Ingenious Inkling

Sentiment Strip Sympathy

The current Monthly Mix Challenge at Gina K. Designs is to use Sentiment Strips in your card design.

 

 

Unfortunately, I needed to restock my sympathy card stash, so that was my focus today.  I started with the silhouette blooms from Gina K. Designs Natural Silhouettes.  

 

For the first one I used sentiment strips from Gina K. Designs Spring Tulips Mini and Layered Eucalyptus Mini.  Since the Layered Eucalyptus is from September 2019, I'm also linking-up at the Anything Goes Challenge at the Retro Rubber Challenge Blog.

 

Since the flowers were already on my MISTI, I stamped them in several colors for easy multi-card making.

 

 

These sentiments are from the Gina K. Designs Natural Silhouettes and Spring Tulips Mini.

 

I love how classic these designs are in the different palettes.  I'm linking the final one up at the Summertime Blues Challenge at Simon Says Stamp.

Thoughts and Prayers

When I saw this week's sketch at the Inspire Create Challenge, I really liked how several of the design team members used combinations of designer paper.  

 

 

Rather than use papers from a single collection, I challenged myself to go through my massive scrap basket and find papers that would work for this week's Color Throwdown - Aqua, Ice Blue, and Pale Green. 

 

 

These are the papers I decided to work with.

 

 

And this is the design I came up with.  I used the natural shape of the paper along the top of my design.

 

 

I added a sentiment from Gina K. Designs Spring Tulips - Mini (this small stamp set has four awesome sentiments).

I finished with two butterfly punches topped with Ice Blue gems to bring in a bit more of that shade into my Sea Glass inspired design.  I'm also linking-up at Simon Says Stamp Challenge to use dies and/or punches.

Ink Smooshed Bouquet

Tonight I did a little Distress Oxide Ink Smooshing with Shaded Lilac, Milled Lavender and Iced Spruce.

 

 

The Bouquet is Gina K. Designs Timeless Poppies combined with a new Mother's Day Flowers Die from Simon Says Stamp.

Inspiration for the design comes from the quote at The Time Out Challenge.

 

I'm joining the Simon Says Easter/Spring Challenge as well as the Easter or Spring Card Challenge at Make My Monday.

Easter Sunrise

The March Monthly Mix Challenge at Gina K. Designs is to created a Masked & Ink Blended Sunrise.

 

 

I looked at a lot of Sunrise Pictures and decided to go with one that reminded me of Easter Candy Colors and make an Easter Card.  I blended Lemon Drop at the bottom for the sun, then Sea Glass at the top for the sky and then came in with Innocent Pink in the middle blending into each color.

 

 

I stamped the Gina K. Designs Bunny from Some Bunny in Stormy Sky Ink and detail cut it.  Then I used my Sky Colors for two of the Easter Eggs from the same set.   I detail cut all of the images before attaching them to my ink-blended sky.

 

I matted it in the same stormy grey and added it on top of one of my Gel Press Prints before finishing with a fluffy bunny tail.  The sentiment is a combination from Gina K. Designs Some Bunny and Happy Hearts.

I'm also linking-up at the Critter Challenge at The Paper Craft Crew Challenges.

 

 

My first ink blending tore when I removed the washi tape, so I trimmed it down to make a second card.  For this one I stamped the Bunny Outline together with another sentiment from the Gina K. Designs Some Bunny Set.

 

 

For this one, I flipped the color because I thought the Sea Glass grounded the bunny a bit more than the Lemon.

Merry T-Rexmas

We're still getting Sketch-y at Jingle Belles this week.

 

 

I thought if I flipped the sketch, it would be the perfect way to nest a Snow Globe into my design.  I went searching through my holiday tag collection and found this adorable Merry T-Rexmas one that fit the bill. 

 

 

I paired it with Gina K. Designs Winter Whimsy designer paper, which had the perfect colors & almost exactly matched the Christmas Tree in the snow globe. 

I decided to run my vertical & horizontal pieces all the way across the card and finished with some glittery green Love from Lizi Peel-off Strips."

Happy Valentine's Day

The die cut heart from yesterday's card was on my studio table, so I decided to use it for another Valentine's Day Card. 

I started with a piece of striped designer paper from Amy Tangerine's Rise & Shine Collection for a more masculine design (no one says Valentines have to be pink or red).

 

 

I die cut the next size heart from a darker Teal Cardstock and then stamped one of the hearts from Gina K. Designs Happy Hearts and punched it with a heart punch.  I stamped the tiny hearts from the same stamp set on the white heart.

I finished by stamping the sentiment from Gina K. Designs Sketched Wreath Builder directly on the designer paper base.

 

 

I also took inspiration from the Jar of Hearts at the Library Card Challenge.

 

 

And I'm joining Challenge Up Your Life where the Challenge theme is Hearts.

Sending Hugs

When I saw the lovely card by Neet & Crafty for her Guest Designer post at the Uniko Ltd blog, it inspired me to sneak in a card for the January Gina K. Monthly Mix Challenge to use Red for a Celebretory Card (Valentine's Day (or Galentine's Day) feels like a great celebration day for me).

 

 

I used the Gina K. Designs Water Droplet Stencil with Gina K.'s Faded Brick & Cherry Red Inks.  Next I positioned it behind a die cut heart using foam tape.

 

 

I finished with a simple sentiment from Gina K. Designs Happy Hearts (stamped once in each red color of ink to get the color I wanted).

 

 

I'm also joining Tic-Tac-Toe at The Paper Players with a Vertical line down the left side (die-cut, red & stencil).

 

 

And with my lovely stencil pattern, I'm joining the Pattern Challenge at Addicted to CAS.

A Merry Gnomie Christmas

At Jingle Belles it's RESOLUTION-ary as we create with both Old & New items from our Stash.

For my New this week I broke out the limited-release Gina K. Designs Gnome dies & stencils with Therm-o-Web ... I just love that cute little guy and couldn't resist cutting a second *nose* from white for a Santa pom pom.

Gina K. Designs Monthly Mix Challenge is to create with Red (I also used Color Hue's Red & Grey Challenge), so I added more red to my background with Cherry Red Ink Stenciled through the Gina K. Festive Stencil  (love the tone-on-tone effect).

 

 

For the old, I used a sentiment from Gina K.'s Holiday Wreath Builder with three different dies from Gina K. Designs Master Layout Die Sets.

 

 

I'm also joining the Use Something New Challenge at The Paper Players.

 

 

Simon Says Stamp is also linking-up Something New.

 

 

Ho Yo Yo

We're celebrating Something Old and Something New at Jingle Belles for our first prompt of 2021.

For the beginning of our 11th Year, we're asking you to  break out an item (or two) that Santa brought you, or something you acquired in those awesome Black Friday sales...  (Alternately you can use NIMBUS items; aka things you've had for a bit, but not used yet) ...and combine your new goodies with something older from your stash. We can't wait to see what you make.

I couldn't resist breaking out my new Simon Says Stamp Santa The Man Dies.  I combined Santa with new sentiments from Simon Says Stamp The Man, The Myth. 

 

The OLD in my creation is the Gina K. Designs Double Stitched Circle Die for Santa's Face, the Adhesive Felt for the mustache, beard & cap, and my beloved Puffs with Vicks Tissue Box for the reflective lenses in the Santa's Ray Bans. 

The background paper is also new from Honey Bee Farm Fresh Holidays.

Five Favorite Holiday Cards - 2020

Since Lauren & I started Jingle Belles in 2010, I've been recapping my five favorite Christmas cards of the year (you can find 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 & 2019 here) ... I always enjoy revisiting my creations for the year.

Here are my favorites in no particular order:

 

1.  This card I made for the Jingle Belles Earth Day prompt pretty much sums-up 2020.  The background was stamped with an empty toilet paper roll (and brought back the panic of seriously not finding any toilet paper in our town except for a 120 roll commercial package that we're still working our way through)  ... and Taylored Expressions Big Grumpy who sums-up how many have felt for most of 2020.

 

 

2.  I had so much fun creating this vintage collage for our Vintage prompt at Jingle Belles ... I love when all of those tucked away bits and bobs finally find their way onto a card ... especially trading stamps that remind me of my Grandma and the photo slide that reminds me of watching vacation slides in my Gran & Papa's basement.

 

 

 

3.  I love how striking this Gina K. Designs white snowflake turned out against the tone-on-tone Holiday Tapestry stamped background.

 

 

4. The We Three Kings Prompt at Jingle Belles inspired We Three Reinbeer ... for me, the googly eyes make this card.

 

 

5. 2020 was the year I had more fun playing with Alcohol Inks ... I love the wonderful inky background of this card combined with the contrast of the white stamped images.

 

As always, hard to pick favorites, but also fun re-visiting all the holiday cards I made (and gave) this year.  Remember, if you'd like to have lots of holiday cards ready when December rolls around, you can join us for our 11th year of Jingle Belles Mayhem beginning January 1st