Star inchie

I haven't made an inchie or played with my punches in a while, so I thought I would whip up a quick inchie for the lottery before the year ran out.

 The basic star shape is from a Martha Stewart corner punch my buddy Diane gave me - by sticking it back in upside down, I was able to complete the shape.  the background is black glitter paper, and the silver is paint.  I'm not that thrilled with the silver middle to the star, but the heat is on; I had to submit the inchie photo before the day is out. more glitter with by redundant, I think.  Maybe I will glue some crystals in the middle?

LATER:

Crystals didn't look right to me, but I did have an extra pearl (real freshwater pearl).  I think it looks nice.  It will be considerably harder to mail, though.  If it had a bezel, it could be jewelry!

Challenges:
Fabulous Friday - something new (first time I ever glued a pearl to a paper project!)
Fashionista Friday - scraps (everything in this project is a leftover)
Shelly's images - black, silver, gold, and bling
Creative Card Crew - Christmas lights
Sparkles Forum - anything but a card
Gingersnap Creations - Starry Night

Postage stamp inchies

I needed to make some postage stamp inchies, and I found enough patriotic postage stamps that I decided to use them for my 4th of July inchie mingle, too.  Here are my patriotic ones:

You have to love postage stamps - they are little works of art in themselves.  To make them my art, I just put them on a gold leafed background and added a touch of bling.  The other stamps were harder, because not everything looks good with a star on it.

The stamps are so big that in order to see any background, I had to offset them.  I thought adding an alpha gave them some cohesiveness.  Finally, I had one stamp left.  This inchie is for a special friend:

Challenges:
Fairy Knoll - sparkle
Fairy Tale - America
Off the Wall - red, white, and blue
Stamp Something - red, white, and blue
Craft Us Crazy - red, white, and blue
Paper Play - stars and stripes
Stamp Insanity - stars and stripes
Divas by Design - anything but a card

Airplane inchies

One of my girlfriends reminded me that it was almost the end of the month - did I remember that there were mingles due?  One of the mingles was travel themed, and since I had already made metallic cardstock, and had my punches handy (including my my loved but rarely used airplane punch.  Why do I love it?  Because I used to be an air traffic controller.  Why don't I use it?  Because I don't think anyone but me would appreciate a tiny little airplane on their card) , and my desk was a total mess, I thought I would make airplane inchies.  The messy desk is relevant because near my elbow was this lovely scrap of rainbow brayered cardstock which was begging to be used as a background.

I liked them, but I didn't know if anyone else would.  So I did the test - how would they look on a card?

I like them on a card, very much.  Maybe I will send the completed card, and not just inchies.  Note:  metallic doesn't scan well.  Very shiny in real life, though - just see my previous post.

Challenges:
Bloggers Challenge - things with wings
Fun with Shapes and More - lilac and pink
Poodles Parlor - come fly with me
Simply Create - fly with us
4 Crafty Chicks - clean and simple
Shopping our stash - neglected tool
The Sketch File - sketch
The Cheerful Stamp Pad - things with wings
Pollycraft - travel

Sparkly flower inchies

What makes a good inchie? Some people hand draw them, which is inherently desirable, and some collage them with many layers. Mine feature backgrounds punched out of old Christmas cards, sequins, bling, and stickles.

They were not hard to compose, but they are very sparkly!

Challenges:
Kenny K Krafty Girlz - flowers
Cupcake inspirations - inspiration
Challenge up your life - recycling
Crafty Catz - pink and green
Fun with Shapes - sparkle

Patriotic

My mother has been visiting me, so I haven't been online like I usually6 am, but I have been crafting.  Yesterday, we went to Michaels because neither of us has enough crafting supplies (that's a joke - ha ha), and we ran into a friend of mine who wants to swap inchies on Tuesday.  Obviously, we have to make inchies in order to swap them!

Here is a set of patriotic inchies that i whipped up from scraps on my desk.  the stripes are red and white paper strips cut and pieced together, and the star is a large gold brad.  These were fun to make!

While I was working, I noticed an image of cowboy boots left over from a project I did yesterday, so I made an ATC to go with.

There is gold embossing between the stripes, and the word is made with my label maker.  I heard a certain song (can you guess it?) on the radio this morning, and it has been stuck in my head all day.  It's that time of year!

Challenges:
Sentimental Sundays - anything but a card
Fairy Knoll - Memorial Day
Just Add Ink - fussy cutting
Little Miss Muffet - metal embellishments
Stamp Insanity - red white and blue
GingerSnap Creations - cowboys

Happy Memorial Day!  Go decorate a grave!

Dad inchies

I'm still playing with my Melody Ross Chip Art tools - today I thought I would try inchies.  I didn't have square inch chipboard, so I used the next best thing - a double thickness of cereal box cardboard.  Just glue the coated sides together, and it will pass for chipboard in almost every way except edge on.

I used a slightly different coloring technique with these.  I painted them with espresso paint thinned a little with pink to lighten it and add texture.  I then inked in the embossed letters with an ink pen, then washed over it with an aquabrush to soften the ink and make it look more like tarnish.  It looks a lot like old metal in real life.

I still can't seem to get my letters straight, but I think it adds to the charm.  These are for a mingle, but I would do this again to make embellishments.

Rabbits and rinchies

I know a lady who wanted 60 cards, 60 ATCs, and 60 inchies, all with rabbits on them, for her April birthday.  She got the large cards, not problem, and most of the ATCs, but hardly anyone she knows does inchies, so I decided to whip some up for her today.  While I was at it, I made some rinchies (round inchies) too.

The round inchies are for the April lottery at inchies_onexone.  Inchies are so small, it is hard to compose something that is even smaller.  The ATC has an Easter image on it, I know, but I just liked it.  It had a nice stained glass look that appealed to me.  Some of these are pretty simple, but the iridescent paper from Papertemptress really elevates them.

So, to the challenges:
Card Creations and more - not a card or layout
Stamping Vacation - April
Wags and Whiskers - use a punch (every circle and square is punched)
Art Impressions - use an animal
Amber's Crafts and Stuff - use a digi (all the rabbits are digis)
Tip Top Tuesday - Squares


Thanks for looking!

inchies for Mom

The one of the themes this month at Inchies_onexone is Mother. I had to choose between normal and realistic, or at least between what I think is expected for this swap and what is really representative of my mother.

This is what I think people would like to receive:

The paper is Poison Ivory Iridescent from PaperTemptress, lightly burnished with distress inks.  I no longer remember where I downloaded the images.  Of course, bling is essential on a one layer inchie.

I assure you, my mother would hate these.  She might even stick her finger down her throat.

As it happens, today I got an amazing treat in the mail.  Becky Partan of My Paper Moon gifted me a bunch of small stamps - ATC and inchie size - and as I spread them over my table to admire and sort this bounty of over 70 (!!!!) stamps, I noticed that there were stamps for the four card suits.  If you know my mother, you know she loves to play cards, so I immediately went down and made these inchies.

The backgrounds are made by by laying 1/8 inch strips of red and black cardstock on sticky paper and pouring white embossing powder in the spaces between, like grout.  You can see that I got a few stray flecks of EP.  The images stamped very crisply, but blurred a little when I poured UTEE (why UTEE?  I just like the texture) over them (you can emboss over distress ink).  These inchies are made entirely from scraps, which my mother would admire greatly.

So now I have two different sets of Mom inchies - which do you think I should swap?

Oh, can't forget the challenges!
Clear It Out - quilt your scraps
Creative Craft Challenges - embossing
Going Grey with Scrap-Creations - digital
Simon Says Stamp - embossing
Truly Scrumptious - vintage
Lexi's Creations - anything but a card
Our Daily Bread - no coloring

Creepy dogs are creepy

I'm always scrambling at the end of the month to finish my inchies for the mingles and lottery.  The theme for this month's lottery at inchies_onexone is dogs - I don't even like dogs.  It has been really hard for me to focus on making something for a theme that I don't like.

However, this morning, I came across these dogs by Casey Weldon, and I felt that they were inchie-worthy.

 

The background is made from a clothing hang tag. (can you make out "Mossimo" on the one on the right?  You can guess where I shop).

I also needed some spring inchies, when I came across a small baggies of inchies I had made for a quilt block inchie swap and promptly lost, requiring me to make a whole different set for that swap.  I like the colors for spring, so if I can keep from losing them, I will submit them for the Spring mingle.

The faux stitching is done with a gel pen.

Challenges:
Stamping Vacation - squares and circles together (top set)
Your Next Stamp Challenge - stitching (bottom set)
Tuesday Throwdown - florals (bottom set)
Kreative Stempelfreunde - Spring(bottom set)
Paper Playtime - anything goes
There She Goes - no markers
Pile It On - cute (top set)
Stampin Sisters in X - paper piecing (bottom set)
Little Claires - pink and green (bottom set)
Card Makin Mamas - animals (top set)

egg inchies

These cute eggs are by McMahon Five Designs.  I did some digital stuff and there is a touch of glitter on them, but anything else would have been too much, I think.

Challenges:
Raise the Bar - picture inspiration
AIFactory - things with wings
Meljens - dots
Cooking it up with Kate - cute, green, Easter
Simply create - monchromatic (well, they are, separately)
By the Cute and Girly - Springtime
Cheerful Stamp Pad - Spring

Inchies, pink and green

It's that time of the month when the deadline for the inchies approaches.  I have two inchie mingles this month - St. Patricks Day and Pink Ribbons.


Before I show you my inchies, I want to remind everyone that I make inchies that I would like to receive.  Since I like to use my inchies as card candy, I tend to make simpler designs than some people, but when I make them, I can can very readily see them as part of a larger project.  I also make the design elements readily visible to the naked eye - I have received inchies that needed a magnifying glass to make out what was on them.

Before I made these, I tried some other things.  I tried weaving pink ribbon.  I tried using pink ribbon on plastic canvas as a needlepoint medium.  I tried the traditional loop on various colored backgrounds, and finally, this is what I liked well enough to swap.  There is an iridescent seed bead in the middle of each of those blue flower sequins holding the paper flower and pink ribbon to the black background.  I think these would look great on a card, next to a sentiment stamped in black.

Diane sent me some interesting paper finishes a while back.  This finish gives a very stone-like feel and texture, which made me think of the Blarney Stone.  I freehand cut little shamrock leaves out of some silk flower leaves I had in my stash.  They are a little irregular, but these inchies have a very interesting feel to them.  

Challenges:
Fairy Knoll - green
Mami Doodles - monochromatic green/irish
Pattie's Creations - make an embellishment
Res-Q Challenge - square
Stamp Something - flowers
Stampin for the weekend - monochrome
The Cheerful Stamp Pad - anything but a card

Crepe paper inchies

I needed to make some heart inchies for a mingle, so when I saw these cute cupcakes at Designed2Delight, I knew they would be perfect!

The frosting is done with liquid applique, and the rest of the image is colored with markers.  I wanted an interesting background, but nothing that would overpower the tiny images.  I noticed a roll of pink crepe paper sitting on my desk - I glued it onto cardstock for strength, and when it draied, I layered the cupcakes on top.

The next inchies I needed to make needed to have text on them.  I have an old bible that is falling apart that I sometimes use - I thought I would cut squares out of it and layer little doves on top.  However, I couldn't find it anywhere, so I started looking for other ideas.  

 

The text here is from the obituary section of the newspaper - the print is very small!  I sponged a little distress ink on the text to soften it.  I decided to go with dragonflies instead of doves.  These were punched from scraps of the crepe paper I used for cupcake backgrounds, and the bodies were colored with marker.   

Challenges:

Cheerful Stamp Pad - relax ("eternal rest" is as relaxed as you can get!)

Tuesday Throwdown - valentine

Aly's Sunday Challenge - things with wings

Scrappy Frogs - cupcakes

Crafty Emma - no designer papers

Our Daily Bread Designs - wing it

Crowns

One of the things I told myself I would do this year is be more active in swapping inchies.  I prefer mingles to regular swaps in that with a swap, you get a wide variety of inchies from all different people, and with a mingle, you get a set from one person.  Since I am likely to use inchies on a card, I prefer to get sets.

I got these crowns from the Graphics Fairy, and I used packing tape transfers to apply them to these painted backgrounds.  I set them at an angle because sometimes that's what I want to receive - inchies set at an angle.  I hope whoever receives them appreciates them as I would.

black, white, and red

The Inchie INKlings blog had it's first new post in months, and featured cards that white black, white, and turquiose.  It then offered a challenge to make an inchie that was black, white, and one other color.  Since I had Valentines on the brain, I decided to go with a heart.

It would have been the easiest thing in the world to stamp black ink on a white inchie base and stick on a diecut heart, but when you are working on such a small scale, the details really matter.  I doodled the background on some glossy paper with the thought that I could glue it around the base and the doodles would show on the sides (they do!), but the glossy paper warps and smears very easily, so I used some laminate scraps my sister brought me from her work (too small for professional use, but plenty big for ATCs and inchies) to adhere the background to the base.  It has a great gloss finish!  I had some hearts ready to go, but I thought a handcut heart would look better on the background.I had some glitter foam that was perfect for the job.

The end result is  deeply dimensional, sparkly, and definitely one of a kind.  Not bad for a tiny one inch square!

Challenges (besides the Inchie Inkling one):
I Did It - fav technique (doodling)
Pile It On - new crafting supplies (laminate)
Stamp Something - glitter
Stampavie - red

black and white inchies

When I saw this EK Success Alpine punch, I didn't know when I would ever use it, but it is perfectly sized for inchies.  I used scraps of Cryogen White iridescent from the Paper Temptress, and layered it on black cardstock.  The stars are done white a white Milky Gel pen, and a Stardust gel pen.  It's just a little bit of sparkle.

Challenges:
Connie and Mary - Let it snow
Meljens - cold and snowy
Stampinsanity -Sparkle

inchies for the holidays

One of the things that is so great about inchies is that you can make them out of what would be scraps otherwise.  When I was printing large poinsettias for the large card I made a few days ago, I had extra white space, so I filled it with tiny poinsettias to use as inchies.  Similarly, I was painting some cardstock for a different project, and I had enough left over for these snowflake inchies.

By themselves they are very simple, but they are lovely embellishments for a card.  Anywhere you might put a button or flower on a card, you could probably put an inchie.  It remains to be seen whether I will keep and use these, or swap them.  Either way I will have fun little bits to play with!

My own sketch challenge

I am now hosting a sketch challenge on the inchies_onexone group, a sketch for a regular sized card, embellished with an inchie.  The twist is that the inchie has to be made by someone else, ideally one that was received in a swap.  The first one is a simple one, only using one inchie.

The sentiment is from a TAC set, and the leaves are from an old retired SU set I haven't used in ages - I remembered I had them when I was contemplating the Autumn Leaves challenge at the Cheerful Stamp Pad - it's fairly new challenge site with awesome sponsors, so there is a really good chance of snagging a terrific prize!  The prize for this challenge is luster paper from the Paper Temptress, which is my very favorite paper of all time!  In fact, I used it for the background - it is laser silver lustre paper, but I burnished it with mustard, marmalade, and mahogany inks, then used those same colors to stamp the leaves - it fairly glows IRL, I wish the scan picked it up!

The inchie is a little watercolor landscape by Debbie House - I have several of that set of watercolors, and it was hard to pick just one for the card! I don't know if I will be able to part with it.  I may have to replace it with one of the animal inchies I've been making before I mail it away to anyone.

Inchies to long cards

Cathe Holden had some incredible vintage animals available on her blog that I thought would be perfect for inchies, so I converted them to black and white images and printed out a full sheet of them.  A full sheet is an awful lot of inchies (over 50!), so I had plenty to spare, so I decided that I could use some of them on an ATC.  after I put them on an ATC, I decided that I didn't really like the ATC by itself as much as I would like it as a focal point on a card, so eventually I ended up with this:

I like to make long cards, 8 1/2 by 3 3/4 inchies, because I like to mail ATCs in them.  It's important to me when I make these long cards that they aren't too thick by themselves, because they are containing a lot of thickness in the ATCs.  Anyway, whoever gets this card either will have a nice long card, an ATC, or six inchies.  This card has two TJ techniques on it - Pencil Highlights (on the inchies - click to see full size), and Faux Stitching on the background paper.  While I was at it, I put together a second one.

Inchies make such fun embellishments!

Challenges covered:
Paper Sundaes - masculine
Stacey - pumpkin, mustard, paprika, vanilla (those aren't SU names, but...)
The Stamp Man - masculine
Sassy Studio - Autumn
Fab n Funky - clean and simple
Creative Card Crew - punches (I punch my inchies with a square punch)

Now, to mail out some ATCs...

Halloween inchies

I can't believe I forgot to post this!

I had to make a dozen halloween inchies for a swap, and I had a hard time getting started.  However, once I sat down and started working, they just started flowing.  A couple of them use shaped sequins (they look terrible in scans), some use punches, and some shapes I hand-cut.  I used various scraps of technique backgrounds and fragments of stamped images, and even a little masking. Finally, I did a bit of doodling, and the stuff I drew myself happens to be the stuff I like best.

Yes, there are more than a dozen here, and some are duplicates, but some I wanted to keep to remember what I had and could do.  The sequins are really too small to use on larger projects, but they are so perfect for inchies!

I hit a lot of challenges with these inchies:
Crafty Pad - (faux) stitching
Cowgirls - Bling (sequins are bling, right?)
Creative Inspirations Paint - pumpkin patch
Aly's Sunday challenge - distressing
Paper Players - anything goes
Alice in Wonderland - Halloween
Secret Crafter - Things that fly
Totally Gorjuss - Halloween
Crafty Catz - Halloween
Daring cardmakers - Halloween
Mami Doodles - anything but a card
Totally Papercrafts - Bling
AiFactory - Halloween
Delightful Sketches - circles (the little moons)

4 Seasons inchies

It funny where you can find inspiration.  I needed to make a set of inchies representing the four seasons, but I just wasn't feeling it.  Then Shelly of the many challenges pointed me to to Cowgirl's, which had a weird sort of challenge - 3 designer papers and three different flowers.  Could I combine the two?

Well, I definitely got the three papers in there, and maybe a leaf will count as a very freely interpreted flower.  I have three trees, too, that should count for something.  These are all pretty sparkly, too - there is glitter pen on both of the inchies on the left, although the scan doesn't show the sparkle.