Ingenious Inkling

Makeover Monday - Special Delivery

Today's Makeover Monday was inspired by this card from the My Sweet Petunia & My Favorite Things Blog Hop in January 2019.

 

I used the same My Favorite Things Lots of Hearts and Lots of Hearts Outlines in different colors to coordinate them to the Gel Press Print that I chose for my background.

 

 

Rather than a solid paper for the border, I chose a coordinating glitter paper for a bit of sparkle.  This is the perfect card to send some love across the miles, which I've been doing a lot of lately ... have you been mailing your cards?

The Creatalicious Challenge is Anything Goes with an Option of no Designer Paper, so I'm linking-up there.

Must Try Mono-Printing - Round 2

I had so much fun Monoprinting with Acrylic Stamps this morning with the Spring Card Camp class this morning, I did a second round combining three more Distress Oxide Colors (Seedless Preserves, Dusty Concord & Festive Berries), which produced a gorgeous raspberry like hue on my palette.

The color on my first Monoprint was deep and rich using the leaves from Paper Smooches Botanicals 3. 

Since the theme at the current Paper Smooches Challenge is Thank You cards, I used the Thanks from Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler wrapped with some raspberry twine.

 

As anyone knows who does monoprinting, if there is any ink left on your pallet, you try to pull what is often referred to as a ghost print, which is what I did for my next card.

 

This one used the Sketch from The Paper Players.

 

And my final card was my stamped piece of cardstock from the ink that I picked-up off the plate during the monoprint creation process.

 

This one was the Sketch Saturday Layout.

 

Seriously ... so so much fun, I think I may go try it again to make some card's for Amy's Spring Coffee Hop.

Must Try Mono-Printing - Round 1

Today's Online Card Class Spring Card Camp technique was so fun, I did several rounds (and may do more before I am done).  Here are the two cards I made from my Round 1 results.

Dawn Woleslagle shared a Mono-printing technique using Distress Oxide Inks and the back of a large acrylic background stamp as your printing plate.  Of course, even though I own 5 different brayers, I couldn't find any of them this morning, so I used a sponge dauber to blend my inks.  I used three different Distress Oxides (Broken China, Cracked Pistachio and Peacock Feathers) for my palette and the Leaf Stamp from The Stamp Market Big Botanicals.

 

 

Sentiment is The Stamp Market Tons of Type with a piece of flair and paper flower from my stash and the sketch is from the Paper Craft Crew.

 

For the stamped-off cardstock I kept it simple with a die cut Simple Sentiments Thanks from The Stamp Market and torn cardstock mat.

 

I'll be back later with even more results.

Sending Hugs to You

The May Poppy Stamp Challenge is Winged Things. 

I die cute the Poppy Stamps Adriana Wreath Die twice from two of my Gel Press Prints and rotated them slightly before layering.  I then used the rest of the Gel Print as my card base.

 

I perched a vintage vellum butterfly sticker on the wreath and then decorated my wreath with tiny clear bling.  I did a little stamp surgery to Poppy Stamps Tidings of Joy Stamp set to end-up with the perfect sentiment for my card.

Hexagon Happiness

Day 12 of Spring Card Camp is Geometric Patterns with Basic Shapes with Laura Bassen.  Geometric Patterns were my first love ... pretty much all the first stamps I bought could fit inside a square or a circle.  Geometric Patterns make me happy.  So needless to say, I have spent my morning in my happy place (not to mention I took a break in the middle to get a pedicure).

I decided to take Laura's technique and make it my own by using my own Gel Pressed and Sprayed papers rather than cardstock for my cards.

For the first one, I punched Hexagons from a Gel Press Printed Kraft Tag.  I don't plan my patterns.  I usually just start with one in the center of my cards stock and play around until I find a pattern I like with the number I have (in this case 8).  I used white textured cardstock for a bit more visual interest and added some white enamel dots and a sticker sentiment.

 

I'm also linking this one up at the Monochromatic Challenge at Seize the Birthday.

 

The next one was made with a piece of sprayed paper that was on my studio table.  I loved the variation in color.  I used several Shimmering Bliss Sprays, so there is a nice sparkle.

 

For this one I used clear Enamel Dots and another sticker sentiment on foam tape ... don't tell the others, but I think it might be my favorite.

 

 

The next set of Hexagons were punched from a 5" x 7" Gel Press Print.  I love that the direction of the paint is evident in the print, so I could rotate the Hexagons when I placed them to get even more movement in the designs ... oh the joy of a well-taken nap.

 

And the final one uses some very vintage Studio Calico Fabric Hexagon Stickers that have been in my stash forever.  I left them on the acrylic sheet and just randomly sprayed with Distress Oxide Sprays.  Since they came in two sizes, I was able to do some stacking like Laura did in her design (I seriously need Hexagons in multiple smaller sizes).

 

I had so much fun with these cards ... clearly geometric patterns are my happy place ... a huge thank you to Laura for taking me there today.

Monster Hugs ... from a Distance

The May Challenge for A Blog Named Hero is Hugs from a Distance.

 

I thought this adorable Nesting Monster Die from Hero Arts was perfect for a big hug, so I die cut him from one of my Gel Press Prints and added some big googly eyes.  I hand-cut his smiling mouth.

 

I combined a sentiment from Hero Arts Smile Stamp and Cut with the Hero Arts Alphabet to spell Hug.

Rainbow Supercalifragilistic

Today I got Happy Mail from The Paper Forest ... the prize from participating in one of their Challenges that included one of their pins (love it) and a card with a hand-written note (the best) ... and the travel theme was perfect since I just had to cancel our upcoming vacation plans.

 

So tonight I had some fun joining the new Challenge Tami she posted today (make sure you're doing everything you can to support the local stores that are closed) ... all about RAINBOWS.  I decided to create a Rainbow using circles punched from my collection of Gel Press Prints using the sketch from the TGIF Challenges.

 

I started with a card base of black & white striped paper from Paper Smooches Half Moon Collection ... then I played with the circles.  After I had them all positioned, I added some enamel dots in coordinating colors.

 

I wanted to send it as a card of encouragement, so I added a sentiment from CAS-ual Fridays Supercalifragilistic.

Falling Leaf Birthday

I'm still stocking my birthday card stash even though I have to mail them to my co-works now, rather than hand deliver them.  

I started by die cutting the Lawn Fawn Cross Stitched Circle from the Simon Says Stamp Tumbling Leaves Stencil that I had filled with Picket Fence Studios Paper Glaze in Fern Green.

 

I paired it with one of my Gel Press Prints on a piece of Clothing Pattern Instructions.  The sentiment is Simon Says Stamp Sentiment Strips.

 

I'm also linking-up at Seize the Birthday Anything Goes.

Living Room Rug Inspired

This afternoon I got to hang-out (via Video Chat) with friends from Junkiefest.  I'm an introvert who often goes all day on Saturday not talking with anyone, but even I've had a bit too much solitude time lately, so I truly appreciated the chance to see their faces, talk about life and see the projects they were working on.

 

 

I decided to work on the current Stay Crafty with Hero Challenge (#staycraftywithhero) ... to make a card inspired by something in your home.  I chose my Living Room Rug.

 

I found a Gel Press print in my stash that had several of the colors, so I die cut it with the Hero Arts Bold Graphic Confetti Die and then attached it to a grey cardstock base.

I took some of the confetti pieces and put them back into the die in different places to move the colors around.

 

I wanted to pull in a bit more shades of grey like the rug, so I added a strip of Suminagasi hand-marbled paper (that I made here) and stamped my sentiment from Hero Arts Hand Drawn Everyday Messages in Magenta Ink on a lighter grey cardstock before framing it with the rust and gold colors from the rug (I actually laid my cardstock down on the rug to find the right shades).

Thank You in Greens

I love monochromatic designs, especially when I can incorporate a range of shades.  This is the time of year for Green ... and that's the challenge them at the Heart 2 Heart Challenge in partnership with the Double Trouble Challenge.  I decided to take them up on their optional TWIST to incorporate a wee bit-o-gold as well.

 

 

And of course it's Especially Emerald at the Rainbow Card Challenge.

 

I still had a portion of my Fern Green Paper Glaze from Picket Fence Studios  with my Tumbling Leaves Stencil from Simon Says Stamp that was leftover from this card, so I die cut another  Simon Says Stamp Stitched Circle Die (the next smaller size) on the remaining portion of the leaves.

 

I wanted to use the Sketch from Global Design Project, so I went hunting for coordinating paper and found this awesome Gel Press Print in my stash (love having a drawer of papers I created) that I printed on a piece of vintage clothing pattern instructions (you can see some of the text peeking through at the bottom left).

 

I scattered a few golden nail head stickers on the background & finished with the Thank You from Simon Says Stamp CZ Design Emphatic Best Days stamped in Rina K.'s Electro Pop Loud Lime Ink.

I'm also joining the Simon Says Stamp Flickr Challenge to use dies on your card (I won last week, so I get to go do some shopping ... woot! woot!)

 

 

And it's all about the GREEN at the Double D Challenge.