Ingenious Inkling

From Flower Bouquet to Card

At our retreat this weekend, Chris Dayton made us an adorable paper flower bouquet with a die cut sentiment that was *potted* in a collapsible CLIC & GO watercolor cup from Faber Castell (so cute).  She asked that if we dis-assembled, to use the flower to make a card, so that's what I did this morning.

I found one of my Gel Press Prints from the weekend. (with fabulous ThermoWeb iCraft silver foil) that I made during the weekend to use as my background.  I found the flower stamps in The Stamp Market Just Add Flowers.

 

I wasn't sure the source of the leaves, but the sentiment is Simon Says Stamp + CZ Design Just Because die.

I used the layout from Atlantic Cards Sketch to assemble my card.  I attached the alcohol ink panel to a larger white card base to work with the large sentiment.

 

 

I used Taylored Expressions Bits & Pieces Drip Drops for the dot elements on the sketch.  I trimmed the leaves & flower petals where they hang over the edge of the card after everything was attached.  I also used foam tape on some of the smaller flowers & the sentiment for dimension.

 

You Are My Mid-Century Modern Person

I am so grateful to have so many people in my life who could be the recipient of this card. 

 

 

I made it with four different Uniko Stamps to celebrate Uniko's 10th Birthday with an Instagram Shared design.

 

 

I used the colors from The Paper Players Color Challenge to stamp Uniko Mid-Century Modern, Uniko Mid-Century Modern II and Uniko Background Blocks Wonky Stripes and then I die cut them with large & small Hexagon dies.   I positioned it all on a Bermuda Bay card base.

 

 

I stamped the sentiment from Uniko You Are ... Sentiments Outline in black and die cut with a rectangle Nested Notch Die.  I finished with some dots in coordinating colors.

Rainbow Tic Tac Toe

It's a Tic Tac Toe Challenge at The Paper Players.

 

 

I went vertical down the left side with Rainbow, CAS & Birthday.

I die cut The Stamp Market Rainbow Stripes Dies in six colors. 

Next I embossed white cardstock with The Stamp Market Pierced Plaid Cover Plate and then die cut with the largest of The Stamp Market Nested Notched Dies.

 

The sentiment is from The Stamp Market Tons of Type.

Washi Tape Congrats

Do you ever go wandering through your blog searching for inspiration?  That's what I did tonight.  I knew I needed multiple Congratulations cards that I could make fairly quickly.  I was okay if they were similar, but since they were going to members of the same team, I wanted them to be slightly different too.

I chose this washi tape card from June 2013 as my inspiration.

 

 

I set the Congrats stamp from Stamp Market A Few Words in my MISTI and went searching for tape.

I started with a combination of blues ... I love that bit of glitter and the clouds.  Like the inspiration card, I repeated some patterns.  

 

 

Next up were dramatic greys and blacks ... clearly I have a thing for measuring tape.

 

 

Next up are the greens (I realized when I was writing the post that I used some of the same tapes as the inspiration card).

 

 

And last up, a card built around the gorgeous wide Gilded Greenery AltaNew Washi Tape.

 

 

I think I could have kept making these cards all night long.

To Be So Nice

The Less is More Challenge is all about a one-layer card featuring diamonds.

 

 

I used a Diamond Stencil together with the three ink colors from the Just Us Girls Challenge.  I added sentiments from The Stamp Market Simple Sentiments and The Stamp Market You.

 

 

To me these colors also qualify for the Bright, Cheerful Color Challenge at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.

 

WCMD - Warm Analogous Colors

Today I made a card for Cathy Zielske's World Card Making Day Challenge at Scrapbook & Cards Today - to make a card using her Warm Analogous Color Combination.

 

 

I pulled out my watercolors and painted an ombre piece of watercolor paper using this palette.  I did more of a fluid ombre than Cathy's example, but I do want to try the more structured lines of watercolor in the future.  Once my panel had dried, I die cut it with The Stamp Market Modern Motif Die.

 

 

I used the same Red/Orange ombre colors to stamp the bouquet and sentiment from The Stamp Market Just a little Message.  I finished by inserting a few of the diamonds back into the motif and decorating with sequins.  Love those colors.

Pastel Rainbow Oh Happy Day

The current Rainbow Card Challenge is all about a Pastel Rainbow.  Since I've been all about paper scraps lately, I decided to stay on that path.

 

I went through my cardstock scraps and grabbed pastel pieces that were big enough to cut with my 1/2" strips die from The Stamp Market.

 

After I randomly covered my card front with the die cut strips, then I went back and cut the Rainbow Stripes Die from The Stamp Market from the leftover cardstock pieces that were large enough.  I die cut an oval as the background for my rainbow and then cut it in half.  Sentiment is The Stamp Market Tons of Type.

The pastel orange is a big dark, but I just let it be (it's always interesting to me how much more clearly I see design issues after I photograph a card).  It was a fun way to use scraps and use my collection of products from The Stamp Market.

You're the Best!

Today I had fun combining a bunch of sentiments from The Stamp Market to make a set of Congratulations Cards to put in the mail.

I positioned stamps from Mini Messages, A Few Words, Big Botanicals, Tons of Type, Simply Said and You on my MISTI and typed Stamped the sentiments separate pieces of White, Blue and Red Cardstock.

 

 

Then I die cut each piece of card stock using The Stamp Market Color Block 2 Die.  Then I pieced the three colors together on a kraft card base.  

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?

Must Try Mono-Printing - Round 1

Today's Online Card Class Spring Card Camp technique was so fun, I did several rounds (and may do more before I am done).  Here are the two cards I made from my Round 1 results.

Dawn Woleslagle shared a Mono-printing technique using Distress Oxide Inks and the back of a large acrylic background stamp as your printing plate.  Of course, even though I own 5 different brayers, I couldn't find any of them this morning, so I used a sponge dauber to blend my inks.  I used three different Distress Oxides (Broken China, Cracked Pistachio and Peacock Feathers) for my palette and the Leaf Stamp from The Stamp Market Big Botanicals.

 

 

Sentiment is The Stamp Market Tons of Type with a piece of flair and paper flower from my stash and the sketch is from the Paper Craft Crew.

 

For the stamped-off cardstock I kept it simple with a die cut Simple Sentiments Thanks from The Stamp Market and torn cardstock mat.

 

I'll be back later with even more results.