Country Pumpkins

Another card for this month's Hero Arts "Everything Autumn" challenge, using my favorite pumpkins stamped on various printed papers.

supplies:  blue card base, stamped with CG119 Flourish Background in broken china distress ink, various design papers (BoBunny, Dollar Tree), G5269 Tall Pumpkin, F5270 Traditional Pumpkin, leaves from CL361 A Season of Giving, sentiment from CL137 Small Variety Alphabet, Cheery Lynn fence die (thanks, Yvonne!), raffia for bows, bird from Crafty Secrets Bird Notes SM01

Autumn Leaves

I love Autumn!  It's my favorite season of all.  Hero Arts has a monthly challenge and for September it's "Everything Autumn".  Since I missed most of this month, I wanted to make it a priority to make some cards for that challenge before the deadline, which is this Thursday.

To me, a huge part of this season is the changing leaves.  I love all the colors we see here in NE Ohio from the maples.  That's something I didn't see at all while we were out West, so I'm fortunate to live in an area that has this magnificent seasonal display.

We also have based in this area a wonderful drum and bugle corps called the Bluecoats, which started as an outgrowth of a police boys club in 1972 for musicians between the ages of 15 and 22.  They have consistently been one of the top 12 corps internationally since 1987.  We try to go to at least one of their performances each year, and I encourage anyone who wants to see people getting excited about music to do the same.  Their theme song is Autumn Leaves; here is a You-Tube recording of it. (the people at the end are NOT yelling Boo, but "BLUE")  that gives me chills.

So, putting these 2 loves of mine together, I printed out the words to Autumn Leaves as my background, and then stamped over them.  Here are the 2 cards that resulted:

Supplies: cream parchment and rust card stock, digital-printed background, Hero Arts CL361 A Season of Giving (leaves) stamped in various distress inks, CG 211 Magical Background, stamped in old paper distress ink, CL497 Find Joy (sentiment) stamped in Anita's Teddy Bear ink, Hero Arts Craft Twine, rust button

Supplies: 2 shades of parchment cardstock, kraft cardstock, digital-printed background and sentiment, Hero Arts CG228 Maple Leaf inked with distress inks spritzed with water

Honey, I'm home!

Good morning, all.  We are home from our almost month-long vacation - it is so good to be back!  Thank you all for hanging with my few posts while I was away.  We started with a visit to our sweet little grandchildren, and then went to some of the National Parks - Rocky Mountains, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, and on the way home, Mount Rushmore.  We drove over 2 mountain passes that had me white-knuckled (1 of them while it was snowing!), but the views were breathtaking.  I adore the mountains, the smell of pine, the clear rushing streams - we have a beautiful country!

As always, it takes me a week or so to get my mojo up and running, so in the meantime, I'll share a reject from the latest PaperCrafts magazine call that kind of showcases some of the beauty we saw on our travels.

white, dark green, and cream cardstock, Hero Arts K5524 Winter Scene, CL371 Essential Messages, Versafine Olympia Green ink, clear embossing powder, shabby shutters, peeled paint, mustard seed, orange marmalade, worn lipstick, dusty concord, and chipped sapphire distress inks, Prismacolor dark green pencil, Spellbinders Nestabilities labels eight die

This uses a Christmas stamp for the main image, but it also translates nicely for any season.  Thanks so much for visiting!

Bling!

Good morning!  Welcome to another Lily Pad Cards challenge, sponsored by Simon Says Stamp!  This month we're challenging you to use bling on your creations.  Here's my card.

supplies: white card stock, BoBunny Frost Dot and Buttercup Dot, Hero Arts H5426 Artists Butterfly, CL106 Fantastic Flourishes, CL497 Find Joy, Versafine onyx black and deep lagoon inks, gold and blue gemstones from Hero Arts and Kaiser, gelly roll quickie glue pen and a la mode turquoise sprinkle glitter, black wire for antennae, foam adhesive

I don't ever use this many gemstones on a card, this was kind of painful for me, and I'm now bankrupt in these 2 gem colors!  The Artists Butterfly was stamped twice on gold and turquoise paper, then cut out and paper-pieced back together.  I thought this flourish from one of Hero Arts first clear sets was perfect for its trail, and the sentiment fit well, too.  I added some turquoise glitter to "sparkle" as a final touch.

Please visit Lily Pad Cards to see what the other DT members did!

And if you're interested in winning a Hero Arts clear set I'm giving away, just scroll down 1 post and leave me a comment there.

I've taken over Jill's blog today!!

Hi there!  I'm so excited to tell you that I'm a guest blogger over at Inspired By,  Jill Foster's blog!

Jill has invited several of us to be inspired by one of her cards (which is poetic justice, isn't it, as that is what she's been doing with us forever?) all this week, so be sure to visit there every day.  I am so honored that she thought of me!   Here's what I came up with:

supplies: white cardstock, K&Company Brenda Walton "Flora & Fauna Ledger Pad", BoBunny Powder Blue Flourish and Rust Dot design papers, stormy sky, weathered wood, tea dye and vintage photo distress inks, Hero Arts K5376 Hydrangea, CG222 Music Background, CG246 Classic Fabric Design, CL173 SparkleClear Simple Messages, versafine onyx black and Memories ArtPrint Brown inks, markers to color flower and leaves, black wire for antennae

It's a CASE of one of her cards that she made in July.  I'd love it if you'd visit her blog here today to see the card that inspired mine.

To celebrate, I'm giving away a set of the Hero Arts clear stamps CL383 Antique Engravings, where the butterfly above came from:

Please leave a comment here on my blog if you'd like a chance at winning it.  One comment per person, please, through Sept. 30.  I'll pick a random winner on or about October 1, and announce it here.  It's open to all, no restrictions.

Christmas cards using Hero Arts stamps

It's another sketch challenge at Lily Pad Cards!  And this week we got to play with some hot-off-the-presses Hero Arts Christmas stamps!  They generously sent all of the DT members a wonderful selection of their stamps, and we've been having a ball with them!  Here's the sketch we were to work with:

And here's my first card, using 2 of the sets I was sent:

supplies: white, and 3 shades of slate Core'dinations card stocks, Hero Arts K5524 Winter Scene, CL558 Snowflake Ornaments (sentiment), versafine onyx black ink, clear embossing powder, Sizzix swiss dots embossing folder

This lovely Winter Scene fit in perfectly with the sketch!  I just used 3 shades of  slate Core'dinations cardstock and stamped the scene 4 times, then cut it apart and pieced it back together again.  To simulate gently falling snow, I then ran the panel through a swiss dots embossing folder and then attached it to a white card base.  The sentiment is from another new set, Snowflake Ornaments.

This card uses a new cling set that I could NOT wait to ink up - it made me smile the first time I saw it!  It's called Merriest Christmas Wishes.

supplies: red and white card stock, Hero Arts CG377 Merriest Christmas Wishes, VersaCraft Cerulean Blue ink, barn door distress ink, clear embossing powder, Hobby Lobby red gingham ribbon, punched snowflakes

This one had the sketch built right in, so all I had to do was stamp it and put it together.  This set has 4 different sentiments and 3 separate words included with it, but I thought the Joy sentiment was perfect.  I achieved my circle element by putting 2 punched snowflakes together, just offsetting one of them

Please visit Lily Pad Cards to see all the wonderful creations made by the rest of the design team!

A gift from Nat

Awhile back I was a random winner in a Hero Arts scramble contest.  We have these periodically at the HA flickr group, and the idea is to be challenged by our hostess, come up with a design using the challenge criteria, make a card, photograph it, and post it to our flickr group, all in 90 minutes!  Nat was our hostess, and she sent me this wonderful silhouette stamp called "In the Garden" as part of my prize from her.  I thought it would be pretty inked in autumnal tones, so here is a card that I made for the monthly Hero Arts contest: Everything Autumn:

supplies: cream parchment, orange, and rust card stocks, Hero Arts K5353 In the Garden, inked in Inkadinkado Rainbow Harvest ink, CL361 Season of Giving (sentiment and pumpkins), Anita's Teddy Bear ink


Thank you, Nat, I love this stamp!

The next scramble is scheduled for Sept. 17, hosted by Latrice, if you'd like to join us next time.  Here's the schedule; scroll all the way down to the bottom for the latest.  And here's the schedule from October into the New Year.

Some digital hybrid cards

We're taking a break from challenges today at Lily Pad Cards, so I thought I'd substitute some recent cards I made for Hero Arts September challenge: Everything Autumn.  They both use a digital image from Hero Arts called "Basic Tree" (which can be found here), and I love using it especially at this time of year because I can color in all the leaves in different colors!  Here are 2 cards, 1 pretty simple, and the other with more layers:

supplies: cream parchment, orange,  and pumpkin card stocks, digital "Basic Tree", Hero Arts CL361 A Season of Giving (sentiment), CG119 Flourish Background, Adirondack Sunset Orange and Anita's Teddy Bear inks, Prismacolor pencils, buttons, twine, label shape, hand-cut, brown marker for faux stitching

supplies: burnt orange, kraft, pale orange, cream parchment and beige card stocks, Basic Tree digital image, prismacolor pencils, Hero Arts S5101 Raindrop Background, brown ink, K5175 Houndstooth, Adirondack Sunset Orange ink, CL119 Happy Thanksgiving (sentiment and upper leaf strip), Anita's Teddy Bear ink and Hero Hues Punch chalk ink, CL361 A Season of Giving, various autumnal inks, Martha Stewart picket fence punch, orange fiber from Kath


I think that orange fiber looks like pumpkins against the fence!

A Monochromatic Card

The challenge at The Pretty Little Ribbon blog is to make a monochromatic item, using ribbon, of course.  Here's my entry, using one of my favorite colors, this lavender/blue/periwinkle:

supplies: periwinkle and white card stock, Hero Arts stamps CG271 Large Blossom, versamark ink and white embossing powder, S5264 Antique Flower Background, Papertrey Ink Tiny Tags dies and stamps, Brilliance pearlescent lavender ink, Martha Stewart small monarch butterfly punch, periwinkle seam binding


Entering this also into Simon Says Stamp and Show's Anything Goes challenge.

The Craft's Meow September sketch

The Craft's Meow has started a monthly sketch challenge. Here is the sketch:

I won "Little Frieda at the Seashore" recently at Simply Scrapping Crafts, so now I have another set in my arsenal!  Here she is, worked into the sketch, using papers from My Mind's Eye Stella & Rose Gertie collection:

I struggled with the elements that are flowers in the sketch - flowers didn't work, butterflies didn't work, didn't have the right color buttons, and then I remembered finding these old wooden stars last week when I was cleaning out a closet!  They seem to fit with her little nautical outfit, and one of the paper panels even has a star-like motif.   Did you know that distress inks will ink wood very nicely?  Learn something new every day!

Many Blessings

This card was made for 2 challenges, the Hero Arts September contest "Everything Autumn" and the challenge at Our Creative Corner, to stamp on patterned papers.  Here I used a Hero Arts stamp called Three Winter Trees, and by stamping it on autumnal papers, I made them into autumn trees.  I also used a variey of patterned green papers for the rolling hills.

supplies: various autumn and green printed papers, kraft card stock, Hero Arts S5215 Clouds, broken china distress ink, K5255 Three Winter Trees, Anita's Teddy Bear ink, CL119 Happy Thanksgiving (sentiment), Martha Stewart picket fence border punch, Nestabilities scalloped circles die, Pixie Press leaf charm, twine 

Inspired by a Book

There's a really fun challenge this week at CAS-ual Fridays: to make a red, white and black card inspired by a book!

I was working with this silhouette stamp earlier today and as I was putting it away, it occurred to me that it could represent Colin and Mary in The Secret Garden, a children's book about 2 lonely children who became friends while bringing a garden back to life.  Still one of my favorite books.......Here's my card:

supplies: white cardstock, excerpt from "A Secret Garden", K5353 In the Garden, Adirondack Cranberry ink, CL434 Just Find Me, versafine onyx black ink, red satin ribbon

Given the choice, I would NOT have chosen red for this card, as my sensitivities envisioned their garden to be all pastels :)).  But the challenge says red, and red it is!  Years ago Lucy shared a document that she had put together with an excerpt from The Secret Garden; that is my background.  I just stamped right over it, trimmed it out, and framed it with a thin black frame.

I'm entering this also into Simon Says Stamp and Show's Anything Goes Challenge, and because of that beautiful red ribbon, I'm also entering this into the Fashionable Stamping Challenge.

the little things featuring "A Day for Daisies" digital stamp

Can you believe another month has gone by and it's time again for the challenge at Lily Pad Cards that uses Kathy's latest color palette?  Here it is:

The Design Team got to choose a digital stamp from a wonderful site called "A Day for Daisies".  This one is called Morning Dew Fairy.

supplies: white card stock, vellum, A Day for Daisies digital image, green cardstock and BoBunny flamingo dot for framing, Prismacolor pencils and Memento markers,  Hero Arts CL497 Find Joy, versafine onyx black ink, clear gemstones

The image was printed once on smooth white paper, and twice more on vellum, clear embossing as soon as it came out of the printer, as my printer ink never dries on vellum.  I colored the paper image using Prismacolor pencils and mineral spirits to blend, and colored the vellum image on the reverse with Memento markers highlighted with colored pencils.  Then I put the vellum image over the paper one and secured it to the back.  This gives a kind of stained glass look.  I cut just the wing out of the 2nd vellum image to give a little more dimension and added clear gemstones where the dew drops were drawn.  

Please visit Lily Pad Cards to see more of these lovely digital images brought to life by the Design Team!

Play Date Cafe Splash Challenge

These splash challenges (black and white with a splash of ____) have become some of my favorite ones at the Play Date Cafe. This week we are to use a splash of red, and I knew just what I wanted to do.  What's black and white and read all over?  Text and music:

supplies: white, red and black card stock, music paper found at a flea market, PTI Beautiful Blooms II #! flower dies, Hero Arts CG125 Friend Definition, CL371 Essential Messages, versafine onyx black ink, CG102 Antique Brocade, Adirondack cranberry ink, red heart button, white twine

I've done a similar design several times before, and this is a mix of both of them.  Here's the photo inspiration:

And since the challenge at Simon Says Stamp and Show is Anything Goes, I'll enter it there also.