Ingenious Inkling

Flower Inspired Beauty

The current Mini-Challenge at the Unity Stamp Company Facebook page is to be inspired by this photo:

 

I went searching through my Unity Stamp Collection and settled on the large floral tag Encompassed Beauty that had never seen ink.

 

I used some of my gorgeous new watercolory grungy papers from the Stamp Simply Ribbon Store (they are awesome and two-sided which I love).

 

I added a few 3-D butterfly stickers to pull in more of the corally pink at the center of the blooms and finished with a wrap of ribbon and sentiment from 3 Tiered Birthday Itty Bitty Stamp.

Happy Birthday

Feels good to feel that birthday card stash getting restocked ... especially with masculine designs.  This one uses this week's My Favorite Things Wednesday Sketch Challenge and the Happy Birthday Script Die-Namics from MFT.

 

Card was made entirely from paper scraps on my studio table (love that).

 

Is this Heaven?

When I saw this Missouri State Pride poster at the Dormify site this morning for today's SplitcoastStampers Inspiration Challenge, I knew I had to finally ink-up my Iowa Delight Stamps from the Memory Bound Store in Ankeny, Iowa.

 

I kept the card clean & simple using this week's CAS(e) this Sketch! (where Rock Star Nora is the guest designer) and University of Iowa Hawkeye colors.

The sketch inspired me to add the tiny punched heart near our home.

 

Butterfly Birthday

Today's focus in the studio is restocking birthday cards before I head out on vacation this week (warning ... likely lots of pictures & food from Washington DC). 

This one was inspired by the Beautiful Butterflies at The Card Concept (I made another card last night, but managed to slice my finger open on the metal butterfly antennae of my embellishment and bleed all over card before I realized it ... yes, I have mad injury skills).

 

This time I tried a safer card with these 3-D postage stamp stickers I found in my stash.

 

I used the raspberry and blue from the inspiration picture with the Tim Holtz Collage Texture Fade Embossing Folder.  The layout is this week's Freshly Made Sketch and sentiment is the very versatile Memory Box Big and Little Words in Catherine Pooler Peppermint Scrub ink.

Oh Ale Yeah!

Today I uploaded my 2000th image to my SplitcoastStampers Gallery ... I had no idea the path that stamping would take me when I uploaded my first card in 2007, but I am forever grateful for the journey.

It is also appropriate that my card is for the Inspiration Challenge, since that was my home since joining that community.  My card is inspired by The Very, Very Many Varieties of Beer Poster from Dormify.

 

 

I made a Clean & Simple design using stamps from Marcella Hawley's Power Poppy O Hoppy Day Set ... as always my MISTI makes stamping like this a piece of cake (or pint of beer in this case).

 

I used a couple of Gold Brown Spectrum Noir Markers to turn my pint into a nice wheat beer.  One of my husband's favorite things about the downtown condo where we live is our proximity to four local breweries within walking distance ... so this pint is for him.

 

 

Squeeze the Day

I am thrilled to be Guest Hostess at the SplitcoastStampers Inspiration Challenge this weekend ... the site I have chosen are the amazing cakes of Tortik Annuchka.  I chose this lovely Citrus Cake to inspire my design ... I was intrigued by the look of the frosting and wanted to see if I could replicate it with paper.

 

I started with a piece of brown leather-like designer paper and then used a credit card to spread on Stampin' Up Embossing Paste until I got the look I wanted (with some of the brown peeking through) and then I let it dry.

 

Next I stamped Lemons & Limes from Essentials by Ellen Squeeze the Day on lime & lemon cardstock.   I finished with an orange cardstock band inspired by the ribbon around the bottom of the set and a sentiment from the same set.

Alexandra Renke Birthdays

I needed a couple of special birthday cards, so I cut into some more of my gorgeous Alexandra Renke papers (because all card makers know they save the best for those they know will appreciate them) ... these papers are just so luscious ... in the US, you can find Alexandra's products at Ellen Hutson.   I combined 4 different papers together with a scrap of one of my Gel Press Prints.

 

The layout is inspired by the Sketch at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge.

 

The flowers & butterfly are Alexandra Renke Dies ... I cut the Butterfly with Antennae once out of my the pink designer paper for the outer frame & a second time from my Gel Press print for the inside.  I finished with some graduated pearls for the body.  The floral tag was left over from my class at Junkiefest cut from the Butterfly Collection Papers with some of the awesome ITO Gima Yarn.

 

The sentiments and tiny flower are stamped from Alexandra Renke's Placed in Brackets Stamp set.

I'm also joining Seize the Birthday where the Topping Theme is Butterflies.

 

 

I used a variation of the sketch for my second card with another Gel Press Print scrap.

 

This card pops a bit more with the royal blue flowers ... elegant yet fun for an 80th birthday celebration.

 

I love that bucket of blooms ... the Happy Birthday Stamp is from Alexandra Renke Best Wishes.

Moody MidSummer Blues Birthday

The challenge theme at Impression Obsession is Moody Blues ... and at Simon Says Stamp is MidSummer Blues ... so needless to say, I'm breaking out some of my favorite blues.

I stamped Impression Obsession Bead Garland Cover-a-Card in VersaFine Clair Blue Belle on light blue cardstock ... so grateful for my MISTI, because I sure needed it to get nice solid coverage on this large red rubber background stamp.

 

Then I used the same ink to stamp the Birthday Cake from the Impression Obsession Clear Birthday Set and finished with some stickers for the sentiment and a silver sparkly 80 for an 80th Birthday.

 

I added a wrap of twine as well as a little pop of orange to the candle flames and along the bottom of the sketch from Global Design Project.

 

I hope I'm still kicking at 80 and that someone makes me a special card for my birthday.

Ridiculously AMAZING

My birthday card stash is depleted, so when I saw this week's My Favorite Things Wednesday Sketch Challenge, I thought it was the perfect layout for some birthday cake.

 

I used some fun birthday paper for the card base & then used the Birthday Cake Die-namics to create a yellow and chocolate cake (my favorite flavor combination) on an orange die cut background.

I finished with a sentiment from Amazing (which is apparently discontinued, which is a bummer because those are some great sentiments).

Vroom Vroom

The current Mini-Challenge at Unity Stamp Company is Backgrounds and Borders.  One of the examples was a masked background, so I thought it would be fun to try that technique.  I just cut a square of typing paper the size of my stamp and attached it with removable adhesive before stamping. 

With my MISTI I'm able to really apply pressure around the paper to make sure I get a nice clean line around the mask.  I used brown ink on a kraft card base.  Background is Unity Stamp Company Vroom.  Cake & Sentiment are from 3 Tiered Birthday.  I added a tiny bit of color to the candle & cake layers.

I love a quick and easy masculine birthday card.