Ingenious Inkling

Stay Crafty with Hero Arts Holiday Tags

It's always weird to try to get back into the creative swing of things after being out of the studio for a week plus.  It reminds me of the importance of trying to make something (anything) every day to keep that creative muscle in shape.

 

 

I decided to warm-up with the current Stay Crafty with Hero Challenge to create a holiday tag.  

I inked one of the trees from Hero Arts Stylized Christmas Trees in a rainbow of ink colors finishing with violet for the star on top.  I used the Hero Arts Rounded Rectangle Infinity Dies to create my tag.

 

 

I used this week's Freshly made Sketch for my layout adding two rows of rainbow washi tape.  I finished with a tiny Hero Arts Greetings Christmas Messages and some velvet ribbon and twine.

 

I resisted the urge to bling-up that tree, so I could link-up at 9th Birthday Party at Addicted to CAS where the code word is colourful (or colorful).

 

 

Since I don't wrap gifts, I mounted my tag on a white card base with thin foam for a bit more dimension.

 

 

Yay for a creative start to my Saturday!

Banner Holiday

For our last Jingle Belles prompt of the 2021 season, we're making holiday cards inspired by this year's blog banner, which looks a bit like this:

 

 

I loved the rich all-over green of this year's Jingle Belles banner, so that is what I tried to emulate with my card design.  I used four different colors of Green Alcohol Ink on Silver Alcohol Ink Cardstock including Couture Creations Glitter Alcohol Ink (so cool). 

 

 

Next I tried to use Alcohol Ink Removal ink with snowflakes to get the subtle snowflake effect of the banner, but you can just barely see them.  So instead, I added one large Simon Says Stamp Big Bliss Die Glitter snowflake and three smaller snowflake buttons with green enamel dots in the center.

 

 

For the texty element of the banner, I die cut Simon Says Stamp Joyful from Vellum and the silver inside of a tissue box to complete my design."

Thursday Link Love

Another week of blogland discoveries:

• Garden Artistry of Piet Oudolf (I adore the High Line)
• Shrimp Potato Corn Chowder
• Free Thanksgiving Printables
• Apple Pecan Tart
• love these Die Cut Holiday Ornaments
• Biscoff Mug Cake
• and how adorable are these Die Cut Snowmen
• why did I never think to make Air Fryer Garlic Bread
• this black & white holiday card is fantastic
• Graham Cracker "Gingerbread" Houses
• love this Laundromat Disco Wedding
• We had Pie Crust Cookies at my sister's wedding and they were so good ... they reminded me of childhood.
• Li Songsong's Fragmented Oil Paintings (one shown)
• Soft Pumpkin Chai Snickerdoodles

Have a tremendous Thursday!

Wedding Bells

No creating this weekend because I’m with family for my sister Darcy’s wedding. 

The view from our walk around the courthouse this morning  I don’t think I ever noticed the rich green patina  

 

 

Jingle Bell Baubles

For this week's Ornament Prompt at Jingle Belles, I went exploring in my rather large designer paper collection.  I found the perfect paper in Carta Bella's Merry Christmas Collection by Steven Duncan.  I loved that they were vintage baubles that reminded me of childhood, and that they framed lyrics from Jingle Bells (Belles).

 

 

I trimmed it down to 5"x6" and decided it didn't really need much more.  I adorned it with the Frantic Stamper Contempo Tree topped with a golden star gem and finished with a sentiment from Taylored Expressions Simple Strips Christmas (and backer).

Always love when another totally mailable card goes into the basket.  I ordered my Christmas stamps this week and it won't be long until I starting getting them ready to go in the mail ... that's why I love Jingle Belles so much is because I'm never stressed to have to get a ton of holiday cards made during one of the busiest times of the year.  Come join us!

Thursday Link Love

Another week of blogland shenannigans:

• I loved exploring the art collection of Carla Shen (her Instagram is super-fun too)
• I haven't tried making Breakfast Pizza at home or Breakfast Slab Pie
• the art of Evgenya Babicheva (Sheglova) is also inspiring
• I love Liege Waffles
• Brick Street Chocolate Cake
• the History of the Christmas Card
• Holiday Crinkle Cookies
• Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole
• Paper Tearing Techniques
• Blueberry Cake is going on my list ... since it's fruit, it can be breakfast right?
• How to make a Fall Floral Wreath (shown)
• Coconut Cream Cheese Pound Cake
• I'm always on the hunt for Baked Potato Perfection

Have a tremendous Thursday!

Rudolph & his Cocoa

The November Waffle Flower Challenge is to create a Masculine Holiday card. 

 

 

I die cut the Waffle Flower Be a Reindeer from two shades of brown cardstock & red glitter cardstock for the nose.  Next I die cut the Waffle Flower largest Nesting Stitched Squares Die from Waffle Flower Half and Half Dots Christmas Paper.

 

 

I assembled my Reindeer with some googly eyes and looked for something for him to hold in his paws ... I decided on this Santa Hot Chocolate Sticker I had in my stash (which pulls in a third red element to balance out the design).  

Next I die cut the Waffle Flower Holiday Lights from a scrap of silver mirror cardstock in my stash.  I die cut the bulbs from the same red glitter cardstock as Rudolph's nose and then wove the lights through his antlers.

I looked for a Christmas Sentiment that would work with my layout and ultimately decided to just leave it sentiment-free ... I'm pretty sure it is clear it is a Christmas card without one.

Washi Tape Congrats

Do you ever go wandering through your blog searching for inspiration?  That's what I did tonight.  I knew I needed multiple Congratulations cards that I could make fairly quickly.  I was okay if they were similar, but since they were going to members of the same team, I wanted them to be slightly different too.

I chose this washi tape card from June 2013 as my inspiration.

 

 

I set the Congrats stamp from Stamp Market A Few Words in my MISTI and went searching for tape.

I started with a combination of blues ... I love that bit of glitter and the clouds.  Like the inspiration card, I repeated some patterns.  

 

 

Next up were dramatic greys and blacks ... clearly I have a thing for measuring tape.

 

 

Next up are the greens (I realized when I was writing the post that I used some of the same tapes as the inspiration card).

 

 

And last up, a card built around the gorgeous wide Gilded Greenery AltaNew Washi Tape.

 

 

I think I could have kept making these cards all night long.

Thanksgiving Feast

When I was turning my studio upside down looking for a typewriter stamp (can you believe I don't have one), I found this never-been-inked Thanksgiving Set from Technique Tuesday.

 

 

It was perfect for The Paper Players Give Thanks Challenge (I also used some older foam adhesive squares I found on my typewriter quest, which were not forgiving enough to straighten the slightly wonky sentiment strip, so I just let it be).

 

 

I used my Graph'It Markers to color the images and punched them with a 11/4" circle punch for the Addicted to CAS Circle Challenge.

 

 

With my Orange Card base & Pumpkin Pie, I'm also linking-up at the Make the Cards Challenge.

 

 

I'm also joining the Thankful for Fall Challenge at The House that Stamps Built.

Happy Holidays Gnome

The current challenge at The Male Room is Gnomes, so I pulled out my Reverse Confetti Holiday Gnomes, which will also work for the November Reverse Confetti Stock Your Stash Challenge which is to create a Holiday or Winter Card.

I decided to use the colors and some paper scraps from Reverse Confetti Winter Wonder papers as my color palette together with a layout from Sketch ~N~Scrap.

 

 

I paired my holiday gnome with the Reverse Confetti Triangle Tree, which I loved paired with the triangle designer paper.  The sentiment is Sentimental Christmas from Reverse Confetti.

I colored my gnome & tree with my Graph-it Markers.  I finished with a few clusters of glittery enamel dots.