Ingenious Inkling

Flowers, Flowers Everywhere!

The newest challenge at Shopping Our Stash is Flowers, Flowers Everywhere!

 

 

There was a time in my paper crafting past where flowers were my go-to embellishment, so much show that I would shop the floral section to see if there were hydrangeas or other silk blooms that I could dissect to add to my flower stash.  Since then I've purged a lot of my flowers, but I still found a long-forgotten stash to work with.

The first thing that came to mind were the floral decorated wedding cake cards I used to make ... it looks like the last one was in 2016.  Since most of the flowers I have in my stash are neutral tones, I decided to use a piece of sprayed paper for my cake base (since I've seen some cool air-brushed wedding cakes).  I used this scrap from my stash that combined pink, green and yellow.

 

 

I combined blooms from lots of different brands to make the path up my cake.  I even pulled out tiny old-school golden brads for the flower centers for the tiny white prima blooms.

 

While I was shopping my stash for lots of old school supplies, I pulled out a golden sticker sentiment to finish the design using the sketch from The Paper Players.

We can't wait to see what you do with those flowers in your stash.

Pinkfresh Studio Create & Connect - Day 2

The Day 2 session began with a class in Watercoloring by Manusharee.  I enjoyed watching her, but decided I wasn’t quite in the mood to give it a try, so instead I broke out the layering stencils.

 

 

I really enjoyed trying different color combinations & rotating the image.  This one was stamped with grey ink instead of black, which really gives it a different look after stenciling. 

 

 

I can see myself using this one for lots of occasions.  Mona let me borrow her silver vellum for the final one … love it.

 

 

Next up was Lea Lawson with a set called The Magic is in You.  I ended-up falling in love with those fun little mushrooms.  The little terrarium was fun too.

 

I loved the pop of red with the greys.  I ended-up stenciling and die cutting several times, so I made a second card with the leftovers.  I used a grey card base and more of that lovely silver vellum.

 

 

The final one used some softer hues.

 

 

The final class was with Jennifer Maguire using a combination of products from the various classes.  For this one, we learned how to reverse our stencils & die cut from the back to get more bang for our buck from our products.  The gatefold design was fun too.

 

I enjoyed all of the classes … but mostly I enjoyed the blessing of getting to create in person with my crafty friend … there is really nothing better.

Pinkfresh Studio Create & Connect - Day 1

I really enjoyed Day of Pinkfresh Studio Create & Connect.  I didn’t really learn any new techniques other than to die cut intricate dies into a piece of recycled bubble envelope to get a clean cut, but I really enjoyed the products and creative process.

The first class was with Healther Hoffman using a bouquet of stamped & stenciled flowers in a wonderful milk can die cut.  The milk cans reminded me of my Gran painting scenes on milk cans in the 70’s (I’m pretty sure my Mom still has one).

 

 

We also got some cool ombré gold and silver bling that pretty much goes with everything.  The second card we made was in more rustic hues.  I really liked doing the flowers each in their own color palette.

 

For me, there is something meditative when I color with layering stencils.

Class #2 was all about dimension with Laura Basson.

 

 

These cards were created entirely with layering stencils (the only stamping was the sentiment).  I couldn’t believe the level of gorgeous detail.

 

 

I loved that you could die cut the entire image like we did in the first card, or that you could die cut each individual image and arrange them however you wanted.  I also love how changing the color combination completely changed the look of the design.  We got done early enough I was able to make a third bonus card in my own color palette.

 

I loved the vibrancy of these colors (and that I have another birthday card for my stash).

The third & final class of the day was with Yasmin Diaz and a new Washi/stamp/stencil combination called Fruitlicious.

 

 

The stenciling was so fun and produced such a vibrant bouquet of fruits (I was thrilled to see something other than flowers … now if they’d only do one with masculine hues of greenery).

We have three more classes on Day 2 … should be  another fun day of creating.

Madison Adventure

I had a perfect day yesterday wandering around Madison, Wisconsin … one of my favorite cities.

I started the day at Atomic Antiques, which was basically a walk through my childhood.  I’m pretty sure we had these mugs … but I surely know that we loved watching this show.

 

 

I resisted those mugs, but I did bring home these mugs.

 

 

I loved all of the textural wall hangings.

 

 

Lots of fun seashell arts too.

 

 

Wish my studio was big enough for this gorgeous piece.

 

Next, I treated myself to a Thai Tamarind Whole Red Snapper for lunch at Ha Long Bay … never pass-up a whole fish.

 

 

I spent my afternoon wandering through art galleries, book stores, bakeries and other fun little shops … I love this City.

Today and tomorrow, we spend time in the studio joining the Pinkfresh Studio Create Event.

CLEAR-ly Winter Fun

The new prompt at Jingle Belles is to create a holiday card that contains at least one see-through element, whether that be glass, a transparency, some vellum, acetate or "ghost" shapes, clear stickers, lucite buttons, shrink plastic... whatever you like... if you can see through it (& figure out how to attach it!) put it on there and link it up! 

I started my card with a new Dina Wakley Media Pattern Play Set 1 Transparency cut into a square.  Next I attached a tiny little Penguin Sledding Gift Tag Card to the transparency with foam tape and then added a Simon Says Stamp Reverse Sentiment Strip.

 

 

I used strong two sided tape behind both images to attach it to the glitter card base.  I finished with several clusters of sparkling clear sequins to complete the design.

Thursday Link Love

Another week of skipping through blogland:

• Did you know Ketchup cleans Vintage Brass?
• Turkish Flatbread (Bazlama) looks delicious
• love all of these Dresser Makeovers
• Awkward Family Photos
• Cake Mix Pancakes
• amazing Modern Quilters
• Cinnamon Bundt Cake
• love these Stained Glass ColorStreams
• clever uses for Zip Ties
• I believe I would love these Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies (shown)
• gorgeous transition from School House to Home
• How lovely is this Rustic Apple Tart

Have a tremendous Thursday!

Peppermint Peace, Love & Joy

Today I made a card for the Peace on Earth Christmas Challenge.

 

 

I loved the pop of red in the various candy cane images, so I die cut the Taylored Expressions Beauty Lies Within 3 Cardinal Die from red cardstock.

 

 

I die cut the Lawn Fawn Let It Shine silver snowflake paper (that was inspired by the carpet in front of the Christmas tree) with a Taylored Expressions Stitched Mini Slim Stacklets die before adding it to a red card base.

I finished with a Simon Says Stamp Reverse Holiday sentiment and some Taylored Expressions Drip Drops.

E is for Expletives

As you can tell from the blog post title, if expletives offend you - click away.  I'm joining the E is for Expletives Challenge at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers.

 

 

 

For those who know me, it's no surprise that I had multiple stamp sets to choose from for this challenge (I'm a bit of an expletive collector).  I went with Ink Road Stamps Bitch Please sentiments on an ink sprayed background.  I think I may have to keep this one on my desk top.

 

I kept it simple with a few Love from Lizi peel off stickers down the left side.

Happy Easter

I figured since I'm already consuming my favorite Easter Candies (in case you wondered, it's Peanut Butter M&M Eggs and Reese's Eggs ... somehow the egg shape of both increases the ration of peanut butter to chocolate, which I love) I could go ahead and start making some Easter Cards.

I love these little felt bunny stickers with their puffy tails.

 

I paired him with a strip of gel printed paper and a border of ink sprayed paper.  I kept it simple with a tiny sticker sentiment for this week's Furry Friends Challenge at Try Stampin' (or Not) on Tuesday.

 

Pastel Get Well

This morning I knew I wanted to create a card using this week's Freshly Made Sketch.

 

I went shopping in my scrap box and pulled out colors that I thought might work for the Color Challenge at the Color Throwdown.

 

 

I fell in love with that sprayed paper, so I combined it with other marker & sprayed backgrounds in the pile together with yellow designer paper scrap.  One trick for doing that is trimming a scrap of paper and attaching all of the pieces to that, so you can trim both ends before attaching to the card to keep things even.

 

 

For the ivory, I used an ivory woodgrain base and a wrap of ivory ribbon.  I had the card all put together before I decided on my sentiment.  Since the vintage Hero Arts Woodblock Stamp that I wanted to use for The Paper Players Clean & Simple Get Well Challenge was vertical, I stamped it on another scrap of the green sprayed paper and attached the panel on top of the ribbon with foam tape.