Ingenious Inkling

Gina K. Designs Eye Shadow Blooms

Tonight I had fun trying to replicate the Eye Shadow Technique that Gina K. shared in this video.  My eyes are pretty much allergic to everything, so I have no eye make-up in my house, so I had to stop by the Dollar Tree and pick some up, so I could give it a try.  I grabbed the same one that Gina used and one with lots of purples.  The light colors work best on the darker cardstock colors to get the cool effect with Gina K. Designs Embossing ink.

 

 

I started with a dark green scrap of cardstock and blooms from Gina K. Designs Elegant Asters.

 

Next I tried red cardstock with flowers from Gina K. Designs Stately Flowers 10 ... this one was my favorite.

 

 

And my final one was Purple cardstock with the new Gina K. Designs Natural Silhouette Blooms.

 

Here are all three together.

 

I kept the cards really simple so the backgrounds could shine.  The sentiment is from Gina K. Designs Whimsical Wildflower Frame.

 

I used another sentiment from the same set for the red card.

Then for the purple card, for some reason, the eye shadow rubbed off and I got this sort of shadow effect.  Rather than fighting it, I embraced it.

 

 

I just burnished the eye shadow into the cardstock and stamped the same wildflower stamp directly onto the background.

 

 

The sentiment is from the same Gina K. Designs Natural Silhouette Set.

 

So if you've got some great 80's eye shadow in your stash (or you make a stop at the Dollar Tree) give this technique a try ... it was a lot of fun ... and looks super-shimmery-cool.

Sketches, Stickers, and Scraps ... Oh My

Last night, rather than doing a Makeover Monday card, I challenged myself to make cards using this week's Sunday Stamps Sketch, Orphan Stickers in my overflowing Sticker Bin and Scraps from my Paper Bin.

 

 

The sketch just seems perfect for playing with stickers and papers.  It reminded me of when I used to have a big box of things I'd cut from magazines to make collages that I would hang around my room.

I started with this cork typewriter sticker.  The background paper is something I know I stamped more than 10 years ago using acrylic blocks that I had wrapped with rubber bands (which turned out to be today's Try a New Technique Challenge at SplitCoastStampers - making the old new again and stamping with what we have on hand) ... makes me want to try that technique on a Gel Press Plate.

 

I cut two 3" circles in from coordinating cardstock scraps and then added more smaller stickers to finish the design before mounting it all on a kraft card base.

For the next card I started with that adorable orange monster.  This time I cut slightly smaller circles from two designer paper scraps to coordinate with the polka dot background.  The dimensions seem a bit more balanced in this one, especially with him grounded on the longer sentiment.  

 

I couldn't resist adding the stack of books and his own little potted plant.

Then when I had the final pink monster and scrap of pink Eiffel Tower designer paper ... I sort of fell into an 8th Grade-cover-my-binder-with-stickers creative craziness.  I have no idea who I'll give this card to (who am I kidding, I'll mail it to Lauren at some point ... probably not on her birthday) ... I had a ton of fun making it.

 

Sometimes it's fun to remember why I started this hobby ... as a creative outlet for play.   And I still like stickers as much as I did in the 8th grade (hint hint ... big sticker news coming soon).

Smile a Little Brighter

The current Stay Crafty with Hero Arts Challenge is to create a one-layer card (#staycraftywithhero).

 

 

I thought it would be fun to start my single layer with a piece of watercolor paper sprayed with Distress Oxide Sprays.

Next I stamped the large cover image from the Hero Arts / PinkFresh Studio You Make a Difference Set using three colors of Ranger Archival Ink - Orange Blossom, Poppy & Tiger Lilly moving from light around the outside to darker around the inside.

 

I used Potting Soil Archival Ink to stamp the sentiment from Hero Arts Color Layering Iris in the Center.  I finished with some orange gems in the center of the cone flowers.

Gifted Birthday Cards

At Taylored Expressions Stamp Joy last year (did you see Stamp Joy 2020 is going to be virtual this year, so if you aren't able to travel to Iowa, you can finally attend), one of the favorite cards I made at the Make and Take Room was using the Gifted Background and Gifted Stencil.  When I was cleaning my studio this week, I found some of the leftover sentiments from the Make & Take, and decided to break out the set and make a few more quick cards to re-stock my Masculine Birthday Card Stash.

The concept behind these sets (Taylor has quite a few in her collection ... I ordered the Starry Background set and a few other things this week to get the very cool free-with-purchase stamp set this month) is a coordinating background stamp, stencil and die cut that offer all sorts of possibilities.

I started by stamping quite a few of the backgrounds in Versafine Ink on Bristol Cardstock with my MISTI.  Next I used the Magic Blender Brushes to apply different combinations of masculine ink colors (seriously, this is basically fool proof).  This one combined teals and greens.  I cut down the panel a bit to fit on a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inch card base with the leftover sentiments from Simple Strips Birthday.  Since I'm mailing my employee birthday cards now rather than hand-delivering them, mailability is more important.

 

 

I'm linking this one at the TGIF Challenge for Stamping Your Own Background Paper.

 

For the second one I used the coordinating Gifted Cutting Plate and cut a coordinating panel of card stock to place over the inked panel for a slightly different look.

 

 

And the final one used a more monochromatic ink combination.

 

I love how quick it is to put together a set of cards that is similar ... yet different.  This is truly one of my favorite sets in a long time and one I will continue to use over and over.

Birthday Bouquet

The June Challenge at Memory Box is all about Birthdays.

 

I decided to finally ink up the gorgeous exclusive Memory Box / Simon Says Stamp STAMPtember Fresh Bouquet Set in Versafine Clair Ink on Bristol White Cardstock.  Then I revisited an old technique of using a transparency and Distress Inks for some selective ink smooshing to color in the image.  I dabbed away the color a bit with a cloth after each inking to keep the colors soft and pale.

 

I matted my panel on a black cardstock base and finished with the typed happy birthday sentiment from the same stamp set.

 

Seize the Birthday is all about Summer ... and nothing says summer quite like a bouquet of fresh blooms.

Summer Time Stars Birthday

I decided to play around with the Water Stamping Technique with Stencils using Distress Oxide Ink that Mendy Eggen shared using Chipped Sapphire and Pine Needles Distress Oxide Ink ... however I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the end result. 

Then I remembered what my friend Becca the Damsel of Distressed taught me recently ... a Distressed Background is never really done until you've applied at least three different distress products/techniques, so just kept playing.  I added some Distress Oxide Sprays, some Distress Inks, and some Dina Wakley Media Gloss Sprays.  Then I still wasn't sure what I was going to do with it.

I decided that I have a ton of Sizzix die cuts that are pretty much neglected now that all of the stamping companies make their own die cuts, so I browsed through that box and found this cool Stars Background by Stephanie Bernard that had never been used ... and voila.  Look how cool it looks with all of those splatters and sprays ... the pine needles color in the middle of the panel almost glows.  I die cut the Stars a second time from red cardstock to add some pop of color highlights.

 

Since the theme at Retro Rubber is Summer Time, I thought the Red, White & Blue of the Fourth of July was perfection. I added a Hero Arts Happy Birthday Sentiment from 2007.

 

 

I'm also joining the Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes with Dies Challenge.

 

 

Stamps & Confetti Birthday

The theme of the STAMPlorations June Theme & Photo Challenge is Stamps & Confetti and this Photo.

 

After I finished these alcohol ink cards, I had the leftover frames on my studio table.  I just glued them to card bases and laid them to the side.  I thought the green & gold one looked perfect for this photo, so that is where I started.  It has the green, gold & black and flecks of gold foil that reminded me of the confetti.  Since I need more masculine birthday cards for June, I chose that for my theme.

 

I pulled in the two shades of green from the photo by stamping STAMPlorations Gift Row in Versafine Clair Gift Row ink on lime green cardstock and then detail cut the packages.  I used a gold marker to spotlight the ribbons on several of the presents.

The sentiment is STAMPlorations Big Greetings which is currently out of stock.  I finished with some big gold bling which was inspired by the big bling on the mask in the photo.

Paper Smooches Love

I've been hanging out with Kim at Paper Smooches this morning ... of course she doesn't realize we were hanging out.  When she announced the closing of Paper Smooches this morning, I got a little emotional and spent the morning reminiscing about how much Kim's designs have influenced the arc of my own stamping development arc.

 

She also probably doesn't realize we've been hanging out together for the past 9 years.  I first fell in love with Kim's designs when she designed for Cornish Heritage Farms and this is the first card I uploaded with her designs in July 2011 for Kim's  Paper Smooches Paper Sparks Challenge that had 106 Cards linked-up (so clearly a lot of other people were hanging out with her too).

 

I always wanted to make "cute" cards, but I always struggled ... but for some reason Kim's characters spoke to me and made me comfortable embracing them.  I don't know if it was the wonky eyeballs, for the fun feet and hands ... or her love of monsters ... but they clicked with me, and for that I was grateful.   I also adored her hand-written fonts.

Kim's Snow Dudes line is one of my absolute favorites ... those snowmen have been a standard on my holiday cards for years.  

 

It combines Paper Smooches Snowman 2 Die Cut with a sentiment from Just a Note.

Her Die Cuts are so fun and unique ... and she has an Ear of Corn, so what more could an Iowan Want.

 

And her Animal Sets have gotten so much use.

 

Needless to say, I could go on for days ... you can see all my Paper Smooches designs if you click this link.

So while I was "hanging out with Kim" I made a card for her current Paper Smooches Flower Challenge (I was super-thrilled to be one of the winners for her May Challenge).

 

 

I saw an awesome Ink-on-Vellum Technique at the Create a Smile Stamps Instagram Account this morning and wanted to give it a try (why have I never tried that??)  I thought it would be perfect with the Paper Smooches So Lovely Flower.  I stamped it in White Pigment Ink and Embossed with White Detail Embossing Powder on Vellum.  Here are the inks I used and how it looked on the back of the Vellum.

 

I wanted the ink to be completely dry before attaching it to my card base and found that using the heat gun melted the embossing powder on the front of the vellum (oops, do-over), so I used a fan to get it nice and dry.

 

I wrapped the vellum around the card base and attached it on the back.  The slight warping didn't bother me ... you could use more vellum adhesive on the front to hold it down if you wanted.  I used a sentiment from Paper Smooches Good Gab with this week's CAS(E) this Sketch! because I realized this week that I had no Anniversary Cards in my stash and this flower seemed perfect for that occasion.

 

Love this technique and I'm sure I'll be doing it again.

 

 

I'm also linking-up at Just add Ink where the theme is Just add "F" - F is for Flowers.

 

And this week's Global Design Project Theme is also Florals.

Thanks again Kim for the years of inspiration ... wish you only the best on your next adventures.

Alcohol Ink Rainbows

A few weeks ago during a crafty video call, I had fun making sheets of alcohol ink covered Yupo Paper (with one silver paper thrown in for good measure) and before I knew it, I had created a rainbow. 

With suggestions from my crafty friends on the call, I added Therm-o-Web Silver and Gold DecoFoil to quite a few of the Pieces (you just place the foil on top of the Alcohol ink and it sticks where the bits of ink are still wet around the edges of pools) and some Alcohol Ink metallic mixatives to others.

 

This week, I decided I wanted to find a way to turn my rainbow of beautiful papers into cards.  I settled on the My Favorite Things Snow Drifts Cover Up Die because it had 8 pieces, which worked perfect for my 8 colors.  I used the Jennifer McGruire trick if using a piece of tape to hold each die together as a removed it, so I could easily remove the pieces I wanted as I assembled each card.

I die cut a 9th time using black card stock, so I could use the black frame to position the pieces on my heavy cardstock white card bases.  I did some facing both directions.

 

I wanted to keep the overall card design fairly simple and mailable, so I started with a single Greenery Die from The Stamp Market cut from heavy white cardstock.

 

I paired with with a simple sentiment flag from Essentials by Ellen Pure Magic.  These will be going out to crafty friends who have been the color in my world during the past few months.

 

I just love how they turned out.  Here are a few more up close.  The finishing touch was adding some clear adhesive dot embellishments.

 

It doesn't matter what order the rainbow is in ... it still makes me smile

 

When was the last time you played with your Alcohol Inks?

Snarky Stampers I is for Ink

I was crowned the Queen of the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers a few weeks ago, so I have the lovely pleasure of guest designing with their I is for Ink Challenge today.

 

I had fun taking the Online Card Class Spring Card Camp with Jennifer and Kristina and learning how to create my own inky striped background using ink blending and tape ... it was so relaxing and fun. 

I paired my stripes with the lovely big bloom from Gina K. Designs STAMPtember set from Simon Says Stamp Amazing Flowers ... I love how the open blooms look with my stripes.

 

I added a Sticker from Tim Holtz Idea-ology Big Talk Snarky Stickers, which is how I feel a lot of days unfortunately ... but I am so grateful for those who do.  I finished with a sprinkling of black bling and multiple mats.

I'm also joining Cute Card Thursday where the theme is Stripes.

 

And at the Inkspirational Challenge it's all about Funny Sentiments ... yep, I'm linking-up there too.