Ingenious Inkling

Guitar Birthday

Darkroom Door is having a WCMD giveaway, so I wanted to make sure I found time to join ... love their stamps.

I combined their guitary photo stamp (in Burnt Sienna Chalk Ink) with papers from Echo Park's Reflections Fall Collection.  

The layout is from Feeling Sketch.  With the large size of my stamp, I went with smalle cork arrow stickers at the botom and added on at the top for a bit of balance.  The sentiments stickers.  I sort-of went with the optional challenge of using 2 colors - mustard & burnt sienna - with some neutral grey & tan.

Getting In Shape for the Holidays

This week at Jingle Belles, we're getting in shape for the holidays ... that is ... making holiday cards that are not rectangular or square.  I chose my favorite Labels 20 die cut for my card shape.  I adhered the 4 three inch squares of designer paper to a scrap before centering in my die cut.

My layout is from Weekly Christmas Card Challenges.

I used papers and a chipboard Santa from Basic Grey's new 25th & Pine Collection.  Sentiment is an EAD Designs sticker.

Tic Tac Toe Christmas

We're playing Tic Tac Toe at Jingle Belles this week ... where everyone's a winner.  Just choose one of 8 possible row combinations (vertical, horizontal or diagonal) to create your design.

I went for the row across the top (technically my little ticket corner punches qualify me for one of the diagonal rows too).  The recycled card base is beautifully dry embossed and has a patriotic snowman that will be perfect for several people on my holiday card list.  I've got gorgeous gold glitter paper from DCWV (if you haven't tried this stuff you should ... all of the glittery sparkle with none of the mess) and a bit of black bling at the bottom corner.

I added a sticker sentiment from my EAD Designs stash.

My layout is from Christmas Challenges {with Sketches}.  I'm also joining the August Color Challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown.

Polaroid Congrats

This week's challenge at Shopping Our Stash is to use your oldest punch.  

I remember when I first starting making cards, I would use the punches in the classroom at the local stamp store.  While I don't have an exact memory of the first one I added to my own studio collection, I'm pretty sure it was one of these Marvy or EKSuccess Flower Punches I used on my Marina Mist blooms ... and flower punches are still one of my favorites ... here they are on a card back from December 2006.

My inspiration for this card comes from the card by Lynn Mangan at this week's Muse Challenge.  Say Cheese Die Cut is from Lawn Fawn.

I used the hues from this week's ColourQ Challenge.

The fern leaf punch was also a very early purchase ... I remember it being one of the first punches I saw used on a card in a magazine that I loved so much I hunted it down ... and I still love it too.

Sentiment is an EAD Designs Sticker and the yellow blooms are American Crafts.

Snap On

This week's Unscripted Sketch was a fun way to feature some cool wooden travel embellishments from Little Yellow Bicycle.

I thought a vintage map worked well with the travel theme ... and of course I never travel without my camera.

Can't wait to see what you create with this week's Unscripted Sketch.

Merriest Wishes

This week at Jingle Belles we're going Digital ... asking you to create a holiday card with at least one digital element (there are links in the challenge post for some freebies).  

I actually have quite a stash of digital elements that I've collected over the years ... but as with my non-digital crafting supplies, sometimes I'm better at collecting than actually using.  As I wandered through my digitalgalleries, I found some fun holiday papers and elements from Echo Park, so that's what I used for my design.

I started by creating a blank document in Photoshop Elements the size of my card front.  Next I sized the Echo Park Everybody Loves Christmas designer paper to fit (shrinking the 12" paper pattern makes it look better for the card composition).  Next I added the snowglobe as my focal element.  I decided the design needed a little more, so I layered on an Anna Aspnes Distressed Frame before saving my design.

I printed my card front & then added a rub-on sentiment (which I managed to place just enough off-center to bother me ... so I corrected the balance with some pearls).  I finished with a wrap of red ribbon tied in a holiday bow.

We hope you'll break out some of your digital stash ... or maybe even try something new.

Spreading Holiday Cheer

We're still getting sketchy at Jingle Belles this week.

While last week's sketch card started with the background paper ... this week's design started with my glittery snowman 3-D sticker ... I love the fun ball trim at the end of his scarf.

I went to my cardstock scraps and found three pieces to coordinate with my snowman ... and finished with an EAD Designs rub-on sentiment ... couldn't be much easier than that.

I hope you'll join us.

PB&J Floral Fusion

Tonight I decided to play along with this week's Fusion Card Challenge.  The floral pattern inspired me to go thorugh my designer papers and find an all-over floral pattern ... which I found in Basic Grey's PB&J Collection.

And since chemistry was one of my favorite classes, I couldn't resist the Fusion Option to combine the pattern with the sketch.

I added pieces of other papers fron the collection together wtih a layered bloom ... I finished with one of my hoarded EAD Designs Vinyl Rub-ons ... I know I've said it before, but I really wish someone would make those again ... I just love how they pop on patterned paper.

Polar Bear Warm Wishes

We're still celebrating Earth Day at Jingle Belles, so I made a card from my favorite recycling stash.  One year I saw a large box of paper sample books sitting by the recycling bin.  I asked the marketing team if they minded if I took them home ... and every year since then, when the new books arrive from all of the paper manufacturers, the retired books go home with me.

The pieces of paper are small, but they are perfect for card making ... and since each book has the entire range of each paper line, there are usually at least several pages of heavy, linen-like cardstock that is so elegant.

This card is made entirely of papers from my sample book stash ... including the polar bear which was in one of the books showing samples of how cool it looked to print colored photos on a shimmery cardstock.

It's hard to see, but the background is a gorgeous linen paper with thin stripe embossed texture ... and the thick silver metallic cardstock was perfect for punched snowflake embellishments.  All I had to add from my crafting stash was an EAD Designs Vinyl Rub-on sentiment and black adhesive pearls for the centers of the snowflakes.

The layout is this week's Retro Sketch flipped on it's side.

Drink Coffee

This card is inspired by the fact that I've gone 5 days without caffeine ... and am still suffering the ill-effects of withdrawal.  When I saw this week's Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger Wake-Up Call, I knew exactly which EAD Designs sticker I wanted to use as my focal image.

Then when I saw this week's Runway Inspired Challenge, I knew what I wanted to use as my background image (Hero Arts Dandelion Background) ... which is also perfect for the Background Challenge at the Simon Says Stamp & Show Blog.

 

I added a thin red frame inspired by the pop of red lipstick on the model.

And since the word of the day is Coffee (or in my case of caffeine addiction, Diet Dr. Pepper, although I do love the smell of coffee), I'm also joining the CASology Word Challenge.