Funky Foliage

A few weeks ago I sat down and did a whole lot of cutting and colouring using the Tim Holtz Funky Foliage set - I felt like a 19th century botanist!    This week a friend loved the Autumn card I made previously and asked if I could make her another three thank you cards the same so I got to dip into this stash of Funky Foliage and make some more Autumn themed cards!

These first two were easy - I already had some stamped backgrounds from a few weeks ago!  So it was just a matter of cutting a spinner channel and I had already made two spinner leaves when I had my Distress Inks out a few weeks ago.  

To be honest I didn't fancy the idea of inking up this Waltzing Mouse Background stamp again - it's hard work!  I couldn't get enough pressure from the stamping platform and ended up brayering the ink onto the stamp and brayering the card stock onto the stamp to get enough pressure (then lifting carefully to make sure it had in fact worked), not to mention getting the ink out of all those nooks and crannies afterwards!  So I cheated and used a piece of designer card stock instead - it didn't have the lovely texture of the hand stamped background, but was a lot kinder to my arthritic hands!  To change it up a bit I cut the base of the larger leaf from gold and cut the lacy overlay from a piece of card stock I had distressed in the same colours I used to distress the leaves and toadstools.  

I still had a few leaves left over, so I made another two cards.  I thought I would try a bit of glossy accents on the leaves.  I also used an old Spellbinders die (one of the first I bought) to cut a maple leaf.  I layered up 3 to make it sturdy and then distressed the leaf - again in the same colours I had used for the funky foliage.  I then added a few layers of glossy accent to give it the same shine and sprinkled a little gold glitter while the GA was drying.  I think I preferred it before the glossy accents as most of the embossed detail was lost in the process.  

Those toadstools made me think of fairies and I thought it would be fun to set the scene for a woodland sprite to dance around on the card rather than a leaf.  

I bought this die last year at the Creativa Messe in Dortmund.  It's from a Dutch company (I think) Hobby Solution and it's called Fairy-1.  I cut her from gold and then added a few layers of glossy accents and sprinkled iridescent glitter in between layers. Because she's so long, she doesn't spin as well as the leaf cards - her legs keep hitting the surrounding die cuts.  I underestimated her centre of gravity when adding the funky foliage to the background.  This is the first time I've used this die and the detail is incredible!  Here's a closeup of her face and wings!

I would like to enter this last card in the following challenges.

Make My Monday Challenge #135 - Elegant Fall/Autumn

Cardz4Galz Challenge #134 - Use Silver and/or Gold

Day of the Month Challenge #21 which has the prompt Use Your Head.  The sprite not only has a head, but it took me a while to figure out her centre of gravity (I didn't want her to end her spin upside down now did I)!

Because I raided my snippets box to make my funky foliage, I would like to enter these cards into Pixie's Snippets Playground Challenge #390 (which has extended the deadline and allowed for 2 entries this month).

I would also like to enter Always Fun Challenge #189 - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by - I hope you enjoyed your visit.  If you leave a comment, I'll know where to find you and can return the favour!

Hugs and stay safe,

Kate