Going natural for Sunday Stamps sketch challenge

 

I've been enjoying watching the leaves on the trees change color and the air turn cooler. That's why I turned to Tangerine Tango, Old Olive and Early Espresso for this card, and used the Sunday Stamps sketch challenge below.

 

 

Here's the scoop on Sunday Stamps: "We want you to have fun and be creative and share your creations with us using the Linky Widget below. You may use any brand (or combination of brands) you'd like. The deadline to submit your creation is Friday, October 18 at 6PM EST."

 

 

I started with a Tangerine Tango card, layered with Early Espresso and the birch-like paper from the Thanksgiving Tablescape Simply Created Kit in the Holiday Catalog. For the wavy part of the sketch, I used the Tasteful Trim die for the Big Shot. The leaf is Magnificent Maple and the sentiment is from the hostess set, Banner Greetings.

Wonderfall thank-you card

Club members made this lovely autumn Summer Starfruit card this month. It uses the Wonderfall stamp set in the Holiday Catalog along with the Autumn Leaves die. It uses a Top Note cut from Comfort Cafe dsp, a Cajun Craze Apothecary Accent Framelit, a Brushed Bronze button (love these!) with 1/8" taffeta. The sentiment is from Blooming with Kindness. I opted for a simple thank-you card because most people don't send Thanksgiving cards (at least in my groups).

Happy Stampin'!

Latest Craft Central Project: Set your table with Comfort Cafe

This project has everything from the invitation to the centerpiece you need for a special dinner occasion! The only thing left to your imagination is the menu. Note the beautiful candle holder, which features Comfort Cafe designer fabric. Your guests are sure to be impressed with your craftiness upon seeing this beautiful ensemble designed by Regina. To get the instructions for Regina’s project, just subscribe to Craft Project Central for October. And if you have a minute, please leave Regina a comment on her project.

Autumn card set with card holder

 

Celebrate fall by making this autumn-inspired card set. The beautiful colors also make for a great set of masculine cards. The set includes eight cards, eight stamped envelopes, and a coordinating card holder. This project is a great gift and also makes a great fall card class! This project was designed by Christy. To get the instructions for Christy’s project, just subscribe to October at Craft Project Central.  And if you have a minute, please leave Christy a comment on her project!

Gently Falling birthday card for Pink Paper Bakery challenge

 

I have a heckuva time feeding ribbon through button holes. And since I wanted Summer Starfruit ribbon to coordinate with the card, I decided just to cut it. Here's a close-up of it. I love the fraying ends. Oh, what a beautiful morning!

 

 

A dear friend of mine is celebrating her birthday today! Barb has become a great friend of mine over the past several months. She's strong, reliable, and very loving. She also happens to be in my downline, and is a very creative stamper! Barb loves Comfort Cafe dsp, so I thought I'd combine those colors - Midnight Muse, Cajun Craze, Soft Suede and Summer Starfruit - for her card, using the sketch from Pink Paper Bakery.

 

Pink Paper Bakery is cooking up some fabulous challenges! This sketch challenge is good thru Oct. 27, so you have plenty of time to come up with something and add the link.

Autumn Accents candle and frame set

Rich colorful leaves (using the Faux Fossil technique) with a touch of shimmer make this candle wrap with matching mat and chipboard frame the perfect addition to your autumn home decor. The set also makes a lovely hostess gift or class project during the autumn season. All of these items were designed by Lynn. To get the instructions for Lynn’s project, just subscribe to October at Craft Project Central.  And if you get a chance, please leave Lynn a comment on her project! Have a great week!

Fall home decor gift set

These fall decor items were designed by Julie Beltramo. They will make you happy just looking at them or when you give them as a gift. The fall picks may be displayed in a pot of beans, or plant, ready to put anywhere. The project includes instructions for a matching luminary and greeting card! This project is a fun class project as well!

To get the instructions for Julie’s project, subscribe to Craft Project Central for October 2012.  And if you have an chance, please leave Julie a comment on her project! Have a fun crafting weekend.

Improved looking Harvest Home card...

Here's the same Harvest Home card as below, only with the Crystal Effects totally dried. The medallion did clear up, which was my concern. I think standing the card up in my makeshift lightbox also helps the appearance of the card.

Harvest Home with a little Autumn Spice thrown in...

I was playing around with the Mojo Monday sketch and the Friday Mashup! theme of pumpkins and came up with this card. If you check Friday Mashup!, you can see that I didn't use this. I just felt it was too dark, and had too much Crystal Effects on it (taking forever to dry, so I had to take the photo with it flat on my desk so it wouldn't drip). Also, though I opened up a brand new bottle of Crystal Effects, it looked a bit cloudy (see it on the right?). Okay, my daughter just checked and it did dry clear!


The square card is Autumn Spice specialty paper. I used the Harvest Home stamp set and Cutter Kit. I also used the Tasteful Trim die and Square Lattice embossing folder on the Old Olive squiggle. I used an aqua painter and ink pads to watercolor everything.


Stamps: Harvest Home;
Ink: Old Olive, More Mustard, Cajun Craze, Real Red, Bashful Blue;
Paper: Very Vanilla, Autumn Spice specialty paper, Old Olive, Cajun Craze;
Accessories: 2-1/2" Circle Punch, Crystal Effects, Square Lattice Embossing Folder, Tasteful Trim die, glimmer brads, dimensionals, aqua painter, and Cutter Kit.

Frankie's Priceless pumpkin...

Can't you imagine a fall table decorated with these cute little pumpkins? Frankie brought this as a make & take to our last American Ink meeting. You start by sponging a coffee filter (new) with More Mustard and Pumpkin Pie inks, then stamp the swirl from Priceless in Eggplant Envy. We used a needle and some heavy-duty thread to baste the edges of the coffee filter, drawing the edges up, placing a wadded-up plastic bag inside, and cinching the top closed and knotting it. The stick was crammed into the middle to make a hole of sorts, then we put some glue in the hole and held the stick in place for a few seconds.

The leaves were made from Old Olive-sponged coffee filters that were run through the Leaves 2 die for the Big Shot. We cut off the stem end and simply used Mini Glue Dots to adhere them in place. I love the knot of Concord Crush ribbon on the stem. I chose not to add a punched out word as a tag, figuring I might make some of these with my guests's names on them for Thanksgiving.

A birthday in France? No, but how about a birthday card with French Foliage stamps?

I'd rather celebrate a birthday in France, wouldn't you? At any rate, this is the card I put together that I was working on last night (see my desk in the post below). The highlight of the card is that I used a clear block inked in Crumb Cake to make the square behind the Cajun Craze leaf - something I saw in the latest issue of Stampin' Success, a magazine Stampin' Up! demonstrators receive every month. I love the Square Lattice-embossed card front, as well as the oval elements.

This is one of the cards my friends will be stamping tonight for my Birthday Card Stamp-a-Stack. Tune in tomorrow for more. And have a great night!

Stamps: French Foliage;
Ink: Crumb Cake, Cajun Craze;
Paper: Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Cajun Craze;
Accessories: Clear block, Square Lattice embossing folder, medium oval punch, oval scallop punch, dimensionals.

Using the Big Shot for fall cards...

Here's a card Kim gave me the other day that uses the Big Shot to emboss the Chocolate Chip spider web (embossing folder), and cut out leaves (Leaves #2 die). Different pieces of Stampin' Up!'s patterned paper were diecut into leaves to add a lot of texture and interest. The stamped leaves on the card front and the sentiment are from the stamp set Falling Leaves.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is truly a day to reflect on how many blessings we have in our lives. Even when things don't seem to be going our way, there's always something to be grateful for.

Here's my Grateful List:

• A loving and healthy family
• Terrific friends & downline
• Wonderful SU! customers
• A roof over our heads
• Working transportation
• The opportunity to help others
• Being alive and able to appreciate the little things that are so easy to overlook

I wish you and your family a blessed Thanksgiving. I hope you'll pause to say thanks for all of the blessings in your life, no matter how small. God bless you!

Now for the card details. This is a swap from one of my downline, Brandy. She's got a lot of things going on in her life with family and full-time job and such, and took the time to cut out and color the details on this Voila card. Thanks, Brandy!

Give Thanks home decor...

I'm hosting Thanksgiving this year for my in-laws and a niece and her new hubby, so I'm trying to make the house a bit more festive.

I made a Season of Thanks shadow box with leaves in it last year for decoration. This year, it's a Give Thanks decor element on a frame, with Autumn Meadows designer series paper behind it.

In addition, I cut out some of the leaves from Autumn Splendor (stamped in Tempting Turquoise), and used the Big Shot to die cut a few More Mustard leaves with the Leaves die.

Autumn Splendor...

This Really Rust card was one of the projects at my Autumn Thanks Stamp Camp Saturday.

I stamped the leaves from Autumn Splendor (Holiday Mini) in Really Rust and Soft Suede inks on Autumn Meadows paper, then used an aqua painter to make the colors deeper and richer looking.

The Soft Suede layer uses the Faux Suede Technique. Basically you run the card stock between your thumb and bone folder till the fibers separate. When you pull the layers apart, they feel like suede!

Other items used: 1-3/8" Circle Punch, Soft Suede polka-dotted ribbon, Vintage brads, dimensionals, sponge dauber, and linen thread.

This card was CASE'd from here.

Grateful Greetings and Inspired by Nature...

These pumpkins, stems and leaves were created with the Table Setting die for the Big Shot with Pumpkin Pie and Garden Green card stocks.

The idea was CASE'd from here.

The grass image is from the Inspired by Nature stamp set, and the sentiment is from the Grateful Greetings set featured in the Holiday Mini Catalog.

Other items used include the Ticket Corner Punch, sponge dauber and Earth Elements brads.

Gifts of the Earth meets Holiday Best...

Here's one of the cards we made at my Autumn Thanks Stamp Camp Sunday. Everyone said this was their favorite.

The Very Vanilla card uses the turkey from Gifts of the Earth, and the "Give Thanks" stamp from the Level 1 hostess set Holiday Best.

We used watercolor crayons and a blender pen to color the turkey, and used markers to ink up the sentiment stamp before punching it out with the Wide Oval Punch.

That fabulous paper - top and bottom - is from the Autumn Meadows designer pack in the Holiday Mini Catalog, with a piece of Really Rust card stock punched with the Eyelet Border Punch in between. The ribbon is 5/8" Chocolate Chip grosgrain.

A box of blessings...

This cute little gift is a great reminder of Thanksgiving for your friends and family.

We made this as one of my Autumn Thanks Stamp Camp projects Sunday, and had a great time! Thank you all for attending.

I used the Box #2 die for the Big Shot (cutting off the small side flaps), as well as Autumn Traditions designer paper for the container (rounding the upper corners of the dsp to match that of the box).

Other items used include 5/8" Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon, the Leaves die, Playground buttons, Curly Label Punch and medium cello bags.

I got the Blessings Mix verse from Angie Juda's blog. I typeset it and printed it on Very Vanilla card stock.

I hope your Autumn and Thanksgiving are blessed.

Falling Leaves pumpkin bag...

Kim made this adorable pumpkin bag using the bottom of a small white bag and lots of ovals from the Wide Oval Punch.

All of the ovals are sponged with Pumpkin Pie. The leaf is from the Leaves die for the Big Shot, and the Thanksgiving saying comes from the Falling Leaves stamp set.

Gold cord holds the tag in place.

Wandering Words with bling...

Kim shares this More Mustard card that features the Wandering Words stamp set.

There's a piece of Autumn Traditions designer paper under the Leaves diecut, which also has a square fire brad in it for bling.