Ingenious Inkling

Christmas Mitten

We're still SHAPE-ing Up at Jingle Belles this week.  For my second card, I enlarged a clip art picture of a mitten to card sized and then traced it onto a scrap of red designer paper for my mitten base. 

 

 

Next I attached the green designer paper to the cuff and trimmed it to fit.  I tied a loop of kraft ribbon where the paper joined, and the attached my mitten to a small card base. 

I decorated my mitten with a round holiday sentiment from Catslife Press punched with a 2" circle punch that I attached to a scalloped circle that was punched from the same green designer paper, but sponged with green ink for a slightly darker look (and to cover those little white bits that show when you punch designer paper).  I finished with a tiny red gem in the middle of the snowflake.

 

I'm linking-up at the Watercooler Wednesday Challenge which is all about Occasions.

Do You Feel It?

One thing I've discovered about working from the corner of my studio at home is that I really take very few steps all day.  I'm 10 steps from the bathroom and 10 steps from the kitchen, but mostly I'm just sitting in my desk chair on conference calls.

So tonight, after I was able to disconnect, I put on my walking shoes and went outside for a stroll around the neighborhood.  It felt so good to get some sunshine on my face, feel the wind in my hair, and see tiny sprouts signaling the beginning of Spring.

When I got home, I pulled out two of my favorite Wood Block Stamps from CatsLife Press for the Retro Rubber Challenge (looking back, I've had these stamps since at least 2010 or longer).  That little chick always makes me smile ... and the sentiment was perfect for today.

 

I did my Retro Rubber Challenge Tic Tac Toe down the right side with a Baby Animal, Twine and Patterned paper ... love the green & yellow color combination.  I used a colored pencil to add some highlights to my little chick.

 

 

It's also Anything in the Animal Kingdom at the Allsorts Challenge.

 

And the Inspired by Challenge is Hello Spring.

Christmas in July

Even though I make a Christmas card for Jingle Belles every week, that doesn't get me nearly enough completed by December ... so Christmas in July Challenges are the perfect time to make some ground on the final number of cards I need ... just like at AAA Cards.

I inked-up a never-before-used Magenta Floral Holiday Trio stamp from my stash (actually I liked it so much there were two never-before-used stamps in my stash, so one will be a future giveaway).  I used Catherine Pooler's Peppermint Scrub Ink and paired it with a scrap of Valentine's Day plaid.

The layout is from 52 Christmas Card Trowdown and the sentiment is a favorite from Catslife Press.

I'm also joining CAS Christmas where the theme is Poinsettia.

And All of That Stuff

I just looked at how many Falliday Challenges I have yet to complete ... and how much time I have yet ... and it's going to take a valiant effort to make it.  It is unlikely, but I will go down trying.

Tonight I made a card for the We Wish You a Snarky Christmas Challenge.  Strangely enough, while I have a fair number of snarky stamps in my stash (okay, probably more than a fair number) very few of them are Christmas (must correct that problem).

I went with this sentiment from CatsLife Press, which is more of a dry snark in my opinion.

I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch for my layout.

It's also Anything Goes at The House that Stamps Built.

♥ Pink Christmas... for the Cure! ♥

It's our favorite time of the year at Jingle Belles ... when the Jingle Belles make Pink Christmas cards and Lauren and Stephanie (aka the Jingle Belles) will each donate $2 per linked-up card to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

For my first pink card I started with the fun Christmas Kitty Stamp from Technique Junkies and colored his hat & nose with a combination of pink markers. 

The sentiment stamp is a favorite from CatsLife Press (which seemed appropriate). 

The reminder of the card was made using paper scraps from my stash, including the vertical border that was recycled from a mother's day card.

And remember, if you don't celebrate Christmas you can do pink Hanukkah, pink Solstice, pink Kwanzaa or pink New Year cards instead.

You Make Me Smile

It's one of my favorite times at SplitCoastStampers ... the annual Dare to Get Dirty Challenges.  

I love this dapper little dancing bird from Catslife Press.  I made a version where I colored the bird ... but decided I liked the monochromatic one better.  Sentiment is from Memory Box.

Layout is from CAS Colors & Sketches.

 

Shake It Santa Baby

We're celebrating "Shake it Santa Baby" at Jingle Belles ... which means making a shaker card or a Santa card (or both).

I love Tim Holtz Vintage Santa Stamps, so I inked mine with Festive Berries Distress Ink and then edged it with Gathered Twigs (don't those ink colors just sound like Christmas).  I added a CatsLife Press Sentiment and a few sequins to finish the design.

The layout is this week's Freshly Made Sketch.

 

Don't Look in the Mirror ...

I was feeling a little Snarky, so I thought it would be the perfect time to join the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers for their Weekly Challenge ... the theme is J is for Just Kidding.

I combined the fun Why Me Lady from Viva Las Vegastamps (it was fun to see that they have one of my previous cards featured with the stamp on thier website) together with a sentiment from Catslife Press.

I joined the *Less is More* Challenge to create with Predominantly Black (I added some silver metallic tape and a bit of gold metallic twine).

The layout is from Tuesday Morning Sketches, although I realized after I finished the card I was too late to link-up.

I'm In Your Corner

Red Carpet Studios is celebrating Movie Heroes ... My hero is April in Pieces of April who went outside her comfort zone to bring her family together for Thanksgiving ... as her mother is battling breast cancer.

The layout is from Mojo Monday ... and stamps are Paper Smooches Hope.

And the colors are from this week's colourQ.

Baby Baby

One of the things I love about hosting the Inspiration Challenge at SCS is that it keeps me constanly on the look-out for things to inspire design ... today at the office, I actually told a co-worker the combination of patterns in her shirt would translate to a great card design.  

Tonight my inspiration comes from an unexpected source ... a bottle of Sun Bum Sunscreen from Uncle Dan's ... seriously, how cute is that yellow monkey face on the wood grain background.

I started with parquet wood grain paper from Studio Calico and added my own bit of yellow fun.

I die cut the elephant silhouette from yellow adhesive felt & then stamped my cute little Hero Arts ellie in brown.  I used one of my brown Spectrum Noir markers to color the heart.  The banner was die cut from coordinating cardstock and then stamped with a sentiment from Catslife Press ... love the combination of upper & lower case letters.

I hope you find some unexpected inspiration this week.