Falling Leaves

Inspired by the beautiful colours of Autumn, I thought I'd make some Autumn leaves today.  I die cut the oak and maple leaf from an old Spellbinders die and set about distressing them with various Distress Inks and Glimmer Mists.  IRL there is a gorgeous sheen but naturally I wasn't able to catch it  in the photograph.

I thought that since I was making this much mess, I should make a few extras for future projects.  The bead of glossy accents (meant to imitate a dew drop) wasn't yet dry in these photos I took this morning. 

Since these leaves have been distressed to within an inch of their lives, I'm entering this card in the current Timeout Challenge that has the theme

Sympathy With the Optional Twist of Distressing

I'm also entering it in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge for their Anything Goes theme

and the October Anything Goes with Dies Challenge at Happy Little Stampers

I'm entering it in the current Fusion Card Challenge

Just noticed the Double D Challenge has the theme "Leave it to Me!" so I'll be entering over there too

Thanks for stopping by, especially if you take the time to leave a comment.  Your visits and feedback mean a lot to me,

Kate

More Poppies

As I said in my last post, a bad case of flu and some family issues have had a negative effect on my mojo lately.  I thought one way to kick start it might be to revisit some old designs.  I had some of these Simon Says Stamp Poppies already made up from earlier on this year so I thought I would put some of them to use.  This first card was pretty much the same as the one I made earlier in the year, using WMS Big Day Today and the WMS Double Stitched Frames - baby steps.

But then I thought I'd try changing the matting and sentiment.  I used a a smaller internal rectangle to create a thicker frame and this simpler simple sentiment (also from WMS Big Day Today) fitted perfectly.   I actually prefer the simpler sentiment and I love how the poppy is bursting out from the frame.

I always like to dress up my envelopes so I stamped this flower from the WMS 2-step sprig (though it's actually a 3-step stamp).  I also stamped it on the inside.

The edges of the poppy petals have been distressed with black soot DI to give them some dimension,  which is fortunate for me because the current challenge at Time Out is "Sympathy with the optional twist of distressing".

Other Challenges

Happy Little Stamper October Anything Goes with Dies

Simon Says Stamp has an "Anything Goes" challenge this week

CAS on Friday has the theme "Flowers"

Thanks for stopping by, especially if you take the time to leave a comment.  Your visits and feedback mean a lot to me,

Kate

Be Spectacular

Apologies for the lack or posts recently.  A nasty bug I caught in Sydney has laid me pretty low for about 8 weeks now and I'm still not fully recovered.  I keep losing my voice but at least the coughing has subsided.  Another problem I had was that my Mac's hard disk was wiped when I upgraded it to Sierra.  Fortunately I had my photos and documents backed up but there are several things I have had to reload (or have tried to reload), so that has also kept me busy.  

There has also been some nastiness in my family concerning my older brother following the execution of my father's Will.  It's taken a lot of my energy (and my younger brother's and sister's) to support my mother through it.  Suffice to say that my father didn't make adequate provision for her and my older brother ended up being virtually the sole beneficiary.  Before you ask, "yes she is his mother too" and "no we're not talking Downton Abbey here - just a large free standing house in a leafy inner city suburb of Sydney".  He's never really got on with my siblings and me and he's been strangely distant from my mother for about 6 years now but we never dreamed he was capable of this!!!  

I actually made this card a few months back before my trip to Australia but ran out of time to post it.  It was inspired by my choir mistress.  She was wearing a very simple grey dress one Sunday last June and donned a really chic pair of red sunglasses when she stepped outside!!!  Both pairs of spectacles were cut with the Memorybox Stunning Spectacles but the red ones were coated with glossy accents and I placed tiny black gems in the corners to give them a little more pizazz!!!  

Here's the inside, "Be Spectacular" meant to look like an eye chart.  I designed it myself using Microsoft Word and Wordart.  Trouble is I can't open the file because I no longer have Word installed on my computer.  I found the installation disk but I can't find the licence key so I'll have to buy Microsoft Office again @#^$%!!! 

Thanks for stopping by, especially if you take the time to leave a comment.  Your visits and encouragement mean a lot me,

Kate