Inspiring colours

September already, the nights are fast drawing in and there is a definite autumnal feel in the air up here in rural SW Scotland. Whilst I love to see the autumn colours, I'm not looking forward to the return of the cold and the dark nights of winter, especially after the washout summer we've had. However, it's time for a new challenge at Stamping Sensations, so I am hoping for lots of lovely entries to brighten things up! This month our theme is

* * * * * PHOTO  INSPIRATION * * * * *

You may take your inspiration from the gorgeous colours in the photo, or go floral with the beautiful iris, but as always, your main image/focal point must be stamped if you want your entry to be considered for our prizes or top 3. And we have some lovely prizes for our winners this month, a first prize of stamp sets from Hero Arts, and a second one of lovely ribbons and gems. See the Challenge Blog for full details.

For my card, I've used a stunning Echinacea stamp by Imagination Crafts, sentiment dies by Brittania Dies, Prima flowers, and ribbon and backing papers from my stash.

For even more inspiration, do hop over to the Challenge Blog, where my teamies have some superb samples for your delight. We hope you enjoy our September challenge!

Anything Goes for February at Stamping Sensations

It's time for our February Challenge at Stamping Sensations, and we have a free and easy theme of

* * * * * ANYTHING GOES * * * * *

Choice of subject is up to you, but as always, because we are a stamping challenge, we must see a stamped image or sentiment as the focal element of your design if you wish to be considered for the prize or Top 3 place.

Our sponsor this month is the fabulous Visible Image.

It says on their website "Unique designs, awesome stamps" and I would definitely agree with that! If you do too, make sure you enter our February challenge, as Visible Image have donated a very generous £35 voucher for the lucky winner to spend on their site! 

Some of you may remember the song "Colours Of The Wind" from the Disney film Pocahontas. It's a beautiful song which I have used with many of the school choirs and classes I have worked with and they have all loved it. So when I saw the Visible Image stamp set with the same title, I just had to have it! Having said that, being a tree/leaf/nature lover, even without the association it has for me I would still have bought it, as it is such a gorgeous design.

At the Stamp Magic show last October, I watched a demo of Imagination Crafts Starlights paints, and thought the effect obtained with them was stunning. I bought several of the colours, but hadn't got round to using them until now. I thought they would be perfect with the Colours Of The Wind stamp. I stamped the image with Versamark Ink and clear embossed it, to act as a resist. Then I brayered over it with 3 shades of the Starlights paint, which I gently wiped off the image itself with a babywipe to reveal the leaf in all its glory. The small diecut maple leaves (Spellbinders) were painted with the same shades of the paint (Topaz, Turquoise and Dark Orchid). The sentiment was stamped randomly over the base card before the main image was matted on to it, and also on a diecut label (Spellbinders) which was attached to the card with a scrap of ribbon.

On this next photo you can perhaps get a better idea of the lovely shimmer of the Starlights paints.

My teamies have some stunning samples to show you over on the Challenge Blog, and as many of them are also Visible Image fans too, you will not be short of inspiration! However, you do not, of course, have to use Visible Image stamps on your project. The choice of products is entirely yours. We look forward to seeing your creations!

Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness

Although my favourite season is spring, I do love the glorious autumn colours and misty mornings. And evenings, come to that. When I looked outside last night just before bedtime, it was like looking at a fantasy world. The sky was quite clear, but there was a low mist lying over the fields, with just the tops of the trees peeping above it. Lit by the moonlight, it was an eerily beautiful scene. Just wish I could have photographed it, but my camera sadly isn't up to the job. On Friday we had a day and night of torrential rain, quite a shock after such a dry September, and the river here flooded over its banks for the first time in several months. The weather has turned decidedly chilly too, time to break out the winter woollies, methinks!

Anyway, let's warm things up with our October challenge at Stamping Sensations, where we are celebrating the season with a theme of

WARM AUTUMN COLOURS

We would like to see lots of lovely greens, browns, yellows, oranges and reds.

Our sponsor this month is the fabulous Imagination Crafts, who are donating a very generous £35 voucher to the lucky winner.

I've used the Lillies Decoupage Stamp Sets by Imaginations Crafts for my card.

I began by stamping the image with black Brilliance ink and heat embossing it with clear embossing powder. The background was then coloured with Distress inks. I decided to leave the flowers uncoloured so that they would stand out. The Decoupage stamp sets are, obviously, ideal for 3D decoupaging, which would also have given more prominence to the lillies, but as the card was to be posted, I wanted to keep it quite flat.

I matted the image on to a piece of textured green card and layered it with a diecut by Britannia dies on to to the base card, which had been stamped with one of the stamps from the set, in the same Distress ink colours. The same stamp and inks were also used on the tag, along with a sentiment from the set. Some diecut leaves (Cheery Lynn) and autumn-hued threads completed the card.

For some truly gorgeous autumn inspiration, do hop over to see the wonderful projects my talented teamies have posted on the Challenge Blog. Thanks for looking!