Inspired By #54 with Jennifer Kinney

Hello and welcome to Inspired By All The Little Things! 
This is a weekly inspiration challenge blog and each week we 
feature a wonderful designer who inspires us as an artist!

This week I have invited...

Jennifer Kinney of Maple Street Menagerie

Jennifer and I have been online crafty friends for over five years now!

I can thank her for the stamp organizing system I use and I just love her crafty style.

Jennifer also just renovated her craft space and posted wonderful photos of it 

on her blog -- you'll want to check it out!

I asked Jennifer to share a bit about herself...

1. What is the name of your blog? When and why did you start it?

My blog is named Maple Street Menagerie because I live on Maple Street 

and I liked the alliteration of it. 

I just looked it up and it seems my first post was way back on January 7, 2010. I

 started it as a way to enter challenges and share my creations with my crafty friends.

2. What is your style of card making?

I really gravitate toward clean, simple and graphical. 
I start to panic and second guess myself when I start putting on layers and 
the white space starts to disappear. 

3. Who inspires you as a designer?

Betsy Veldman for how she puts together colors and overall card design, 

Nichol Spohr for her fun scenes, and Laura Bassen and 

Cristina Kowalczyk for their clean and simple designs.

4. What sort of things inspire you as a card maker? 
Photos? Sketches? Other designers?

I have a rather large Pinterest board of cards that have caught my eye. 

Sometimes it’s a technique, a layout, a color scheme, or a theme. 

I also find it helpful when my mojo is lacking to grab a sketch or other inspiration 

piece and just start with that and see where it takes me.

  

5. Share something about yourself that we may not know?

Way back in high school my mom would pack my lunch. 

One day she forgot to include a spoon with my little container of applesauce. 

But, being the resourceful girl I am, I used my Fritos to scoop up the applesauce. 

To this day I love dipping Fritos in applesauce – it’s just the perfect combination of sweet + salty!

Here is Jennifer's card using this week's inspiration:

The challenge designers have also created a card for this week's inspiration! 

These ladies just inspire me SO much!!! I hope you will play along with us this week! 

We would love to have you join us!

Kimberly Lackenbach

Kim's Cards & Crafts

LauraJane 

After Hours Ink & Flowers

Marcie Sharp
 Sharp Designs

Sheri Gilson

 Paper Crafty's Creations

Silke Ledlow

 My Life

Wanda Cullen

  Cullen-ary Creations

And lastly, here's the card that I made using

the inspiration photo:

We hope you will play along with us!

The linky will close on Friday, May 5, 2017 at 11:55am. (PST)

Some simple rules to keep things organized and enjoyable:

• Please use the graphic for your post and link back to this post.
• Any posts that are offensive will be removed.
• Please comment on the submissions of others...we all love the support!
• Yes you can combine with other challenges but NOT other inspiration challenges please.
• Have fun and challenge yourself!

Inspiring Standouts for Challenge #53

Thank you all so much for joining us this week for the Inspired by Challenge #53.  We loved seeing how you were inspired in all of your creative projects. These are the submissions that have earned a special Inspiring Stand Out this week. Please go ahead and display the badge on your blog.

A special thank you to Maria Peters for being our Creative Guest this week! 

These are the submissions that have earned a special Inspiring Stand Out badge this week. Please go ahead and display the badge on your blog!

Maria was torn and she selected two favourites this week...

#1 ElizStewart {Paper Sweetness}

 

This card is so wonderful feminine, elegant and beautiful. Love the shimmer and glimmer and the great Sentiment too! The design is simply awesome.

...and Maria's second pick

#4 Ardyth {Maskerade}

This card catched my eyes at first sight! I love this Stamp Set and Ardyth used it in a new way. Love her amazing design and coloring.

Tracey's pick is Ma-Mi {Rilček and beak}

The moment I saw this beautiful design I saw how Ma-Mi was inspired by the photo, picking up the lovely soft pastels and the gentle emotions the inspiration evoked!


Congratulations ladies and make sure you grab your badge.

Thank you so much Maria for joining me as my guest this challenge. 

Join us again in one hour for challenge #54!

Inspried By All the Little Things #53 featuring Maria Peters

Hello Tracey here today and welcome to Inspired By All The Little Things! This is a weekly inspiration challenge blog and each week we feature a wonderful designer who inspires us as an artist!

This week I have invited...

Maria Peters

https://www.instagram.com/a_country_home/

I asked Maria to share a bit about herself...

 Hello everyone, my name is Maria. I’m 48 years old, based in Hamburg, Germany where I live with my husband and my 12-years-old son. I have a stressful, full time job and cardmaking is my personal art therapy. I love this awesome hobby. I’m so thrilled to be a guest at inspiredbyallthelittletings.blogspot.com today. Thank you so much for the invitation, Tracey!

ETA: I have been a huge fan of Maria since she started her Instagram account, her talents in colouring and building scenes are simply amazing. I am so thrilled that she is my guest this week!

1.What is the name of your blog? When and why did you start it?

Unfortunately I haven’t a blog, but I share my cards on Instagram since December 2015 

 https://www.instagram.com/a_country_home/

2. What is your style of card making?

I love to create scenes and normally I preferred colorful cards. And I love to work with watercolors, they are my favorite medium.

3. Who inspires you as a designer?

A good source for inspiration is Pinterest. And some of my favorite Cardmakers inspired me.  But the best ideas I have always when I’m in the garden.

4. What sort of things inspire you as a card maker? Photos? Sketches? Other designers?

I think, I was inspired by many things. My home, the nature, other Cardmakers, Photos, Books and so on. Inspiration is everywhere.

5. Share something about yourself that we may not know?

I’m rather a shy person especially when I meet new people. And my English is very improvable… 😊

Wish you all a great day!

Here are a couple shots of Maria`s card using this week's inspiration!

The challenge designers have also created a card for this week's inspiration! These ladies just inspire me SO much!!! I hope you will play along with us this week! We would love to have you join us!

Kimberly Lackenbach

Kim's Cards & Crafts

sitting out this challenge

LauraJane 

After Hours Ink & Flowers

Leigh Penner 

To The Full  

Marcie Sharp
 Sharp Designs

Sheri Gilson

 Paper Crafty's Creations

Silke Ledlow

 My Life

Wanda Cullen

  Cullen-ary Creations

...and of course one more card from me!

Tracey McNeely 

We hope you will play along with us!

The linky will close on Friday, April 28th at 11:55am. (PST)

Some simple rules to keep things organized and enjoyable:

• Please use the graphic for your post and link back to this post.
• Any posts that are offensive will be removed.
• Please comment on the submissions of others...we all love the support!
• Yes you can combine with other challenges but NOT other inspiration challenges please.
• Have fun and challenge yourself!

An InLinkz Link-up

Inspiring Stand Outs for Challenge #52

Well, a big thank you to all of you who played along with our rainy New York photo this week!  Even though the stripes were a big theme (how could they not be?!), the ways you were inspired were so varied - the umbrella, the boots, the taxi, the rose hue from the street lights, the skyline... it made for a wonderful week of visiting your blogs and reading your thoughts.

Renee and I have chosen our Inspiring Stand Outs for this week - winners please feel free to grab our badge and post it on your blogs.

 For her Stand-Out, Renee has chosen:

#15 Michele - at I Card Everyone!

"Michele picked up on the stripes in such a cute way, and totally captured the "chic" factor of the photo!"

For her Stand-Out, Karen has chosen:

#20 Cornelia!

"Such a unique card, perfectly capturing the stripes, the black of the umbrella, and the pink splatters remind me of rain!  Great card, Cornelia!"

Congratulations ladies!  Thank you for playing!  And a big thank you to Renee Matarese for being my wonderful Guest Designer this week.  A new challenge will be up on the blog in an hour - we hope you'll join us!

Inspired By All The Little Things #52 featuring Renee Matarese

Hello and welcome to Inspired By All The Little Things! This is a weekly inspiration challenge blog and each week we feature a wonderful designer who inspires us as an artist!

It's Karen with you today, and this week I have invited a long-time design teammate of mine who has a real flair for doing unique cards:

Renee Matarese

I asked Renee to share a bit about herself...

1. What is the name of your blog? When and why did you start it?

The name of my blog is Renlymat’s World.  The name is a melding of my full name...Renee Lyn Matarese.  I started my blog originally just for me.My first post went live 2-11-08 so I just celebrated my 9 yr. anniversary! I had a hard time parting with my cards at first.  They were such a labor of love. 

I started my blog so that I could always remember each card that I made.  From there I started entering challenges and sharing my cards online elsewhere which led to me joining several design teams over the last 10 yrs.

2. What is your style of card making?

I don’t know that I really have a specific style.  My favorites types of cards to make are masculine, funny and shabby chic cards!

3. Who inspires you as a designer?

I don’t think there’s really one particular designer I follow.  I get a lot of ideas from Pinterest.  When I need some coloring inspiration I always look to Sandy Allnock.

4. What sort of things inspire you as a card maker? Photos? Sketches? Other designers?

I’m definitely inspired by sketches.  Coming up with new layouts is a weakness of mine.  I can find inspiration anywhere...I may be at Target and see a cool color combo or pattern on a throw pillow.  I may drive by an old barn and love the shabby look of it.  You just never know!

  

5. Share something about yourself that we may not know?

One thing most people don’t know is that I’m an accomplished self taught cook.  Neither my grandmother nor my mother cooked.  I ate a lot of frozen Salisbury Steak and boxed Hamburger Helper as a kid, lol!  As an adult it became an interest of mine.  For as long as I can remember I’ve watched cooking shows and read articles religiously trying to learn and become a better cook.  My kids want me to go on Chopped and are always asking me...”Do you think you could Beat Bobby Flay?”  The answer to both of those is a big fat NO!

Here is Renee's card using this week's inspiration!

The challenge designers have also created a card for this week's inspiration! Be sure to visit their blogs for all the details! I hope you will play along with us this week, we would love to have you join us!

Kimberly Lackenbach

Kim's Cards & Crafts

LauraJane 

After Hours Ink & Flowers

Leigh Penner 

To The Full  

Marcie Sharp
 Sharp Designs

Sheri Gilson

 Paper Crafty's Creations

Silke Ledlow

 My Life

Wanda Cullen

  Cullen-ary Creations

And one from me - Karen Day

Karen's Creations

We hope you will play along with us!

The linky will close on Friday, April 21st at 11:55am. (PST)

Some simple rules to keep things organized and enjoyable:

• Please use the graphic for your post and link back to this post.
• Any posts that are offensive will be removed.
• Please comment on the submissions of others...we all love the support!
• Yes you can combine with other challenges but NOT other inspiration challenges please.
• Have fun and challenge yourself!

Inspiring Stand Outs Challenge #51

Thank you all so much for joining us this week for the Inspired by Challenge #51.  We loved seeing how you were inspired in all of your creative projects. 

A special thank you to Lisa Lara for being our Creative Guest this week! 

Both Lisa and I have chosen our stand outs!

These are the submissions that have earned a special Inspiring Stand Out badge this week. Please go ahead and display the badge on your blog!

Lisa's Choice

Stephanie

"I chose this adorable card by Stephanie Severin because I was just smitten with Stephanie's punch art chicks in the die cut nest"

Karren's Choice

Sandy

"I was so impressed with how Sandy took the inspiration photo and made it work with her supplies.  Not having any chicks to put on her cupcake, she used 3 yellow flowers instead."

Congratulations ladies and thank you to everyone who played along with us this week! We will be back in one hour with a brand new challenge!  

The next challenge goes live at 5:00 am PST.