Ingenious Inkling

Mondo Squishy Pastel Hugs

This week's theme at Shopping Our Stash is the Power of Pastels - create a card with a Pastel color palette.

 

 

I went shopping through my cardstock scraps and found a Pastel Rainbow.  Then I decided to create a card as an homage to the cardmaker who was the first to inspire me to join the cardmaking community that I think of now as my family - Julie Ebersole aka Paper Trufflez aka JulieHRR (and then she led me to Ellen Hutson, who is also one of the nicest people on the planet and my dealer (best store for crafty supplies) - see their story here).

I always felt like Julie spoke my language - both in her clean, simple and quirky card design and her literal use of words.  The Essentials by Ellen set Casual Greetings includes several of those phrases including the one I used today.

 

 

I die cut my pastel rainbow striped tag with the Essentials by Ellen Tag Trio Die (cutting a second time to shorten the tag a bit to work with my layout and where I wanted to position everything on the colors).  I also used a tip from another of my cardmaking muses Seeka - if you make a mistake (like I did several times trying to get my dies cut correctly), just stack another one on top (which worked perfectly to give necessary dimension too).

I tucked that cute little sunglasses critter behind the sentiment from the Summer of Stamping Soak It Up Combo by Avery Elle from Essentials by Ellen.

I finished with some lemon yellow twine and lavender pearls before attaching to my card base with my favorite 2" wide foam tape from Scrapbook.com.

Baseball Season

We love sports at our house, and we're particularly happy when Baseball season begins.

I filled my Misti with all of the stamps from the Carta Bella Baseball Stamp Set and stamped in Acorn ink on Kraft Cardstock for my background (I only manged to get two of the words upside-down LOL).

The sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp What a Good Sport Summer.  

 

I'm joining The Male Room Sport Challenge.

And at Cardz for Guyz I'm going with D is for Designated Hitter.

Promise of Spring

The Penny Black Saturday Challenge is an Anything Goes with an Optional Challenge theme of Nature. 

 

That provided the perfect opportunity to pull out some of the gorgeous Penny Black Stickeroos.  This one is from the set called Promise of Spring (we actually saw the leaves finally starting to come out on the trees on our walk this morning).

 

I used this week's Make the Cards Challenge Sketch and paired it with some gorgeous patina paper from Craft Consortium Metal Textures Pad.    I attached the sticker to cardstock, so I could punch the corners and then I added some enamel dots.

 

 

I finished with a sentiment from Penny Black Words of Encouragement.

 

I'm also linking-up at the Just Us Girls Flowers Challenge.

Spring Umbrellas

The inspiration for this card started with The Little Red Wagon Save Me from April Shower Challenge to use an Umbrella on your card.  I started with some lovely umbrella designer paper from Echo Park My Favorite Spring.

 

 

I took further inspiration from The Card Concept How Does Your Garden Grow Challenge for my Clean & Layered Design.  I was inspired by all of the rain that would have been needed to make all of those gorgeous blooms grow.   I also added a vintage fabric bird (with his own little bird house) that loves spring blooms and a lady bug (which I'm sure is loving his home in that flower bed).  Finally I chose the perfect floral spring sentiment from the same Echo Park collection.

 

 

The layout is this weeks Vertical Sketch from the Paper Craft Crew.

 

Notable & Quotable

I recently purchased the new Catherine Pooler Stamps Set Notable & Quotable (with coordinating dies).  I loved the quotes and the slightly wonky typewriter font.

I stamped the floral images from the set and added a bit of color to the blooms.  Then I created three CAS designs using different coordinating sentiments.

 

 

I started with a simple sentiment flag.  

 

 

For this taller bloom, I liked a sentiment band.

 

 

And for the final shorter bloom, I tried several sentiment possibilities.  When I do an angle cut sentiment, I cut one side, and then I take the cut off portion and flip it over to the other side, so my angles are the same.  When I did that for this card, I flipped it upside down and thought it framed the words well & looked like a flower pot.

With my cards, I'm joining the Dies R Us Anything Goes Challenge.

What's Up?

I found this trio of Ephemera Frames in my stash, and I thought they would be perfect for the current Sketch at The Paper Players.

 

 

I added a cute little coordinating Giraffe, a few scatterings of gems, and a Simon Says Stamp Sentiment Strip.

 

Stellar Human

This week's Challenge theme at Shopping Our Stash is What a Difference You've Made in my Life - we're making cards for Moms, Grandmas, or any other special person in your life who has made a difference.

 

 

I am very blessed to have a number of amazing mothers in my life, so I always send a lots of Mother's Day (or not the Mother's Day) cards out to let them all know how much they mean to me.

I started my card with some yellow woodgrain cardstock and added some floral ephemera and a butterfly.

 

 

I finished with some enamel dots and a sentiment from Simon Says Stamp CZ Design Simple Sentiments No. 01.

We can't wait to see your cards for those special people in your life.

 

 

I'm also linking-up at the Time Out Challenges with my card inspired by Spring.

Find Your Voice

The current Simon Says Stamp challenge is Wild and Wonderful ... to create a card featuring something Wild. 

I immediately thought of my Stamperia Arctic Antarctic Papers.  I went with the wild howling winter wolf.

 

 

I used the layout from Arctic Hearts Sketch with sentiments from Unity Stamp Company Empowered Words and an Eyelet Outlet Enamel Heart.

 

 

All the Feels

The Make My Monday Challenge is to use Washi Tape.  I chose a combination of pinks and greens which gave me a total 1980's vibe (yes, I wore pinks & greens)

 

 

I chose this Essentials by Ellen Die Cut All the Feels sentiment that I thought had a fun 80's-like feel.  I finished with a few glittery enamel dots from Eyelet Outlet.

Amazing not Perfect

I attended a Women's Leadership Conference this week where Elise Holtzman shared the dangers of Perfectionism in her talk titled Imperfect Impactful Leadership, and how we (particularly women) strive for perfectionism starting with behaviors encouraged by our parents and society at a very young age ... so those thoughts have been on my mind all week.  

I am grateful for art, where it seems easier for me to let my perfectionistic tendencies relax while I just lean into the creative experience.

Today's card is inspired by the delicious, juicy colors from the April Challenge at If You Give a Crafter a Cookie.

 

 

I found those delicious colors in this wonderful Penny Black Pen & Ink Sticker for the Penny Black Anything Goes Challenge.

 

 

I used the Penny Black Stitches of Love Die to cut a frame from one of my Gel Press Prints.  I layered that on top of an embossed lavender card base. 

 

 

I finished with a scattering of gems and a sentiment from Penny Black Words of Encouragement, which is perfect for the thoughts circling in my head.