Ingenious Inkling

Bride & Groom

I spent the evening trying to re-claim my studio.  I've been working on lots of projects lately, which resulted in quite the mess.  I found a couple of dies I purchased when the Die-Versions store was closing, so I decided to use one for a quick wedding card ... this one is Whispers Wedding Canopy.  I love having standard wedding pieces that allow me to change the color of the card to match the wedding hues.

 

My inspiration came from The Card Concept Pink Party Challenge using the Clean & Layered style with papers from Echo Park Wedding Bliss Collection.

 

The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted Tiny Type (they have such great sentiment sets).

Yay, You!

For some reason, I couldn't really find a single stamp set in my stash to welcome someone to their new home ... so I got creative and combined sentiments and and image from three different sets together with the gorgeous new Garden Party Collection from Bo Bunny.

Yay, You! is from My Favorite Things Essential Sentiments; New Home is from Clearly Besotted Sentimental Type; and the House is from The Project Bin Fun is Good.  I found a little coordinating Cork House Sticker in my stash and punched a circle from Wood Paper to back my house to add some *new home* materials to the design.

The layout is my take on the Fusion Sketch with lots of Green inspiration from the photo (and the thought that my friends are no longer *Glamping* now that their house is finished).

I'm also joining the STAMPtember Stamp Challenge at Simon Says Stamp.

Hip Hip Hooray

This afternoon I'm joining in the celebration of 2014 at PaperTrey Ink.  Since I don't own any of the stamps or dies featured today, I went with a similar die cut to the Text Block Birthday inspired by Laura Bassen's design.

I seldom do the inlaid die cut technique because it's a bit futzy for me, but the Phrase Play #11 Die Cut has large enough pieces, I gave it a try (I only lost one piece in the process, which required a partial re-cut ... pretty good for me).

Since I don't own the coordinating sentiments, I borrowed one from a Clearly Besotted Sentimental Type Set to finish the design.

 

Blue Snowflake Christmas

We're playing a second round of tic-tac-toe at Jingle Belles this week.  This time I went vertical down the middle - Bling + Die Cut + Snow.

I tried out my new Poppy Stamps Frozen Flakes Die Cut on silver glitter paper ... love the detail.

Since the Addicted to CAS Challenge is Blue, that's what I chose for my color palette.  I added a Silver Doily, lots of tiny blue bling and a sentiment from Clearly Besotted Sentimental Type (love that set).

Floral Retirement

Retirement cards are hard for me ... do you have a good stamp set you use for retirements?

I went back through my own archives and found this Teacher Retirement card I had created using a dictionary page.  For today's card, I scanned the dictionary page, so I could re-size it to work with my design (and have it for future cards).

Once I had that part figured out, the rest came together easily using a stamped sentiment from Clearly Besotted Typed Sentiments and this week's Mojo Monday Sketch.

Papers are Authentique Carefree Bundle.

Floral Sympathy

My sympathy card stash is once again depleted, so I decided to make another card for the Essentials by Ellen Mix-It-Up Challenge.

I stamped & die cut flowers from Essentials by Ellen Bohemian Garden and colored the centers with orange glitter pen.  The floral paper is from Crate Paper's Random Vintage Collection and I stamped the Clearly Besotted Sentimental Type sentiment on the grid paper that was on the reverse side.  

The layout is from Match the Sketch.

Sending You Boo

When I saw Lydia's awesome card using a modified Northern Lights technique with a Halloween Twist, I knew I had to try it.

I watched her great video and set-out to give it a try ... first problem, I don't have any of the products she used, so I had to seek out alternatives.  

Second problem ... I have trouble following the rules when it comes to techniques.   During my day job I'm a risk manager and rule follower ... which may be related to why I have trouble exhibiting the same behavior in my studio.

First, I decided I wanted to start with some actual stars in my sky, so I stamped and embossed Stars from Essentials by Ellen Brushstroke Christmas.  Next I created my background using Spiced Marmalade and Seedless Preserves Distress Ink.  I didn't have any re-inker, so I used Picket Fence Distress Paint for my splatter stars ... I'm calling that little squiggly in the top left a comet.

Next Challenge ... to find a bat stamp ... no luck, so I decided to make one ... can you tell how I did it?  

I used the two large Holly Leaves from Clearly Besotted Holiday Sentiments for my bat wings together with the medium solid circle from Essentials by Ellen Bokeh Dots for my body.  

I drew on my pointy ears with a Spectrum Noir Marker and added the penultimate ... googlie eyes.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find any smaller ones (which clearly means I need more) ... my husband said my bat is the one who actually looks scared by the BOO!

I finished with a sentiment from Clearly Besotted Holiday Sentiments combined with some Epoxy Letter Stickers.

I'm joining the Mix-It-Up Challenge at Essentials by Ellen which as you probably guessed is to make a card combining her stamps with stamps from Clearly Besotted.

Iowa

I needed and Iowa Hawkeye birthday card, but I wanted something a bit more subtle than just printing out the Hawkeye logo.

I used this week's CAS(E) this Sketch with some golden yellow striped paper and black glitter letters.  I finished with a few pearls and a Clearly Besotted Birthday sentiment (love this set).

Use It Up ~ Packaging

I'm a saver ... my designer eye sees something and thinks ... that would be cool on a card ... so I save it.

I have declared 2015 the year of *Use It Up*.  I'm going to focus on using all of those great things I have *saved* over the years in my card designs.

Here's my first Use It Up creation for 2015 ... a Thank You card whose base is a piece of Prima Flower packaging (see why I saved it ... so pretty).

I stamped & embossed a Clearly Besotted Thank You sentiment and added a wrap of one of my favorite ribbons (so favorite that I bought a bit spool, so I'm adding it to the Use It Up list as well).

I'm Dreaming of a PINK Christmas

We're still celebrating *A PINK Christmas* this week at Jingle Belles (and donating $4 to Susan G. Koman for each pink holiday card that's linked-up).

My second card combines three different PINK designer papers (none of which are Christmas designs) and two PINK cardstocks with this week's Retro Sketch.

It's also Christmas at Clearly Besotted, so I used my Holiday Sentiments stamps with Watermelon Ink.