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

Seeing Stars

 

Challenge #33 at Twofer is Stars.  This was more difficult than I thought it would be - mainly because I see stars as an afterthought and I'm pretty sure the prompt has to be key to the design - so I hope both cards fit the prompt!

My stars die is part of the Frantic Stamper Village Sky set.  This set also contains some dinky little clouds, a funky little sun, a moon and even a jet plane - great for scene building!

My first card was inspired by Anita's gorgeous card.  Anita used stars as flowers in her first twofer design and it reminded me of the origin of the Christmas tree lights story.  A man was coming home late one night and was inspired by the stars twinkling through the trees to tie candles to a fir tree (a real fire trap to be sure).  So that's where I went with the first card.  

Here's a closeup of the card

I wanted to play in Squash It Challenge #2 which is to use a Christmas Embossing Folder AND a Christmas stamp.  I embossed the PEACE on earth (Waltzing Mouse Say It Loud Winter) in silver and then ran it through the Cuttlebug Snowflakes Embossing Folder - the only Christmas embossing folder I own!

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #42  has the same embossing folder technique challenge!

You may not be able to tell from the photo but the card stock is actually a very deep blue.  I also distressed the snow drifts and the branches with Blue Jeans DI to give them a blueish tinge because I wanted to play along with Challenge #23 of the Rainbow Card Challenge - Sparkling Sapphire.

Which coincides nicely with Less is More Challenge #432 - Blue & Silver or Red & Gold!

and also with Inspirational Challenge #225 - Night

My second card was the one I struggled with.  I had thought to go with a baby card and use the sentiment "A Star is Born".  I was scrolling through my stamps for inspiration when the line "All I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by" popped into my head.  So I ended up pulling out the Waltzing Mouse Ocean Bound Stamp Set which has a lovely tall ship silhouette in it and flanked it with a few of the Village Sky Stars cut from marine blue!  The stars aren't the focal point of the scene but they definitely lifted the design!

I have been meaning to try this Lifesaver idea out for a few months now.  I cut two rings out using stitched circles (Crea-nest-lies XL Dies #21 and #33) - one in red and 1 in white.  I cut the white ring in quarters and placed two quarter on opposite sides of the red ring (or maybe it was a the other way around but either way works).  I then wound some twine around the joins and used it to frame my tall ship and stars scene - cute huh!!  My husband comes from a naval family so I love new nautical ideas!

I used a piece of striped DP so I could enter Use Your Stuff Challenge #409.  This piece of DP has probably been in my stash for 10 years - good to finally use it (or at least some of it)!

I specifically chose the colour scheme of red white and blue on this card so I could enter it in the Cuttlebug Mania Challenge to use Red White and Blue.

This Waltzing Mouse Ocean Bound stamp set was bought in 2013 and hasn't seen ink in a few years, it was good to dust it off and use it again!  I'm also entering this card in Retro Rubber Challenge #147!

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,

Kate

Hello Sunflower

Evening all!  The night before last I dreamed about a sunflower card.  There is a field full of them in one of our neighbouring villages and they look so elegant at this time of the year standing tall and reaching for the sun!  There were a few challenges that inspired this card.   Firstly Colour Hues Challenge #5 was to use the a Kraft and Yellow combination which I loooove - pop over and see all the gorgeous inspiration by the TCH designers.

Always Fun Challenges #187 was to use Kraft as well so that worked out well!

Mojo Monday is one of my favourite Sketch Challenges - I just adore Julie Tilman's sketches and Mojo Monday Sketch #549 is no exception.  I saw the sunflower in place of that circle and then just had to work out the other elements.

This week the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge prompt is Thinking of You.   Sending a "Hello" is definitely showing you're thinking of someone!

Use Your Stuff Challenge #409 is to use Stripes.  It took me a while but eventually I found this piece of striped, yellow DP and put it to use!

Just us Girls Challenge #561 is to use triangles, which is why when I was looking through my border dies I chose this triangular bunting border die!

Neither the Kraft or the yellow card stock worked for the last design sketch element - the label under the circle.  I happened to have a piece of gold mirror card in my scraps and cut this label to complete the sketch.  There are two challenges to use gold - The Current Sisterhood of Crafters challenge and CardzforGalz Challenge #134!

Finally the border die I used to edge the rectangular sketch element is new so I'm going to enter this card in NBUS Challenge #20!

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,

Kate