Ingenious Inkling

Snowman Christmas

I spent quite a bit of time this weekend pulling my studio back from the state of chaos it had digressed into.  In the process, I discovered this fun Lisa Horton Crafts Winter Snowman Layering Stencils & Die cut that must have come with some bundled purchase, because I didn't even remember having it.  

It looked so cute, I had to break it out for the Simon Says Christmas Challenge.

I stenciled using Taylored Expressions Die Inks and then die cut with the coordinating stencil and attached it to a white glitter panel.

 

 

II added a Catslife Press Sentiment moon into the snowy sky to finish the card.

 

Woodblock Wedding

It's time for another Woodblock Wednesday.

 

My clean & simple card uses two woodblock stamps ... Wedding Couple from Rubber Soul and {Love} from Catslife Press.

 

 

Always fun to revisit how my stamping journey began.

Round and Round

The newest challenge at Shopping our Stash is Round and Round - create a Circle card or feature dots/circles on your card (or be an over-achiever and do both).

 

 

I, of course, went the over-achiever route.  I started with a Gelliarts Print that was make with multiple layers of a circle stencil.  Then I cut that print into a circle for the front of my card base.

 

 

Next, I added a circle stamped Birthday sentiment from CatsLife Press that I shopped way back in the stash and attached using an Eyelet (took me a while to find my Eyelet setter, but I was a persistent Stash Shopper).

I finished with circular gems from Pinkfresh Studio.

I'm also linking-up at the A Bit O'Green Challenge at Simon Says Challenge.

Rodeo Birthday Mosaic

A friend asked me to make a cowgirl birthday card for her sister.  When I asked what colors, she sent me this picture.

 

 

This week I saw an adorable scrap quilt my friend Nicole made, and I mentioned to her it would be fun to try something like that with paper scraps.  She said to give my gelliprint stash a try.  

I thought it would be fun to combine both ideas, so I shopped my Gelliprint stash for the colors in the image, not worrying about patterns.  I will note that the turquoise looks a lot more greenish as I write the post than it did looking at the color inspiration photo I had printed out (which you can see in photos below).

 

 

 

Next, I used a 1 1/4" square punch to punch several of each print. 

 

 

Then I relatively randomly used adhesive to attach them to a piece of typing paper.

 

 

While I loved the resulting pattern, I realized my choice of a larger square wasn't quite going to work well when I was at a card size, so I started over, this time using a smaller triangle punch.

 

 

This time my "paper quilt" looked like this.

 

 

I trimmed it down and used two of the same gelliprints that are in the mosaic to complete this week's Freshly Made Sketch.

 

 

The boots and hats are 3-D stickers.  I used an old woodblock sentiment from Catslife Press.

 

Woodblock Wedding

It's time for another Woodblock Wednesday.

 

 

I needed a wedding card, so I pulled out two favorites from my stash.  The Art Deco Couple from A Muse Artistamps still had the price tag from Expressions With Heart, a favorite wood block stamp store that my friend & I used to venture to several times a year to spend the day shopping (miss hanging out with you Pam).

 

 

The sentiment is from Catslife Press.

Woodblock Chick

It's time for another Woodblock Wednesday.

 

 

I pulled out one of my favorites from a favorite Woodblock Company, Catslife Press.  I stamped the little Bird with a Hat on yellow cardstock and did some old-school detail cutting.

 

 

I used the layout from TGIF Challenge with colors from The Paper Players with Basket Weave embossing on the lemon yellow card base.

 

 

 

I paired my dancing chick with a snarky sentiment sticker for the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Critter Challenge.  I finished with a piece of flair from A Flair for Buttons to finish the sketch.

 

Heart Love

It's the time of year for Heart Cards, and that's the Challenge theme at Just Us Girls.

I started by playing with some new Japanese Sakura Shimmery Pastels that I found at my local Create/Exchange yesterday to create a scribbled and blended background ... absolutely gorgeous color and shimmer.

 

As the packaging noted, they are harder than any Pastel I've ever used with less dust ... I had to use much less to get the color saturation I was wanting and they blended effortlessly.

 

 

Next I attached gorgeous wide Pink Peony Washi Tape from The Ton to white cardstock and die cut a Spellbinders heart.   The washi has gorgeous copper metallic elements, so I die cut Simon Says Stamp Etched Berry Branch from Copper Metallic Cardstock to adorn my heart.  I used the same copper metallic cardstock to frame my card.

 

I finished with some enamel dots on the berries to bring out another color in the washi tape and a tiny love sentiment from Catslife Press stamped inside another Spellbinders Die Cut Heart.  With my little Wood Block Stamp, I'm linking-up again at Amy T's #woodblockwednesday challenge.

 

I'm also linking-up at the Anything Goes Cut It Up! Challenge.

Red & Green All Over Peace

I had fun Gel Printing again last week and thought I would work on some green pieces to use on my Red & Green All Over Jingle Belles card this week.  This one combined a new foam stamp I picked-up at the used crafting supply store stamped in a dark green and picked-up with florescent green.

 

 

I took the inspiration of my card design from this week's Inspire.Create.Challenge adding a scalloped border, kraft card base, flag sentiment and a little red holiday bird with my vintage wood mounted sentiment from Catslife Press.

 

Incredible Inchies

Do you ever sit down to make a card for a challenge ... and realize when you are finished, you didn't quite read all of the challenge? (oh, maybe it's only me).  I read the challenge box, and I looked at the Design Team cards, and then went off to create. 

When I started writing my post, I read the fine print that several of the design team members had not complied with the challenge terms, and therefore, since I followed their lead, I didn't either.  

 

 

In the pre-MISTI days of only wood mounted stamps, I was obsessed with tiny images and tiny sentiments, so I thought it would be fun to go through my wood mounted drawers and pull some of them out to play.  I used Versafine Clair Nocturne Ink on a heavy white cardstock.  I used a 1" punch for my inchie square.

 

 

Thankfully one of my cards complied with the sentiment inside the inchie (and not below), so that is the one I'll link-up.  I used the super-dark Hero Arts Pitch Black Cardstock from for my card bases because I loved the contrast.

 

 

This is a favorite vintage Stampin' Up image and sentiment from 2004.  I'm also linking-up at the Retro Rubber Challenge Tic-Tac-Toe because I think this would be perfect for a little boy's first birthday gift.  Mine is vertical down the left side with Birthday, Neutrals & a Punch.

 

 

I'm also joining the Less is More Baby Challenge.

 

 

Since I cut up that cardstock into four card fronts, I made a total of four little inchie cards from my punched images (I will likely make more later since they are so easy & fun).

 

That adorable gnomie is from NikoArt in 2008.  I paired it with a sentiment from Catslife Press, one of the best places to get tiny sentiments.  I used the fine tips of my Graph'IT Markers to color my image.

 

The little house is from a set of four wood mounted Houses stamps from American Crafts.  I added a bit of red marker to the heart and paired it with a vintage A Muse Sentiment.

 

The final one features a bride and groom from a 2002 Wood Mounted Hero Arts set of wedding images called Wedding Celebration.  The sentiment is from Stampin' Up in 2006.

I had a lot of fun re-visiting these old stamps ... and the style of a lot of my first cards.

Joy on Dictionary Day

When I saw the Dictionary Day Challenge at Daring Cardmakers, I knew I needed to join the fun.

 

I started with my Joy Definition Stamp from Catslife Press stamped in brown on ivory cardstock & the joy page out of one of my dictionaries ... and my base is a gel press print made by my friend Mona.

 

 

I went to my collage drawer and combined stickers, birds, vintage gold sequins and trading stamps to finish my collage.

 

I took my color inspiration from the Pick of the Paperback books at The Library Challenge.