INKspirations!

  Hello!  It’s hotter than blazes outside, so it was the perfect day to sit down and color for awhile. This card is designed from this month’s sketch from Build Your Holiday Stash Challenge#71. The stamp is from Honey Bee Stamps called - St. Nick, and this is a combination of colored pencils, a marker, white acrylic paint and wink of stella. For my card, I turned the sketch vertically.  I used patterned paper from Unity Stamps called - A Dash of Christmas.   The Santa was stamped on a scrap piece of Neenah Desert Storm, and colored with Prisma color pencils.  For the trim, I used a small flat paint brush and acrylic white paint, and dry brushed.  Less paint and a little pouncing give a fuzzy effect.  A little wink of stella was used as an accent, and a dark brown water based marker were used to add a little stipple dots in the fur for shading. Santa was fussy cut and I used the same dark brown marker to color the edge before attaching to the card base....

Hello! I had fun creating this card for you today.   Sometimes the absence of color can be so elegant, that I pulled some different elements together to create this card.   This card is a 5in. x 5in. square card. I used a sheet of specialty vellum paper with snowflakes, as the main background.  I used fine tipped glue to add dots on the back of the velvet snowflakes to adhere to a sheet of white paper with silver dots. The panel was matted with a metallic silver frame. (Recollections) I stacked 3-rounded corner die cuts together in the lower right corner.  I Then layered a small white shimmer snow flake and a medium snowflake from Snowflake Wishes - SU. “Let it Snow” - (Tim Holtz Cozy Christmas) was stamped directly onto the panel in Smokey Slate Ink - (SU). The snow flake was embellished with an opalite gem (SU). This card is for these challenges: Inkspirational #365 - Sketch  Join the Challenge; (HERE) 52 Christmas Card Throwdown - “All White” To join the chal...

 Good Morning! Today’s card is more of a Fresh and Clean design.  The embossing folder is so pretty I never feel the need to add more to it.  💕 This card is for Can You Handle the Pressure?    (LINK HERE) Peace on Earth #104 (LINK HERE) Assembly: This card measures 5 x 7 inches.  I sometimes trim the paper down and adjust where I want to show the embosding, but today I just wanted to show off the full beauty of this evergreen swag.   The embossing folder is is from Spellbinders,  aptly called Floral Holiday Swag.   (SHOP HERE) The pretty oblong cutting die was gifted from my Mom.  I initially watched a Penny Black video showing an embossed card, layered with a frame and a floral tucked in, but I didn’t seem to have the right floral piece.  I guess I’ll just have to go shopping…😆 So, I just decided to simplify my card a bit.  I grabbed an older stamp set from Stampin Up called “Ornamental Pine.” The set has a pine branch, hook...

 Hello!  I am sharing a card from the Spellbinders Mugs and Mittens set for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge,  (SSS Blog Her e.  This card is a side folding A2 card ( 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 in.)  I first decided where I wanted the steam to be and used an embossing mat, with the steam dies to only emboss an impression.  I used a white Gelly Roll pen to highlight the outline. For the SHINE I cut two mugs from red foiled cardstock (Recollections -Michael’s), and two mugs from white cardstock.  The two white pieces were glued together give dimension.  To make the second mug overlap, I assembled the mug with the black coffee circle, and then used the coffee die cut circle to over lap and partially die cut a small crescent shape.  This allowed both mugs to slightly nest together.  For the SPARKLE, I chose the snowflake and the snowman.  Each were cut from white cardstock and then inked in Versamark Ink.  They were heat embossed in Ran...

 Hello!  I needed to make a few more cards to mail out.  Every year we add a few more friends to our list!   It’s always nice to have a great sketch to get the ball rolling with a quick, clean lined card. I need to make about 10 to 15 extra cards, so I wanted a pretty simple card layout.  I remembered the great sketch up at Freshly Made Sketches and went back to their blog for a closer look.   This sketch was just exactly what I needed!  I was able to quickly grab a few supplies to make a master copy.  I will then assembly line the others later tonight.   I used a square cutting die to cut the background mat.  I placed in  Tim Holtz - Sizzix Pine branch embosding folder.   Next, I cut a 2 1/4 inch. circle from Stampin Up Poppy Parade paper, and stamped the sentiment from Simon Says Stamp - Holiday Messages Ornament.   The sentiment was positioned on a stamp platform and heat embossed with white embossing powder.   The...

 Hello there!  Today’s challenge from Split Coast Stampers is “Ways to Use It.”  ( SPS- WT 1077 Link ) We could use a tag or book mark.  I really liked the book mark idea because, these are the perfect gift to give many people in your list such as a neighbor, a groomer, and a teacher, just to name a few.     I occasionally save tutorials and how to’s on Pinterest and looked at a few different ways to make a bookmark card.  I revisited Jennifer McGuire’s video sharing a few ways of creating a card of your own.   Watch Jennifer Mc Guire’s Video Here I chose a the last card demonstrated.  I chose white cardstock, measuring 4 1/4 x 5 1/2, folded with the crease at the top. - I then cut vertically, in half leaving 2 fold-over book marks.   I chose a simple stamp from Unity called Casual Winter Hello (IB-1114).  I stamped in Versa Fine Onyx Black ink and colored with Prisma Color pencils.   To create the background, I used Unity...

 Hello!  I finished watching a great technique video posted by Jennifer Macguire on using small images to pop through a window.   I have a few Lawn Fawn stamps that I have used for book marks, and tags-but, was excited to give new life to my older stash of stamps! Following the video, I began with a card base of canson white 120# cardstock.   I had a precut panel of SU-Poppy parade and die cut with Gina Marie designs cover die.  I centered the panel onto the card base and positioned a stitched oval die from the Lawn Fawn Magic Slider Set, and cut both the card base and poppy layer at the same time.   I used the small oval die, and cut a second oval in SU-Coastal Cabana and glued through the center opening.   The otter was stamped, die cut and popped up using a piece of card-stock measuring 4 inches x 1/2 inch.  Scoring at the recommended 1/2 inch, inch, and 1 1/2 inch mark.  I secured into place using a strong tear tape. To adhere the re...

Greetings!  Today’s card features dots and stripes for the current challenge at  Craft Rocket Challenge # 129 . This card is a side folding card measuring 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches .  Using Stampin Pretty’s card sketch on Pinterest as a starting point,  I began trimming a panel of (SU) Cherry Cobbler cardstock, and gold mirror foil trim ( Recollections- Michael’s.)  A plaid scrap was trimmed in gold and adhered into place. I used the trees from SU-Merry Tree Wreath Set, stamped in (SU) Evening Evergreen, and die cut.  A square die cut the panel behind trimmed in gold.  A gold bow die was used to accent the wreath, and SU- Red Rhinestones were used as the “dots”  Thanks for stopping by! - Valerie Kaye 

 Hello, Today’s card was inspired by a mood board.  As soon as I find the blog, I will add the link.  (my apologies!) From the mood board, I loved the image of the bright red church against the music page.   I started with trimming a sheet of Mixed Media paper down to 4 x 5 1/4.   Next, I stamped the church ( SU- Silent Night 2005 ) in Ranger Archival ink in Sepia.  I used an aqua brush to watercolor the church and surrounding images.  (SU- Real Red, Seaside Spray, Delightful Dijon, Evening Evergreen, Chocolate Chip) The church was cut with an arch die and mounted to the embossed music panel.  (SU- Merry Melody) The panel was added to a Cherry Cobbler (SU) cardstock base.  The banner was stamped from SU- Toile Christmas, water colored with Delightful Dijon (SU). Stickles were added on the roof and trees to add a little shimmer to the snow. Thanks for stopping by!  -Valerie Kaye

  Hello!  I felt like coloring today, and found the cutest digital image.  I was looking for a "Santa on Vacation", and came across  JansDigiStampShop , and came across a Santa sitting under a palm tree and sipping on a drink with an umbrella.  What's even better is that this cute image is currently 50% off!   I thought this would be perfect for my friend who loves all things tropical.  To start the coloring process, I usually add a body color to larger areas with pastel or water color paint, and then use pencils over.  This saves a lot of time and also saves wearing down my beloved Prisma Colors!  I grabbed Stampin up Real red and a watercolor brush and lightly added base color to the hat and coat.  Next, Delightful Daffodil ink was brushed in on the chair, and Certainly celery for the drink.  The sky had a little pool party mixed in, but I wasn't crazy about the brush marks. After the image dried.  I went back over and a...

 Good Morning! I'm making one last card before the family arrives today. 😜 The craft room had to be temporarily picked up to accommodate guests, so I will be missing in action for a few days.  Today's card is part of Try a Sketch on Tuesday's challenge.  ( TSOS #659 ) Today's challenge is based off of this layout to use as a starting point for your card.  I chose a Christmas theme instead of the Fall theme, but kept the design pretty close to the original.  I used Christmas designer paper from Stampin Up and, then die cut a few strips in the center.  I modified the center strip to be a little thinner to allow a little white space to show through.  The square is composed of two dies, the white frame is from Stampin up, and the Joyful word die is from Simon Says Stamps.  A small left over sprig from the Stampin Up Christmas Banners Stamp and Die set was tucked under the corner of the design.   Thanks for stopping by! Supplies Used: Design...