Ingenious Inkling

Caladium Gift Card Set

I'm up on the Technique Junkies Blog today sharing a four-card gift set I made using the new Caladium Background (15% off through the 8th).  Remember 10% off the remainder of the entire store using my discount code TJ10Stephanie.

 

 

10 Favorites of 2018

I always enjoy looking back on my year of creations ... and thinking about what I want to create in the coming year.  

Here are my 10 favorite non-holiday cards & artsy creations from this year in no particular order (here are my top 5 Christmas cards for 2018).

1.  This has been the year I fell deeply in love with stamps from The Ink Road.  So many fantastic movie and TV quotes to choose from.  I also loved this gorgeous flower die paired with a snarky quote from my spirit animal Leslie Knope of Parks & Recreation for (in my opinion) unexpected design perfection ... not to mention the Technique Junkies Vivid Volt Shimmering Bliss Spray with Kraft.

 

2.  It's been a great year designing for Technique Junkies.  I love their deep red rubber stamps and wonderful background designs like this gorgeous Big Butterfly Background (remember use TJ10Stephanie at checkout for 10% off the Technique Junkies Store).  This was one of the cards I made for the March Stamp Release.  Love the Color Burst design, and the splatters were a marvelous happy accident ... I love when you can turn potential messes into design elements.

 

 

3. I have also had another fantastic year designing for My Sweet Petunia ... the MISTI changed my crafty life and I love sharing new ways to use it ... like creating this super-adorable Winnie The Pooh card with Concord & 9th's Hi There Bear.  Winnie was my brother's constant companion for a large part of his young childhood, so this card also brings back those wonderful memories.

 

 

4.  I was blessed to finally get to attend Creativation (formerly CHA) in 2018.  I got to meet so many people that I had only designed with *virtually* over the years and enjoyed getting to try so many of the new products.  My favorite class was the Mixed Media Revolution Class taught by Seth Apter where we got to use his awesome paint and stamps ... and I also got to meet the oh-so-talented Linda Brun in person.

 

 

5.  One of the fun things about designing for My Sweet Petunia (MISTI) are the collaborations with other companies.  I loved creating with a new-to-me company Heffy Doodle and getting to meet the owners/designers at Creativation.  These aren't the usual types of stamps I gravitate toward (another fun part about collaborations ... stretching my design skills), but I was thrilled with how all of my cards turned out ... especially this fun Sip Sip Hooray Design.  I should really use Alphabet Stamps more to create fun sentiments.

 

 

6. I pushed myself to take more art classes this year, like this fun Mixed Media Class that was held in the lobby of our Condominium building right outside my front door.  The oh-so-talented Dori Patrick once again pushed me outside of my comfort zone to create a finished product I loved so much, it's actually hanging on one of my art walls in my home.

 

7.  Essentials by Ellen always releases some of my favorite stamps of the year (and I was so thrilled to meet the Ellen Hutson teawm) ... and I loved this background I created using inspiration from one of their Pin-Sights Challenge.  It was so easy, but created such a dramatic effect just using paper squares ... and Mermaids were big in 2018.

 

8.  I love learning new techniques and using neglected products like I did on this Dare to Get Dirty Challenge card ... and I love these Inky Antics stamps by Andrea Ockey Parr too (I may have bought everything she illustrated).

9.  When I visited Lauren this year, I was thrilled to get to contribute a Guest Artist page to her Space Age Atlas.  I had such fun combining pictures from Fashion Magazines ... it was a serious 8th grade flashback (in a good way).

 

 

10.  I also had the privilege of Guest Designing for some new releases at STAMPlorations this year including these wonderful phrase dies ... I loved being able to combine mixed media stamping with a wonderful clean & simple design. 

 

I hope you had fun walking down my 2018 memory lane ... looking forward to lots more fun art in 2019.

Ho Ho Ho ... Happy Birthday

This card is to tease someone whose birthday always gets mashed-up with Christmas.

I started with the My Favorite Things Ho Ho Ho Die cut from Maroon & Black Cardstock.  Then I built the card around this week's Freshly Made Sketch.

 

I finished with a penguin (with Christmas song lyrics on his belly) and a few sticker sentiments with a tiny "and" stamp from Inky Antics So Much to Say #1.  Paper are My Mind's Eye Winterberry.

Best Birthday Ever

Tonight I'm creating with Gina K. Designs Watercolor Garden Luxury Papers ... they are so vibrant and gorgeous.

 

While the sentiments and circle stamps from Gina K. Designs Reasons to Celebrate set are sized to go inside the wreath builder creations, they also stand perfectly alone with her layering stitched circle dies (love that perfect little border).

I used the Mojo Monday Sketch for my layout ... a wonderful mailable card.

 

Retro Rubber Birthday

The Retro Rubber Challenge is celebrating its 100th Challenge with a little Tic-Tac-Toe inspiration.

 

I pulled out two old favorites from A Muse Rubber Stamps (dating back to at least 2006 when I first have record of using the Happy Birthday Sentiment and was taking pictures on my lovely shag carpet ... gotta love those vintage pictures too).

I used the vertical elements on the right side - Metallics (Copper Glitter Cardstock & Copper pen on the candle flames); Die Cut or Punch (I went old school with two vintage punches for my circle & scalloped circle); and Cake (because ... birthday).

 

 

The layout is this week's Freshly Made Sketch.  The stripes are a recycled paper bag that came with one of my recent stamp orders (The Ink Road I believe).

 

Papertrey Ink November Blog Hop Challenge

Today I'm joining in the November Papertrey Ink Blog Hop to create a project inspired by this photograph.

I have a fair number of PaperTrey Ink Stamps, but always, none for Christmas ... so since Christmas is the celebration of a birthday, I made a birthday card inspired by the photo.

To pull in the stripes of the ribbon & the candy canes, I embossed Red Cardstock with PaperTrey Ink Picnic Plaid Impression Plate.  I loved the pop of blue ribbon in the photograph, so I added my own ribbon wrap before finishing with a sentiment from PaperTrey Ink Stylish Sentiments: Birthday.

 

The round 365 is reminiscent of the round suckers in the inspiration photo as well.

Party Without Cake

On my list of things to accomplish during this long holiday weekend is restocking my everyday card stash.  I have quite a few random cards, but am sorely lacking in cards for specific occasions.

Tonight I cut up a 12" piece of Simple Stories Let's Party Journaling cards to start putting together some masculine birthday cards ... I always snap-up these types of designs when I see them for just such an occasion.

 

I started with the current Fusion Card Challenge.  The Red Pillow reminded me of the Red Texty Journaling card ... and I incorporated the Sketch as well.

I also incorporated black and white background based on the pattern on the chair seat.  I couldn't position the circles on top of the text, so I slipped them behind my rectangle sentiment.

I finished with a wrap of the three primary colors of twine.  I'm also joining the Masculine Anything Goes Challenge at The Water Cooler Wednesday Challenge.

Next I used the layout from Paper Craft Crew Challenge with another journaling card.

I swapped the leaves for Party Hats and finished with a sticker sentiment.

 

Two down ... about 10 more to go.

Playing Dress-Up

When I saw the theme at the Tuesday Throwdown Challenge was Playing Dress-Up ... I knew it was time to break out my Taylored Expression Sarcasti-chick and some of her Halloween Closet Dress-Up Clothes.

She's promising to grant your birthday wish ... but we all know, she's just there to get a piece of cake and glass of wine.  The Sentiments are from Taylored Expressions Party Pals.

I dressed-her-up in vibrant pink and added some silver bling stickers.  The layout is this week's Freshly Made Sketch.

I'm also joining the Clean & Simple Challenge at Seize the Birthday.

Retro Happy Birthday

The theme at Retro Rubber this week is Anything Goes.

 

My birthday card stash is completely depleted, so I pulled out a retro favorite Birthday Stamp from Denami Design in 2001.  I inked it with three different colors of Catherine Pooler ink for an Ombre look.

 

I cut it with my oval cutter to use for this week's Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge.

Instead of a flower accent, I added a chipboard piece of birthday cake.  I also added a tiny gold peel-off sticker from Love from Lizi.

 

WTF

A clean & simple masculine design for the Sketch Challenge at CAS-ual Fridays.  Instead of a trio of flowers, I used a trio of words above & blow the large center sentiment.

I used the colors from The Paper Players Challenge.