P is for Pumpkin(s)

Hello friends! I hope that your month of November has been a good one for you so far! It’s getting cooler by the week, but I try to get out to enjoy the warmer days as much as I can before the winter gets here!

Today is a new challenge over at the Alphabet Challenge Blog! Our next letter is “P”, and our hostess, Deborah, has chosen “Pumpkin(s)” I hope you will join in the fun with us! *Please remember that this is a bi-weekly challenge, so you have two weeks to enter.* Here’s the project I’ve made for this challenge:

When I saw this challenge, I remembered that I had gotten a stitched pumpkin die set from Lawn Fawn a few years back and haven’t used them yet, so I pulled them out to use for this challenge! (I had to clip the metal dies apart, so I knew I hadn’t used it yet!)

I decided to cut them out in different colors of cardstock and then ink blended the bottoms of each in a darker shade including the stem on the top pumpkin. I also took them and splattered some gold, brown and white over all three pumpkins before assembling them in stacking order.

For the card front, I took a stitched white panel and stenciled some leaves (Pink & Main-not in store) in light tan ink. I made my scene for the pumpkin stack by using some Fall Plaid papers (not in store anymore) by Lawn Fawn for the background and die cutting a hill for the pumpkins to set on. I placed the plaid paper and ground over a darker brown cardstock layer and popped it up with foam tape over the stenciled leaves card front. I attached all of these layers onto a white top folding A2 card base.

For the sentiment, I white heat embossed the sentiment (not sure what Lawn Fawn set I used this for it) over dark brown cardstock and cut out a banner to pop up above the pumpkin stack with thin foam squares. I added a few gold rhinestones for sparkle.

Hope you’ve been inspired by my card today and stop on over at the challenge blog to join in the fun with us! I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

Thanks so much for stopping by and I’ll be back tomorrow with another challenge project!

Challenges:

Four Seasons – Fall
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – #265 Anything Goes
A Place to Start – Anything Goes with optional: Something new (I used a “new to me” stitched pumpkins die set from Lawn Fawn!)
A Cut Above – Anything Goes with a die cut (used several Lawn Fawn dies!)
Addicted to Stamps & More – Die Cuts and/or Stencils (I used both!)

Autumn Leaves & Pumpkins for Sparkles Monthly

Hello friends! I hope that your October month is going well so far. We’re starting to get some noticeably cooler temps in the forecast as we creep towards Halloween at the end of the month. Love this time of year when those leaves start showing their pretty colors as they fall from the trees! We should be getting that soon as well to clean up the yard! LOL

This brings us to a new monthly challenge over at Sparkles Monthly and we have the theme of “AUTUMN LEAVES & PUMPKINS” this month. I look forward to seeing all of the projects in the gallery for this one. Here’s what I came up with:

I fell in love with this cute scarecrow from Newton’s Nook called Autumn Fields and I knew that I wanted to use it for this challenge. I colored up the image along with a few pumpkins and cut them out in the coordinating dies. I was going to add a couple of leaves for the background, but I thought it would be cool to pull out the NN Fabulous Fall Toner Card Fronts and ink blend over it for the background. So I gold foiled the background and blended some various inks to create the background scene for the scarecrow.

I die cut a grassy hill border from Lawn Fawn and inked the blades with a gold ink pad and layered that onto my foiled leaves background. I tucked in the scarecrow and pumpkins for grounding and then white heat embossed a sentiment (from the scarecrow set) that was cut out with a banner die (from MFT- closed). I also used the gold ink pad around that as well.

I cut out the entire layered panel with a cross-stitched rectangle die from Lawn Fawn and then used a scalloped rectangle die from Taylored Expressions cut from white cardstock to layer behind it. I attached everything to an A2 side folding card base in the Latte color from Taylored Expressions.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my card and will hop on over to the challenge blog to check out what the rest of the design team has made for inspiration.

THANKS SO MUCH FOR STOPPING BY TODAY!!

Challenges:

Try it On Tuesday – Autumn Colors
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2541 Anything Goes
Four Seasons – Anything Goes Fall
Pearly Sparkles – #112 Pumpkins and/or Fall Leaves
Creative Fingers – #309 Anything Goes
Stamping Sensations – Autumn/Anything Goes
We Love Stamping – Anything Autumn/Anything Goes
Cupcake Inspirations – #628 Fall Harvest
Aud Sentiments – #330 Ink Blending and/or Fall/Thanksgiving + sentiment

Mix It Up with a Fancy Fold

Happy September friends! Can you believe we’re getting ready to get into the Autumn season already?! It seems like the summer flew by, but I have to say that I’m so very ready for the falling leaves and all things Autumn to start up now…especially cooler temps!

Today also brings us to a new challenge over at the Mix It Up Challenge Blog. The challenges always run for 6 weeks so there is plenty of time to enter. The theme given for us this time is: Fancy Folds or you can always do the ‘Anything Goes” too. Here’s the card that I came up with for the challenge using the theme:

This is a something I came across a while back and saved the tutorial for later to give it a go. This is called a “Faceted Vertical Easel Card” and this is a 5″x7″ size. I would give you a link to the tutorial, but when I started creating half-way through to come upon the layers, I noticed the measurements were not quite right, so I had to figure out an adjustment to make it work correctly. I do love the look of it with its unique faceted design. It’s basically just an easel style card with a bit of a design in the center fold area and going vertical instead of horizontal. (If I make another again, I’ve decided another easier way to work it.

Since I was in the mood for the Autumn season, I decided to make my design with that in mind. I started with a kraft cardstock base measuring 10″x7″ with all of the different scores/cuts for this design as well. For decorating it, I’ve pulled out some Autumn papers by Photoplay in my stash and added a layer of glitter gold cardstock. To make square aperture with the pumpkins, I pull a cardboard cutout from the paper pack to use with it, and then white heat embossed a sentiment and die cut to place on the bottom right of card. Lastly, I’ve added some gold gems to both panels as well as the square panel in the center of the card.

I think what I like most about this is that it folds completely flat for mailing in an envelope. Once the recipient receives it, you can slide it open to catch the strip on the right side of the card and it will stand up like the first photo in this post.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my fancy fold card today and you’ll hop on over to the challenge blog to see what the rest of the team has come up with. I look forward to seeing the gallery and what fancy folds will be in there!

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

Challenges:

Creative Creases – #106 Anything with a fun fold
Penny’s challenge – #604 Anything Goes using paper
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes
The Four Seasons Challenge – Fall
The Crafter’s Cafe – #322 Anything Goes optional: Use Pattern Papers
The Creative Crafters – #91 Anything Goes

September Art Journal-Fall Texture

YAY! I’m back…but a tad bit late for my monthly AJ post! (So sorry about that Carol!!) I’m trying to get back into crafting again as it feels like I’ve been away from it for a long time! It was a fun, crazy, beautiful time away and there a few photos below this post if you care to see….

BUT FIRST, TODAY (BETTER LATE THAN NEVER)….is the monthly Art Journal Page collaboration with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper)! 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 “TEXTURE” (anything to create texture):

Texture is something that I really enjoy using, but sometimes when you’re making cards, you don’t always want that texture or bulk adding to your design because you want to be able to slide it into an envelope to mail out. Doing an art journal page with lots of texture and bulk is something I can do because it’s my own piece of art to keep and it’s fun to play with lots of media from my stash to create it!

For the background: I started with my usual 5.5″ x 8.5″ heavy weight watercolor panel with pre-punched holes at the top using my Bind-It-All machine. Starting with some media paste and my “go to” dotted stencil, this was a quick way to add texture to the background. I then pulled out some watercolor in blue tones and covered over the background with it and sprinkled some sea salt over it, let it dry completely and then brushed it off. This leaves some cool effects to the watercolor and it creates some texture as well!

Moving down the page, I have die cut lots of pumpkins and leaves! These are all die cut sets from Taylored Expressions that I’ve had in my stash for a few years now. All the pumpkins were cut from orange cardstock. For the largest pumpkin, I’ve used my Copic markers to give it some dimension/texture. The other pumpkins had another piece that I cut from a darker orange cardstock. The stems all cut from green cardstock. I decided to splatter some brown, gold and white paints all over them for even more texture. Before attaching the pumpkins, I used some printed tissue paper that was sprayed with color and scrunched up and attached to the bottom of the page with media paste. Lots of texture going on at the bottom here!

For the leaves, I die cut them out from kraft cardstock and ink blended over them in various fall colors. You will notice around the edges of the leaves as well as the textured paste background on the page, that I’ve used some gold wax and rubbed around the edges and over the texture. I then arranged all of the leaves and pumpkins at the bottom of the page with some popped up with foam tape. I’ve also taken some green wire and curled it to use for a couple of the pumpkins that were attached to the back of them.

Lastly, I’ve added the sentiments that were die cut, gold foiled and attached at the top along with the thin strip of orange cardstock. The “FALL” letters were popped up with foam tape as well as a portion of the leaf on the side of it.

Really hope you’ve enjoyed my art journal page today! It was fun getting messy and playing around with crafting again! I really missed doing it!

Here are just a couple of photos to share on our time away. We started by flying to Seattle as we’ve never been and visited the Space Needle. We took a bus to Canada where we boarded a Cruise ship that took us into Alaska to see the glaciers! We sailed for a week, but went further up to Denali Park in Alaska where we stayed an additional week and made our way back home. This was certainly a once in a lifetime experience that we’ll never forget! The photos look nowhere close to how gorgeous it was to see in person.

While we were traveling on our way back home, it seems that one of our pieces of luggage decided to take a trip to Mexico! So once we figured all that out, got our luggage back and tons of laundry, cleaning, groceries to get, done….I had an appointment to get an impacted tooth removed the other day! Been feeling a little overwhelmed, but starting to get better!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR KIND SUPPORT, COMMENTS AND COMING TO VISIT ME HERE! I’VE MISSED CRAFTING AND CATCHING UP WITH ALL OF YOU! HOPE YOU ENJOY YOUR WEEKEND AND SEE YOU SOON!!

Challenges:

Art Journal Journey – Anything Goes

It’s Autumn at Cute Card Thursday

Hello friends! It’s Cute Card Thursday again and we are going all Autumn over there this week! Sounds like a great challenge to me…hope you will stop over and check out the inspiration and add your creation in the gallery too! Looking forward to seeing your makes!

Here’s my card:

Vicki-CCT549-KindaCute

I thought this image was so darn cute! I’ve used an image from our sponsor this week called Girl with Wheelbarrow from Kinda Cute Stamps. She is busy gathering pumpkins in that wheelbarrow and looks to be on a mission with it too! I adore that sweet little bunny along for the ride!

I’ve colored the image with Copic markers including for the ground. I’ve taken a tiny sponge with some blue ink and very lightly sponged in a sky. The sentiment was stamped with brown ink from an older Lawn Fawn set. I’ve also used the Stitched Leaves die from Lawn Fawn to cut out some leaves with kraft cardstock and then sponged some color over the edges to attach to the design.

I cut out both the image panel and the orange design paper with a Stitched Scallop rectangle die set from My Favorite Things. I’ve also cut out a tiny brown banner at the top left corner from a die set from MFT as well. Lastly, I’ve added some gold sparkling enamel dots around the leaves.

Hope you are out and about enjoying the Autumn season! Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today, I’m so happy to have you here! See you very soon!

Challenges:

Sweet Stampin’ – Dies/Punches (I stamped the sentiment-hopefully this qualifies)
Always Fun – Anything Goes
Addicted to Stamps & More – Anything Goes #311
Crafty Gals Corner – Anything Goes + Fall
Mod Squad – Autumn Colors (Orange, red, purple, yellow, brown) I used all EXCEPT purple! – must use at least 3

Spots and Dots for Cute Card Thursday

Hello friends! It’s Thursday once again and time for another new challenge over at the Cute Card Thursday blog! I really enjoy creating with challenges as it gives me inspiration and a push to finish a design in a way I might not have thought about doing otherwise. If you haven’t done this yet with your card making, I encourage you to give it a try…you never know what you might come up with!

I know we are in the heat of August, but I think this month is going by fairly quickly and the Autumn Season will be here before you know it! I was inspired by this along with another GORGEOUS image released this month from Whimsy Stamps, so check out my card for this week’s Cute Card Thursday challenge:

Vicki-CCT543spotanddots-WSAutumnHarvestRide

I have used this stunning Fall image From Whimsy Stamps called Autumn Harvest Ride by Crissy Armstrong. I had some older Fall papers from my stash that had this fun dotted print on them and used these for the theme of the challenge to combine it with this wonderful Fall image as well.

The special card design I’ve used is called a Center Step Card. (Click on the link to see the tutorial on how to make one for yourself on Splitcoaststampers.)

Vicki-CCT543spotsdots-WSAutumnHarvestRide

Upon a closer look at the design, I have also used a brand new (to me) elegant die cut by Spellbinders that I received as a prize winning from a fellow blog friend. I’ve cut that with some garden green color and used that as a “back-drop” for my main image panel. I’ve taken the Whimsy Stamps Pierced Border Trio Dies and cut another garden green piece for the image to sit. I’ve also stamped out the sentiment with the Whimsy Stamps Everyday Mini Sentiments set and cut it out with an older Whimsy Stamps tag die to attach on the image panel with some twine. I popped up the image panel with craft foam and layered this on the center panel of my card design. I’ve also added a couple of Prima leaves between that. I’ve attached some other dotted papers to the other panels including the bottom long panel and wrapped some gold ribbon around the bottom one before attaching it. Lastly the gold ribbon and twine bows were added along with the button in the center gold bow and then I’ve added gold enamel dots on the side panels.

Here’s a closer look at the image and the coloring I’ve done with it. I’ve mainly used my Copic markers to color it in and then added some gold gel pen coloring to the carousel pole, the saddle and bridle with the gold parts on them. I took some Tinsel Stickles glitter to add to the “dots” on the saddle and bridle. I then fussy cut it and attached it over the white dotted background and garden green border panel at the bottom.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my creation today and inspired you in some way to play.

I’ll be back again soon to share more creations! Have a great day!

Here are the challenges I’d like to enter: