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!

Fall in for our latest challenge at Stamping Sensations!

I can't say that autumn is my favourite season of the year (mainly because it's followed by winter!) but it does have aspects that I appreciate, including the misty mornings and mellow fruitfulness. Most of all, though, I like the colours. It's quite strange, as normally I prefer the cooler shades: blues, purples and greens. I think it is the combination of the autumn hues which appeals to me. So this month's theme at Stamping Sensations is right up my street, as it is

s qti   AUTUMN COLOURS  i tq s

Naturally you can interpret this in any way you like, as long as we can see some stamping as the main element of your project, along with typical autumn shades of green, yellow, orange, brown and red.

Our fab sponsor for October is Foil Play, who have a massive selection of products for card making and crafts, and they have very generously donated a £35 voucher for the lucky winner to spend in their online shop.

The main image on my card is the gorgeous Year Of Stamping Issue 9 - September stamp from Chocolate Baroque.

 I coloured the poppy pods with pencils (for some reason the colours are much brighter in real life than they appear on the photo) and added just a little colour at the top and bottom behind them to give a bit of depth to the background. I used Promarkers on the butterfly to make it stand out. The large poppy pod stamp is also by Chocolate Baroque and the sentiment is by Inkylicious. Leaves die by Cheery Lynn, and the background paper is from the Autumn Song Collection by Bo Bunny. Real poppy pod tops from my garden.

You'll find plenty of autumn inspiration over on the Stamping Sensations Challenge Blog, and my teamies would love it if you would visit their individual blogs too, where you will find all the details of how they created their beautiful projects. I look forward to seeing yours!

A New Challenge For A New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone! Are you ready for our first challenge of 2015 at Stamping Sensations? Our theme for January is

* * * * * DIES AND PUNCHES * * * * *

We'd like you to show us what you can do with your dies and/or punches, either one or the other, or a combination of both, it's up to you.

Our lovely sponsor this month is the ever popular Sizzix, who I'm sure need no introduction. They have kindly donated a fabulous selection of their dies and embossing folders. The lucky winner will also receive a bonus prize of some gorgeous ribbons from Crafty Ribbons.

For my card I have used both dies and punches.

The background paper is by Bo Bunny. On top of that I placed the white punched square (using both the border and corner punches from a punch around the page set by Martha Stewart), followed by the scalloped and plain circles (both cut with Spellbinders dies). I stamped the sentiment (from Hydrangea set by Inkylicious) and the branch and flower (from the Majestix Oriental Blossom set by Card-io) and finally added the butterfly (stamp by Hero Arts) which was cut out with the matching Sizzix Framelits die, coloured with Promarkers and affixed with foam pads. Here's a close up.

One of my crafting resolution for this year is to break out of my comfort zone and try new things, so for this card I've gone for a colour combo I wouldn't normally use. The jury is still out on whether I like it or not! Another resolution is only to buy crafty stuff that I really need, as opposed to want, and to get some of my existing stash used up instead. Hmm. Wonder how long I'll stick to that one! Of course, the definition of "need" is open to interpretation........!

Anyway, I hope one of your resolutions is to join in our challenge every month, and we can't wait to see all your lovely creations! If you should need any inspiration, hop over to the Challenge Blog where my talented teamies have all made excellent use of their dies and punches. Thanks for looking!

Fairy Nuff!

We have a new challenge for you at Stamping Sensations, one which I've really enjoyed making a card for, and I hope you will too! A bit of escapism, just the thing to take our minds off the miserable weather we've been having lately! We'd like you to show us your creations on the theme of

*** WINGS, FANTASY AND FICTION ***

We're thinking butterflies, fairies and mythical or fictional characters here, but you are of course free to interpret the theme however you like.

Our fantastic sponsor this month is Crafty Devils, see the Challenge Blog for details of the prize they have generously donated.

Anyway, on to my card. I bought the Lavinia Stamps Hobbit Home stamp ages ago, but had been waiting for a suitable occasion to use it. It was perfect for this challenge!

All the stamps I've used here are by Lavinia Stamps. As you can see, I partially cut around the door so I could open it, and made a little scene to put behind it. (The tree, hill and birds are hand drawn.)

 Background papers are Bo Bunny "Autumn Song", butterfly and leaf dies by Cheery Lynn, and sentiment by Stampingallday. Circle and scallop circle dies are Nestabilities.

Butterflies and fairies are two of my favourite things, so I can't wait to see all your gorgeous projects! Thanks for looking at mine, and keep those entries coming in!