At this time of year many challenges seem to have an Autumn theme and this card fits two of them. The PP is from StampinUp and was a gift to me. I hadn’t used much of it and decided it would make the perfect background for a fall card. Photo doesn’t do the paper justice as it is so vibrant in reality. I used another StampinUp product for my focal panel and die cut the rectangle before stamping the images. The stamp set is from YNR, now out of business, and I chose 3 of the leaf stamps and the smaller acorn for my design. I used Ground expresso to stamp the outlines and then heat embossed them before adding colour. Used Inktense pencils and a gold Sakura glitter pen for the tiny heart. When colour was dry I added a little Distress glaze to set it. I also sponged the edges of this layer. This piece was added using a foam panel with the sentiment being cut into 2 sections and added as you see. I’m quite happy with the end result and it is a card I can use for any occasion.

We have had a welcome deluge of rain since last night and it is very wet outside. A good day to be in my craft room and I have to get cracking on some Christmas cards soon. My good intentions to do them throughout the year hasn’t been consistent enough to make a huge difference to my stash.

Links to challenges: https://daranddiane.blogspot.com/ and https://shoppingourstash.blogspot.com/

Thanks for stopping by, your time is appreciated as are any comments you may leave me.

Seize the Birthday #291-Stripes, This card almost didn’t get done, because I’ve spent the last 5 days battling what I believe is a reaction to some medication changes and it has been quite unpleasant. I had it partially started on my desk and there it has been until I completed it in the middle of last night. Couldn’t sleep so I gave up and decided to finish it. I’m not totally sure about it, but I’m not in the mood to change anything or to begin another one.

My artist friend gave me a scrap of photo canvas that I took a liking to. I love its texture and the subtle sheen. I wondered how it would take stamping and embossing and the results aren’t bad, but it a hard medium to stamp on. Using the Spellbinders Elegant diamond set I stamped the striped section using Versamark and then heat embossed it with a verdigris powder. Not quite perfect but not bad. I trimmed it to allow for a background layer which is done using a cut up poorly printed photo and I used a small piece of that to also cut the Ginko leaves. These are from Kokorosa. They were a bit paler than I wanted so I added some Inkagold paste using my finger. Doesn’t show up well in photo. I already had the background diamond in my stash cut a very long time ago and I added this before popping up the leaves on top. It adds just enough contrast to let the leaves be more visible. Added the sentiment from the same stamp set and glued all the layers together onto the card front.

I still have a small piece of the canvas left and I shall be playing to see how inks take to it at some point soon.

I really appreciate you spending time with me today and thanks a lot for any comments you may leave me.

Pamela has chosen any Colouring medium for our new challenge here at cardz4galz. She will also be choosing the winners.

The background is from a cut up photograph that was printed on a silver paper. When I first did the die cut of the buildings I had another project in mind, but didn’t use it so it has been sitting on my desk for weeks. The buildings were cut using a new die from Kokorosa, and then I strategically cut the strip so I could stack them a little. I backed them with some mirror CS to give the look of light behind windows and used dimensionals on the shorter piece. Before that I coloured the buildings using watercolours, but wasn’t totally happy so added some Spectrum Noir markers over the top to get a deeper colour. My key is from a puffy sticker set. I used an alphabet die set from Scrapbook.com and hand printed the word new. Letters were die cut from a recent ‘use up’ my strips session and this piece was rather small for anything else, but worked well for letters.

Thanks for stopping by and any comments you leave are always appreciated. We hope to see your creations in our gallery soon.

It is a sketch challenge at As You See It- Challenge #332 – Geometric Elements. I turned my card into a portrait rather than landscape and did one of my very few Halloween designs. The plaid oval is cut from another piece that I created using a Taylored Expressions plaid stencil set and Distress Oxide inks. I used a Hero Arts infinity die set and cut 2 more ovals each one slightly larger that the other. Once I had the 3 glued I set them aside so I could continue with the rest. My rust coloured pieces are actually a paint chip and I added this to my card front. Paint chips sometimes get whitish edges when cut and I decided to use a Spectrum Noir marker at the edges. I wasn’t happy so I added a gold pen line as well. My little witch is from an old GKD set that I fussy cut, embellishments from my stash, and the shadow word is from Creative Expressions. A very simple card but I quite like how it turned out.

Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate your time and any comments you may leave for me.

Having seen Natasha Foote create a few cards using PP and something similar in design to the ones posted here, I decided to enter my card into the challenge at https://lovethoseprettypapers.blogspot.com/. I simply followed the example by Natasha, but added my own spin. In this case my PP panel is smaller and I wanted to have a border behind so I used some holographic paper to create one. My PP is from some freebies that came with a long ago crafting magazine, can’t even remember which one now. I used an unbranded rectangle die set to cut my finished panel. My sentiment is from a Creative Expressions set, and cord is from my stash.

My second card while similar to the first was cut with a die from Lawn Fawn and the word is cut using an MFT die. Embellishments from my stash.

The beauty of these papers is that they fit together well, no matter which side of the sheet one uses. I managed 3 cards out of my sheets.

Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate your time and any comments you may leave.

Another card for the Sunflowers Challenge at DD. A while back I had been playing with the shape you see here and then never used it, as the card I was thinking about just wasn’t working. I set it aside thinking it would be used at some point. The PP is something I inked a while ago and again didn’t use but I liked how it looked as a partial background on this yellow note card. After adding the shaped piece using foam tape the card developed from there. Yesterday I stamped several sunflowers both larger and smaller but only used one of the larger ones. After adding a few details to these 3 small ones, I fussy cut around them. The apple stamp is from an old StampinUP set and again I had stamped it for another project but didn’t use it. I wondered if it would work as part of a harvest basket, decided it would and went from there. The sunflowers are all GKD stamps and I used foam tape so I had room to add leaves. Leaves are from an old die for which I didn’t keep the name, but suspect it would be either Spellbinders or Sizzix. The small die cut floral is from an unbranded die which I cut up and glued flat. I stamped and added the apple sentiment at the bottom. I did use a Sakura glitter pen over the words and it looks better in reality than on the photo. That said, I am not sure I like this card, but they often grow on me.

I really appreciate your comments and that you find time to stop by.

For challenge #233 at Cardz 4 Galz, Debbie has chosen the theme of square and you can use squares or make a square card as I have done. My card measures 4 and 1/4 with smaller square layers on top. Basically I used all the scraps that I had sitting around. I used a stencil on one layer and added a half circle of the bright pattern paper so that the negative circle layer fit nicely on top. I edged the layer with more of the bright pattern paper and used a butterfly I made some time ago using Scrapbook.com dies. I also added a bit of yellow ink over the negative die piece to reduce the white.

It was a good feeling to use up all the small scraps I had sitting around and it was an easy card to make too.

Thanks for stopping by, your time is appreciated as are any comments you may leave for me.

Sunflowers Challenge is the current challenge at Double D and this is my take on it. I don’t have many stamps with sunflowers so I looked through Pinterest to see what I could find. I really liked this panel and it was free so I downloaded it and then resized for my card front. I added some score lines on each side for added interest. After searching through my stamp sets I found a couple of different ones in 3 separate Gina K floral stamps and I chose this one from A Year of Flowers. I also used the 2 sentiments from this set. Once I had the image stamped I coloured it with Inktense pencils and bit of water. It curled at the edges naturally as I fussy cut it while it was still slightly damp. I popped it up with foam tape so that the sentiment section is peeking out from behind. I added a bit of shine using a Spectrum sparkle pen and I also spattered a bit of it over the top. A couple of small gems from my stash and it was finished.

I’m quite happy with the result, especially as I’m not very inspired to make cards at the moment. I did think about colouring the panel, but preferred the starkness of the black and white on top of the Yellow card front.

Thanks for stopping by it is appreciated as are any comments you may leave for me. I’m off to do a Zoom call with a friend we don’t see as often as we’d like.

Challenge #331 – Fast Fruit the current challenge at As You See It, is a speed challenge, and these always get my adrenaline going. Card took me 9.59 minutes to make so just under the wire to make it work.

Assembling my bits and pieces required a lot of thought as I don’t have much in the way of fruit stamps. I did pull out a very old StampinUp set and tested doing an apple but wasn’t happy, at which point I remembered I had this peach set from MayMay Made It.

Yesterday I had played with cutting out some frames from a pre printed freebie set and I had also played with some backgrounds, one of which I’ve used here. I selected the stamps I wanted to use, placed them in the Misti with some scrap CS, pushed the timer button and began. Stamping the peaches was easy, but stamping the sentiment ended up with a mess. It moved and re-stamping meant a slight double image. I have to remember that the photo CS my hubby shared with me, makes the stamps stick tight. At this point I chose to ignore the timer as it was making me nervous. Instead I took the background and added it to the frame proceeding to fussy cut around it. Not a brilliant job, but not terrible. Then I took the other frame added it to the card front and placed the inked piece as you see. I quickly inked the colours into my peaches and fussy cut them. While they were drying I took a pen and carefully went over the sentiment and hoped it would be okay. I added the peaches, popping up the half one and heaved a huge sigh of relief after looking at the timer and seeing I had made the time frame. The sentiment looks okay and I’m lucky my hands allowed the pen work and the fussy cutting. Some days they do not. Inks used are Dried Marigold and Ripe Persimmon and Ground Expresso Distress Oxides.

Although this card has some rough edges due to how quickly I put it together, I’m not unhappy with it. It is usable and my friends love anything handmade. I really appreciate you stopping by to take a look and I hope that you are enjoying some fun family time. Summer is close to ending which is always bittersweet. We are getting some lovely sunshine and warmth during the day, but it is cooling at night making sleeping much easier.