INSPIRATION STATION - #77

Welcome back to another challenge at Inspiration Station.  I adore Autumn as it's my favourite season and I just got so excited when I saw our image as inspiration this month.  Am I allowed to say I absolutely loved how my card turned out?

I created the background with Distress Inks in Rusty Hinge, Evergreen Bough and Scattered Straw on watercolour paper.  I created an horizon line with a felt marker and stamped the trees from Tracy Evans new set On the Wild Side.  I created a type of water image underneath them using a touch of black soot over the orange colours.  I stamped a faint image of the trees as a reflection.  The large Autumn sentiment is an old one of Tracy's and the words are from Alison Bomber. 

MOVING ALONG WITH THE TIMES CHALLENGE BLOG DESIGN TEAM MEMBER

I'm delighted to be on another Challenge Blog as Design Team Member under the brilliant supervision of Helen Nile - welcome to Moving Along with the Times which Helen has recently taken charge of.  Our theme for this month of September is Butterflies and/or Dragonflies.  

My Tag started off on the gel press with a print taken from a fern taken from my garden.  I used Tim Holtz Distress Paint on the press to get a faint impression. I then added extra stamping in the background.  The butterflies are all from Tim Holtz Scribbly Butterflies dies which were cut from another gel press playtime using Tim Holtz inks.

I added various stamping and ephemera and added some to some linen which was affixed with some brass brads - remember those?  I finished off the tag by scribbling around the edge as I can't sew.

I'm adding this into the following:

Tag Along - things with wings 

Dragonfly Dreams - Lots of Layers 

LOVE TO CRAFT - ANYTHING GOES

Welcome back to another Love to Craft - and we look forward to seeing all your wonderful creations. 

It's another tag from me - I was lucky to win a set of Tag Dies from Brenda's new Tag Challenge so I just have to put them to good use.

It's another play with the gel press for me for this tag and the background was created with an Aallandcreate Stencil - this was the residue of ink left on the stencil after the press on the gel press and just stamped off onto to some extra paper so as not to lose the ink.  You can just see the faint blue marks.  I then added some background stamping and the star of the show - the poppy stamps - are from Tracy Evans - one of her old sets.  Alison Bomber of W0rdsandp1ctures has inspired me to use real flowers on my work so these poppy seeds are from the Welsh poppies in my garden.  

As well as gluing them on I fixed them with some twine and a touch of linen which has been stapled.  I then added the word Nature to hide the staples.  I added a butterfly which had been created out of a mood board - a play time of adding stamping and colours and then cutting out shapes - great fun. The sentiment came from Tim Holtz Ideaology snippets book.

PEARLY SPARKLES - PUMPKINGS AND/OR AUTUMN LEAVES

Welcome back to another challenge at Pearly Sparkles.  Can you believe I don't have any pumpkin stamps!  I even had a look through what may be out there to buy but they all seemed to be hallowe'en type ones and not just autumnal pumpkins.  If anyone knows of any I'd love to have a heads up.

So my card focused on Autumn leaves.  Autumn is my favourite season and it's all just starting to happen slowly in my part of Wales.  My chutney has already been made and the sloe gin is next on the menu.  I digress.  Back to my card!  I started off with a very old embossing folder - I've added a picture below.  I can't even make out the name on it but if you have something similar in your stash this idea may work for you too.

I started off by inking up the leaves around the oval in Distress Inks in Crushed Olive, Peeled Paint, Gathered Twigs and a touch of Spiced Marmalade.  I spritzed it with some water then ran it through the Big Shot and I love how it came out.

Previously I've been playing with Tim Holtz Leaf Fragments dies even before he did a You Tube of them lol!  I used various inks to create the leaves and I also used book pages but they just didn't seem to quite fit this theme. I took three of the leaves and added them to the centre of the image.  The sentiments are from two separate Tracy Evans sets for Aallandcreate.