Ingenious Inkling

Love is in the Air

The theme at Impression Obsession is Love is in the Air! ... and I immediately went to one of the most used Dies in my Collection - Heart Couple Frame.

 

I almost feel like I'm cheating when I use this die ... the single piece cuts so simply and by changing the color of the die and the background you can easily customize for any wedding color combination.  Today I die cut it from thicker watercolor paper for some subtle texture ... and the thickness of the paper means I don't have to stack dies for dimension.

 

I used a piece of glitter paper from a Christmas paper pad for the background ... a deep burgundy with specs of silver and pinkish glitter.  I inked-up a sentiment from never before used Impression Obsession set called The Skinny.  I'm linking up at the NBUS (never before used schtuff) challenge at little red wagon.

 

 

I inked it in Gina K. Designs Cranberry Tart and clear embossed for a bit more elegance.  For a bit of added elegance I used several Glitter Dot Flourish Stickers by docrafts Papermania from an unopened pack in my stash ... have no idea where these lovelies came from, but they provided a very nice bit of bling.

 

I'm also linking-up at the Something New Challenge at The Paper Players since I both used something new ... and created a card for a soon to be newly married couple.

Quick & Easy Holiday Card

The Challenge theme at Impression Obsession is Quick & Easy Holiday cards ... and for me, that usually means die cuts.

 

I went through my collection and pulled out several dies that could make a scene together with scraps of cardstock from my bin (I keep it sorted by colors in hanging file folders).  With my Gemini Junior, die-cutting is a breeze.

 

I started by die cutting the City Landscape Layers from two shades of grey (I actually bought this die in NYC at The Ink Pad).  I attached it to a black card base for the night time sky.  Next I cut the Impression Obsession Santa Die from Maroon Cardstock (the color was an ode to Rudolph).  And the quick finish was Merry Christmas from the Typewriter Sentiments cut from a bluish grey cardstock.

Super quick ... super easy ... and a snap to produce in bulk.

I'm also joining the Any Winter Holiday Challenge at little red wagon and the Cityscape Challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.

Snow Time

The current Impression Obsession Challenge is Snow Time!

 

I started by die cutting Impression Obsession Snowflakes Die Set from Silver Glitter Foam ... I used two of the three snowflakes on my card.  

 

I attached them to the Impression Obsession Plaid Tag cut from a blue shimmer cardstock.  I finished with a peace sentiment from Impression Obsession Express Yourself.

 

I added some Eyelet Outlet Bumpy Bling to the center of the snowflakes and some silver & blue ribbon at the top of the tag to finish the design.

Thank You Thank You

The current theme at the Impression Obsession Challenge is So Thankful.

 

 

I can't get enough of the Impression Obsession Plaid Tag ... this time I used just the back full tag without the plaid and stamped the sentiment from Impression Obsession Many Thanks (another favorite), which fit perfectly.

 

I paired it with some gorgeous Jolly Floral paper from Carta Bella Practically Perfect.  I use this week's Just Add Ink Sketch and finished with a silver thank you sticker and some coordinating seam binding ribbon for my tag.

 

It's a Nice Day for a Gel Press Wedding

I had a run on wedding cards this week, so I needed to restock.  Have I mentioned how much I love having a big pile of freshly pulled Gel Press prints to use in my designs ... love love love it.

Impression Obsession is my favorite source for wedding cards ... the first one uses a Gel Press Print, Impression Obsession Wedding Collage and this week's Sketch from The Paper Players.

 

I added some rose stickers for the circle elements of the check to repeat on the rose theme at the top right corner of the collage ... and of course I had to add some bling to that ring.  I  finished with a sticker sentiment.

I'm linking up at the Anything Goes Challenge at Simon Says Stamp.  It's also Anything Goes at Watercooler Wednesday Challenge.

 

The next on is for a request for a masculine wedding card.  The background has a wonderful shimmer from gold metallic paint that is difficult to pick-up in the photograph.

 

I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch starting with the Impression Obsession Wonky Stitched Circle Die.  The Impression Obsession Bride & Groom Die was cut from a light kraft cardstock & I finished with the Die Cut sentiment from the Impression Obsession Congrats Word Set.

 

My final wedding card is my go-to-super-easy-when-I'm-running-out-of-creative-gas card ... the Impression Obsession Heart Couple Frame die cut from white textured cardstock and attached over another Gel Press Print (yep, that's the theme for the night in case the blog post title didn't give it away).

 

One more sticker sentiment and it is ready to go ... and my wedding card stash is restocked.

Count Your Blessings

The current Impression Obsession Challenge is Harvest Treats (aka Fruits & Vegetables).

 

The only produce stamp in my Impression Obsession Stamp was ... surprise ... Corn (what else would an Iowa girl have).

I used a variety of Ink Pads to *paint* the stamp applying ink to different sections and blending using my MISTI.  I finished with a sentiment from Impression Obsession Holiday Words (a very versatile set of sentiments)

Blessed

Tonight I needed a baby card, so I started with the current Paper Craft Crew Challenge Sketch.

 

I love the vintage Baby Carriage from Impression Obsession.  I didn't have any sentiment stamps that were the right proportion, so I used sentiment stickers.

 

Monster Mash

The current Impression Obsession Challenge theme is Halloween or Fall Colors ... so I figured I might as well do both.

 

This Plaid Tag is one of my favorite new Impression Obsession Products.

 

 

I paired it with a couple of more vintage stamps from my stash - Impression Obsession Monster Mash & Our Gang.  I added lots of different sizes of googly eyes to the Gang.

Peace on Earth

This week at Jingle Belles we're still focused on PEACE.

 

This was the perfect week to recycle this laser cut forest.  I mounted it with foam tape on a sky blue background and then added my Impression Obsession Die Cut Cardinals (love the pop of red) and a vintage wood block PEACEful sentiment from A Muse.

TA-DA ... another card ready to be delivered for the holidays.

Falling Leaves

Growing-up, we had a huge Maple Tree in our back yard with a tire swing.  I would spend hours looking at all of the different color variations when the leaves starting turning in the fall. 

Our City was the home of the annual Maple Leaf Festival every October, so needless to say, I had the chance to examine lots of Maple Leaves throughout my life.  They are my favorite leaf in the fall, because they turn the entire range of colors depending on the tree and the weather conditions (I once wrote a paper for my college technical writing class on how leaves change color).

The current challenge theme at Impression Obsession is Falling Leaves.

 

As I searched through my stamped, I found this gorgeous Never-Been-Inked Layering Maple Leaf Set by Dina Kowal ... for my card is used the solid and the two bottom layers in Pineapple, Orange Blossom & Vermillion inks.

I started with my paper bag light kraft paper on my table and used my MISTI to layer the leaves.

 

I wanted to use some of my new goodies from my recent Impression Obsession win, so I die cut the Plaid Tag from a Sunflower designer paper and coordinating gold cardstock.

 

Next I stamped three sentiments from my new There For You Set (isn't that a great set of sentiments) using the same three colors of inks from my leaf layering and attached them using foam tape for dimension.

 

This card will be going across the miles to my new Chemo Angel Patient ... I'm so grateful to be able to make cards that hopefully brighten a day and provide encouragement during a challenging time.

 

I'm also joining the Autumn Challenge at Fusion Card Challenge with a loose variation of the sketch and all of those falling leaves.

Nature is also the theme at the Dies R Us Challenge.