poop to the puffy heart stickers.

 

 

The next one uses a sentiment from The Ink Road Zerofcks.

 

 

Probably not a card most people are seeking out for Valentine's day ... but you never know I suppose.

Butterfly Get Well

When I saw the Use Your Scraps Challenge at the Sweet Stampin' Challenge, I went through my big scrap box and found a small piece of hoarded Japanese Chiyogami paper ... and I also found a few orphaned butterfly stickers. 

I decided to combine them with this week's Wednesday Sketch Challenge at My Favorite Things.  Instead of a circle, I used the My Favorite Thing Hexagon STAX Die from a scrap of white cardstock.

 

I've been trying to re-stock my stash and needed a Get Well Card, so I used stamps (that were surgically separated) from my most used My Favorite Things Stamp Set (and long-ago discontinued) - Get Well Wishes ... and joined the Get Well Soon Challenge at the Cut It Up Challenge.

 

I found those neglected 3-D butterfly stickers a home to finish the card ... and took my overall inspiration from the Just Us Girls Photo Inspiration Challenge.

 

Love how that gorgeous scrap of Japanese Chiyogami paper finally found a home.

Merry & Bright

At Jingle Belles, we're still making cards with things Santa brought us.

In my Christmas Stocking from Santa Lauren there were these adorable little chipboard bingo cards ...  I was going to just leave the numbers on the card, but ultimately I covered them with the flower embellishments.

 

I chose to pair two adorable little Christmas Sprites with the Merry & Bright sentiment ... then I built the rest of my card around the floral elements on the Merry & Bright square.  I have quite a collection of holiday designer papers after 9 years of Jingle Belles, and I found the perfect card base paper in a brand new paper pad Bella Boulevard Santa Squad.  And that paper is what led me on the search for the pink flowers I added to finish the design (my original plan had been to go with holly ... but you have to just let the creative muse take you where it may).

I love the **happiness** of this card.  Hope you'll come join us.