Cool Snap

 Autumn is here, dabbing hillsides, fields and trees with her paintbrush.  

Last week we took a drive north of town on Buck Creek Road, looking for bittersweet to stuff in the windowbox.  This scene below caught my eye.

This perfect weather puts me in the mood to add the stash of Christmas cards for my mother.  This one below I created by masking and sponging with Denim Kaleidacolor from Imagine Crafts for the background.  A few spritzes of sheer Shimmer Spray give it just the right amount of holiday sparkle.  I stamped my Kaleidacolor pad on an empty acrylic block and used this ink with a Fantastix to add a bit of "snow shadow." 

I used...

Denim Kaleidacolor inkpad

Cantaloupe Memonto Dew Drop ink pad

Mini Ink Blending Foam and handles

Fantastix, bullet tip

Sheer Shimmer Spray

(all from Imaginecrafts/Tsukineko)

white cardstock

Watercolor Splash patterned paper pad (Momenta)

Trees stamp set (Inkadinkado)

Holiday Sentiments stamp set (My Sentiments Exactly)

Card Creator 5 x 7 Matting Basics B dies (Spellbinders)

2-Way Glue (EKSuccess)

acrylic block

Happy New Year....again!

Happy 2017!

Christmas has come and gone.  We took the tree down yesterday, carefully packed away the ornaments and shifted the furniture back where it belongs.

Somehow nothing seemed very Christmasy this year.   That last month simply found me totally unprepared.  (And I'd started out the year so well!)  On Christmas Day it was 68 degrees right here in Kansas, with chances of thunderstorms and even a possible tornado.  It didn't snow.  It rained.  

We got our snow this past Wednesday, and yes it did get good and cold, too.  I went out to shovel before it was completely light outside, enjoying every breath of it.

A gift to myself this new year:  I want to get back to cardmaking and entering challenges.

Yesterday morning, I made this simple card...

I used a pre-folded white card.  First, I created a bit of background, using a sponge dauber and Summer Sky Tsukineko and Cornflower Hero Arts dye inks.

I stamped the tree Inkadinkado and the message in black and then added

......it's a bit hard to see here.......

dots of white snow with a white gelly roll pen Sakura

I scored around the edges of the card just to add a little detail.  

Done!  And I love it.

This is my very first time to enter the CASology challenge.

Their first cue card of the year, for week 230 is:  Cold.

I was happily dreaming of cold, snowy days with mugs of chai as I made it.

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Background Stamping

Hollyhocks.  

I love hollyhocks.

I've always heard my great-grandmother Sarah Jane had hollyhocks and sweet pea, and it's made me want them even more.  We used to have hollyhocks growing abundantly in our east front yard--every color, growing as tall as I am--but over the years they faded out, and it's been a struggle to get new ones growing.  Sweet pea, I just planted out by the back fence this spring.  

I love this hollyhock stamp from Serendipity Stamps so much, I'm always looking for new ways to use it.  

This afternoon I made a card for the 

On a scrap of watercolor paper (leftover from a calligraphy project), I used an oval mask and inked up this big stamp from Inkadinkado with brown dye ink.  I lightly misted it with water before stamping, for a slightly mottled look.  

Removing the mask, it was time to color my hollyhock stamp with watercolor pencils, laying on thick color, misting and stamping.  The sentiment is from Flonz.

When dry, I layered this piece on a pre-folded kraft card and added a few wood sequins.

Oh, good.  It looks like rain, and I can hear thunder coming closer.  We need it!

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The Leaves Grow Old

I almost think I love late autumn best of all, when the sky hangs low with wintery-looking clouds and those last bright leaves still cling to the tree branches.  I’m forever trying to capture this look on paper.  

For this card, I knew I wanted to do some double-layer stamping. 

I dotted in colorful leaves with yellow and orange dye ink...

 ...and then added  Imagine Crafts/Tsukinedo Amplify! to make the bigger tree pop from the page without adding a lot of extra bulk.

I fell in love, first with this quote and then with my card, and I decided to send it to my aunt June for her 89th birthday.

Materials Needed

 Tsukineko:       Kaleidacolor Tahiti ink;   Radiant Neon Warm ink;  Memento Rich Cocoa ink;          Radiant Neon Amplify! Electric Orange and Electric Yellow;  Sponge daubers;   Bullet tip Fantastix

·        Sheer Shimmer Spritz;  Tear It! Tape

·        Inkadinkado:  Fall Trees stamp set

       Penny Black:  Fantasy Tree stamp

·        Pretty Pink Posh:  Stitched Banner Duo die set

·        Momenta:  Gemtone Basics 8 x 8 cardstock pad

·        Miscellaneous:  kraft and white cardstock, heat gun, calligraphy pen, temporary adhesive

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Autumn Birthdays

I can't help it.  I'm hooked on fall, even if the weather doesn't always cooperate.  So any birthdays this time of year are likely to celebrate the season as well.

Here I experimented with a couple of new stamp pads from Imaginecrafts/tsukineko, not blending the sponging too much.

 Supplies:

  Imaginecrafts/tsukineko

•  Kaleidacolor Tahiti ink
•   Radiant Neon Warm ink
•   Memento Rich Cocoa ink
•  sponge daubers 

 Inkadinkado

•   Fall Trees stamp set    

·        The Paper Studio

• Dendrology paper pad

Royal Blue

Browsing through other blogs lately, I've been seeing lots of Christmas cards, and it's got me in the mood.  Perfect timing.  I wanted to create something to enter the latest Serendipity Stamps Challenge. 

 This month's theme is What's New.   I have a couple of new paper pads, but neither of them seemed appropriate for the stamp scene I wanted to create.  I do, however, have these die cuts that I received for Christmas a couple of years ago.  The package was a bit sticky, so I took them out and put them in a little box...and forgot about them when last Christmas came around. 

 I also have this new set of pens to use.

I knew for sure I wanted to make something blue, in honor of our Kansas City Royals playing for the ALCS pennant.  I went through my paper pads and picked out this lovely snowflake blue.  The stamping looked great, but it DID NOT go with the die cut I had picked out, so I tried two more cards and finally came up with this one.

Supplies:  Winter Homestead stamp from Serendipitystamps.com; Branches stamp set from Inkadinkado; Cloud Blue stamp pad from Ranger

I'll share those other two creations another day.

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Blue Card Trio

Hello!

Need a bundle of cards in a hurry?

Don't have all day to spend digging through your paper and stamp collection?

I created this trio of cards using just three sheets (really two and a half!) from the Momenta Vintage Basics stack.

Other supplies:

Stamps:  Blooming Garden set Penny Black, Chelsea Sentiments set Inkadinkado

Black dye ink Imagine Crafts/Tsukineko

Deckle scissors (Fiskars)

Paper Studio multicolor brad set (Hobby Lobby)

Glue Dots 

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I appreciate all your comments!