September AJ Page-Quiet Beauty

Hello friends! I do not even know where this month went! Wow! I guess life has a way of keeping us busy and sometimes we just need to make time to take time. I do hope that you’re having a great September month and looking to the Autumn season. It’s my favorite season to be out in…I still need the cooler weather though! I’m hoping for it soon!

Can’t believe it, but it’s time for another monthly AJ page with my crafty friend Carol (from Crafty-Stamper) who is collaborating with me to “SMASH OUR STASH”! We get creative trying to use up our never-ending stash piles along with a prompt for each month. I know she always has great inspiration to share, so please check out her blog too! Here’s my AJ page with the “SMASH OUR STASH” SEPTEMBER prompt of “WOOD”:

Although the temps are still unseasonably warm right now, I’m dreaming of those pretty Autumn colors and cooler temps! I decided to get lots of inks out and make a background for this one to display my leaves across it.

For the background: I started with a kraft piece of cardstock measuring my usual 8.5″x 5.5″ size and then at every 3/4″ I scored a line across the longer side edge. So, using the score marks with the texture line facing up at me, I swiped a few colors of distress inks in Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Rusty Hinge and Black Soot. I then took a flat DRY paint brush and brushed down over the ink marks I swiped to brighten the colors. It’s such a simple technique to make a background!

I definitely “shopped my stash” this time and pulled out a VERY old Stampin’ Up! stamp set called “Wonderfall” and the Bigz die to cut them out. Those were the days where we didn’t have a MISTI tool to help us line stamps up! LOL It’s much easier now with the MISTI! So I splattered all of the leaves after the die cutting and stamping with metallic gold watercolor, brown and white Copic Opaque white. I arranged them all over the background and attached them.

Here’s a closer view of the background so you can see how I’ve done it along with the details on the leaves.

For the sentiment, I die cut some letters from gold metallic foil cardstock and attached to background. I used my computer to print out the other words and die cut them out with a banner die and sponged the edges. I used foam tape to pop up the one over the leaf.

Lastly, I used some gold glitter drops to add a bit of sparkle to it.

Thanks so much for dropping in today! I hope you’ve enjoyed my art journal page today! I hope you’re able to get outside and enjoy your weekend!

Challenges:

Art Journal Journey – Make Your Own Background (wood panel/plank background with inks)

J is for JUMP

Happy Friday friends! 🎉 I see that we are nearing the end of August and that it’s time for kids to get back to school, which means, Autumn is heading our way! I think I’m ready for cooler weather right now! I just love all things Fall as it’s my favorite time of the year! What is your favorite season?

Today starts up a new challenge over at the Alphabet Challenge Blog! Our next letter is “J”, and the hostess has chosen “J is for JUMP” (this can be anything that jumps!) *Please remember that this is a bi-weekly challenge, so you have two weeks to enter.* I hope you’ll join in the fun with us. Here’s the project I’ve made for this challenge:

I knew when I saw the theme for this challenge that I had to use a pile of leaves for “jump“! I also think the best critters for that would come from Lawn Fawn of course! Can you see the little “wee” mouse jumping out from the pile?!

I started with a white card front by blending some blue inks in the background for the sky. I also used the Lawn Fawn Leafy Tree Backdrop: Portrait die to go over my ink blended sky background. The frame and tree were cut out from dark brown woodgrain texture cardstock. I used some green cardstock to cut the circle from the die set to place behind the tree as well as the LF Grassy Hillside Border die behind the tree and frame as well.

For the Autumn leaves pile and sentiment, I used the LF Jump for Joy stamp set/dies. All images were colored with Copics and I white heat embossed the sentiment over the ink blended sky. For the mice critters, I used the LF You Autumn Know stamp set/dies. For the little bunny, I used the LF Butterfly Kisses stamp set/dies. Some of the die cut images were just attached and others were popped up with foam tape for dimension. I actually wanted my pile of leaves to be larger, so I stamped, colored and die cut two of them. (I needed that little mouse on the right to be jumping out from the pile too!)

This was a fun one to make because I kept pulling out different sets to figure out which critters I wanted to use, but these cute mice get me every time. It makes me look forward to seeing the colors, sights, smells and sounds of Autumn coming. I hope you’ve enjoyed it too and I look forward to seeing all of the “jumping” that will appear in the gallery!

Thanks so much for stopping in today! Have a great weekend!

Challenges: