Autumn Greetings

Today's card was inspired by this pin which linked to this blog post:

What a cool scrapbook page!!! I loved the diagonal background and collage-y effect of the focal point, so here's where I took the inspiration.

The pumpkin and flourishes are from Papertrey's Fall Elegance set, and the sentiment is from Hero Arts' Color Layering Fall Leaves set. I wanted to put the sentiment on the lower left side of the pumpkin but didn't use my MISTI and made a boo boo stamping the pumpkin...imperfect impression on the upper right. The mistake is covered by the sentiment, and that placement puts the sentiment in the sweet spot, which is fortuitous, but the bottom left of the pumpkin looks a little bare.

After fretting over this for too long and trying to come up with something to fill the space, I decided that it was just fine the way it was. Good enough for government work, right?

By far my favorite part of this card is the background color. It's so unexpected on a fall card. The idea came from Halloween cards that feature orange, lime green, and bright purple. I took the purple much lighter to mimic the inspiration of the scrapbook page. The results make me smile!

If you want to see a video of my two golden clowns playing together, it's posted on Simplicity by LateBlossom's Facebook page.

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan


Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Fall Elegance, Hero Arts Color Layering Fall Leaves
ink: Memento Lulu lavender, Ranger orange soda, and a green and brown I can't recall
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: Post-its for masking, Ranger mini inking tool, rhinestones

Wishful Thinking

Today's fall birthday card makes me long for last week's weather. We had a glorious, week-long glimpse of autumn weather, and autumn is my favorite season. Now we are back to summer weather, however, and it's a bit sticky.

But here's my card. Warm fall colors give me hope for crisp fall days!

The vibrant colors are from Peerless Watercolors, which get my vote for affordable, rich color. They are easy to use, too. The leaves and sentiment were embossed in white and painted over.

Watercolor papers tend to be cream rather than white, but this paper is excellently white...I think it's Tim Holtz.

Today's card is destined for one of the many fall birthdays in my family.

And now for some Cooper pictures. Because, you know, puppies have a lot to do with stamping.

The escape artist made it through. Not for many
more weeks, though. He's growing so fast!

Sleeping under my chair.

"There's nothing wrong with liking a cool breeze!"
Cooper really enjoys sleeping on AC vents.

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Masculine Motifs
ink: embossing ink
paper: watercolor paper (probably Tim Holtz) and Papertrey white
accessories: Embossing Buddy, white embossing powder, heat gun, Peerless Watercolors, brush, water caddy

Crazy Awesome Bling

Some of my many Christmas cards end up in boxes sent with gifts, which means getting a little crazy with dimensional elements is occasionally an option.

When I found these crazy awesome holly embellishments, I knew they were winners!

The berry and leaf pieces are all on one adhesive sheet, so they are super easy to place...although if you wanted to cut them apart and rearrange them, you certainly could. For my purposes on this card, however, I left them just as they came.

They accent a sentiment from Papertrey's Mistletoe and Holly set.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Here's a sleepy puppy picture, just for you.

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey
ink: cannot remember
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: holly bling

IC614 Design Seeds Color Challenge

I do love a good color challenge, and Design Seeds is an excellent site to find inspiration. It's this week's Inspiration Challenge, hosted by the super-talented Audrie.

I chose my colors from a winter-themed picture called Heavenly Hues, which struck me as particularly lovely with the hint of green added to shades of blue.

Using sponges, I added each shade of pigment ink, starting with the green, blending as I went. The results were VERY satisfying!

Many thanks to Audrie for yet another awesome inspiration challenge!

-----------------------------------

And it's been a few days since I shared Cooper pictures. So here you go.

George and his dog. Just after I snapped this, George yelped
and said, "He bit my nipple!"

Daisy's teaching him who's boss.

His new sleeping spot. In a few weeks, he won't fit. 

But really, he'll sleep anywhere, and he's easier to photograph
when sleeping. 

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Wet Paint Holiday
ink: Avery Elle; Impress Fresh Ink; Memento Luxe
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: dimensionals, Creative Memories circle cutter, sponges

A Bunch of Thanks

Recently, Patti M., Peg M., and Lisa I. sent a combined 114 cards for Karen's Card Shop. Here are a few of the lovely cards they sent.

Lisa did an awesome job coloring several of these incredibly cute
cow images.

She also created some lovely backgrounds using a
variety of techniques. This was one of my favorites.
And what a great sentiment!

Peg M. sent a bunch of cute cards. I adore the
hedgehogs, and this one is just darling.

Peg warmed my heart with her sweet coffee card!

Patti M. does a particularly amazing job with
color on her cards. This background makes me
happy just to look at it, and the sentiment is
icing on the cake.

Patti's monochromatic beauty uses a fabulous
acrylic dot to accent the focal point perfectly!

Many, many thanks to Patti, Lisa, and Peg for contributing to Karen's Card Shop! If you're wondering what Karen's Card Shop is, please check out this page. If you want to contribute, please consider the following criteria:

1. Buyers can't look at the inside of the card in its clear bag, so please leave the inside blank. 
2. We mainly sell sympathy, get well, birthday, and thank you cards. Other themes simply don't sell as well. We ALWAYS need sympathy cards.
3. I have envelopes and clear cellophane bags to package the cards, so save postage and just send the cards. I'll take care of everything else.

Right now, we have enough of everything except sympathy. I'll keep you posted if the need changes.

Stampers are the most generous people out there. Thank you all who have contributed to our church's card shop so much! We've made almost $900 for our general fund in about 15 months. Yay!

Additional thanks are due to Sheila H., who very kindly sent me a die set and embossing folder last week! I've already made a card with the die set, which includes one flower die and two embossing dies.

It took a bit of experimentation to get the embossing dies to work, but as beautiful as they were in plain white, I knew they wouldn't show up on a photo, so I pulled out my brayer and colored them in these bright, happy colors, added a bit of bling to the centers, and arranged them in a visual triangle around a happy sentiment!

Thank you, Sheila, for sending me such wonderful happy mail!

I've been looking at buying some dies to go with sets I already have and a few new-to-me stamp/die combos. But I'm moving v-e-r-y slowly. Thank you all who commented on my Cuttlebug post with advice. Truly, this is uncharted territory for me, and I don't want to go all crazy nuts buying stuff I'll use once and forget about. I'm striving for sensible spending, which certainly has gotten easier over the years.

What an expensive learning curve, though. *sigh*

Mercy, grace, peace, love, and muchas gracias!
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts
ink: Ranger cheese puff, grape soda; Archival black, vibrant fuschia
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: flower die and embossing die, dimensionals, rhinestones, brayer

A Reminder about Thanksgiving

My last post used only the leaf veins from the Hero Arts Color Layering Fall Leaves set, and I added the color myself using a brush and Peerless Watercolors. After making that card, I wanted to use both the vein and block stamps together, thus using the color layering feature of the set. The ink used is Kaleidacolor Cajun spice, and each image was liberally spritzed with water before stamping.

The dark, rich colors would have looked odd on white cardstock, so I used a cream cardstock, either from Papertrey or Gina K...can't remember.

The brown bling adds interest and helps move the eye around the design.

And now for a reminder about Thanksgiving.

While I won't have a formal Thanksgiving Crusade this year, I will be sending cards to about 20 people in my life for whom I am grateful. I encourage you to do the same. You could send cards to the 20 people you know the best, or to people you've not seen in years but remember fondly, or to random people in your life (your barista, your pastor or imam or rabbi, your gynecologist, your mechanic). Doesn't matter. The point of this holiday is to wallow in gratitude for people, warm-blooded human beings who have made or are making or will make a positive difference in your life.

Gratitude knows no national boundaries, no boundaries of race or gender identity or age or socioeconomic status or immigration status or religion or politics. Spread that stuff all over!!!

For Americans, Thanksgiving feels really far away still, but for Canadians, it's getting close. And if you're living in a country that doesn't formally honor the concept of thanksgiving with an annual holiday, you can send thanksgiving cards any time you want.

In fact, we all can send thanksgiving cards whenever we want. It's just the uppercase Thanksgiving that happens in autumn and focuses on the plentiful harvest and gives us stampers so many fabulous leaf images.

How I love leaf images!

Mercy, grace, peace, love, and thanksgiving,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts Color Layering Fall Leaves
ink: Kaleidacolor Cajun spice; Archival potting soil
paper: cream cardstock
accessories: rhinestones, water spritz bottle

Peerless Watercolors and Autumn Leaves

The Hero Arts Color Layering Fall Leaves set is my new favorite leaf set.

I stamped the leaf veins and added color with the Peerless Watercolors...which give such wonderful, vibrant color.

And now I've got to go rescue Cooper from his next disaster. It's amazing how much trouble a little fur ball can get into.

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts Color Layering Fall Leaves
ink: Archival potting soil
paper: watercolor paper, Paperty vintage cream card stock
accessories: Peerless Watercolors, rhinestones, Tim Holtz paintbrush