Ingenious Inkling

Hot Drinks for Cold Nights

Always fun to join Amy T for the Coffee Loving Cardmakers Fall/Winter Blog Hop.

 

 

I started with the Coffee To Go Die from Impression Obsession.

 

Then I took my inspiration from the Fusion Card Challenge Autumn Challenge (with a slight twist on the sketch since I wanted my strip of leaf paper to point upwards).  I added a tiny Doodlebug Heart sticker and a punch heart to decorate my coffee cup.

 

 

I love the colors from the Die Cut With a View Fall Gathering papers.  I'm also joining the Hot Drinks for Cold Night's Challenge at Shopping our Stash.

Fusion Funky Cactuses

When I saw the new Fusion Card Challenge, I thought it would be fun to play with the sketch and some Funky Cactuses Stickers from A Vintage Girl & her Daughter ... remember if you use my discount code SMILYNSTEF in the store, you'll get 15% off your order.

 

I started with the Mariachi Cactus and paired him with a sentiment from Fiesta Quotes.  I used scraps of cardstock for the sketch to coordinate with my Cactus Sticker.

 

It really makes me want a taco. 

While I had the paper out, I went ahead and made a second one with the Wrestler Funky Cactus, which reminded me of my brother and how much he loved watching Wrestling when he was a kid.

 

I love those red & gold flames.  I paired it with another sentiment from Fiesta Quotes. 

Here's the entire Funky Cactuses sticker sheet ... so many possibilities.

 

 

Fusion Merry & Bright

I love the current Fusion Card Challenge because I have always had a love affair with Inchies.

 

I went looking for ideas to fill my inches, and immediately settled on a package of Simple Stories Merry & Bright Puffy Stickers. I used my 1 1/4" punch for my square base from kraft cardstock.

 

It was so fun putting it all together.  I matted it on red and then used a darker kraft cardstock base.  I moved my sentiment up one row because that's where it fit with my layout.  My guess is I might do another one before the challenge is over ... so much fun.

Shopping Our Stash is all about Christmas in July.

Change the Voices in Your Head

When I saw the current Fusion Card Challenge, I knew I wanted to play with Ink Sprays.

 

 

I used a variety of sprays on watercolor paper in purples, pinks and blues.  I couldn't quickly find a flourish in my stamps, so instead I stamped Hero Arts Three Ferns ... since it is a woodblock stamp, I had to go with the look of a single inking on the textured watercolor paper.

 

I added a wrap of blue ribbon and finished with one of my Pink Lyric Stickers which was inspired by the quote in the Inspiration photo.

The Bunny Trail

Even though I've already mailed the Easter cards I've made (I like to get them there early, so people have a bit of time prior to the holiday to enjoy or display them), I couldn't resist making another for the Impression Obsession Easter Fun! Challenge.

 

I die cut my three little Impression Obsession Bunnies from the cardstock colors from the Just Add Ink Challenge ... I added pearl bunny tails and tiny black gem eyes.

 

The layout and inspiration are from the current Fusion Card Challenge ... the adorable picture also inspired the bit of polka dot washi banner along the top.

 

I finished with a sticker sentiment (don't really have many Easter sentiment stamps in my stash).

 

Fusion Flowers

It's been a while since I broke out my Alexandra Renke drawer of goodies, so I decided to use them for the current Fusion Card Challenge.

 

I cut one inch strips of one of the Alexandra Renke Designer papers and framed them in Olive Cardstock using the Fusion Sketch.

 

I added three Alexandra Renke Flowers die cut from the same Olive Cardstock and finished with a sticker sentiment and some golden gems to pull in the gold from the inspiration cake.

It's also Repeat Impressions Anything Goes at the House that Stamps Built.

Heart Connection

The February theme at the Memory Box Outside the Box Challenge is Hearts ... so I started designing my card around the Memory Box Heart Connection Die Cut.

 

I took my inspiration from the Fusion Card Challenge, which also features open hearts.

 

Instead of black and red, I decided to use Maroon and navy ... but while I was looking for navy, I found a scrap of Navy & Green Gel Press Print, and decided to go with that instead.  I die cut the Memory Box Honeycomb Collage from white cardstock as an overlay.

 

I finished with a sentiment from Memory Box Big and Little Words and a few glittery enamel dots (because in the thousands of pieces of bling in my stash, there was no maroon).

 

Also joining Anything Goes with Dies at Happy Little Stampers.

Happy OWLidays

Tonight I wanted to combine the sketch from the Fusion Critter Challenge with the Lawn Fawnatics Challenge For the Birds Challenge (because birds are critters too).

 

And, to make it a little more fun, I'm using three of the colors from the Just Add Ink Challenge ... I used Bermuda Bay, Lovely Lipstick & Call Me Clover.

 

I found a piece of Christmas designer paper that has those three colors, so that's where my design started ... and one of the cool things about Art, is that your reality can be any color you want, so why not have a Bermuda Bay Christmas Owl created from Lawn Fawn Winter Owl ... with a coordinating paper-pieced scarf (of course).

 

Sentiment is from Lawn Fawn's Simply Winter Sentiments.

 

One more holiday card ready to go.

Never Doubt Your Instinct

For some reason when I saw the forest of trees in the Fusion Winter Inspiration Photo, it reminded me of some Suminagasi - Japanese black and white hand-marbled paper I made several years ago.

 

I cut the half-circle from my marbled paper and attached it to a white card base.  I used a darker grey for the vertical piece in the sketch.

 

Next I wandered through my stamps looking for some trees ... but instead I found a Simon Says Stamp Picture Book Hippo Die that had never been opened.  Hippos are grey ... so I thought he would work perfectly.  I tried to get the contrast I wanted with different solid papers, but it wasn't working ... so instead, I die cut him from two colors of glitter paper.

 

Since he looked so wise, I thought the sentiment should be some bit of advice he might give ... and settled on this sticker sentiment.  I love where this card ended-up (and that I got to use some of my hand-made paper on a card).

I'm also linking-up at the Simon Says Stamp Lotsa Love Flickr Challenge ... because this is truly advice I would give to every one I love ... trust your instinct (aka your heart).

Pumpkin Inspired Wedding

For some reason, when I saw the current Fusion Card Challenge I thought WEDDING (could be because all of my Halloween Cards are already done & in the mail).

 

Black and white make an elegant wedding card.  I started with the wedding cake sticker and built my card around it.

 

I used some Echo Park Wedding Bliss paper, some texty Prima Flowers and a vintage wood block A Muse Sentiment.  I attached my texty paper to my 6 1/2" black card base intending to cut off the black edges, but ended-up liking how they framed the design.