Fall Leaves, Part II

     Still celebrating fall while doing this week's sketch for Card Positioning System (CPS237).  I really like this sketch, because it's such a change  from the usual A2 size, and I see a lot of possibilities for the different elements.

     Image is from Chapel Road Artstamps, and it's so appropriate for fall -- "every leaf a miracle."  It's stamped in Chestnut Roan Colorbox chalk ink.  I decided to showcase a couple of leaf-shaped brads in place of images on either side of the main image -- kind of like framed art.
     I'm also entering this card in Paper Cupcake's Magical Monday challenge, to use at least 3 pucnhes or dies cuts on the card. This has a total of six die cut Nesties in four different sizes.

     Several of the elements on this card -- the brads, twill ribbon and ink -- are the same as yesterday's fall card, but I think they look very different in the two contexts.

Fall Leaves

     The weather has cooled in the South to where it's pleasant but still doesn't feel like fall. That's a good three weeks off. But fall is my favorite time of year, so I'm enjoying it in stamping if not in real life.  So making a card for Really Reasonable Ribbon's current theme, Autumn, (RRR32) was the obvious thing to do.
     This card was created using the Card Patterns sketch for this week, sketch #134. The leaf stamps are from Autumn Leaves (how appropriate!). Not sure of the origin of the other stamp, it's a foam backed stamped I picked up on clearance at Hobby Lobby. The ink is Chestnut Roan fluid chalk ink, which is one of the real workhorses on my stamping desk.
     Papers are all from an old Provo Craft mat stack, and the burgundy twill ribbon worked well with it. As embellies I added faux stitching, a leaf brad and a punched edge.
     So, I have my fall leaves, and I don't have to rake them up.

With a Flourish

This week's sketch at Card Patterns (#132) is a very nice CAS layout. I used it for today's Teapot Tuesday Challenge at SCS, which called for creating a card with flourishes and pearls.  I used blue as the color  for this card, qualifying for Victorine Originals Challenge #16, to use a primary color.

This card went together extraordinarily quickly for me.  I simply stamped the Autumn Leaves flourishes on the base card and the sentiment (from TPC) on another panel, using Ancient Page Cobalt Blue ink.  Matted the panel with blue and added pearls to the flourishes and ribbon tabs to the edge. Used pop-dots behind the matted panel.

I love it when clean and simple is also quick and simple.

Baby Shoes

     I find baby shoes adorable -- almost as cute as baby feet. So when I saw Really Reasonable Ribbon's challenge (#31) to make a baby card, I wanted to use a baby shoe image.  I really thought I had a stamp of baby booties, but if I do it's lost in the stash, so I ended up just printing out some line art onto a pastel checked/plaid paper, and cutting out the shoe image.

      The sketch is this week's sketch challenge layout from Splitcoast. I embossed the green and blue layers (Swiss Dot seems so perfect for a baby card) and sewed the green layer onto the base card. I added a pastel ribbon and button, and a clear sticker for a sentiment.

Cooking up a cowboy image

I spent part of Saturday playing in the Virtual Stamp Night challenges at SCS.  One challenge called for using a technique to create faux leather with masking tape and clear embossing. It's a technique I've done before and, while the results are fun, tearing up little bits of masking tape can get tedious.  So, the two small diamonds on this week's Card Patterns sketch (#130) were the perfect size -- big enough to have impact, small enough not to take too long -- for me to use this technique.
The VSN theme this time was rodeo, and paired with the leather technique, a masculine card seemed appropriate. The image is one I simply found through a yahoo image search.  A little plaid paper, a few eyelets and lots of piercing sponging around the edges completed the look.

Goodbye to OTWC challenge

     This week is your last chance to take part in the Off The Wall Craftiness Challenge. Kim is stopping the challenge, which I have participated in regularly since the start.  We'll miss you Kim -- good luck with your future plans.

     The color combo for OTWC#58 is navy and coral (see inspiration photo to the right).  I combined the colors with the sketch for this week's CardPatterns sketch (Card patterns #129) to create this card. 

     The image is from Inkadinkadoo, stamped in SU Night of Navy ink.  The squarish panel and the coral panel are both stamped with the same flourish background stamp to tie the pieces together and add a little depth and interest-- I used versamark on the coral and looks quite subtle on the photo.

     I went punch crazy as well, adding punched corners to the square panel and using a new border punch on the white strip  (it's a new punch for me, and it appears I'll have a bit of a learning curve getting things to line up on it.)

     Hope everyone is having a great week.

Wish I were here

     Victorine Originals new challenge (challenge 15) is to use the theme "summer."  Where I live, there's plenty of summer left. Unfortunately, there is no beach around, so I can only wish I was here.

     I used the current CPS sketch, (CPS323) for the card.

    The challenge this week at Magical Monday (There's Magic in the Air) is to use a scene, and this beach scene says "summer" all the way.  The image is a new one from Purple Onion Designs, colored in pencils and OMS.  
    Clean and simple seems appropriate for summer.