Ingenious Inkling

Etsy Inspired Challenge ~ BeiLeXian

This week's Etsy Inspired Challenge comes from the wonderful whimsical shop of BeiLeXian, which features her wonderful paintings & prints.  She says that painting lets her take a little break from the real life and go into your own world ... and every time when a new idea comes into her my mind, it's a touch of happiness ... what a great thought.

I chose this fun little print called Afternoon Nap to inspire my design.

This week's Challenge Sponsor is Sweet & Sassy stamps.  They provided the Design Team with several of their adorable digital images.  I used Sleeping Kitty for my card.

 

I started by printing the image on my white cardstock base & then printed the image multiple times on purple, red, black & brown DP.  The next step was cutting and piecing the image back together.  My sister is a knitter who loves purple and has a black cat Oslo who loves to lounge about on whatever is comfortable, so I made this card for her. I used pink glitter pen on the kitty's nose & ears and a sentiment from Flourishes Seasonal Wreaths.

There will be two winners for this week's challenge.  One will win a $18 print of their choice from BeiLeXian; another will receive a $15 gift voucher to Sweet & Sassy Stamps.

Make sure you stop by the other Design Team Member blogs to check out their inspired creations & use keyword EIC112 if you upload to a gallery:

Ashley

De

Emily B

Emily N

Joy

Kerry

Savannah

Virginia

Rebecca (October Guest Designer)

Etsy Inspired Challenge ~ Stiletto Heights

This week's Etsy Inspired Challenge comes from the amazing store of Stiletto Heights.  I seriously got lost for a long time just admiring all of the fabulous art she has created.  

Artist Jennifer Gordon describes herself as a mixed media collage artist who is far more Kate Hepburn than Audrey Hepburn.  Stiletto Heights is offering a 20% discount to any participants/readers/lurkers. Use Inspired20 in the "Note to Seller" box and wait for your new invoice to pay.

I chose this stunning piece called Perhaps to inspire my design.

I started with a piece of plain newsprint as my palette.  I inked Hero Arts Old French Writing (H2365) and part of Postage Background (S5061) with Art Print Brown ink, stamping off once before stamping several times on the newsprint background.

Next I inked the Hero Arts Dogwood with Art Print Brown Ink, stamped off once & then re-inked with Worn Lipstick Distress Ink to get the shade I wanted.  I inked a small sponge with Worn Lipstick and sponged more color onto the flower petals.

I folded the newsprint several times & inked the creases while it was folded.  I also sponged more ink around the edges to frame the design.

I finished with a sentiment from Hero Arts Card Messages stamped in Art Print Brown & mounted the image on a square of brown cardstock.

This card also works for the Give Thanks challenge at Simon Says Stamps & the Stamp Simply Challenge to Count Your Blessings (I think single layer cards with lots of messy over stamping are some of the most simple to make ... the inking and distressing hides a magnitude of errors).  This card was send to my brother & his family who are one of the biggest blessings in my life.

The sponsor of this week's Challenge is Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps.  One lucky winner will get a $15 store credit to do some fun stamp shopping.

Another lucky winner will get 2 prints of their choice from Stiletto Heights.

Make sure you stop by the other Design Team Member blogs to check out their inspired creations & use keyword EIC111 if you upload to a gallery:

Ashley

De

Emily B

Emily N

Joy

Kerry

Savannah

Virginia

Rebecca (October Guest Designer)

Etsy Inspired Challenge ~ Capturing Creativity

Capturing Creativity is both the inspiring Etsy Store & the Sponsor of this week's Etsy Inspired Challenge.  

The prizes for this week's challenge will be a My Favorite Things Creativity Kit and a Tinkering Ink stamp set & Chunky Accordion Album, so join the fun for a chance to win.

My card was inspired by this fantastic Halloween Themed Creativity Kit ... so many fun things to create your Halloween designs.  I wanted to incorporate the Halloween theme & the fabulous spook-tacular colors (which are also the colors for this week's ColorQ Color Challenge).

My papers and elements are from Echo Park's Happy Halloween Collection with glitter foam dimensional bat stickers from Hobby Lobby.

Make sure you stop by the other Design Team Member blogs to check out their inspired creations & use keyword EIC110 if you upload to a gallery:

Ashley

De

Emily B

Emily N

Joy

Kerry

Savannah

Virginia

Rebecca (October Guest Designer)

Etsy Inspired Challenge ~ Lemon Kissed

This week's Etsy Inspired Challenge comes from the store of Lemon Kissed, which is full of super-fun earrings, necklaces & bracelet designs.  I chose these cute little Mini Chrysanthemum earrings for my inspiration.  The bright orange just screamed Halloween to me.  This card also works for the Hurray for the Holidays Challenge at the City Crafter.

The sponsor of this week's Challenge is Pohlkart Blessings & the design team was able to choose a stamp or two for our inspired designs. My card features this Happy Jack-o-Lantern.

I printed the Jack-o-Lantern three times ... once on a scrap of orange Que Sera Sera, again on a piece of the background paper from Little Yellow Bicycle (for the eyes and mouth), and a third time on green cardstock for the stem.  I detail cut the elements to paper-piece the pumpkin.  The sentiment is a Punch-Out from Little Yellow Bicycle Frightful Collection.

This week's challenge winner will get to choose five digital images from Pohlkart Blessings.

Make sure you stop by the other Design Team Member blogs to check out their inspired creations & use keyword EIC109 if you upload to a gallery:

Ashley

De

Emily B

Emily N

Joy

Kerry

Savannah

Virginia

Rebecca (October Guest Designer)

Also, make sure you stop by Craft Critique to check out the Fun Halloween Blog Carnival ... lots of great Halloween projects to check out.

Etsy Inspired Challenge ~ Indigo Twin

This week's Etsy Inspired Challenge (EIC107) comes from a very fun store called Indigo Twin.  The store is filled with one-of-a-kind paper clay folk art sculptures.  The Indogo Twins are Kirsten and Cortney, identical twin sisters who have always enjoyed creating art together.  

I fell in love with this wonky little Smiling Pumpkin Trio, so I used it to inspire my card design.

I stamped the large pumpkin from Artistic Outpost's Vintage Halloween three times with Indigo Ink on orange cardstock and clear embossed.  I cut out each pumpkin and used a white opaque pen to color in the eyes.  

To make my pumpkin stems, I rolled a piece of kraft cardstock into a tube using double sided tape at the end to hold it together.  I used a craft knife to cut a slit in the top of each pumpkin and then slid the stem inside, securing it from the back.  I twisted some copper wire to make a stem.  I used foam tape to attach the pumpkins, so I could shape them a bit for dimension.

I finished with the sentiment from the set and two ghost brads.  The background paper is from Reminisce.

This week's Etsy Inspired Sponsor is Black Leaf Studios.  They have all sorts of fun digital printables, including this cute little Flop Flops Clipart that will go to one lucky winner.

Another winner will get this cute little paper mache cupcake & set of four Sweet Cupcake Tags from Indigo Twin.

Make sure you stop by the other Design Team Member blogs to check out their inspired creations & use keyword EIC107 if you upload to a gallery:

Ashley

De

Emily B

Emily N

Joy

Kerry

Savannah

Virginia

Kim (September Guest Designer)

Etsy Inspired Challenge ~ Pegasus Maiden

This week's Etsy Inspired Challenge comes from Pegasus Maiden ... a store filled with imaginative and cute headdresses with unique flare to spare.  I chose this Dramatic Pink Velvet Rose headband as my inspiration.

This week's Etsy Inspired Sponsor the fabulous stamp company Schlosser Designs.  I chose her wonderful Outside the Box set for my design.  I love how she includes both negative and positive stamps of each image.

I used this week's Sassy Lil' Sketch for my design.  The colors from the headband also work for this week's Color Throwdown.

The designer paper is from Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses and I added tiny baby pink Memory Box pearls to hte center of the star-burst image.

One winner of this week's challenge will receive a beautiful one of a kind hair piece from Pegasus Maiden.  Another will win two stamp sets of their choice from Schlosser Designs.

Make sure you stop by the other Design Team Member blogs to check out their inspired creations & use keyword EIC106 if you upload to a gallery:

Ashley

De

Emily B

Emily N

Joy

Kerry

Savannah

Virginia

Kim (September Guest Designer)

 

Etsy Inspired Challenge ~ Handmade Whimzy

This week's Etsy Inspired Challenge (EIC105) comes from the Store of Handmade Whimzy.  Her store offers a wonderful variety of products including fabulous aprons like this Fifties Kitchen Chef's Apron that inspired by design.

The images reminded me of these fun vintage kitchen pictures and sayings from Crafty Secrets called Domestic Goddess.  I chose on of the images where the chef is wearing a pretty little apron for my design.

I used this week's CPS sketch and cut out the various sayings from the creative scrap sheet to create my design.  The background is embossed with Cuttlebug embossing folder for a bit of texture.

One winner from this week's challenge will get a fantastic Lavender & Chamomile Eye Pillow from Handmade Whimsy.  The sponsor for this week's challenge is Craft Brulee and they will be providing a $10 gift voucher to another winner.

Make sure you stop by the other Design Team Member blogs to check out their inspired creations & use keyword EIC104 if you upload to a gallery:

Ashley

De

Emily B

Emily N

Joy

Kerry

Savannah

Virginia

Kim (September Guest Designer)

Etsy Inspired Challenge ~ Glamasaurus

This week's Etsy Inspired Challenge Store is Glamasaurus ~ so sweet it will give you cavities. The fun items are created by Marly, an expat American living in Swizerland.  My card was inspired by her oh-so-cute Homeless Gnome Miniature Polymer Clay Sculpture.   

I decided to give my gnome a home using one of the free images from this week's Sponsor Tiffany Doodles.  I used digital papers to paper piece her Mushroom Home & Ladybug as a home for my little gnome from NikoArt.

After I printed my little scene, I added glittery color to the ladybug, windows & door, stepping stones, and the grass around the mushrooms.  

Next I stamped my little gnome on white cardstock & colored him with Spica glitter pens before cutting him out and adding him next to his cute little home.

I used Crayola Pastels to blend the grass along the bottom (brought back happy memories of grade school art class) & finished with a few die cut clouds from My Favorite Things Cloud Trio and a sentiment from Paper Trey Ink's Mixed Messages.  Here's a close-up of my cute little glittery gnome.

One winner will get $20 to spend at Glamasaurus.  

Tiffany Doodles will be giving away three prize packages ~ 1st place, 5 digi-images of your choice; 2nd place 3 digis; and 3rd place 2 digis.  So there are lots of chances to win this week ... can't wait to see how you're inspired.

Make sure you stop by the other Design Team Member blogs to check out their inspired creations & use keyword EIC104 if you upload to a gallery:

Ashley

De

Emily B

Emily N

Joy

Kerry

Savannah

Virginia

Kim (September Guest Designer)

Etsy Inspired Challenge ~ Global Child Connection

This week's Etsy Inspired Challenge comes from the wonderful store Global Child Connection. 

Artist and designer, Rebecca Peragine, has combined her passion for global design with her desire to teach children to create.  Each eco art image is lovingly created with recycled papers, scraps and earth-friendly inks. She firmly believes that if we teach the importance of global responsibility at a young age, carrying that responsibility into the future will be second nature for our children ... I couldn't agree more.  She's also doing an art giveaway on her blog, so check it out.

I chose this adorable Forest Friends Turtle Eco Friendly Print to inspire my card.  I loved the texty turtle shells, the wonderful combination of colors, and the cute turtle stack.  

This week's Sponsor for the Etsy Inspired Challenge is the Digi Doodle Shop.  I chose their adorable Mr. T-Diddle to use on my card.   They have some adorable Halloween images at 15% off with a free gift ... very fun.

Each time I play with a digital image, I love it more.  They are so versatile to create different sizes, colors, positions.  I'll never leave my beloved rubber stamps, but making hybrid cards is so much fun.

The papers are a set of free Grungy Solid digital papers by  MaryAnn Wise for Design House Digital.  I started by selecting the shell of my turtle using the Magic Lasso tool and right clicking to create another layer.  Then I did the same thing for the body & a third layer for the eyelids.  

In PhotoShop Elements, I then dragged the digital paper I wanted on top of each copied layer, and did CTRL-G to create a clipping mask for my design.  For the shell, I used the Joy page from the dictionary that I scanned two weeks ago and created a second clipping mask to add the text to his shell.  When I was all finished, I saved it as a JPG file & then started to create my card.

My card base began with a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" blank canvas layered with one of the digital papers.  Next, I started layering on the turtles, resizing each one smaller and stacking them up.  After I printed out my card & matted it to teal cardstock, I finished with a Tim Holtz stamped sentiment.  This card also works for the Digi-Day Challenge at the Stamp Something Blog.

One winner of this week's challenge will get an 8x10" print of their choice from Global Child Connection; the second winner will get a $10 gift voucher to spend at the Digi Doodle Shop (usable for anything other than custom blog design). 

Make sure you stop by the other Design Team Member blogs to check out their inspired creations:

Ashley

De

Emily B

Emily N

Joy

Kerry

Savannah

Virginia

Julie Ranae (August Guest Designer)

Etsy Inspired Challenge ~ Lover Dovers

This week's Etsy Inspired Challenge (EIC101) store is Lover Dovers Homemade Goodness which is filled with retro aprons and children's dresses.  I chose this wonderful Retro 50's Black and Pink Betsy Floral with Polka Dot Full Apron to inspire me card.  I loved those vibrant pink and white polka dots.

This week's challenge is sponsored by Sassy Studios Designs, which has a wonderful collection of digital images.  I chose to work with their I'm Every Woman, The Whole World's in Our Hands.

I started by doing some digital paper piecing with clipping masks for the shirt, hair. lips and globe using digital papers from Vera Lim.  I sized the pink polka dot paper down for my shirt, and then enlarged it and printed it a second time for the accent in my card design.

When those were complete, I printed the image and colored her pants and jewelry with Prismacolor Pencils.  The sketch is this week's 2 Sketches 4 You.

This week's prizes include the fabulous I Love Lucy Retro Apron from Lover Dovers & four digital images of your choosing from Sassy Studio Designs.

Stop by the design team member blogs for even more inspiration:

Ashley

De

Emily B

Emily N

Joy

Kerry

Savannah

Virginia

Julie Ranae (August Guest Designer)