It's Definitely Fall and Purple Passion

Yes, it's definitely Fall here in Michigan.  Shirley challenged the CCEE Stampers to make a card/project with a Fall theme. 

I love the leaves that come in Rubbernecker's Leaf Group set.  They are especially fun to work with when using the polished stone technique.  For those of you who may not be familiar with this technique, you simply apply colors of ink onto a piece of glossy cardstock and blend them with alcohol.  You can either put your ink and alcohol together on a cotton ball and dab them that way or you can use what I prefer to use and that is the Tim Holtz Blending Tool.  You apply the ink to the piece of felt and dab it onto your glossy cardstock.  Again, you can also put your alcohol blending solution on with your ink at the same time or you can add it by dropping the alcohol blending solution directly onto the glossy cardstock after you've applied the ink.  You get a slightly different effect with each way.

I used Stazon Black; Encore Copper; Adirondack Alcohol Inks in Lettuce, Butterscotch, Hazelnut, Cranberry, and Copper Mixative for my leaves today.  Here's a closer view of the leaf.

Isn't that pretty?  I just love the effect. 

This card is also for another Hope You Can Cling To challenge to use the Colors of Hope:  green, brown, and yellow.

Here is a list of all the supplies I used:

Stamps:  Thank You So Much sentiment; Leaf Group; Grid bg

Paper:  River Rock, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Glossy
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin’ Up Chocolate Chip; Stazon Black; Encore Copper; Adirondack Alcohol Inks in Lettuce, Butterscotch, Hazelnut, Cranberry, and Copper Mixative
Accessories:  brown brads, paper crimper; houndstooth embossing folder, corner punch, dimensionals

Please stop by our CCEE Stampers' blog to see what Tosha, Frances, Cindy, Joanne, and Shirley have created for this Fall challenge.  Perhaps you'd like to play along!

Here's another card I made for the Hope You Can Cling To challenges.  Holly challenged us to use a shade of purple and I love purple!

The chicks (Chickie Hop by Stampendous) were colored with a Copic marker and then covered with yellow flocking. Their headbands were watercolored with Elegant Eggplant.

Fall Trilogy

Happy Wednesday, my friends!  Wednesdays are a fun part of my week because I hostess the Wednesday's Worktable challenge on the Rubbernecker blog.  I have a fun project showing how I used one image to create a couple different designer papers using different techniques, as well as using the same image as the focal point for my card.  Here's the completed card, but I'd love it if you popped over to the Rubbernecker blog to see the close-up photos and narrative description of how I made my card!  Let me know what you think!

Whimsical Fall Tree

Even though the colorful leaves are almost done falling from the trees and the temperatures are cold here (41 degrees currently), it is still fall here in Michigan.  Fall is one of my favorite seasons as I love the vibrant colors and clean, crisp air.  So I chose to use some fall colors in my design today, which is in honor of Tobi, aka jazzytobi on Splitcoaststampers, on being this week's featured stamper!! I chose to case her artistic and pretty Chalk Pouncing card.

Things I changed:
1. image
2. used distress inks instead of chalk
3. added buttons in place of ribbon
4. colors

This image is a flourish in the Rubbernecker collection that reminds me of a whimsical tree. I colored the main image with SU markers (chocolate chip, pumpkin pie, really rust) and stamped it onto the cs. I used my distress inks and blending tool for the colors around and over the tree; I then added brads onto some of the leaves.

Have a beautiful day!

Fall Filtered Flower

Shirley (wannabcre8tive) is our October CCEE challenge hostess, and she's kicked off the month of October with a fabulous challenge to make our own flowers (ribbon, material, or paper). 

I used the frosted filter technique for my flower.  I dropped various colors of reinkers onto a coffee filter, crumpled it up, and let it dry.  I then took my three smallest scalloped circle Nestabilities for the layers of my flower.  The center of the flower is a boho blossoms punch out of More Mustard and topped off with a Ruby Red brad.  I used a toothpick to slightly roll the edges of my flower, and I separated each layer with thin dimensionals.  My leaves were hand cut, crimped, and scored down the center with Old Olive cardstock sponged with Always Artichoke ink on the edges.  My designer paper is from the Amber Autumn fall stack collection (matstack by DCWV).  I used a checkerboard embossing folder for the burgundy colored dp.  The sentiment is by Rubbernecker.

You can check out the magnificent designs my friends Joanne, Tosh, Shirley, Frances, and Cindy made, as well as check out the challenge guidelines to play along with us, if you'd like, by going to our CCEE blog.  We'd love it if you joined us!

Happy Fall!

The Colors of Autumn

Frances gave the CCEE challenge team a sketch challenge this week.  

Fall is one of my favorite seasons.  I love the vibrant colors as the leaves turn on the trees and the feel of the cool, crisp air.

I stamped the trees in Memento Black and then used q-tips dipped in my reinkers to color the various colors of autumn on my trees.  I used a watercolor brush for the lighter shade of green on the ground and then a q-tip again to color in the shading.

Please visit our CCEE blog to see the cards Shirley, Joanne, Tosha, Frances, and Cindy made.  We'd love it if you played along with us!

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.

Queen Darla

Yesterday I was playing around with this fun acorn set by Rubbernecker checking out different ways to use it. For my inspiration card yesterday, I colored them with Twinkling H20s. Afterward, I played some more and decided to try paper piecing the acorns, which I did and set aside for another day to use in a design. I didn't realize today would be that day when it finally dawned on me that I totally missed checking out Friday's Queen for the Day challenge (slap hand on forehead). Well, when I realized it was sweet Darla Ryan that Miss Anne had chosen, I KNEW I had to play. Darla not only has a fabulous gallery of art, but she is always kind and supportive to other stampers.


As I was cruising through Darla's gallery, I came upon this beautiful paper-pieced floral and knew it would be the perfect opportunity to use my paper-pieced acorns! I paper-pieced them using the Amber Autumn matstack by DCWV. This particular matstack has some really fun and beautiful fall papers. Since I had six acorns already paper pieced from yesterday, I chose to make two cards in honor of Queen Darla.



 
 
 

Things I changed:

1. image
2. colors
3. brad/eyelet arrangement
4. use designer paper as my base
5. no paper piercing

Thank you for the inspiration Queen Darla! I hope you enjoy wearing that gorgeous crown this week!

Twinkling Acorns

Stef has another great inspiration website over on Splitcoaststampers for today's inspiration challenge called Garnet Hill.  I was inspired by this Pears Flannel Bedding for my card today.

I designed my own designer paper by using a baby wipe as my ink pad (drop several colors to a baby wipe and press stamp onto the baby wipe) for my maple leaf image, stamping randomly all over ivory cardstock. For more definition, I then stamped the Rubbernecker folk art maple leaf in eggplant and lettuce ink pads. I sponged the outer edges of the ivory cardstock with Rusty Hinge and Vintage Photo distress inks. I then sprayed copper Glimmer Mist and Champagne Mist onto the cardstock for a shimmery effect. I colored the Rubbernecker fall acorn images with Twinkling H20s and cut them out.

I wish you could see this IRL because it's so shimmery!

Stamps: Folk Art Maple Leaf and Fall Acorns by Rubbernecker
Paper: More Mustard, Ivory, Pumpkin Spice (by Gina K)
Ink: Adirondack Butterscotch, Ginger and Lettuce; Stampin Up Elegant Eggplant; Ranger Rusty Hinge and Vintage Photo Distress Inks; Twinkling H20s Jasper Red and Nutmeg
Accessories: Twinkling H20s, Copper Glimmer Mist, SU Champagne Mist, triangle Nestabilities, copper brad, elegant eggplant ribbon, dimensionals, baby wipes, blending tool and sponge