November Days

The smallest things

fill our hearts with the greatest joy.

It's a beautiful, cloudy, misty day in northeast Kansas.

Trees are scattering their leaves.  For the past couple of weeks I could look out our windows to the south and see this deep scarlet tree nearly a block away grow brighter each day.  Then suddenly one morning, after a frost, the tree was nearly bare, and the ground all around it was deep scarlet.  

These kind of days put me in the mood to do things.

The tree is up...and almost all decorated.

A few presents are wrapped.

I'm eager to cut out a little dress that I'll smock for my aunt Nancy's first granddaughter.

And I've been making more cards.

I'm still playing with ways to use this new die cut flower I purchased from Penny Black.

First I die cut and embossed a 2 5/8 x 4 5/8-inch rectangle.  I sponged this with Electric Coral and Electric Yellow, being sure not to cover too much of the rectangle.  Leave lots of breathing space!

I die cut the flower from this rectangle.

 I sprayed the cut flower with a few applications of Sheer Shimmer Mist...

...and stamped a brush stroke (now discontinued from Hero Arts, but you can find others out there) with Golden Glitz Delicata along the right and bottom edges.  This gives it an elegant look like gold leaf, but without the mess!  I then "brushed" inside the die cut areas with the same Golden Glitz, using a Fantastix.

Next, I took a pre-folded 5 x 7 ivory card and masked a long rectangle along the left side with two pieces of masking tape.  (I get the tape not-too-sticky by pressing it along the inside of my elbow first!  One of these days someone will catch me walking around with strips of masking tape hanging off me.......)

Anyway, I sponged this rectangle with Electric Coral, Electric Yellow and Electric Orange, making the colors good and deep.

Then, for a bokeh effect, I sponged circles of Moonlight White through a stencil...and sometimes just using the sponge dauber on its own to make a small circle.  Keep the circles random, sometimes overlapping.

I removed the mask, adhered the rectangle and then the die cut flower as shown.  

I stamped the "Thanks" with more Golden Glitz.

Let me know how you like it.

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Supplies

        Radiant Neon 4 set – Warm,    Brilliance Moonlight White, 

           Delicata Golden Glitz,  Sheer Shimmer Mist,    

           Sponge daubers and  Fantastix     (Imagine/Tsukineko)

        Heavyweight ivory cardstock (The Paper Studio)

        Matting Basics B Rectangles die set (Spellbinders)

        Beautiful You stamp set (Stampin’ Up)

        My Notebook stamp set (Hero Arts)

Peonies stamp and die set (Avery Elle)

        Circles stencil (Fiskars)

        2-way Glue (Kuretake)

         Big Shot die cutting machine (Sizzix)

        Acrylic block

        

Cut Flower

It's damp and warm, and the air smells green, like spring.

I don't even want to think about spring!

But a misty, foggy day like this puts me in a "doing" mood.  I've got a workbasket with sewing projects waiting to be finished.   I'm in the middle of editing a family video, and of course there's laundry to be folded.

But first thing this morning I dig out paper, stamps and inks again, and I created this little card from an idea burning in my head.

I'd been wanting to use this new die set from Momenta, which my sister gave me.

First, I used black chalk ink to stamp this lone flower from Fiskars Petals from Scratch set.  I lined inside the petals with a white crayon and then sponged over the flower with Radiant Neon Coral from Imagine Crafts.  I used the tip of a cotton swab to ink over the leaf and stem with Lettuce green chalk ink.  I die cut the sentiment three times and layered it for extra dimension, and then used a round corner punch all around the card.

Done!

I'm entering this in the latest CASology Challenge.  

Week #232--Cue: Cut

Thanks for stopping by!

Just add water...color

I love creating cards with watercolors.   Usually, I head right for one of my flower stamps, but yesterday morning I picked up this airplane from Serendipity Stamps.  I misted and colored with watercolor pencils, stamped...and then added a little guy inside the cockpit with a dab of gray paint.

Using these new brassy brads I got a Hobby Lobby, I layered this on some old map patterned paper, die-cutting this "Thanks" from Little Yellow Bicycle from the leftover scraps.

I'm happy with it!

I'm entering this in the latest Serendipity Stamps Challenge.

Thanks for stopping by!