Ingenious Inkling

Girl Power

The current Challenge-theme at A Blog Named Hero is Anniversary.  Today I'm thinking about the Anniversary of a Friendship ... you know when you find that friend who laughs at the same things you do ... who doesn't even question why you're taking a picture of a man-hole cover or some graffiti on a wall ... who will share dishes with you when you go out to eat ... and who stocks their refrigerator with things you love when you come to visit.  Yep, that kind of friend.

 

Also since yesterday was Independent Book Store Day (which they are celebrating at Daring Cardmakers), I thought it was perfect to break-out my Hero Arts library-themed stamps and dies for my card design.

 

 

I started with die cutting the library card and library card holder from Hero Arts Library Card Stamp & Cut.  I also die cut the Hero Arts Bold Graphic Confetti Die for my background.

 

 

I added sentiments from the Library Card set to the library card.  For the Pocket, I used sentiments from Hero Arts Library Quotes & Hero Arts Empowerment.

The layout is this week's Sketch from The Paper Players.

 

 

I finished with a stamp from Hero Arts Dare to Dream along the bottom.

Go celebrate those friendships (and mail a card).

hey sistah!

The Waffle Flower Weekly Challenge theme is Color Crush - create a card with your favorite color.

 

 

I have several favorites, but somehow Orange is the color that usually rises to the top, so that's what I went with using this week's hues from the Color Throwdown Challenge (I would totally  have those pillows in my house).

 

 

I chose inks in all four hues and applied them direct-to-paper in Diagonal Stripes on a piece of white cardstock.

 

 

I stamped one of the blooms from the Waffle Flower Bouquet Builder and die cut with the coordinating die cut.

The sentiments are from Waffle Flower Sisterhood.

 

 

Next-Level Amazing

I loved the fun herringbone paper pieced design on dark cardstock in the Inspiration Photo at the Inspire.Create.Challenge.

I picked two similar designer papers from the Pinkfresh Studio Some Days Collection and cut 1/2" strips.  Next I trimmed the strips into 1 1/2" bricks and pieced together my design on a scrap of black cardstock.

 

 

I used the same punch as the Inspiration Photo for a sentiment from Pinkfresh Studio Favorite Things to Say #2.

 

I hand-cut a matt from lemon yellow cardstock and finished with a wrap of pink waxed twine and two clusters of lemon pearsl.

Given the Angles in my Herringbone Pattern, I'm also linking-up at the Heart 2 Heart What's Your Angle? Challenge.

 

Kaleidoscope Ink Blending

I had a few leftovers from Saturday's Stamp Joy that were too pretty not to turn into more cards.

The first one was an OOPS from the final card ... as you can see at the bottom left, I accidentally dipped my Lemon Meringue blender brush into the Fruit Punch Ink by not following the instructions of only  have one ink pad open at a time.  Thankfully I caught it immediately and didn't ruin my mask (which you'll see in the next card).

 

But it was so pretty how the ink faded into the white, I thought it was perfect for the Less is More CAS Inking Challenge.

 

 

I added a birthday sentiment from Taylored Expressions Simple Strips Birthday for the Addicted to CAS Code Word Birthday Challenge.  It took all the effort within me not to add some bling to this design.

 

 

Next I used a technique I learned at Stamp Joy several years ago ... offset cover-plate shadowing by cutting a second cover plate from black cardstock ... with the Kaleidoscope Cover Plate Die cut we used as an ink blending mas for one of Saturday's cards (I loved that you can overlap 4 colors of ink to create the full rainbow).

 

 

I used a sentiment and the coordinating dies from our exclusive set and added some Iridescent Drip Drops to finish the design.

But Always Bring Coffee

The Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop is drawing to a close, and I wanted to sneak in one more card.

 

 

Like Amy T mentioned in her post today, my Mojo felt absent this morning, so I chose to take my inspiration from the Echo Park Coffee Paper Pad.

 

I used the card at the Global Design Project to inspire my layout with all of my paper pieces.  I chose a paper for my background with coffee cups that reminded me of the circles in the Inspiration card.

 

I finished with some pink enamel dots.

Long Distance Hug

Missing my friends and family tonight ... so I made a card to send some love through the mail using this week's My Favorite Things Wednesday Sketch Challenge.

 

 

I combined stamps from My Favorite Things Miss Your Hugs and Essential Sentiments.

I'm also joining the Slimline Card Challenge at The House That Stamps Built.

 

And with my Long Distance Hugs, I'm joining the Long Challenge at CASology.

 

 

Seamless Floral Encouragement.

This weekend, I had the pleasure of joining the talented Lea Lawson for a Pinkfresh Studio Lunch and Learn during the Crop & Create event.

We created with the Pinkfresh Studio Seamless Floral Panel Stencils.  This was the first time I had used the layering stencils from Pinkfresh Studio, and I am in love.  They are so sturdy and easy to line-up ... pretty much foolproof.

For my card during the Lunch & Learn, I used the colors on the back of the Stencil package to inspire my design.

 

 

I thought it had a very tropical feel and I loved it.  I trimmed down my panel and matted it on coral pink cardstock.

 

 

The sentiment is from Pinkfresh Studio My Favorite Things to Say Set Two.  I finished with a few scatterings of teal gems.

Since I had so much fun making the first card, I decided to make a second using the colors from the March Pinkfresh Challenge Palette, which lucky for me is all about flowers.

 

 

I used the two lighter shades for my blooms and the purple as the accent.  The pale blue and teal worked for the leaves.

 

 

The color combination also screams, point me to the beach.  I matted the panel with yellow and purple cardstock.

I used another sentiment from Pinkfresh Studio My Favorite Things to Say Set Two (so many great sentiments in that set), and accepted the panel with some more teal gems.

You can see more cards from the weekend at my Instagram Account.

The Rainbow Connection

I'm enjoying the Crop & Create Card Making Event this weekend, and Friday night we got to make a card with Cathy Zielske and an exclusive stamp & die cut set we received.

I learned several tips and tricks that I'll be using again including the joy of including pink in your rainbow color palette (swapped it for Indigo).

 

 

I also adored the effect of added dimension for the clouds ... and of course I had to add some bling to finish the design.

I'm linking-up at The Rainbow Connection Challenge at Shopping Our Stash.

Patina Coffee and You

It's one of my favorite times of the year again ... the Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop.

 

To me, STAMPlorations has some of the very best Coffee-themed products.  As I was looking through all of my choices, I realized I had never used this gorgeous Zen Coffee 1 Cover Plate Die.  I decided to die cut from one of my Gel Press Prints that has a gorgeous Patina look with turquoise and Copper Metallic Paint.  I love how it looks on the light turquoise card base.

 

 

 

I kept it simple with a sentiment from STAMPlorations Anywhere There's Coffee stamped in Catherine Pooler Sand Castle Ink.

 

 

I picked up a new adhesive this week at ScrapMania and tried it for my Die Cut, and it worked like a charm - E6000 Spray Adhesive.

 

You are Enough

I am lucky enough to get my hands on the new Beautiful Courage stamp set from STAMPlorations designed by my talented friend Becca Cruger.

 

I thought it would be the perfect stamp set for the current Color Hues Challenge Black & White.

 

 

I used the layout from Freshly Made Sketches with two different designer papers from Honey Bee Stamps Back to Basics for the Simon Says Stamp Use 2 or More Designer Papers Challenge.

 

I just love those sentiments.