Ingenious Inkling

Thursday Link Love

Another week of blogland shenanigans:

• I love this open, airy kitchen design
• examples of Aesthetic Design ... love the bench on rails, the flexible ladle and the suitcase that weighs itself
• Two Ingredient Soft Serve Ice Cream
• money-saving Home Décor Shopping Hack
• Chicken Empanadas
• life-changing quotes
• Tropical No Bake Cookies
• Before you know it it will be time for Autumn Squash Soup
• Back in the Day Digital Cluster Freebie
• I’m intrigued to try Air Fryer Frozen Broccoli
• Love these fun Postage Stamp Craft Ideas
• Have you tried making Hot Chocolate Bombs (shown)?

Have a tremendous Thursday! (Or in this case Wednesday because clearly vacation brain has me confused)d.

Lemon Twist Designs

I'm back with more cards made featuring the Simple Stories Lemon Twist Collection.

I started with the sketch from My Time to Craft Challenge Blog.  I loved the circle elements.  I started with three circle stickers from the collection, but messed up centering the black one, so I covered it with a 1 3/4" black cardstock punched circle.

 

I used a variety of stickers from the collection on top of the circles, and then put one more of the collaged stickers below the panel.  I love those.

 

 

Next up is a card featuring the sketch from the Sketch N Scrap Challenge where I was thrilled to be the featured card artist for July.

I used one of the journaling cards from the paper pad as the focal image.

 

I added a file folder sticker, another collaged sentiment sticker and a 3-D lemon sticker to finish the design.

 

 

I just love the colors and images in this collection.

Happy Fusion Butterflies

The current Fusion Card Challenge features an adorable Butterfly photo.

 

I chose to combine a butterfly theme with the Sketch.  I recently picked-up the Simple Stories Lemon Twist Collection that features lemons, butterflies and bees ... I love the colors.  I used three different papers from the collection to lay out the background panels.

 

I used one of the circle stickers from the collection and two 3-D butterfly stickers.  I finished with three different sticker sentiments.  

Cardstock Christmas

For the next prompt at Jingle Belles, we're asking you to step away from the designer paper … yes, put it away … none allowed … not even a scrap … because the next prompt is to create a card using only CARDSTOCK.

You can tear it, ink it, stamp it, spray it, emboss it … but stick to only cardstock for your holiday card design.

When I thought of cardstock ideas, my memories took me back to the first innovative cardstock product I remembered - Core'dinations and the magic of embossing it. I made some card samples for them way way way back in the day, so I knew somewhere I still had quite a stash of their paper (and I actually remembered where I had it stashed ... a crafty miracle).

 

 

I chose the blue cardstock and embossed it with the Echo Park Mini Triangles embossing folder that reminded me of tiny Christmas Trees and then got out my nail file and sanded away to reveal the light blue Core'dinations core.  Next I sprayed the cardstock with shimmer spray and splattered with white acrylic ink to bring in a snowy effect. 

I die cut my STAMPlorations Merry Christmas Sentiment from the same blue cardstock, but the contrast didn't work ... I tried a lighter blue, which didn't seem to work either ... but when I combined the two to create a drop shadow ... Voila!. 

 

 

After gluing them together, I added some more shimmer spray.  My choice of the blue color palette and clean & simple design was inspired by the Less is More Shades of Blue Challenge.

 

Thursday Link Love

Another week of blogland adventures:

• love the ceramic designs of Amina Roos ... the fish look like they're swimming around the cups
• I haven't been able to get enough of Bread & Butter Pickles lately (always on the search for my favorite ones) ... maybe I should try making some?
• have you tried a Frosted Lemonade?
• do you need to clean Stainless Steal Cookware?
• I made these Bus Stop Breakfast Cookies this week
• Next up may be Flourless Chocolate Brownie Cookies 
• these fun and funky cards inspire me to up my design game
• what are you making with all of those Tomatoes?
• Apple Dumplings ... my grandma made the best ones (wish I had her recipe, but I'm guessing it was the love that made them so special)
• dreaming of Spa Retreats
• Simple Healthy Habits to incorporate into your day (I do floss regularly and try to read every day, but not so regular on the rest)
• Always sad when the Olympics are over ... here are some of great photos

Have a tremendous Thursday!

Squeeze the Day

I recently picked up the papers and stickers from the Simple Stories Lemon Twist Collection.  I just loved the color combination.

I used papers and stickers with the current Atlantic Hearts Card Sketch.

 

It's a great sketch for scraps of paper.  I added the 3-d lemon sticker with a sentiment sticker on top.  I added another sentiment sticker along the bottom of the plaid and finished with some adhesive stickers.

 

You Make Me So Happy

This week's Global Design Project is a CASE the designer Challenge.

 

 

I decided to incorporate the blue, olive & white (I went with Mermaid Lagoon and Forest Moss Distress Oxide), tiny squares (in my case the Carta Bella Dreamy Grid Stencil) with a black frame (I drew mine with a black sharpie) and a bow (I swapped the black for some Lawn Fawn Twine that pulled in the lighter green shade too).  I also splattered my background with the Distress Oxide Spray (I tried spraying and got too much coverage, so I used the tube and splattered, which produced larger drops).

 

 

I swapped the heart for a hexagon (stayed with the letter H) and used foam tape to attach a long thin sentiment from Cathy Zielske's Simon Says Stamp Happy Days attached with foam tape rather than a slip.  I decided to add one of the blooms from the same stamp set stamped in black with a blue matte dot in the center.

Always fun to play with the elements to include & the elements to change to make it my own.

Minty Modern Summer of Stamping

I am loving the designs & new releases in Ellen Hutson's Summer of Stamping.  When I saw these amazing cards created by my very first card crush (JulieHRR clear back in 2006) Julie Ebersole, I knew I had to make those designs my own.

 

 

I decided to use the wonderful summery Minty August Elemental Challenge from Daring Cardmakers to inspire my designs.  I used the colors, the popsicle shape which looks like the fingernails, typewriter text, & the circles from the nail polish & paint lid in my designs.

 

I used Catherine Pooler Mint to Be, In the Park and Twilight for my ink colors with a pop of Gina K. Designs Amalgam Black.

My first card used shapes from the new Essentials by Ellen Stay Cool Stamp set by Julee together with a sentiment from Essentials by Ellen Besties by Julee.

 

 

I'm also linking-up this card at AAA Cards = Two Quarters with an Optional Twist of Favourite Colors (I took my half right out of the middle).

 

Next up is a second card with stamps from the same combination ... I thought the shapes I stamped reminded me of my version of Nerf Bullets.

 

 

Then as I was trying different stamp combinations, I pulled out images from Essentials by Ellen Organic Elements by Julee (the three wonky lines) to add to the mix.

 

 

This card I'm linking-up at Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers F is for F words - because Friendship is the best F word.

 

 

And my final card uses stamps from all three sets.

 

 

This last one is for the Little Red Wagon Just Because Card Challenge.

I had so much fun playing with these modern designs, I know I'll be doing it again with other fun color combinations. 

Thanks so much Julee for designing great stamp sets & inspiring me for over 15 years ... and to Ellen for an amazing Summer of Stamping #ebesummerofstamping.  You are both da' bomb.

Sentiment Strip Sympathy

The current Monthly Mix Challenge at Gina K. Designs is to use Sentiment Strips in your card design.

 

 

Unfortunately, I needed to restock my sympathy card stash, so that was my focus today.  I started with the silhouette blooms from Gina K. Designs Natural Silhouettes.  

 

For the first one I used sentiment strips from Gina K. Designs Spring Tulips Mini and Layered Eucalyptus Mini.  Since the Layered Eucalyptus is from September 2019, I'm also linking-up at the Anything Goes Challenge at the Retro Rubber Challenge Blog.

 

Since the flowers were already on my MISTI, I stamped them in several colors for easy multi-card making.

 

 

These sentiments are from the Gina K. Designs Natural Silhouettes and Spring Tulips Mini.

 

I love how classic these designs are in the different palettes.  I'm linking the final one up at the Summertime Blues Challenge at Simon Says Stamp.

Red & Green All Over Peace

I had fun Gel Printing again last week and thought I would work on some green pieces to use on my Red & Green All Over Jingle Belles card this week.  This one combined a new foam stamp I picked-up at the used crafting supply store stamped in a dark green and picked-up with florescent green.

 

 

I took the inspiration of my card design from this week's Inspire.Create.Challenge adding a scalloped border, kraft card base, flag sentiment and a little red holiday bird with my vintage wood mounted sentiment from Catslife Press.