FALLING LEAVES

A Blog Named Hero has a fantastic color palette this month for our challenge - perfect for any autumn card you'd like to create with Hero Arts stamps.

I used alcohol inks on yupo paper to create a colorful piece for my leaves which were die cut from the Grateful Leaves set.  Next I used the die to dry emboss the leaves on kraft paper which was cut to 4"x5.25".  Then I rubbed mother-of-pearl Nuvo mousse all over it to give it a pretty shine.  Added this to a kraft card base, arranged my leaves, the little sentiment, added some black Nuvo drops and done.

There are prizes to be won for this month's challenge - a $50 and $25 gift card to Hero Arts - so enter your card(s) here to have a chance at winning!!

Thanks for dropping by and always love to read your kind comments.

STAMP JOY

Just a week ago, Greta and I were in Ankeny, IA at the Taylored Expressions Stamp Joy.  It started on Friday evening with all kinds of appetizers - little flatbreads with delicious toppings, cheese, crackers and fruit, nacho bar, drinks and on and on.  And giveaways galore.  Then there were fun little make and takes to try.  Saturday we went to a class using felt on cards and in the afternoon a watercolor class.  In each of the classes we made four cards.  Then in between there were twelve stations of make and takes - came home with about eighteen cards - not all finished.  It was a fabulous weekend and the best part was meeting Greta in person for the first time - we discovered we both like caramel, Heath Bars, and quite a few other things in common besides making cards.

Here are a few cards I've finished from our stamping weekend.

Thanks for stopping by today and for all your kind comments.

PARADE OF HAUNTED HOMES

For my A Blog Named Hero post today there is a tour of haunted houses to visit - all have a resident ghost and lots of bats flitting around especially for your Halloween enjoyment!!

The minute I saw this wonderful haunted house die in the current Hero Arts Holiday Catalog, I knew I had to have it.  Love making cute Halloween cards for my family and friends and this die fit the bill perfectly.  Basically, just used a different background for each house and had five cards done pretty quickly. 

 

For this card I made an alcohol inked background - for that moon I just put a blob of gold metallic alcohol ink on my paper and sort of messed around with it until I had a circle.  The house, bats and fence were cut from black glitter paper.

 

The background is some patterned paper I've had for ages.  Before adding the die cuts I stamped an old spooky tree from Hero Arts that was perfect for some added interest.

 

Next up is another alcohol inked background with some blue foil added.  I also added some Spectrum Noir clear for some shine.

 

Next home on the tour is a distress inked background.  I cut a circle from post-it tape to mask off the area for the moon.  Then spattered drops of water for some drizzly rain. 

Your last visit home has a watercoloured background and more spooky stamped trees.  Don't you just love that little door that opens for the ghost to fly out of??

I backed all the window areas with gold or orange paper - made a template of the house using the die, cut it a bit smaller and used that as a pattern for cutting out the window area.  The extra layer makes the house stand out a bit also.

I am entering the second card in the a2z Scrapbooking challenge for October -"Frightfully Fun".

Thanks for visiting today and love to read your kind comments.

AUTUMN LEAVES

For awhile my mojo took a little vacation, but my friend Cat told me to try some challenges and see if my little friend would come back to the craft room.  And low and behold, she was back this past weekend.

My first card fits into several challenges - leaves, gold, vellum and watercolouring.

My background was made after I had done some stenciling with gold Nuvo mousse.  There was some mousse left on my work surface and not wanting it to go to waste I sprayed it with some water and did some smooshing - technically not watercolouring - but I did use lots of water!  The oak leaf was cut from some gold paper and backed with vellum.  Added some gold thread for a little extra something along with the sentiment and done!   Entering this card in CAS on Sunday "thank you", Paper Players "leaves",  Just Add Ink "vellum" and Happy Little Stampers "gold" challenges.

Made a shaker with a maple leaf die for my second card.  Die cut the outline of the leaf for the shaker part and then the leaf from some copper paper.  Will enter this card into the Paper Players trees and leaves challenge.

Thanks for stopping by today and love to read your kind comments.

 

WCMD CHALLANGE

My blog friends, Greta and Cat, and I decided to do a little challenge of our own for World Cardmaking Day which is today.  The challenge was to use something someone else had sent us and to create a fall or winter card.

For my first card I used a flower stamped in copper that Cat had sent me.  Watercolored it with distress inks for a fall card.

My second card uses a die cut background that Greta sent me - added some snowflakes and a few gold sequins for a Christmas card.

Cat created a Halloween card with a bat that I sent her and a die cut panel from Greta.

Greta used some embossing powder and a die sent by two other friends.

Greta's second card uses a floral bouquet from Cat and the gradient stripe background from me.

 

This was all Cat's idea and I certainly had fun doing it - it kind of reminded me of the old 90 minute challenges on the HA Flickr group.

I linked my cards to Simon's challenge for today also.

Happy WCMD to everyone.  Thanks for stopping by.