Ingenious Inkling

It's Just Another Mojo Monday

When I saw Julee's Mojo Monday Sketch, I knew I could make it work with the items scattered on my Studio Table ... I do love circles & banner flags.

The background is a Gel Press Print using the Michelle Ward Downtown NYC Map Stencil, found only at The Ink Pad in NYC (and thankfully can also be purchased in their online store).  It's a nice large stencil, so you can use parts of it like I did on my card.

 

Next I silver heat-embossed the Michelle Ward's Mini Manhole Cover stamps (also found only at The Ink Pad) as well as the arrow stamp from the same set to use as my sketch banner.  With my embossing, I'm joining the Embossing Challenge at the My Time to Craft Challenge Blog.

 

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I punched my circles from a vintage Popular Science Magazine from March 1949 and assembled my card adding lots of gems. 

Finally, my circle punched sentiment is from a newly discovered line of stamps at The Ink Pad called Everyday Explorers Co.  This sentiment is from a set called Small Victories ... aren't those so important these days.

I'm also linking-up at the Anything Goes Challenge at The Corrosive Challenge Blog & the Anything Goes Stamp It! Challenge at Simon Says Stamp.

Carpe Diem

When I saw the sketch at the TGIF Challenges, I wanted to see if I could incorporate one of my Gel Press Printed Tags into my design.

 

 

I chose a tag and then found a piece of paper I had made at a class long ago and decided to use that for my card base ... I love when pieces I've made finally find their home on a card.

 

I added various washi tapes, wrapped it with some twine, blinged it up a bit with some gems, and finished with a sticker sentiment.

 

I"m also linking-up at the Totally Tangerine Challenge at The Rainbow Card Challenge.

 

And I'm linking-up at the Long and Skinny Challenge at Just Us Girls.

I found Dark Chocolate Covered Cherries at the store today ... and I bought them.  They are one of my favorites and always make me think of my Grandfather.  When I cared for him while he was in the nursing home in my town, they would play Bingo every week for prizes ... and around Christmas, they always got a box of Chocolate Covered Cherries for his prize.  When the holiday season ended, he was always sad ... and would say to me, "why can't we have Chocolate Covered Cherries all year long ... " and I never had a good answer.  I just told him to be grateful for his Little Debbie Cakes.  So today I ate a few cherries for him.

Seize the Day.

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.