Ingenious Inkling

Stampotique Birthday

This week's Inspiration Challenge at SplitcoastStampers is to go back through your Forgotten *Favorites* Gallery and find a card to inspire you.  

Before the days of blogs (hard to imagine I know), SplitcoastStampers and magazines were my primary sources of creative inspiration.  It was interesting to go back through my gallery and try to remember why I had saved some of the cards ... and others were still very timely after all of these years.  I chose this card by UKJem as my inspiration ... I loved how she created the tiny layered tiles to feature a small flower stamp.

I started by stamping and cutting apart 3 Flower window from Stampotique by Maryse Carrier (one of the first stampers I saw on the Carol Duval show years ago).  Next I found my vintage crimper and started creating my tiles (I'm doing a lot of hand-cutting lately since my paper cutter is on the fritz, and I'm waiting for repair parts to arrive).

I combined three shades of purple with light blue and added some enamel dots to decorate my tiles.  The sentiment is vintage (aka discontinued) Hero Arts.

Quick & Easy Christmas ... and a Giveaway

The Challenge at the Stampotique Blog is to make a Quick & Easy Christmas Card.

I inked Stampotique Christmas Mosaic with Hero Arts Ombre Ruby to Royal Red Ink.  I also stamped it in Lime to Forever Green Ombre Ink and paper pieced a few of the pieces.  Super Quick & Easy.

I'm also joining anything goes with my Retro Rubber ... Stampotique never goes out of style.

I have a Flat Rate Box filled with stamps, embellishments, die cuts, and paper that's ready to go to one lucky blog reader ... just leave a comment of one gift you'd like to receive for Christmas and I'll draw a winner next Saturday morning.

Choose Happy

I have a lot of Washi Tape ... some might even say I have Washi Tape issues.  When I saw the *Bright Colors* Challenge at Stampotique, I knew it was the perfect opportunity to play with lots of Washi Tape.

I decided to go with bright colors of orange and green that coordinated with a scrap of lime green paste paper I wanted to incorporate into the design.  I started with a piece of tape slightly angled in the middle of the paper, and then attached tape on both sides of it until the paper was covered.  I always start with a piece larger than what I need, so I can trim to size.

I stamped Stampotique Head onto white cardstock and then stamped him again on the paste paper to cute out his shirt.  I smudged the ink while I was detail cutting, but I decided it looked like the shirt of a little boy who had been playing outside all day, so I left it.

The layout is this week's Tuesday Morning Sketch Challenge.

I finished by adding a punched party-hat and a few sticker sentiments.  He sort of looks like I do when I have to spend an evening at a birthday party with lots of people I don't know ... introvert overload.

I'm also joining the Seize the Birthday Challenge which is Anything Goes.

And ... the winner of my Box of Goodies Giveaway is ... 

Tracie Watts who said:

 

PS. Favorite things about autumn are the colors outside and the smell of great food inside!

 

Send me an e-mail with your address, and I'll get your goodies in the mail.

Celebrating Life

The theme at the 200th Stampotique Challenge theme is Celebrating ... my card with the *When I'm Old ..." sentiment celebrates life ... and pretty much describes my day.  

I have found as I age, I am much more stingy with my free time ... and much more deliberate about spending it the way I want ... and with the people I want.

The layout is this week's Mojo Monday Sketch (love the circles with the vertical lines).

The colors are from this week's Color Throwdown (these colors are seen on more than half of the clothes in my closet ... love them).

I added some embossed texture (which reminded me of the bedspread pattern) and finished with some sequins.

Cardstock Christmas

This week at Jingle Belles we're making cards that only feature Cardstock ... no designer paper allowed (I know you have as much cardstock hoarded as I do, so you have no excuse not to join us). 

I started with the color challenge from The Paper Players, which I thought would be great for a holiday card.

Next I went searching through my neglected woodblock holiday stamps and found this Christmas Mosaic from Stampotique.  The challenge at the Stampotique Designers Challenge is Shimmer and Shine, so I stamped the image in red and then sprayed with several glimmer sprays for a wonderful overall shimmer ... and finished with a bit of silver Stickles Glitter for a bit more sparkle.

I used the layout from Sweet Sunday Sketch adding a tiny sentiment from Catslife Press to my Hexagon.  I flipped the sketch to accommodate my larger image.

Here's a shot that tries to better capture the Shimmer & Shine.

 

I'm also joining Anything Goes at the Christmas Card Challenges. 

Snowy Wonderland

We're still celebrating snow at Jingle Belles this week, so I had to pull out my all-time-favorite snowflake stamp from Hero Arts ... you know, one of those stamps you won't part with even though it's no longer produced.

I embossed with Versamark and then used light blue watercolor paint for resist.  After drying a bit with my embossing gun, I wiped the embossed snowflakes with a baby wipe (which I discovered removed a little of the watercolor, but I liked the effect.)  I intended for the snowflakes to be my entire card base, but I futzed-up the embossing on one side, so I trimmed it down and designed around what I had left.

I always make sure I paint a piece of watercolor paper larger than my image, so I can use the trimmed borders as coordinating paper to stamp my sentiment.  This Stampotique sentiment usually goes on the inside of my holiday cards, but I decided it worked well with the snowflakes.

I finished with some iridescent snowflake and silver sequins.

I'm also joining the Tuesday Throwdown where the theme is Anything Goes and the City Crafter Challenge where they are celebrating Sequins.

Washi Washi Birthday

The Challenge at Shopping Our Stash is to use your oldest Washi Tape.  While these are technically *tissue tapes*, they were the precursor to the Washi Tape craze, so I'm going to call them the oldest ones in my collection (which was evidenced by their stickiness or lack of stickiness depending on the roll).

Since all of these tapes are neutral in color, I decided to attach them to a light blue piece of cardstock.  When I was trying to trim the page, one of the pieces of tape came loose, so I decided that would be the perfect place to position my the Stampotique Happy Birthday sentiment.

I'm also joining the Loves Rubberstamps Challenge to Add a Sentiment.

Thank You x 3

Since my take-two process worked so well last night, I thought I would try it again tonight.  This time I kept the stamp and sketch constant and changed-up the papers.  The Layout is from a Challege Blog called Match the Sketch.

This sketch reminded me of one I would have used when I first started making cards.  My designs are simple ... but sometimes what you really need is a simple, mailable thank you card.

The Thank You Stamp is a favorite from Stampotique.  I'm also linking-up at the Anything Goes Challenge at The Pink Elephant.

When you stamp on patterned paper, clear embossing helps the ink pop.

Love the little coffee-spill on the musical patterned paper.

P is for ...

I had to join Lauren who is the Guest Designer at the The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers this week where the theme is (make sure you click-over and see her awesome creations) ...

I pulled out one of my *profanity* stamps ... a quote by Kim Basinger from Stampotique ... which pretty much sums-up how I want to live my life.

Using this week's Retro Sketch, I stamped Michael Strong's Cloisonne Triangle (remember watching him on The Carol Duvall Show?) multiple times down the right side adding several more detail-cut triangles with foam tape.

I finished with lots of bling using colors from this week's Color Throwdown.

 

I'm also joining the Bling It Out! Challenge at the Stampotique Designers blog.

May Peace Be Your Gift

The wintry hues in the current Always Playing with Paper Challenge seemed perfect to me for a holiday card.

I started with a Penny Black Starry Night sticker and built my card around it ... adding some white SRM Sticker stitches.

Sentiment is May Peace Be Your Gift from Stampotique stamped on a scrap of paper colored with shimmer spray.  The final accent was a few sequins.

I'm also joining the Anything Goes Challenge at Christmas Stamping All Year Long as well as Anything Goes for Christmas at the Winter Wonderland blog.