AUTUMN DAYS

I love Autumn - it's my favourite time of the year.  I actually quite like the slowing down of the year as the wheel turns towards winter and rest, as it used to be.  In our modern era where everything is available all year round we don't get the chance to rest and recuperate in the winter as our ancestors did.  I love to prepare my larders for the winter at this time of year and it is already bursting with chutneys, jams and spirits ready for the winter ahead.

There are a few challenges around at the moment which are asking for autumn type cards.  I've chosen to use the sketch from TGIF #tgifc177 challenge as the basis for my autumn card.

I've used the tree image from Stampin Up's new Winter Woods set.  I've added dots from SU Warmth and Wonder to represent the leaves turning colour and added them in various SU coloured inks - some retired from years ago Really Rust, Pear Pizzazz, Chocolate Chip, and a touch of Wink of Stella to make them glisten. 

I've used some papers from Kaisercraft's pad called Take Note.  I was going to use a doily behind but the SU pearlized was too shiny so I just used it as a stencil and inked it with SU Early Espresso.  The leaves are from SU Colourful Seasons Thinlet.  The sentiment is from another retired SU set Yay You.  The pearl embellishments are from Prima. 

I'm also adding this into the following challenges:

Make My Monday#80 - Autumn/Fall colours
Time Out Challenge#118 - 
Colour Throwdown #510
Cards In Envy - Feels Like Fall



 

IN THIS WORLD

I always seem to be a bit behind the times when it comes to Stampin Up sets - I seem to fall in love with them after they've retired!  This is what happened with In This World - a set I've only just started using and I love it.  It gives me the chance to do the sort of cards I really love - which is lots of layers, inking and vintage style.

I started off with a piece of ST Cardstock in Pool Party - with some retired DSP which has been torn and inked up in Soft Suede.  I stamped the butterfly image and the key from In This World and used the dots from Painter's Palette.  The door was inked sponged and cut out and added on top of some Burlap Ribbon.  The butterfly was cut out of Bold Butterfly thinlets and the small butterfly punched out with a retired SU punch.  A touch of ribbon and thread is added to the butterfly.  The words are from the set and were stamped and cut out and added on dimensionals - very fiddly.

This card shows my love of crafting and what got me into it - I love the inking and when I first got my Big Shot it was a revelation.  Global Design Project  #143 have asked us to show what got us into crafting and this has all the elements for me.

I'm also including this into the following challenges

As You See It Challenge - FRESH - this was a fresh stamp set for me 
TGIF Challenges - Doodle - I doodled on the door adding inked bits for shading 




 

USING MARKER PENS

There are times when only a marker pen will do!  That's especially true if you want to join in with a colour challenge and the only colours you happen to have are in marker pens.

 Ahem - that's me this week with the TGIF challenge - their colours are last year's In Colours which I must admit were not my favourites.  I was lucky enough to win a set of marker pens at Convention but I never did follow up on buying the full ink pads.

The challenge over at Addicted to Stamps this week is also using Marker Pens so my card can double up.

I've kept my card quite CAS (clean and simple) and I've used an old SU set which I've been using lately for some inchies for a swap I've organised on my Joy of Sets Facebook Page.  It;s called A Little Love.

These colours do seem to scream sweets or ice cream and I thought this little sweet dispenser was the perfect stamp.  I've used the Stitched Framelits to layer the little squares and kept the colours as block colours.  The sentiment is from an old Project Life set called Remember This.

 

PAINTER' S PALETTE - CHALLENGE TIME

I'm having a go at two challenges with this one card this week.  TGIF #tgifc59 challenge is a sketch challenge and here is the sketch.  Click on the image to be taken to their challenge this week.




 The challenge over at Time Out challenges is a colour image. Again click on the image to be taken to their challenge #58.




I wanted to use the squares and the colours of the TO challenge with the square image for the sketch in TGIF so used my trusty Painter's Palette stamp set once again.  The square colours were stamped with a very very old SU stamp in Bermuda Bay ink, Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie and Pacific Point.I used my Stampamajig to make sure the squares were stamped in the right place.

 The easel was stamped in Early Espresso and then covered over in a very light wash of another old SU colour Creamy Caramel.

The Early Espresso strip of cardstock was stamped with another of the stamps from this set in Versamark ink which gives that lovely tone on tone effect.  The Smoky Slate background card stock was also inked in Versamark Ink.

WARNING - CLOSE YOUR EYES AND LOOK AWAY IF YOU ARE A PURIST STAMPER!!!

 Now, a bit of a confession here - as you will probably see the tone on tone on the smoky slate is not quite true to its colour.  I have to confess my poor old Versamark ink pad is not quite as pristine as it used to be.  The actual colour of the ink pad is now a more sort of murky colour rather than white so when I forget and ink on light papers I never know what colour I'm going to get.  I know I should get another one and be vigilant about never letting any coloured ink get near it but...... I quite like this affect.

 The sentiment from Painter's Palette was inked in Early Espresso and a touch of baker's twine was wrapped around the Early Espresso card stock.  A touch of Wink of Stella on the coloured squares just gives the card an extra shimmer.

As usual all products can be purchased from my website direct -just click on the catalogue below to be taken to my store and don't forget to add your Hostess Code for June.