AUTUMN LEAVES

There's been a wealth of potential autumn challenges of late and I sat down over the weekend to use up some of my old autumn printed papers and a pile of brown cardstock that has been languishing on my shelves for a couple of years. I made several cards with the same layout, but changed out various scraps to make different combinations. By the time I got around to photographing my work, a couple of the challenges had closed, but still open are Inkspirational Challenge #326 - Mood Board and The Paper Players Color Challenge #PP711 - Shades of Orange & Brown.

I used one of my favorite autumn sentiments from Impression Obsession (#WP684 "Leaf Set") and stamped it in PTI "Dark Chocolate" on various pieces of ivory and cream papers that I had die cut with a fancy framed die (don't know the manufacturer because I've had it for so long). Then I die cut several stitched rectangular panels of printed papers and matted them each and attached to the face of mostly brown card bases - well, one is on a base of PTI "Ocean Tides" card stock. The leaves were all die cut using Spellbinders "Autumn Wonder" #S6-220 and small scraps from my paper drawers. I pulled some silk thread through one of the leaves with a sequin and tied it off before attaching to the face of the card. This was such an easy card to duplicate, that I believe I'll make a bunch more over the next month.

In these photos I shot them in pairs based on the background papers. It was a task to make these photos, as the light is low today:

Inkspirational: Inkspirational Challenge #326 - Mood Board (inkspirationalchallenges.blogspot.com)

 The Paper Players: PP711 - A Colour Challenge from Joanne

GRATEFUL

I've been mulling ideas for my Thanksgiving cards and kept going back to one I did last year and then never sent out. I just didn't get my act together, and anyway it would have been extra postage to send because of the square format, size, and extra layers and I didn't want to pay the extra. So this year I've been rethinking last year's version. I have a stack of old woodgrain kraft card stock from another year and I was thinking that I would use it this year and see what I could do to play around with texture, keeping the colors to a neutral minimum.

I started with a 5x7 top-folded card base and messed with that a while but realized that there was something about the square format that just worked better with these fabulous Spellbinders mushrooms. So I trimmed the card down to a 5x5 and it will now fit into kraft A7 envelopes that I already have on hand. I cut a smaller square and matted it with an ivory scrap. The PTI sentiment is white heat-embossed onto the front panel before adding the leaf swirl, which was over-stamped with VersaMark Watermark ink. Finally, the mushroom parts were die cut from the same woodgrain stock and off-white watercolor paper, assembled, and glued to the face.

I think I'll probably finish these off by binding a folded lightweight ivory paper leaf to the inside with a message. When I have them all finished, I'll put them into my gallery as the 2024 Thanksgiving card.

I thought to enter this in the current AAA Card Challenge #275 - "Anything CAS Goes/Autumn Colors". I think these are autumn colors.

 AAA Cards: AAA Card Challenge #275: Anything CAS Goes (Autumn)

LET'S GIVE THANKS!

Let's give thanks to Anne Marie, who's in charge this week at The Paper Players and she's come up with a perfect theme for this time of year for our new challenge!

The Paper Players: PP665 - A Theme Challenge from Anne Marie

My take on Anne Marie's challenge is a basket full of thanks! I started with a wood-grained kraft cardstock as a card base. I used an ivory cardstock panel, die cut as a rectangular stitched panel that I stamped with an ancient stamp that I had never used before. I stamped it with PTI "Dark Chocolate" and "Americana" inks, punched a couple of holes, and pulled through and tied two strands of silk thread that I had colored with Copic markers. I stamped the basket from PTI's "Basket of Blessings" on kraft paper, colored it with Copic markers, and mounted it to the face of the ivory panel with dimensional foam. The final steps were to matt the ivory panel with rust cardstock and glue it to the wood grained card and add some rust-colored gems.   

If you haven't checked out The Paper Players Challenge blog yet, go and see what the ladies have prepared for your inspiration!

On a Personal Note: Four years ago I tried to retire, but one of my long-standing design clients asked me to stay on with him to complete an office park with three buildings next to the tenth fairway of a local golf course. The projects were interesting and varied and I told him I would help - as long as the spaces would be done only one at a time. Well, there was some overlap, but in the end, I completed design work on one speculative office space, one full building for a medical research lab, a financial planner's offices, and several spaces in a 4-story mixed use building in Ashland. Finally last Tuesday was the grand opening of a large medical spa that I've been working on for a full year and the completion signaled my agreement with myself to fully retire. So, as of the beginning of last week I am now officially retired! At 78 I think it is about time!     

AUTUMN BLESSINGS

I consider having a fall birthday to be a blessing, as it's my favorite time of the year! My birthday is Monday and I treated myself to some new fall crafting supplies and set aside some time this morning to play with a couple of the dies. I used the current Freshly Made Sketches #604 as inspiration. 

I'm really happy with the simplicity of this card and think I'll use it for my personal fall/Thanksgiving card this year. It will be really easy to replicate 30 of these. The background flourish is from an old fall set, and I stamped it with Hero Arts "Wet Cement". Then I overprinted it with a sentiment from PTI "Stylized Autumn" and heat embossed it with Stampendous Pearl Lustre "Peridot". Finally, I attached these cute toadstools from Spellbinders "Autumn Wonder" dies with dimensional foam.

So, I'm sending it over to Freshly Made Sketches: 

Freshly Made Sketches: Freshly Made Sketches #604 - A Sketch by Cécile

 

THANKFUL FOR AUTUMN BLESSINGS

Even though it has been a stressful year on many levels, we still have much to be thankful for this fall season. I've been working on my Thanksgiving cards, have finalized the design, and have most of them completed. I didn't use a specific challenge for inspiration, but I did decide to work only with materials I already have on hand.

I think this CAS design is pretty much self-explanatory. I used 110 lb. white cardstock for the base as well as the front panel and image. I had some kraft papers for a mat that I edged with my PTI "Dark Chocolate" pad before attaching the stamped sentiment panel (PTI "Stylized Autumn" and "Dark Chocolate" ink). The image is from Impression Obsession "Shades of Autumn" that I colored with my Copic markers and die-cut with a small deckle-edge die. I punched a hole in the corner and threaded a single wooden bead with a piece of brown twine. The twine I had on-hand was too thick to thread through a bead, so I separated the twine and I rather like the kinky quality.

This is the interior of the card - I left it to a single layer so that it can be mailed with just first-class postage. The cost of my Halloween cards this year was definitely a budget-breaker! Again, the image is from Impression Obsession's "Shades of Autumn", colored with Copics, and the sentiment is from Colorado Craft Company's Savvy Sentiments #SS366 - "Truly Thankful", although I cut it apart and tinkered with the layout a bit, stacking and centering the words.

There are a couple of challenge blogs where this card is marginally acceptable because they suggest Thanksgiving cards.

I used orange-yellow, orange, and red-orange with green and neutral browns for this Less is More Challenge #477:

"Less is More": Challenge #477 - Colour Wheel (simplylessismoore.blogspot.com)

The Paper Players: PP616 - A Theme Challenge from Claire

Make the Cards Challenge #67

Added November 12, 2022:

Added November 19, 2022:

GRATITUDE

A real quick CAS card this morning before I go outside to the garden. This card is inspired by the challenge at AAA Card Game #226 "Sketch + Thankful".

I started with a stitched rectangular panel and a very old fall stamp that I've never used. (I'm not entirely pleased with the quality of the stamp - it's either the stamp or a slight ink bleed. The paper is a very high quality 110 lb. ivory card stock, so I don't think it's the paper.) I stamped the sentiment twice, the second time on a strip of yellow-gold scrap, cut it in half horizontally, and over-laid that on the original brown sentiment. I added two more strips of coordinating cardstock per the layout and colored a couple of the leaves orange on the yellow-gold strip. It seemed a bit too CAS, so I added a tiny die cut leaf with gemstone and a brown twine bow before attaching all to the top-folded card base.  

Now, to the garden!

AAA Cards: Game #226 Sketch + Thankful

FROM OUR HOUSE TO YOURS

The Thanksgiving cards are all but finished! All I have to do at this point is sign them, slip them into their envelopes, and drop them into the mail. This is probably the earliest I've had my cards finished.

I made 26 of these flat enough to go through the US mail with standard first-class postage. I started with some 120 lb. Environment "Desert Storm" cardstock from LCI Paper and matching A2 envelopes. I side-folded the cards and stamped the leaf swirl across the face of the card with PTI "Orange Zest" ink. Then I die-cut a smaller stitched rectangle and repositioned the stamp on my MISTI so that the swirl would match up when the top piece was glued to the face of the card with a dark brown vellum mat. I added some additional color to the leaves with PTI "Americana" ink. I have no idea whose autumn swirl this is, I've had it for so many years and have used it again and again. The sentiment is from Colorado Craft Company's Savvy Sentiments #SS366 - "Truly Thankful" and stamped with PTI "Dark Chocolate and heat embossed with Stampendous "Detail Clear" embossing powder to enrich the color of the sentiment and add a bit of sheen. The final step was to die cut a couple of tiny houses with Nellie's Choice #SD214 "Village" from dark brown cardstock and glue those over the leaf swirl. 

You can see that I also used the leaf swirl image across the corner of the matching envelopes. I also lined the envelopes with dark brown vellum that I had in my papers. I couldn't get a good photo of the inside but they have a matching leaf swirl, "Happy Thanksgiving", and a single tiny die-cut house.

I thought to send this over to Happy Little Stampers November "Anything Goes with Dies" challenge. 

 Happy Little Stampers: HLS November Anything Goes with Dies Challenge

ADDICTED TO CAS #210 - CIRCLE

It's time once again for a new challenge at ATCAS and our host Sue has selected "Circle" as the new code word. I'm starting to put some serious thought into Thanksgiving cards so chose to go in that direction.

I started with some 100 lb. Warm Cream felt card stock I ordered from LCI Paper that arrived this morning. I trimmed the cardstock to 5-1/2" x 11" and folded it in half. Then I cut a slightly smaller square and die-cut a circle out of the center. I then cut another circle slightly smaller than the first one and stamped the tree image with PTI "Orange Zest" and "Dark Chocolate" inks. I over-printed the sentiment from Savvy Sentiments with Zing! "Copper" heat embossing powder (which doesn't show up in this photo). I then glued the circle with the images onto the face of the card and mounted the larger circle over that with dimensional foam. Finally, I die-cut a small maple leaf from some scraps of copper fabric left over from my son's wedding invitations 13 years ago and glued on three small copper sequins. 

Here's a close-up photo that shows the copper metallic sentiment a bit better:

Addicted to CAS: Challenge #210 - Circle

 

THANKFUL

I hadn't really intended to end up in my craft room today, but here I am! This is a new card in response to Freshly Made Sketches #508. 

I rotated the sketch by 90 degrees. The image of the oak branch is probably one of the first clear stamp sets I ever bought and I have no idea whose it is. I stamped it with Altenew "Rocky Shore" on light kraft paper and then over-stamped it again with Memento "Potter's Clay" and PTI "Pure Poppy". I wanted the branches to be darker so I colored them with a brown fine marker and filled in the three acorns with a Copic marker. I then stamped the sentiment from a new set from Savvy Sentiments in Altenew "Espresso" and die-cut all of this with a rectangular stitched die. I mounted a strip of linen patterned russet cardstock to a wood-grain darker kraft cardstock and tied a brown ribbon on. I attached the kraft rectangle to the card with a bit of dimensional foam. 

Freshly Made Sketches: Freshly Made Sketches #508 - A Sketch by Jacquie

AUTUMNAL SINGLE-LAYER

Good morning, friends. We woke this morning to the first foggy overcast day we've had for quite some time, although it has now cleared and the sun is trying to peak through. It looked like a typical southern Oregon November morning. Autumn is definitely here!

This morning's offering is to both Less is More Challenge #454 - OLC - "Autumnal" and Happy Little Stampers October Stencil Challenge.  

I used a Strathmore watercolor card and matching envelope for this card. I started by inking one of the stencils from Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz Collection with Altenew "Sand Dune" dye ink and then over-stamping the sentiment and image from Colorado Craft Company (Savy Sentiments #SS368) and Impression Obsession, respectively, with PTI "Dark Chocolate". Finally I colored in part of the image with my Copics markers and applied 3 small tan pearls. 

I did this card twice because the first time I used all Altenew inks and they bled into the paper badly. The second time I switched to PTI for the over-printing and this time it bled into the Altenew ink where the stencil was. If I were to use this for my personal Thanksgiving cards I think I would spend a bit more time experimenting with different combinations of ink so that I would get less bleed - or smoother paper. (My OCD raising its ugly head!) And speaking of OCD, that envelope liner is exactly the color of the stenciled woodgrain on the card, but it photographed differently. 

"Less is More": Challenge #454 - OLC - Autumnal (simplylessismoore.blogspot.com)

Happy Little Stampers: HLS October Stencil Challenge

ADDICTED TO CAS - #207 "AUTUMN"

I'm hosting this two-week challenge at Addicted to CAS #207 and I've chosen "Autumn" as the key word. Autumn is my favorite time of year and I don't think that Kylie was aware when she assigned me to this particular two-week period that it is actually my birthday as this goes live! So, happy birthday to me!

Living in an area with hot dry summers I always look forward to the Autumnal Equinox and the cooler mornings and evenings. I love the colors of fall as the trees' leaves turn orange and red. My card for this challenge celebrates all of that.

I had some heavy brown card stock from a previous Thanksgiving card edition and I cut out a stitched rectangle and gold-embossed this wreath image from Impression Obsession, Inc. (#D20737) onto it. Using my Exacto knife I hand trimmed slits on each side of the wreath to insert a pumpkin-colored sentiment strip that I had stamped from PTI's "Stylized Autumn" with Altenew's "Espresso" Crisp Dye Ink. This was all mounted to a brown top-folded card with a metallic mat. Finally I die-cut a couple of leaves from the same metallic card stock, glued them to the sentiment strip and finished it all off with three tiny gold sequins. 

Have at it, guys! I hope you enjoy this challenge as much as I have and be sure to visit all of the other members of our Design Team to see their beautiful interpretations of "Autumn".

Addicted to CAS: Challenge #207 - Autumn

 

GIVE THANKS

This week I combined not one, not two, but THREE challenges for this week's card and coordinating envelope - very efficient, if I say so! I'm participating with Addicted to CAS #170 "Plaid", Impression Obsession Challenge "Halloween or Fall Colors", and Just Us Girls #509 "Frame it!".

 

  

This beautiful plaid paper is "Autumn Splendor" from Simple Stories. I purchased it at The Craft Warehouse. The ivory cardstock is from Reflections and the orange gingham is from PTI. I don't know where I got the filigreed die label, but I've had it for years. The pumpkin stamps on the face of the card and on the address label are both from IO "Shades of Autumn" #CL693. I made the coordinating envelope with a Martha Stewart scoring platform and bone folder. 

 

http://addictedtocas.blogspot.com/2019/10/addicted-to-cas-challenge-170.html

 

 

 

https://mitrafriant.typepad.com/impression_obsession_news/2019/10/new-impression-obsession-challenge-halloween-or-fall-colors.html

 

 

 

http://justusgirlschallenge.blogspot.com/2019/10/just-us-girls-509-trend-week.html

 

 

October 18, 2019