From Summer to Fall to Christmas

I'm late to Mothermark's tea party this week.  My poor stepson was attacked by a dog Monday night (unprovoked), so hubby and I spent Monday night in the emergency room at the hospital with him and getting him in to see a plastic surgeon yesterday.   He's okay, but the dog bite tore away quite a lot of his flesh just above his eye so that neither stitches nor plastic surgery are alternatives for him right now.  He has eight stitches in the bite mark below his eye.  Fortunately, his eyeball and eyesight were spared any damage.

Anyhow, I did have an opportunity last night after work to finish making a card for Cindy's special tea party going on this week. She's joined forces with Cammie on her Alzheimer's Care Givers drive, so I didn't want to miss out on the opportunity to participate in this great cause.   Perhaps you'd like to join in.  If so, you can click on either of the links I've provided for further details.

I chose to make a round card using my largest scalloped circle Nestability.  I heat embossed my flowers with clear embossing powder by stamping the flowers first in versamark and then in the colored ink.  I love how the heat embossing adds texture and enhances the color of the ink.  After I set them with the heat embossing, I sponged So Saffron and Certainly celery over the flowers.  I didn't like how the Certainly celery looked, so I added some Wild Wasabi.  I still didn't like how it looked, so I added True Thyme and was finally happy with the outcome!  I used my round tab and circle punches for the little panel and finished off the card with this pretty blue pearls.  I didn't want to cover the flowers with much else, so I left it there.  You can get these great flower images from Rubbernecker under the Create a Garden Set 1.

I made my next card in honor of Sallie, aka hobbydujour on Splitcoaststampers, as she was chosen as the featured stamper this past Sunday.  I had a really hard time choosing which one of her amazingly gorgeous cards I wanted to case until I saw this leaf I made a few days ago laying on my table waiting to be used.  The maple leaf image is also available from Rubbernecker.  I had also scallop punched these four designer paper panels for the Free for All Challenge to use scallops on your card, but the gallery went down Friday night so I never finished it. Therefore, when I saw Sallie's gorgeous Autumn Leaf card, I knew I could bring all these elements together.

I used the baby wipe technique to color my leaf image. I did this by dropping the various colors of reinkers onto a baby wipe and using the baby wipe as my stamp pad. After I cut out the leaf, I outlined it with my chocolate chip marker for definition. My punched leaves were sponged with really rust and ruby red.

This last card is one I made in honor of sweet Carla, cmsuto on Splitcoaststampers, as she was chosen Queen for the Day last Friday.  Carla always makes beautiful cards.  I cased her gorgeous Mudlark Candle Set Inspired card.  Things I changed are stamps, colors, slight sketch alteration, and I added paper piercing.  Congratulations to Carla!  I love this fun holiday designer paper by Stampin' Up!  I stamped the inside of the card with a stamp from Gina K's Winter Foliage set.