Leaves are Falling, Autumn is Calling

It's time for another challenge with All About Papercraft and this month it's...

My featured season is autumn, which runs March through May here in Australia. And while summer hasn't quite done with us, I am very much looking forward to cooler days and nights, vibrantly colourful leaves, feasting on pumpkin soup, and reading a book with a warm blanket over my lap and a hot drink in hand. Bliss!

Here's my project:

All the pieces were cut from white or vanilla card and ink blended using distress inks. The little bit of stamping was done with archival ink. This is the (US) size A7 postage collage die, so it's bigger than our standard card size at 16.5cm x 11cm but perfect for the elements I've used.  

Materials used:

• stamps - Postage Collage (Waffle Flower)
• dies - A7 Postage Collage and A7 Postage Collage Blocks (Waffle Flower), Fall Foliage (Tim Holtz), Into the Blooms: Mushrooms (Papertrey Ink), Little Sunflower Bloom (Simon Says Stamp), Autumn Elements (Karen Burniston), Country Road Seasonal Decor (Spellbinders)
• other - distress inks, blending brushes, Dimensionals, Big Shot, frayed burlap archival ink, photo frame (Officeworks)

What's your favourite season? Or maybe you're just enjoying the season you're in now? We'd love you to join in the fun with our challenge, plus we've more samples to inspire you over on the All About Papercraft blog.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

From Our Patch to Yours

I had one of those moments that fellow crafters will recognise - I was going through my stash of dies looking for something, when I came across a set I picked up ages ago at a craft sale and have never used. It's autumn/fall themed and very cute - and you know how much I love autumn. As I was about to bypass it, sad that it's the wrong time of year for it, I reminded myself that it is autumn on the other side of the globe and surely there'd be an appropriate challenge around. I was right! (click on the icons to go to the challenge)

     

So I happily sat down and began to play...

For the background I used patchwork patterned paper dry-brushed with gesso to mute the tones a little and also enhance the rustic feel. Most of my die-cut pieces were cut from coloured card and inked for dimension, then raised on the card surface. I don't have a stamp with this sentiment so I printed it on the computer.

It doesn't feel like spring here today, it's very gloomy and raining and now I'm wishing I had some pumpkin to make soup! Lol. (Sorry about the photo - as I said, gloomy day.)

Materials used:

• dies - Pumpkin House (Papertrey Ink)
• other - Autumn patchwork paper (Etsy), craft foam, Dimensionals, distress inks, blending brushes, Big Shot, computer & printer, white gel pen, white gesso, paint brush

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Pumpkin Season - The Card Concept Challenge #210

Now that we're into October the weather here has finally realised it's Spring and is giving us fresh green grass and buds on trees, but up in the northern hemisphere they're celebrating Fall/Autumn, and that means pumpkins...

The pumpkins were my main inspiration but I also used the orange, black and steel grey/blue (from the buckets) as my colour palette and added touches of gold. 

I stamped and gold embossed the pumpkins, then watercoloured using oxide inks. Once dry I splattered liberally with brown, gold and white. The sentiment is also gold embossed and mounted on black then gold glitter.

Materials used:

• stamps - Pumpkin to Talk About (Simon Says Stamp)
• distress oxide inks - carved pumpkin, iced spruce, black soot, frayed burlap
• dies - stitched rectangle
• other - paint brush, MISTI, Big Shot, craft foam, gold embossing powder, heat tool, gold glitter card, white gesso, tarnished brass distress stain, fan brush

There's plenty more inspiration for you from my team mates over on The Card Concept blog, so do check those out, and of course we'd love you to create and share with us.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

JAI #676 - Just Add Inspiration

It's an inspiration challenge this week at Just Add Ink!

If you've been here lately you'll know I've been having tons of fun with some Halloween themed cards and more, so it will come as no surprise, I'm sure, that a pumpkin would conjure up more wicked fun in my head!

Cute as a ... well, as a pumpkin, lol. 

The layers are coloured with Copics and the spider webs were stamped with white pigment ink. The final touches to Edison were some googly eyes and tendrils of spagnum moss (which dropped dust everywhere, let me tell you! lol)

My daughter and a friend carved some jack o'lanterns over the weekend (she loves Halloween as much as me!) - here's a pic:

Materials used:

• stamps - Tiny Frights, Unravelled (both Tim Holtz)
• card - basic black, basic white, Halloween stripes (Etsy)
• dies - Edison colorize (Tim Holtz)
• Copic markers - YR04,YR07,YR09,YR14,YG25,G99,T10
• other - MISTI, white embossing powder, heat tool, picket fence distress ink, craft foam, Dimensionals, 7mm googly eyes

Check out what aspects of our mood board inspired my fellow team mates over on the Just Add Ink blog. 

Happy Halloween! and thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

I'd Pick You

This week's palette over at the Color Throwdown caught my eye, but it's taken me a few days to sit down and put ink to card.

I seem to have pumpkins on my mind - perhaps because of all the fall/Halloween creations popping up everywhere I look, lol. 

I cut the pumpkins and wheat from watercolour card and coloured them using a variety of dye inks, then sponged some light aqua on my background and gave it a little water splatter. The fruits were arranged on some navy gingham and the sentiment also stamped in navy. I also die cut some leaves/vines and coloured them with a dark aqua. In fact, it's so dark it's almost green, so I'm not sure if it will be allowed for the challenge but I'll enter anyway. A very simple card but I love it and this colour combo is one I'll try to remember for another time.

Materials used:

•  stamps - Pretty Pumpkins (Stampin' Up)
• card - basic white (SU), navy gingham (Etsy), watercolour
• inks - night of navy, pumpkin pie, wild wheat (SU), fossilized amber, ripe persimmon, crackling campfire (Tim Holtz Distress), mountain mist, volcano lake, lagoon (Altenew)
• dies - garden builder, seasonal decor (Spellbinders Country Road collection), stitched rectangle (Paper Rose), pumpkin leaves (stash)
• other - Big Shot, blending brushes, Dimensionals, craft foam, MISTI, water spritzer, brown Copic markers, sponge daubers, white gel pen

Hope you're having a crafty day. Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

 

The Humble Pumpkin

The other night I was enjoying a bowl of homemade pumpkin soup with some toasted sourdough (om nom nom) and reflecting on the humble pumpkin, which I've always loved. I can remember as a child, whenever mum made a roast dinner, I would swap with my older brother - I'd give him my kumara (sweet potato) and he'd give me his pumpkin. Recently elder daughter came to visit bringing some pumpkin goodies I had never tried - a pumpkin scone and a couple of pumpkin muffins. (They'd had lots of pumpkin in their veggie box that week, so she was making pumpkin everything, lol) The scone didn't do anything for me but the muffins were fabulous, moist and flavorful - of course I got the recipe!

So for today's card I've featured pumpkins. I was having another play with my Country Road collection dies (see this earlier card), again adding some other dies I already had in my stash. 

Materials used:

• stamps - Welcome Sign & Sentiments (Spellbinders) 
• card - basic white, early espresso (SU), Biscuit (Kaisercraft), watercolour
• dies - Welcome Sign & Sentiments, Country Wheelbarrow (Spellbinders), Autumn Elements (Karen Burniston)
• distress oxide inks - peacock feathers, rusty hinge, vintage photo, antique linen, black soot, hickory smoke, carved pumpkin, ripe persimmon, crackling campfire, mowed lawn, rustic wilderness
• other - blending brushes, Big Shot, Dimensionals, craft foam, water spritzer, early espresso marker, ground espresso and vintage photo archival inks, MISTI

And now, having thought about pumpkins so much, I'm craving those muffins! In case you're interested, here's a link to the recipe. By the way, did you know pumpkin is a fruit? Go figure!

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

The Card Concept Challenge - Pumpkin Party

This week's Card Concept inspiration pic is these gorgeous pumpkins! 

The first thing that came to my mind was Halloween - seems to be an automatic thing with me when given that particular colour combination and pumpkins, lol. I guess if we decorated for fall/autumn here like they do in the US, it might be a different story. Anyway, I've used a Halloween theme for my clean and layered easel card featuring two adorable Mo Manning images.

Those two cuties were coloured with Copics and I loved the idea of the jack o'lantern container protruding past the edge, so cut around it. I was very happy when I found some papers on Etsy that mirrored the 'candy' I was using. The resin Confections are so cute, simple to colour with alcohol markers (I added the orange to the stripes) and easily cut in half to save on bulk. I even used one of them as the stopper to hold the easel open, lol. Aaaaannd, now I want some candy! 😂😂😂

Materials used:

• stamps - Mummy Baby, Halloween Ghost Baby (both Mo's Digital Pencil)
• card - basic black, basic white
• Copic markers - E00,E21,E11,C0,C2,C4,W0,W2,W3,B00,YR09,YR12,YR15
• other - Idea-ology confections and confections - candy corn (Tim Holtz), pumpkin pie Stampin' Blends (SU), craft foam, jet black archival ink (Ranger), craft scalpel

There's plenty more inspiration over on The Card Concept blog for you to check out.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

The Card Concept Challenge - Harvest Adventures

Hi everyone and welcome to another challenge with The Card Concept. Here's our inspiration picture to get your creative juices flowing:

My mixed media card was inspired by the pumpkins as well as those beautiful leaves from the background. As it's all done on thick watercolour card, there's a lovely texture to everything that makes me want to touch, lol!

I had on hand some smooshed ink pieces in oranges and greens, so I made up some yellows, browns and blue/greys. Distress crayons were used for shading and highlighting on the pumpkins and all the leaves had their edges sponged. My background piece is just watercolour card spritzed with antique linen oxide spray and left to dry - don't you love the little blue-ish speckles in it? That's just from oxidisation; gotta love that! As I didn't have any card in the right colour for my base, I used white, sponging the edges with blue ink then randomly stamping a plaid pattern around in blue/grey - I love how that turned out, so I'll be using that method again! I gave it a gentle spritz with water to blend and soften it a bit, then sponged the edges and called it done.

Materials used:

• stamps - Pretty Pumpkins (Stampin' Up), Perfect Plaids (Tim Holtz)
• card - watercolour, early espresso
• distress spray stains/oxide sprays - fossilized amber, mustard seed, wild honey, carved pumpkin, crackling campfire, dried marigold, peeled paint, forest moss, antique linen, iced spruce, walnut stain, evergreen bough, speckled egg, frayed burlap, gathered twigs
• distress crayons - spiced marmalade, crackling campfire, iced spruce, antique linen, hickory smoke, gathered twigs
• distress archival ink. - vintage photo, ground espresso
• pumpkin dies - Layering Pumpkin (Honey Bee Stamps), Autumn Elements (Karen Burniston), Halloween Pumpkin (stash)
• Leaf dies - Fall Foliage (Tim Holtz)
• other - MISTI, craft foam, stitched rectangle die, Big Shot, heat tool, sponge dauber, Dimensionals, blending brush

We'd love you to create your own card inspired by the photo so do pop over to the Card Concept blog to see the other samples made by my fellow team members.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry