Ingenious Inkling

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.

Aca-Awesome

The theme at Just Us Girls this week is MUSIC ... so I couldn't resist pulling out a little Pitch Perfect Pitch Please fun from The Ink Road.

I took my inspiration from the Elemental Inspiration Photo at Daring Cardmakers ... while the inspiration was Christmas, I took it a different direction with a black, white & kraft Color Palette with pops of Green, a wrap of twine (with metallic thread), and tag ... just so much to love.

 

Aca-Awesome for sure ... drop the mike.

 

Ovaries Before Brovaries

I added these gorgeous Bella Flora die cuts from The Ink Road to my collection ... I love that each detailed die has a matching backing.

My blooms are cut from white and my background is cut from a piece of watercolor paper sprayed with Vivid Volt Shimmering Bliss Spray for a gorgeous shimmery sparkle (remember, you get 10% off the entire Technique Junkies store if you use my discount TJ10Stephanie)

I paired the beautiful blooms with a sentiment from The Ink Road Snarks & Recreation, a wrap of ribbon and some sequins.  This one is already in the mail ... love making fun cards for friends.

Winnie the Pooh Birthday

I was asked if I could make a Winnie the Pooh Birthday card for a one-year-old.  I immediately thought that I could turn Concord & 9th Hi There Bear into Pooh with some creative stamping & my MISTI.

As with all layering stamps, it took a couple of tries to figure out the best order to stamp the layers.  For me, this one worked better if I stamped the outline first with Versafine Clair Falling Leaves.

 

Next I used the stamp that was intended to create a Panda Bear and only inked the top portion with some Catherine Pooler Rockin' Red (again trial and error taught me that the red stayed redder if I stamped it before the gold).

 

Next came filling in the bear.  Since I had already stamped the image once, it was stained a bit yellow which actually made it easier to position it insight the lines ... Archival Saffron Ink was the perfect hue for Pooh.

 

And since it was a first birthday, I added a single Birthday Balloon.  I stamped the outline first and then filled in with the same vibrant red.

 

I was thrilled with how it turned out ... it reminds me of my brother's oh-so-loved Pooh that often joined us on our childhood adventures.  I can't even imagine attempting this type of stamping without my MISTI ... it truly does make new things possible for me.

I found a page of Pooh online and printed it out to use with this week's sketch from The Paper Players.  The Happy Birthday is from the same Concord & 9th Hi There Bear set.  And of course, I couldn't resist adding a vintage Martha Stewart Punched Party Hat to his head.

 

WCMD Birthday Bouquet

The Third Challenge at My Favorite Things is FLOWER POWER ... and big surprise, there was a never-been-inked flower stamp set in my stash.  I thought the colors from the current MFT Color Challenge would be perfect for a bouquet.

 

 

I stamped the six blooms from MFT Large Desert Bouquet in Ripe Raspberry & Peach Bellini-like hues and cut them out with coordinating dies.

I stamped the leaves in Lime Green and then added a sentiment from Queen for the Day. 

 

I finished with some grey epoxy dots and one decorative pearl center for the Pearls are Always Appropriate Challenge at Shopping our Stash.

I'm also joining Seize the Birthday (not the optional travel theme ... but if you wanted flowers like this in October, you'd certainly have to travel from Iowa).

 

 

Click on over to my Birthday Giveaway.

Celebrate

Let's see ... what do I need to make tonight ... big surprise ... MORE Masculine Birthday cards ... need always exceeds my inventory.

I started with this week's Wednesday Sketch Challenge at My Favorite Things.

I flipped it on it's side, so I could use my new CELEBRATE Speech Bubble Die-Namics ... which I placed on a tag for the Tag You're It! Challenge at Little Red Wagon.

I also used these happy hues from the MFT Color Challenge. I'm also linking-up at Helen's Anything Goes Masculine Challenge at the Water Cooler Wednesday Challenge.

 

Love that how you can use the letters and the negative of that fun Celebrate Speech Bubble Die-Namics ... I have a feeling you'll be seeing it quite a bit.

 

The Library Challenge ~ Oscar

I love playing along with The Library Challenge ... I love books ... I love creating cards inspired by books.  The Challenge is to create a card inspired by The Cover, The Title, or The Story of the book.

When I stumbled across this gorgeous book cover for Oscar by Mauricio Segura, I e-mailed the challenge to see if they ever take suggestions ... turns out they do, and I'm joining the challenge this week as a Guest Designer.

I loved the composition of this book cover ... the bright colors and how they overlapped and contrasted with the bold black text. 

I immediately thought of creating with Distress Oxide Inks (Abandoned Coral, Squeezed Lemonade & Twisted Citron).  I looked for a solid image like the piano, but instead settled on bold solid words from Cas-ual Fridays Bomb Diggity Stamp Set.  I flipped the coral word upside down like the piano and overlapped the yellow.  My MISTI makes getting those solid colors stamped so easy.

 

Next I added black bold sentiments where the title, authors name, and translator information are located on the cover.  I finished with a Tim Holtz #hashtag to turn this into a birthday card.

I hope you'll come join the challenge ... I'd love to stop by and see how the book cover inspired you.  

Gelli Press Wreaths

I wanted to join the #gellifallfever Challenge from Gelli Press on Instagram ... and this is my print.  It combines lots of layers of paint with some stencils and scratches and metallic bronze paint for overall shimmer.

When I make a print, I usually don't give any thought to what I'll ultimately make with the finished product.  I just like to play with paint and see what I end-up with.

The more I looked at this print, the more I thought about making a wreath.  The first wreath I found in my stash was the Tim Holtz Layered Holiday Wreath ... but who says I can't stretch my stash and turn it into some fall wreath fun.  I don't even think you can tell they are Holly Leaves with these printed papers.

 

I cut my print in half, ran it through the die cut machine, ran it through the coordinating embossing folder, and these are my two end projects.

 

I used Cornflower Blue Ink and paper to pull out the blues in my print.  I'm joining the Autumn or Spring Challenge at The Crafter's Cafe Challenge Blog ...

and L is for Leaves at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers (because how fun & snarky is that Sassy Pants Best Friends sentiment from My Favorite Things .

 

I combined the same blue paper with purple from my stash (and a scrap of the Gelli Press Print) together with wooden birthday sticker.  I'm linking-up at Seize the Birthday where the Topping is Die cuts or Punches.