Winter fun

When I was in college, people used to take trays out of the cafeteria to use as sleds. I'm pretty sure there was a sign posted somewhere saying students were not allowed to remove trays from the cafeteria, and that rule was widely ignored.

I guess a patched up inner tube would work just as well, as this little guy sure seems to be enjoying it.  The image is from Bugaboo, and it's colored with pencils. The sentiment is from Impression-Obsession.

To create the snowy hill, I tore several layers of white paper and layered them on top of each other.  The sky is simply sponged-on Blue Bliss ink. For a little bling, I added some snowflake-shaped sequins.

I am entering this card in the following challenges.

Catch the Bug -- Bingo (Bugaboo image, snowflake, bling)
Inky Impressions 190 -- Winter Wonderland
Crafty Sentiments -- Winter
Word Art Wednesday #163 -- Anything Goes

Christmas bird

Wow, I can't believe Christmas is just a week away.  I have not done my shopping and I don't know what to buy. Yikes.
Here's another Christmas card for you.  Cardinals are such a beautiful bit of nature, I love to feature them, so of course I was inspired by the cardinal in the Simon Says Stamp photo collage inspiration.
This image is a digi from Stamping Boutique.  The twill ribbon that goes so perfectly with it has been sitting in my stash for ages; I got it at a Christmas clearance sale at one of the big-box craft stores years ago. I wanted to keep this pretty simple and naturalist, so the only other embellishment is die-cut holly leaves.
The layout for this is Sketch Saturday #340, turned 90 degrees.


I'm entering this card in these challenges:
Sketch Saturday #340
Simon Says Stamp Monday -- anything goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- Winter Inspiration photo
Word Art Wednesday #163 -- anything goes
Loves Rubberstamps #131 -- Holiday blitz anything goes
Clear It Out -- anything goes (stash is the ribbon)

O Bling-y tree

What's Christmas without a little bling? This card has lots of jewel-bling plus glittery EP.
The sketch is from Bugaboo's Stella Says Sketch #221.  The tree is embossed with "pirate gold" EP which has glitter in it.  I added little gems to all the stars that are on the tree.
I'm not sure who made either the tree or the sentiment, also in the pirate's gold EP.
I used Spellbinder's Nestabilities in oval and scalloped oval, along with a scallop border die.  The gold paper is upcycled; I think it was first used inside an envelope -- it has been in my snippets file for ages.  The strip of printed paper is another snippet -- It jumped out of a folder and demanded to be used on this card.
I'm entering this card in these challenges:
Bugaboo -- Stella Says Sketch #221
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- Bling it on
Cuttlebug Mania -- anything Christmas
Creative Inspiration #293 -- anything goes
Word Art Wednesday #162 -- anything goes
Pixie's Snippet Playground #155 -- snippets

Glittery snow scene

A glitzy Christmas to you. I got this set with four seasonal images by Crafty Secrets ages ago, and this was the first time it got inked.  It just seemed like a good image to go with bling.

The image is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored with pencils.  The trees are covered with snowy glitter, and I used a couple red jewels to highlight the sentiment.  I added snowflake patterned paper from Echo Park and a red and white sentiment paper for a splash of color in the background.

Is anyone else having problems with getting InLinkz linkups to load when you wan to link a card? It seems to happen on every blog, I visit. Is there a way to fix it? Thanks


I'm playing in these challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- bling it on
Catch the Bug -- Christmas Chaos #1, glitter, sparkle, gems
Crafty Sentiments -- Christmas
Loves Rubberstamps -- winter/Christmas
Word Art Wednesday #162 -- Anything Goes
CHNC Christmas Extras -- anything Christmas
CHNC Patterned Paper Challenge -- December

Just a few flake

Here's another Christmas card, using a blue color scheme.
The centerpiece is two snowflakes, one cut from snippets of vellum, the other white cardstock, layered on a dark blue square.  (The die is a little Sizzix one I picked up at the craft consignment sale, and truth is it's seen better days.) Behind that are four squares of my favorite snowflake paper (also snippets, I'm down to just a little of that pattern).

The sketch here is from Catch the Bug; I finished the card with some snowflake ribbon and a sentiment in Night of Navy.

I'm playing in these challenges:

Clear it Out -- blues and ribbon
Crafty Ribbon -- monochromatic Christmas
C.R.A.F.T #288 -- Christmas
Catch the Bug -- Holiday Chaos sketch
Die Cut Divas -- Snow/Christmas
Simon Says Wednesday -- Christmas
Pixie's Snippet Playground #154 -- use snippets

Scrappy snowman

I used up several snippets of holiday dp to make the background for this card. They all had burgundy and ivory on them, so I think they work together.

The cute snowman is from Crafty Sentiments. He's colored with pencils and the edges are sponged with Distress Antique Linen.  There's a dollop of Stickles on each snowflake around him and they glitter like diamonds in real life. With all the busyness behind him, I didn't want to add a lot of embellishments, so I angled the mat and used a ribbon tab that picks up the same colors as found in the background.

This card is for these challenges:

Crafty Sentiments: anything goes
Sketch Saturday 338: use a previous sketch -- this is sketch 337
Simon Says Stamp Monday--Holiday Cards
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday-- Christmas holidays
Word Art Wednesday#161--  Anything Goes
CHNC December patterned paper Challenge  -- use patterned paper
CHNC December Christmas Extra Challenge -- anything Christmasy

Snowy Scene

I do a swap with Technique Junkies every month because it's a chance to try a new technique.  In TJland, this technique is called monochromatic silhouettes, although I think I'd go with ombre silhouettes.

I started with a bunch of snippets in various shades of blue, cutting them a uniform size, assembling them temporarily, and stamping the image. I made it especially difficult on myself by embossing the image rather than just stamping it, so the snippets blew around a little during the heat gun part of the event. After embossing, I reassembled the pieces on their permanent mat, adding a little space between each element.

A snowy ribbon seemed like the perfect embellishment.

I'm playing in these challenges
Papertake Weekly -- Take your Pick (I did the color challenges, blues/greens or in this case, just blues)
Catch the Bug -- Leftover paper
Simon Says Stamp Monday -- Holiday cards
Pixie's Snippet Playground #153 -- snippets

Metal baubles

The Paper Shelter asked us to use metal on our card this week. Well, it just so happens that I have a huge collection of eyelets and snaps made of metal. Since they aren't exactly a snap to use, they don't get used very often. But I decided to use snaps to be the ornaments on this tree.

The tree, from an old SU set, is white embossed on Forest Foliage colored card stock (which is not as dark as it looks in the photo). I randomly placed the snaps, matted it on red, and stamped the sentiment in Forest Foliage.  Clean and simple is the way to go at this time of year.

I'm playing in these challenges:

The Paper Shelter #184 -- Metal (snaps)
CHNC #205 -- Santa is on his way (He better be, that tree needs some gifts under it)
CHNC Extra November -- anything Christmas
Word Art Wednesday #160 -- anything goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- anything goes.

Caring Hearts cards

I spent the last month working as hard as any of Santa's elves making cards for Vera Yates' Caring Hearts card drive. She collects cards for senior citizens in nursing homes, and had a goal of 7,000 cards this year.  I managed to make about 60. (Vera needs to receive cards for this year by 28 November, but keep it in mind for next year.)

 This is a CAS design I used for maybe 15 or 20 cards. Each one was slightly different, as I used snippets of different paper to cut the ornament; I also had some pretty ornament stickers I used on a few.

This was an easy design to mass produce. I used a Prickly Pear die for the ornament. The pine branch stamp is from the same set. I stamped it twice, didn't even bother to re-ink -- that gave me a little variation and depth on the branch.

It's fun to see how different papers for the ornament change the look. I like the striped paper -- it reminds me of the striped glass ornaments we had when I was a kid.

I'm showing two cards for the last Rudolph Challenge of the year. The card is for these challenges:

Rudolph Day Challenge November -- two cards
Crafting for all Seasons #91 -- Tis the Season
Creative Inspiration #291 -- Seasons Greetings
CHNC#203 -- getting ready for Christmas
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- Anything goes
Word Art Wednesday #160 -- Anything Goes
Pixie's Snippet Playground #152 -- snippets.

What's shaking this Thanksgiving?

I could not resist an opportunity to use the turkey from TAWS It's Fall About You set when I saw the photos for their BE Inspired challenge this time.  Who could resist that cute turkey in the right corner?

With a little bit of basic masking, I created this image of the turkey hiding in the basket (from the same set). The images are stamped in Sepia ink. I colored the turkey with pencils, picking up colors from the photo. Then I created a little acrylic pouch around him to make a shaker card. I punched a bunch of tiny leaves and added them and some gold microbeads to the pouch, then attached it to my card base with seasonal washi tape. It's a fun Thanksgiving card, don't you think?

This card is for these challenges
The Alley Way Stamps BE Inspired #59 -- inspiration photo
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- Thanksgiving
CHNC patterned paper Challenge for November
Word Art Wednesday #159 -- anything goes

Glittery ornament

I have this pad of Christmas patterned paper that really isn't to my taste; I like my Christmas stuff pretty traditional, and this pad is very modern. But waste not... so I'm trying to find ways to use it that tone down the paper, and I think I found a nice mix here. The secret seems to be a good amount of white space.

I used a red printed piece for my base, then added a wide snippet of striped glitter paper.  I used a Prickly Pear die and my trusty Cuttlebug to create an ornament-shaped opening on a snippet of white paper, which I placed over the stripes. I took advantage of a glittery strip on top of the striped piece and left it uncovered to provide a glitter band across the card.  A holiday sentiment stamped in burgundy and a bow of burgundy cording was all it took to finish off the card.

I'm entering this card in these challenges:
Ribbon Girl November Color Challenge -- red
Die Cut Divas November -- holiday spirit
Pixie's Snippet Playground #151
CHNC Christmas extra, November

Paper-pieced butterflies

Since I won the Butterfly Challenge a few weeks ago (thanks to Ms. Random.org), Mrs. A asked me to guest design for the Butterfly Challenge #19 that starts today. The challenge is "paper-pieced butterfly." Here's the funny part -- I love paper-piecing, and I have my fair share of butterfly images, yet none of them really lend themselves to paper-piecing.  I finally decided to work with an Inkadinkadoo image of a flock of butterflies, and try piecing a few of them -- the ones that had the more open patterns on them.
The butterflies are stamped in Navy, and the printed paper is from Lime Rickey by Basic Gray.  Once I'd cut the oval, there was a partial butterfly at the top, which I chose to cover with a punched butterfly.  (I put a solid orange butterfly behind the print/punched one so it didn't blend into the background.)  I also used the old trick of running the edges of the paper along an orange ink pad to get a little line of color there.

I'm entering this card in these challenges:
Loves Rubberstamps #127 -- Things with Wings
Papertake Weekly -- Soooooo Girly
Clear It Out -- anything Goes
Word Art Wednesday #159-- anything Goes
Sister Act #83 -- anything Goes
CHNC patterned paper challenge, November -- patterned paper.

Scoring saves the day

It happens to me all the time -- I  finish the card, then think "this would look so much better if I had embossed that panel." Happened again when I made this card -- that green panel was so flat and BORING, but it was too late to emboss it without possibly tearing everything up. Then I had a great idea -- if I can't emboss it, I can at least score it.  Quick, simple and it made a difference. I really need to remember to emboss more, but now I know I can save some cards with a few score lines; my genius moment for the day.

The card features Prickly Pear stamps and matching die I picked up for a song at the craft consignment sale.  They are stamped in Burgundy and popped up over a panel that features a patterned paper of ornaments. The printed paper actually gives a sense of depth, and with the Pop Dots, this card has some
dimension in real life. The ornaments are "hanging" off burgundy colored cording. The ribbon running under the ornaments says "Merry Christmas" in silver -- it was hard to photograph well.

This card is for these challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge:  Ornaments
Die Cut Divas November Challenge -- Holiday spirit
Crafty Ribbons #106 -- Christmas with Ribbons
C.R.A.F.T. 285 -- Christmas
Really Reasonable Ribbons #106 -- Winter holiday with ribbons
Word Art Wednesday #158  -- Anything Goes

Girly birthday

I don't usually make really "girly cards" but this one fits the description.
Mrs. A's Butterfly Challenge challenged us to use three different patterned papers on one card, and that was the start of this. I actually used four different patterns. I used a pack of papers from My Mind's Eye (The Sweetest Thing) that is very feminine, so I decided the embrace the girly thing.
The layout of the card is based on one I saw on some blog -- I thought I'd pinned it, but it wasn't on my board, so I had to go from memory. The doily was cut in half and sponged with a color called Papaya.  I made banners out of a few snippets and pierced them around the edges, then covered all the top ends with an interesting bit of fiber. The butterfly is cut from a die from Simon Says Stamp (and my trusty Cuttlebug), and it's also edged in Papaya.  I added three rosettes to make it really girly, and a sentiment from Endless Creations.

I'm entering these challenges:
Butterfly #18 -- three patterned papers
Cuttlebug Mania -- You go girl (Girly)
Crafting for All Seasons #90 -- Birthday
Clear It Out -- use three of something (roses)
Inky Impressions # 185 -- animals (butterfly)
Word Art Wednesday #158 -- Anything Goes
Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge -- use patterned paper

Flat snowflakes

Time to get serious about Christmas cards.  I love the challenge this week at Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge -- Keep it Flat. Having just packed up and mailed some very bulky cards for the SCS card drive for the MD Anderson Cancer Center, I was ready to think flat.

This cute little marshmallow snowman is from Bugaboo. The layout is the current Sketch Saturday sketch, #335.  The snowman is colored in pencils, and layered on a green snippet, then a candy-cane striped one, and finally on a snowflake printed layer.  The diagonal element is green grosgrain ribbon. The embellishment is a snowflake die cut from a snippet of vellum, topped by one made of shiny silvery paper. To me, the die cuts add a nice illusion of dimension without really adding any bulk. I added a line of Stickles on the ground for snow and a few dots in the sky to finish it off.

This card is for these challenges:
Catch the Bug -- food
CHNC Christmas #202 -- Keep it Flat
Sketch Saturday #335
C.R.A.F.T # 284-- Christmas with ribbon
Pixie's Snippet Playground #150 -- (Lots of snippets here)
CHNC Xmas Extra -- Anything Christmas
CHNC Patterned Paper -- Anything Goes
World Art Wednesday #157 Anything Goes

More pumpkins

I liked the die-cut pumpkin I made last week so much that I made an even smaller version, using the very smallest of the Nestability ovals.  I used it as the embellishment for the current Sketch Saturday challenge.  In fact, I went kind of wild on the pumpkin theme here.

The image is from Paper Cupcakes, colored with pencils.  There's brown flocking in the center of the sunflower. That's pumpkin washi tape across the middle.

I'd like to enter these challenges:
C.R.A.F.T. #282 -- Autumn
Sketch Saturday #333
Die Cut Divas (Oct)-- Change of Seasons
Word Art Wednesday #155-- Anything Goes
Sister Act #80 -- Anything Goes

Look what I found

I keep most of my Christmas card supplies in one drawer, so stuff can get buried. While digging through it, I came across a sheet of fairly large stickers and decided to see how they would look as the featured on a card. Framing them on a circle or oval seemed a good way to make them seem like "featured art," so that's one I did.  I also added a touch of sparkle to each, as well as ribbon or twine and a sentiment.
What do you think?
The bear is perfect for Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge #200 -- If you want to get ahead, get a hat (something with a head and a hat on it,) as well as for Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Extra (anything Christmas).
With a pair of cards, I can also enter Sarn's Rudolph Day challenge.

Pumpkin time

Pumpkins made from die-cut ovals were all over the Web several weeks ago; I finally got around to making a card incorporating one. 

The ovals were cut with a small oval Nesatbility. I cut five of them out of my last snippet of this lovely patterned paper, sponged the edges with orange and assembled them.  The stem is a tiny bit torn from a bit of corrugated cardboard. The leaf was cut from another snippet. The curlicue is a bit of mizuhiki cord; I wrapped around the point on my embossing stylus to get a good tight curl.
To make the background I masked off the center, then sprayed brown mist and splattered on yellow and orange in with a paintbrush.  Sentiment is by Mark's Finest Paper.

I'm entering this card in these challenges:
CRAFT #282 -- Autumn
Loves Rubberstamps #123 -- warm colors
Pixie's Snippet Playground #147 (all the pumpkin pieces are snippets)
Word Art Wednesday #155 -- anything goes
Simon Says Stamp, Monday challenge -- anything goes.

Pretty in pink

Sometimes CAS is the only way to go.  I wanted to show off this beautiful, so I kept it clean and simple.
The image is from Rubbernecker.  To get the water color effect, I colored on the stamps with Distress makers, spritzed them with water, then stamped the image.  I added a little velvet ribbon, popped the image up on a mat with a litter border punch action, and it's done.

I'm entering these challnges

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge -- Watercolor
Inky Impressions 180 -- flowers and leaves
Sister Act #78 --anything goes
Creative Inspirations #284 -- anything goes
Word Art Wednesday #153 -- anything goes

Vintage feel

I used some vintage-y looking prints on this card. I can almost imagine them on an old quilt.
The card features a tag with a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt.  It is embellished with piercing around the edges, lace, and a couple punched butterflies. The butterflies are each accented with some tiny pearls.

I'm entering this card in these challenges:
Butterfly Challenge #16, use a tag and butterfly
The Paper Shelter #177, shabby chic
Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge, October

Going all out for Halloween

 

I kind of miss the old days when my son would spend 3 months changing his mind about what he wanted for a Halloween costume. About now is when I'd tell him to make up his mind for sure so I'd have time to actually make the costume...

I kind of got into that spirit with this card.  The sketch is from Sketch Saturday  (#330). The haunted house is from QKR Stampede, and it's layered on purple. Behind that, I used a big spiderweb image, with just enough showing to suggest what it is. There are bats on the band running behind that.

I got the idea for the tombstone somewhere online, but mine might be a slightly scaled down version of the original. I took a chipboard tag and covered it with gray acrylic paint. My paint is old and rather thick, which worked out well for the effect.  After it dried, I sponged on black ink and black-embossed RIP.


This card is for the following challenges:

Sketch Saturday #330
Whoopsi Daisy, Things with Wing (bats all over the place)
Loves Rubberstamps #121, anything goes
Papertake Weekly, anything goes.

Never enough purses

I've had this set from Purple Onion for years, but I still think it makes a fun card.  The sentiment is:
A girl can never have ....
too many fabulous handbags, too many stylish shoes, or too many incredible girlfriends.

The various purses are stamped in a ot pink, and they all decked out with the teeniest, tiniest little pearls I've ever seen.  The papers are from this humonguous 12x12 stack I bought ages ago and will never be able to use up.

I am entering this card in these challenges:
Crafty  Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge/October, use patterned paper
Sister Act #77, anything goes
Word Art Wednesday #152, anything goes.

Shine on

I've been wanting to use this fancy corner piece since a friend sent it to me months ago, but I didn't have a layout in mind. This week's Papertake Weekly Challenge had a layout that really lent itself to the corner treatment, so I made this card.
The chandelier image is from Michael's dollar bin, I think -- I've had it for ages and never used it before.  It is white embossed, and accented with tiny pearls.

The card is for these challenges:

Papertake Weekly, sketch 94
The Paper Shelter #176, Pearls
Word Art Wednesday #152, Anything Goes
Crafty Girls Challenge #28, Anything Goes
Little Tangles #46, Anything Goes.

A little rain

Here's a card to cheer someone  up a rainy day.  I added a few touches of yellow to add a ray of sunshine.
The layout is the current one from Sketch Saturday (#329). The cute image is from Crafty Sentiments, colored in pencils.  There is paper glaze on the puddle the bunny is standing in, and the umbrella is paper-pieced with a hound's tooth patterned paper that picks up the colors from the cloud-and-rain patterned paper. I used white gel pen to doodle around the edges.  The bow is made from crinkled seam binding*.  The blue glass beads are on a small stick pin.

* To get the crinkled look, simply wet a length of seam binding, scrunch it up into a tight ball (I tie mine with a bit of string) and let it dry.

This card is for these challenges:
Sketch Saturday #329
Clear it Out -- use gray (papers are stash item)
Whoopsi Daisy -- two or more patterned papers (clouds and hound's tooth)
Word Art Wednesday #151 -- anything goes
Sister Act #76-- Anything Goes
Inky Impressions #178 -- anything goes

On the production line

When I first started making my own Christmas cards, I did it production line style. Then I realized I wasn't really enjoying it and decided I needed some variety in my cardmaking for it to be fun. However, since I was using the same image three times in this design, I figured it would be just as easy to stamp a few more and make a second card, qualifying for Sarn's Rudolph Day Challenge.  And it turned out I had just enough snippets to turn out two cards that are virtually identical.

The tree (from some cheap little unbranded set I picked up at HL years ago) is colored with pencils, with the star colored with a glitter pen.  There are two layers of glitter garlands on the tree -- I started with Diamond Stickles but once they had dried, I thought they were not obvious enough and added Silver Stickles. (Christmas cards need obvious glitter, right?).

The patterned papers (all snippets) are from an Echo Park stack.  The panel that runs the width of the card has thin red satin ribbon along the edges.

ETA: Whoops, I meant to put a sentiment in the lower right corner....  I'll do that before these get mailed.

I'm entering this card in these challenges

Rudolph Day, September
Pixie's Snippet Playground #143
Word Art Wednesday # 151, Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday, Anything Goes
Inky Impressions #178, Anything Goes

It's flocking time

I've mentioned before I have one pot of Flower Soft, and  use it to make flowering trees on spring cards. I realized today I follow the same pattern with my flocking -- I use it in fall cards, for the center of sunflowers. I think I need to find some other images to use it with....
The image on this card is from Mark's Finest Paper, colored with pencils and with that lovely brown flocking.  The leaves are cut from Spellbinder's die called Little Leaf Sets.  The dotted paper is from my mind's eye, and the closely matching baker's twine is Martha Stewart. The ribbon behind the leaves and  twine has a tiny checked pattern.

I would like to enter the card in these challenges:
Crafting for All Seasons #86-- colors of autumn
Paper Shelter #174-- ribbon or twine
Creative Inspiration #281-- Going Dotty
Cuttlebug Mania -- die cuts
Clear it Out -- polka Dots
Crafy Hazelnut's patterned paper challenges, September  -- anything goes with dp
Word Art Wednesday #150 -- Anything Goes

A touch of fall

Energized by a touch of fall in the air (after a Saturday that was so blazing hot we spent about an hour at a festival and decided to leave rather than risk heatstroke), I made a fall card. I used a technique from the latest Technique Junkie's newsletter, creating a quilt pattern from snippets and then embossing it. I love this bad of fall-patterned papers so I wanted to make use of every bit of it.
The sktch is the current Sketch Saturday sketch, #327.
The sentiment is from Mark's Finest Paper, stamped in Colorbox Chalk maroon ink. I used copper paper for the die-cut leaves.  The maroon strip along the left edge is actually the leftover from a scallop border.
I would like to enter this card in these challenges
Sketch Saturday, sketch 327
Pixie's Snippet Playground #142
Simon Says Monday -- Rock the Techniques
Whoopsi Daisy -- autumn colors
Word Art Wednesday #149, Anything goes.

Dragonfly dance

Mrs. A, owner of The Butterfly Challenge, asked us to bring other winged creatures this time around for an Ugly Bug Ball.  Since I have several dragonfly stamps (remember were dragonflies were everywhere?) I decided to bring them.
The dragonflies (Inkadinkadoo) are silver-embossed on black paper, and matted on a white panel. Behind that panel is a piece of polished stone, which is actually a snippet that's been sitting around since who knows when. It's made with various Ranger alcohol inks, and some silver mixative. (It fits the make your own challenge at Simon Says).  
I sponged some Bliss Blue on white prima flowers and pierced around the lower right edge of the main panel.
I would like to enter the card in these challenges:
Butterfly #14, bugs with wings
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday, make your own background paper (polished stone)
Simon Says Stamp Monday, Stamptember
The Paper Shelter #173, embossing of any kind
Pixie's Snippet Playground #141 (everything is a snippet, including the polished stone, black and white)
Word Art Wednesday #149, anything goes
Creative Inspiration #280, Anything Goes

Loving those leaves

Autumn is my favorite time of the year. Of course, here in the Southeast we are a long way from autumn, but at least I know it will come, eventually.
I truly do love leaves as an art element, about as much as I like flowers. I have a good number of leaf images, and over the summer I bought the Spellbinder's Little Leaf set. (Got it from the vendor I worked for at a scrapbooking show -- it's been discontinued.) I also bought a fall-themed stack of 4x6 patterned paper  (K&Co. Tim Coffey Fall Mat pad), so I was ready to tackle a fall card.  Both these items count as Never Been Used Stuff, so I was excited to see Darnell announce her second NBUS challenge.
Since the leaf paper is so pretty, I didn't want to use an image to compete with it; I just used this sentiment from Rubbernecker.
I sat down with my basket of snippet papers and started die-cutting until I had a huge pile of little leaves in various fall colors. I picked out some that complement the pattern paper and used them to embellish the sentiment panel. (You'll probably see others throughout the fall.)  The copper ribbon hides the seam between the two pieces of card stock and gives the card a little shine.

I am entering the card in these challenges
NBUS #2 -- Leaf dies and paper stack are NBUS
Really Reasonable Ribbons #102 -- fall colors and ribbon
Die Cut Divas -- Something new (leaf die)
Whoopsi Daisy -- leaves
Pixie's Snippet Playground 140 -- snippets (all those leaves)

Boldly to go

       Miss Carter, who taught 11th grade honors English when I was in high school, was a stickler for grammar. The Star Trek motto, she said, should not be "to boldly go where no human has gone" but "boldly to go ...." so as to avoid the split infinitive. I distinctly remember making a sarcastic comment that "boldly to go" sounded like a deli order.
       So, today I went boldly, encouraged by the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge to "be bold".  For me, combining a ton of orange and yellow is pretty bold.
       The sketch is Sketch Saturday sketch 232, which I pulled out for their current challenge to pick a previous sketch. (I substituted an oval for the circle but otherwise followed pretty closely.)
       The butterfly (Stamps on Fire), is black embossed, and I used an out-of-the-box cut on the wings before cutting the oval. The ovals are up on pop dots.
        The sentiment is from CTMH and stamped with Memento black ink.
        The yellow card stock is embossed with a Sizzix folder run thru the trusty Cuttlebug, and the swirly pattern sort of has a similar feel to the print on the orange paper.  A few gel dots finish the card.
I'd like to enter these challenges:
Sketch Saturday #325
Butterfly Chalenge #13, butterfly and sentiment
Cuttlebug Mania, Anything embossed
Simon Says Stamp Monday, Be Bold
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday, Use a Stamp
Word Art Wednesday #148, Anything Goes
Loves Rubberstamps #119, Anything Goes

Interlocking gatefold

I read about interlocking gatefold cards -- where the image and frame over the gatefold interlock -- on SCS and decided to give it a try. I went with a Halloween theme.
To create the interlocking elements, I white-embossed the mummy/cat/witch (awesome image from Impression-Obsession!) on black paper, then cut it out with a label nestie. For the frame, I cut a larger square of purple, used the same nestie to create the opening, and used a corner rounder on the corners. After that, it's a matter of precisely lining elements up, and adhering the frame on the left part of the gatefold and the center panel on the right.  I think you can get the idea from the photo.
The card is embellished with stickles and some plastic spiders.
I am entering the card in these challenges:
Simon Says Monday -- Witch Kraft
CRAFT 274 -- animals
Inky Impressions 174 -- anything goes
Sister Act 72 -- anything goes

Apple picking time

Blogger went dead on me for two days. Sadly, it made me realize I spend a lot (probably too much )time checking out blogs...
Here's an apple themed card using last week's SCS sketch. 
The apples (from The Alley Way Stamps)  are paper pieced with snippets of red, white, kraft and green.  The apple pie (from DRS) is colored in pencils and matted on another kraft snippet. (I think all 3 of the kraft snippets on this card are different, so there's a lot of variation here).
I was going to use white-on-black letter stickers, which turned out to be buried too deeply in the stash to locate, but I did find these interesting acrylic dome letter stickers to use instead. "Yum" is a good word to make from leftover letters.
The card is finished off with some red-and-white twine and a different red-and-white pattern paper than the one used for the apples.
I'm entering this card in these challenges:
Pixies Snippet Playground #139 -- snippets
Loves Rubberstamps #118 -- two patterned papers
Clear It Out -- Favorite color combo
Simon Says Wednesday -- Anything Goes
Word Art Wednesday #147 -- Anything goes