Welcome! At Inspired By, we believe creativity can spark from the simplest things—a cozy photo, a fun sketch, or a seasonal theme. Each week we share a fresh inspiration image and a coordinating sketch to get your ideas flowing. Whether you’re into cardmaking, scrapbooking, mixed media, or any type of project, you’re invited to interpret the challenge your way. There’s no right or wrong—just inspiration and creativity. We can’t wait to see what you create!

Current Challenge

recent posts

  • There’s Snow Place I’d Rather Be

    Hello everyone.  Von Marie @vonmariedesign here taking over the blog today and I’m so happy you are here.  Our challenge this week is Snowman Party and we have a fun sketch too.

    Well let’s get started:

    Well first, I was inspired by the cute snowman theme, blues, bright pink, and bright orange colors in the photo.  I love the card sketch for this week too.  It reminds me of a poloroid photo.  

    I used a Sizzix Tim Holtz die set Chilly & Freezy that I had got from Simon Says Stamp.  I think at the time it was a free die set promotion and frankly not available anymore but I did find a similar set for you Winter Wishes.  I cut out my snowmen with white cardstock and the shadow layer with tan cardstock. I also cut out the scarves and ear muffs with white yardstick and used Copic Markers to color them in like the photo colors.  I colored some white cardstick with a black marker for the button and eyes and sandwiched it in between my snowmen before I glued them together with liquid glue.

    The arm branches are cut out with brown cardstock and the carrot noses were cut out in white cardstock and Copic colored with an orange marker.  I cut out the heart too from the die set and colored that with a pink marker to match.  The pattern paper is from my stash and it’s from Lawn Fawn Stripes and Sprinkles 6×6 Paper Pad.  I cut the papers with my paper trimmer. I then glued everything to a white yardstick panel A2 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 and then everything to a A2 coordinating card base.  I stamped a sentiment from Pink & Main Hello Winter stamp set with black Versafine ink on white cardstick.  I cut my sentiment and glued it to my card.  Voila and my card is finished.

    I hope you enjoyed my post today, affiliate links may have been added at no extra charge to you.

    You still have time to join us I would love to see how you are inspired.  Here’s how to join us link your card to our linky and you can tag us on instagram too.  

    Hugs Von Marie

  • Warm Greetings

    It’s a Snowman Party this week on the Inspired By challenge. I love the colors in the photo, so I took my inspiration from the colors and snowman. I also followed the sketch for a simple design with a pop of color from the patterned paper background.

    I love the cute snowmen and penguins in this older stamp set from My Favorite Things called Toasty Greetings. The patterned paper background is also MFT Stamps. It is sad that this company is no longer doing business. I’m certain that most of my favorite stamp sets and dies are from MFT. They always had great sales and I took advantage of them frequently.

    A quick internet search showed me that you can still find some online shops that have a stock of MFT products. I also found this set available on ebay.

    To finish my card, I cut glittery snowflakes with dies from a Sunny Studio Stamps set called Layered Snowflake Frame. The “Warm” word die is Spellbinders, and the “greetings” word die is Paper Smooches.

    I wanted this to be a winter card instead of a Christmas card since I have a few people I wasn’t able to send Christmas cards to.

    Are you still making Christmas/winter cards before moving on to Valentine cards? We would love to see your snowman creations, or perhaps you are more inspired by the colors or sketch. It’s always fun to see how someone else is inspired to use their stash. Simply link your creation (doesn’t have to be a card) by the end of the day on Wednesday (Pacific Time). If you post on Instagram, make sure to use #inspired_by_challenge at the end of your post.

    Stay toasty friends!
    MarDi

  • Winner… Inspired By New Years

    Not as many cards in the gallery which I assume most of you were enjoying the holiday time with families! We had a nice New Years here staying in and playing games with our family.

    LeAnne Pugliese

    Such a wonderful card with so many details to look at. From embossing to sequins to die cuts it is so fun. Love the glittery balloons!

    Don’t forget to play along this week!

  • Snowman Party with Cathy

    Just a quick little snowman card to share with you. I adore how this little guy turned out. The colors of this Echo Park Collection, Winter Fun, were just perfect for this challenge. You can find the cut file with this link. https://www.silhouettedesignstore.com/snowman-card-219575.html

    Cathy

  • Hello… Inspired By Snowmen Party

    Hey everyone, Laurel here. I love winter and of course along with that comes snow and snowmen. I wish we got more where we live so that we could build snowmen that actually stayed around for awhile. I was inspired by the snowmen and the sketch for my card. I used a cute clip art image, you can check it out HERE.

    Thanks for stopping by and I can’t wait to see how you are inspired.

  • Inspired By… Snowman Party

    Happy New Year! Did you have fun celebrating or were you in bed by midnight?

    This week’s Inspired By Challenge is a flurry of fun and frosty delight! ⛄❄️ With pastel blues, smiling snowmen, and whimsical party details, this winter celebration is bursting with charm. Will it be the playful color palette, the layered paper trees, or those adorable frosted faces that spark your creativity? Let the image and sketch guide your project—and don’t forget to tag us when you share your snowman-inspired masterpiece!

    For those of you who are new to our challenge, every week we post our inspiration photo challenge and sketch and hope that you will join us by creating a project for our challenge.

    Just a reminder, an inspiration photo is exactly that- a starting point for inspiration. Will it be the colors, the overall theme, the texture, the actual items and/or something else that will inspire your card?

    How are you inspired? Create a project and in your post, let us know what inspired you from the photo, and don’t forget to display our inspiration photo and link back to our challenge 😊

    Now for our Design Team’s inspiration:

    Von Marie

    MarDi

    Laurel Seabook

    Cathy Harper

    Amy Tsuruta

    Now it is your turn!

    You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

    Click here to enter
    https://fresh.inlinkz.com/js/widget/load.js?id=c0efdbe6b4add43dd7ef

  • Winner… Inspired By Gingerbread

    I hope everyone had a great Christmas! Did you enjoy time with family? Travel somewhere? Stay home? We stayed here. My daughter had Christmas morning at her place and we had everyone here for Christmas dinner. I got several crafty items as gifts so that of course was exciting!

    Lots of yummy creations in the gallery last week! I love all gingerbread but lately I have been drawn to the hard gingersnaps…. to dunk in tea of course 😉

    Mary Reiner

    I love how she has her card shaped like a cookie tray and of course those cookies look fabulous! Congratulations Mary!

    Now don’t forget to play along this week

  • Winner of Inspired By Bright Christmas

    It was so fun to see so many non traditional coloured Christmas cards in the gallery last week! Curious if your home decor for Christmas is traditional or non?

    SmilynStef

    I just kept being drawn to these bright colors and those happy faces!

    Congratulations Stephanie!

    Don’t forget to play along this week

  • Sweet Gingerbread with Von Marie

    DT Von Marie was inspired by the theme and sketch to create two cute gingerbread themed cards. Who doesn’t love a gingerbread background paper?!

    We would love to see how you are inspired!

  • Sprinkled With Joy – Shilo Miles

    DT Shilo Miles was Inspired by the Gingerbread and created a fun interactive card – the oven door opens! How clever is that?

    We would love to see how you are inspired!


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