Chill in the Air

Into October now, and there's definitely an autumnal feel. We've had a few frosty mornings this week and the leaves are beginning to turn. I really do not look forward to the winter, but the wonderful autumn colours are some compensation. And it is in that vein that we introduce our October challenge at Stamping Sensations with the theme of

* * * * * TREES and/or LEAVES and/or AUTUMN * * * * *

We want you to show us the beauty of autumn in all its glorious colours. As usual, to be eligible for our October prize, kindly donated by our lovely sponsors Stamp Addicts, the main element of your project should be stamped and follow the theme.


I needed a lightweight card to post, so decided to make it one layer. I masked the edges of the base card before sponging pigment inks through the stencil and around the edges of the masked area, thus creating a white border to the card, before overstamping with the trees, buzzard and sentiment. Very quick and easy to do! All the stamps and the stencil are by Inkylicious.

We are hoping for lots of autumn colour this month, and I can't wait to see the entries! There is some wonderful inspiration from the Design Team over on the Challenge Blog, so do go and take a look. Good luck everyone!

Autumn Colours

The theme for our October challenge at Stamping Sensations is one which I'm sure will be a favourite for many people.What better to showcase at this time of year than the

* * * * * SHADES OF AUTUMN * * * * *

The subject of your entry can be anything you choose as long as the main element of the project is stamped and you have used typical autumn colours, such as greens, yellows, oranges, reds and browns.

Nothing says Autumn to me more than the changing leaves in all their multicolour glory, so that is what I have portrayed on my card.

I stamped various leaves (both solid shapes and outlines) from a set by Stamps By Me, leaving spaces to cut out three more leaves with a die by Concord & 9th. I made a background with Brushos, using autumn colours, and adhered it behind the stamped piece, after which I fixed the diecut leaves back into their cut out spaces so that the Brusho background showed through. I was quite happy with the result but felt that it just needed a little more, so I added the sentiment (Inkylicious) and stamped a few splatters (Concord & 9th) to finish it off.

There's a £25 voucher from our fab sponsors Stamp Addicts for our lucky October winner, and my lovely teamies have some gorgeous inspiration for you over on the Challenge Blog.

Whilst autumn is not my favourite season of the year (too close to winter and the cold weather!) I do love the autumn colours, so I'm really looking forward to seeing lots of lovely entries. Good luck everyone!

The Glory of Autumn

In my previous post, I mentioned that whilst I don't look forward to the shorter days and cold of winter, I do like to see the glorious autumn colours. So I'm very happy that our October theme at Stamping Sensations is

 * * * * *AUTUMN GLORY * * * * *

We'd like to see your interpretation of Autumn. I'm thinking reds, greens, oranges, yellows, browns, leaves, trees, acorns, conkers, autumn flowers, berries, toadstools .......   well, that's what Autumn says to me. What does it say to you?

Please do remember that as we are a stamping challenge, the focal element of your project must be stamped (rubber/clear or hand coloured digital image) if you want to be in with a chance of winning a prize or top 3 place. Our sponsor this month is Stamp Addicts, who are giving a fabulous £25 voucher to spend in their shop or on their website.

I had been having a play with some Distress Oxide inks on watercolour paper, and by accident rather than by design, found that I had a pattern that made me think of a lake scene and morning mists, such as we often get on our local loch at this time of year. I decided to use it as the base for my autumn card.

A few stamps from Inkylicious (including the sentiment) brought the scene to life, and I matted it with some papers in autumn colours which have been in my stash for years! Think I have been subconsciously saving them because the colours are so rich and, well, autumny!

I felt the card needed a bit of embellishment, but I didn't want to detract too much from the lake scene. My recently acquired leaf dies from Concord & 9th fitted the bill perfectly. Considering I had no fixed idea in mind at the start of my project, I was quite pleased with how the card turned out. Something a bit different.

And that's what I'm hoping to see in this month's entries - something different, outside the box thinking, serendipity even! Just so long as they show the beauty and glory of this spectacular season. My teamies have have come up with some simply stunning samples, over on the Challenge Blog. Don't miss them!

I've been looking forward to this for ages, and really hope to see lots of entries on what I'm sure will be a popular theme. Good luck everyone!

Autumn Glory

Well, it doesn't seem five minutes since September arrived, and here we are at the start of October! This year is flying by! It means, of course, that it's time for our next challenge at Stamping Sensations, and this month we have one of my favourite themes -

* * * * * AUTUMN GLORY * * * * *

Not my favourite season of the year, as it reminds me that we are getting closer to winter (hate the cold and the long dark nights) but I do love the autumn leaves, trees and colours. So I will be hoping to see lots of those in our challenge entries. As usual, you may interpret the theme however you wish, but please do remember that stamping (rubber, clear or non-pre-coloured digi) must be the focal or predominant element of your project.

Our October sponsor is the wonderful Penny Black, and we have a fab selection of their products for our winner.

Recently I came across Andy Skinner's video showing how to do the alcohol ink float technique. Haven't used my alcohol inks for ages, so I decided to try the technique for my Autumn card. It was very easy to do!

The effect, produced on porous paper or card, is much softer than that obtained by using the inks on non-porous surfaces, and it makes lovely backgrounds. Having made mine, I stamped over it with Inkylicious leaf stamps, which I then coloured with diluted distress inks. Being water based, the DIs didn't affect the alcohol ink background. The next step was to stamp some of the flowers and the butterfly from Penny Black's "Enamor" set, which I also coloured with distress inks. The sentiment is from the same set. 

I added some shading around the leaves, flowers and butterfly with a Spectrum Noir pencil to make them stand out a bit more. The finished picture was then mounted with various layers on to a 7" x 7" card. The patterned paper is by Bo Bunny. A snippet of ribbon, a few punched leaves and a flower button were the finishing touches. I didn't look in my button box for a suitable button until after I had coloured the flowers, and it is a lucky coincidence that I just happened to have one in the same style and colour, which I'd forgotten I had!

I thoroughly enjoyed trying out the technique, and it's one I think I'll be using again. If you'd like to try it too, you can watch Andy's video tutorial here.

 My lovely teamies have some gorgeous projects to inspire you on the Challenge Blog, so do pop over and take a look, and we will look forward to seeing lots of awesome autumn entries!

Autumn colours

My favourite season of the year is spring, when everything is bright and fresh and new. I don't like the dark mornings and evenings of the late autumn and winter, or the dull days. Having said all that, though, I do enjoy the colours of autumn. I am lucky to live in an area with lots of trees, and they are now changing their hues. I can sit at my desk and look at them through the window. Across the road from our house are some beautiful old elms, and the wind this afternoon brought the leaves swirling down like snow. We have a small forsythia bush in the front garden, and just now it is looking quite spectacular.



I wanted to capture the autumn colours in a card, and at the same time try out a technique I saw in the wonderful StampARTic Blog. It used foam stamps to take away colour from a Distress Inked background. The foam stamps were simply sprayed with water and stamped on to the background. Unfortunately I don't have any foam stamps. I do, however, have stencils and sponges. I figured that I might get a similar effect by stencilling with a damp sponge, and it worked! First I tried it on plain card, and it was not bad, but the best result was using encaustic art card, which is semi-gloss. The Distress Inks stay wetter on it for longer and can be blended more easily. Having made the background I then taped a stencil to it and sponged it with clean water.

My first attempt was not very good, as I had the sponge too wet and the water seeped under the stencil. Having the sponge just slightly damp was much better. I also found that I didn't need as much water as I thought anyway, because the colour faded even more as it dried. Another advantage of the encaustic art card is that the water doesn't bleed into it as much as with plain card, so the image stays sharper.

I used a stencil by The Crafter's Workshop, called "Windsong," which I thought was really quite appropriate. It reminds me of leaves being blown about in the wind, just perfect for this card. The tree and leaf stamps are Elusive Images from Graphicus, and the word is by Hero Arts. I really like this stencil technique, and I'll be doing more of it.