MONOCHROMATIC AUTUMN ICON

A Blog Named Hero has a fun challenge this month - Monochromatic!!!  I played around with quite a few ideas because I wanted to use fall leaves and really wasn't coming up with anything that I really liked.  Then my Deco Pattern Stencil arrived, got out my Autumn Icons dies and some Nuvo mousse and it all came together quickly.

I used a very thin layer of the mousse with a palette knife to create the background.  Die cut the ginkgo leaf from gold adhesive backed paper and also from fun foam and put them together for some extra texture.  Added the little sentiment and done!!

Be sure to enter your monochromatic card in our challenge by 10 October for a chance to win great prizes - a $50 and a $25 gift certificate from Hero Arts!

I am also entering this in the SSS Wednesday Challenge which is "anything goes" and featuring Hero Arts.

Thanks for stopping by and love to read your comments - they make my day!

GOLDEN LEAVES

Recently, I purchased a few new items for my ever growing stash of dies and other needful things - and, of course, being anxious to use them, came up with a couple of cards for Darnell's Twofer Challenge.

My new die is the maple leaf and the new papers came from a gorgeous pad I found at Target (in the so-called $1 section) a few weeks ago.  For the card on the left, I simply die cut the leaf in black cardstock and also black fun foam.   Glued the two together and placed on that beautiful patterned paper.  Added that to a black card base along with a little sentiment and done.  Also replaced back into the die cut leaf some of the bits.

At first when I bought this pad, I thought the background was black, but it's really a lovely shade of navy and matches the SU cardstock (Night of Navy) really well.  Made a shaker from this piece - couldn't get it to photograph very well, but it's so pretty in real life.  There is matching striped paper also in the pad, so cut a small strip to use for my sentiment.  There you have it - two different cards with the same die, using the same pad of paper and for two different occasions. 

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

SEPTEMBER CARD CHAIN CHALLENGE

This month my cards are going to Karren in New Zealand.  Since it is spring in NZ and fall here in NE, I made her two cards.

The colors for this month were chocolate, orange and slate so I used them with my new C & 9th Thankful Leaves turnabout stamp for the fall card.  It is difficult to see but there is "Hello" in raised letters above the little sentiment.  The spring card was made with SSS Even More Spring Flowers and colored with copics - the sketch for the month was used on this card.

It's always fun to send and receive cards from new friends all over the world.  You can sign up for the October CCC here.  You have until 6 October to sign up.

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

A LITTLE CHRISTMAS

Even though our A Blog Named Hero "sparkle and shine" challenge is finished for this month, I decided the Christmas stash needed a few more cards - especially since I just got the new Glimmer Metallic Inks and HAD to play with them.   Hero Arts has eight of these fantastic colors and you're going to want them all!!

I began by just painting a piece of white cardstock with the green ink.  Just played around with it using a wide brush and watering down the ink a bit and then adding more water here and there.  So in the end had a nice variegated piece from which I cut two greenery borders.  Attached these to two creamy metallic card bases, added the sentiments and some red Nuvo drops for berries.  The green ink has a lovely gold metallic shine which I was unable to photograph.

Our next challenge starts tomorrow (15 September) so be on the lookout for it.  

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

HELLO LOVELY

A few weeks ago a friend looked at my Pinterest pages and saw a card that she thought I had made and wanted me to make a card like it.  Talk about a challenge!!!  Norine Borys creates gorgeous cards and I have followed her blog for ages - this is the card I tried to imitate. 

I don't have the stamp she used so chose the Hello Lovely bouquet from Concord and 9th for my attempt and actually made two cards - one with regular watercolors and one with my Zigs (on the right).

I am pretty much of a perfectionist and it's difficult for me to do such loose watercolouring - but now that I've tried it I rather like it.

My friend also wanted a wine label card - hadn't made one in ages and still have quite a few from when that was popular several years ago.

It was kind of a funky label but fun to do - added a few gold sequins to go with gold mat - the card base is a dark navy.

Am also entering the flower card on the left in The Flower Challenge - theme is "anything goes".

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