Ingenious Inkling

Ink Blended Peony Bouquet

The May Challenge at Poppy Stamps is Floral Fantasy.

 

 

I pulled out my Poppy Stamps Peony Bouquet and decided to revisit an inking technique from this inky card from two years ago.  I used my MISTI to stamp the Peony image with fade-out grey ink and then grabbed a combination of yellow and peach dye inks and my masking tape and went to work.

 

After adding the ink, I re-stamped in Jet Black Amalgam Ink (which is why the MISTI is so important).  I used the Happy Birthday sentiment from the same set, and then trimmed down my panel to mount with foam tape on a white card base.

Before I revisited the instructions (that reminded me to stamp in fade-out ink), I had already stamped the image with Jet Black Amalgam Ink, so I made a second floral fantasy design.

 

 

I cut the Easter Egg off the Poppy Stamps Decorated Egg Stitched Frame and attached it over my stamped Peony Bouquet with foam tape.  I used the same sentiment and finished with some Pink Fresh Studio bright pink jewels.

 

 

I'm also linking this card up at the Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes with Dies Challenge & Springtime Challenge at Make My Monday.

Buggy Blended Birthday

I started my artsy day with some Ink Blending for the Stay Crafty with A Blog Named Hero April Ink Blend It Up Challenge.

 

 

I wanted to use my Hero Arts Bug You Stamps for a Masculine Birthday Card, so I chose what I thought were some "buggy" colors for my blend.

 

 

I wasn't particularly in love with my blend, so I decided to combine it with the Hero Arts Every Which Way Stencil and the Baby Wipe Technique.  You place the stencil on top of the ink-blended panel and the lay a baby wipe over the stencil.  I use a brayer to make sure the baby wipe comes into contact with the inked-paper as much as possible.  The baby wipe pulls up the ink leaving a pattern behind (very fun and easy).  I did it several times since I was trying to get the stencil to give the paper a grass-like effect for my bugs.

 

 

I stamped, die cut and colored my bugs using a combination of metallic Karin markers and a Green Stabilo Pencil that I blended with my fingers.  I ended-up cutting down my blended panel to work with the Sketch from Atlantic Hearts Sketch.

 

 

I added some scraps of alcohol ink blended & foiled paper to the band across the card and finished with a sentiment from Hero Arts Message Strips Stamp & Cut and a few enamel dots.

I'm also joining the Springtime Insects Challenge at My Time to Craft, the Masculine Challenge at Allsorts Challenge Blog & lastly the Simon Says Happy Birthday Challenge.

Live a Beautiful Life

When I was playing with my alcohol inks on Sunday night, I started on a piece of Ranger Black Alcohol Ink Blending paper, but I couldn't quite make it work, so I set it aside. 

Last night I tried again bringing out pearlescent and glitter inks together with some white and finally got a cool effect.  I came in at the end adding a touch of silver foil.

 

 

I decided with all of the silver to feature a vellum butterfly sticker on silver paper from my stash. I used the layout from the Inspire.Create.Challenge replacing the circle with the butterfly ... but looking at it now through the camera lens, I wish I would have angled it a bit (why are design facets always clearer when you photograph).

 

 

I stamped my Impression Obsession Words for Art Sentiment on vellum in black ink and clear embossed and backed it with silver metallic paper to stay with the theme.  I'm linking-up at the Simon Says Stamp Thinking of You Challenge as this one goes in the mail.

 

 

Now to figure out more inks that will work on this black paper.

 

 

I'm linking-up at the TGIF Challenges Alcohol Ink Blending Challenge as well.

 

Love Your Guts

The current TGIF Challenge is Alcohol Blending, so I thought getting inky was the perfect way to end the weekend.  Alcohol Ink blending was one of the first techniques I learned using refills for alcohol ink markers.  I've always enjoyed the magic of it.

 

I decided to use the Ranger Silver Ink Blending Cardstock that has been unopened in my stash for much too long together with new Marabu Alcohol Inks.  I use a sprayer of Alcohol Ink and an air puffer to blow the around.

 

 

I also went in and added silver foil to the top of the almost dried inks.  I decided to use this as my background for the current Sketch at The Paper Players.

 

 

I decided to use the Love Your Guts Die by CZ Designs from Simon Says Stamp as my Sketch Shape die cut from Vellum & Silver Glitter Foam.  I'm also linking-up at Crazy 4 Challenges where the theme is Vellum.

 

 

I finished with a few clusters of silver glitter enamel dots.

 

Hello from Iowa

Another card for the 2nd day of the Crushing on Cardstock class at Online Card Classes.  This one was taught by Jennifer McGuire and was about layering dies with die cut backgrounds.

 

 

I combined Carved Pumpkin & Mustard Seed Distress Oxide Ink for my blending together with the Iowa Delight Die and the Greetings from Iowa stamp from Memory Bound in Ankeny, Iowa and the Hero Arts Bold Graphic Confetti Die.

Treat Yourself

The current Lawn Fawn Challenge is all about Fun with Food ... and what better summer food than ice cream.

 

I started by ink-blending my base panel with Prize Ribbon, Dusty Concord and Shaded Lilac Distress Oxide Inks.  Then I gave it a few spritzes of shimmer spray for overall glimmer.

 

 

I blended more Distress Oxide inks onto a scrap of white cardstock, so I could  stamp the Ice Cream Container, Ice Cream Lid and Spoon from Lawn Fawn's Treat Yourself.  I die cute white cardstock with the Lawn Fawn Cross-Stitched Circle Stackables and positioned them inside.

I'm also linking-up at the Little Red Wagon Stay Cool Challenge.  The Simon Says Stamp Challenge is also about Food & Drink (don't you love that you can both eat & drink ice cream).

The Best is Yet to Come

I opened my new Prize Ribbon Distress Oxide ink and made an attempt at some ink blending using Speckled Egg and Shaded Lilac (clearly I need to watch more tutorials because I never get the smooth blend my friends do). 

I decided to add the MB Makes Marks Marker Stencil over the top and spray with the Prize Ribbon Distress Oxide Spray.  I put another piece of paper on stop of the stencil to pick up the extra spray before pulling up the stencil to reveal the magic underneath. 

 

 

I decided to add some dragonflies from Cheryl's Flutterflies at the {a vintage girl} & her daughter together with some of their Typewriter Phrases sentiment stickers using this week's Freshly Made Sketch layout.  Remember discount code GNOMIES gets you 20% off your order in their shop.

 

I'm also linking-up again at the Quit Bugging Me! Challenge at Shopping Our Stash.  And I'm joining My Time to Craft Challenge Blog where the theme is no patterned paper.

 

Retro Happy Birthday

I should be cleaning my studio, but instead I made a card with things I found on my studio table.  

I saw that the Seize the Birthday Challenge was to use an Embossing Folder (and re-stocking my masculine birthday cards is also on my To Do List), so I grabbed the Tim Holtz Retro Cirque Embossing Folder and embossed the piece of yellow cardstock from yesterday's card.

 

After Embossing, I grabbed some Crackling Campfire Distress Ink and a domed foam applicator to bring out the embossed texture.  Next I sprayed with Avery Elle Clear Shimmer Spray (which reacts subtly with the inked surface).

 

 

I grabbed scraps of cardstock and put my card together using the Sunday Stamp Sketch.  For my sentiment, I grabbed a scrap of designer paper outlined with my Fude Ball Pen (love these pens) and finished with some Simple Stories Birthday Blast Stickers.

 

 

I'm pretty sure I could make cards for days with just the items that need to be put away on my studio tables ... back to cleaning.

Kaleidoscope Ink Blending

I had a few leftovers from Saturday's Stamp Joy that were too pretty not to turn into more cards.

The first one was an OOPS from the final card ... as you can see at the bottom left, I accidentally dipped my Lemon Meringue blender brush into the Fruit Punch Ink by not following the instructions of only  have one ink pad open at a time.  Thankfully I caught it immediately and didn't ruin my mask (which you'll see in the next card).

 

But it was so pretty how the ink faded into the white, I thought it was perfect for the Less is More CAS Inking Challenge.

 

 

I added a birthday sentiment from Taylored Expressions Simple Strips Birthday for the Addicted to CAS Code Word Birthday Challenge.  It took all the effort within me not to add some bling to this design.

 

 

Next I used a technique I learned at Stamp Joy several years ago ... offset cover-plate shadowing by cutting a second cover plate from black cardstock ... with the Kaleidoscope Cover Plate Die cut we used as an ink blending mas for one of Saturday's cards (I loved that you can overlap 4 colors of ink to create the full rainbow).

 

 

I used a sentiment and the coordinating dies from our exclusive set and added some Iridescent Drip Drops to finish the design.

Saturday Stamp Joy

Yesterday I spent all day hanging out with my Taylored Expressions friends at their virtual Stamp Joy event.  Lots of learning and making fun cards.

A fun Kaleidoscope stamp set and die were the star of the show.  This one was embossed with the die and then ombre ink blended.

 

 

Next we moved on to stamping & coloring (on the back) of a piece of vellum.  I loved how we framed it with the scallop die.

 

I also loved the stamping along the bottom, even thought it took me several tries to get it lined-up the way I wanted.  As I learned in later cards, I should have stamped it on my background paper first, and then lined-up my card where I wanted it to be.

 

Another fun event exclusive was this confetti stencil that allows you to use 4 ink colors to cover your paper.

 

 

Also since this was our mass produced card (we made 4) there were tips for stamping the present by stamping on the background paper in the MISTI and then aligning the negative over the image to place your die cuts.

I failed a bit on the next one by stamping one of my little guys too far from the edge of my die cut.  I fine tipped black marker to the rescue ... can you tell which one is taller than the others?

 

 

Using a mask and ink blending to highlight was another simple technique that really helps that middle penguin pop.

 

I absolutely loved the ombre shadow effect with this big hello.  Definitely trying that one again.

 

 

And the final card was interactive with spinning kaleidoscopes.

 

 

My favorite part was the vibrant rainbow blend I got with just four ink colors (not to mention the cool effect of using the die cut as a stencil).

 

Of all the virtual events I've attended during the last year, Taylored Expressions are by far my favorite.  The products is ready do go ... the teachers are fantastic ... the free product is unique and fun ... and I always learn new things.