Happy Fall

I see that there are lots of "fall people" and while it is not my number one season or color palette like it is for others, I find myself welcoming its activities. I enjoy the baking, pumpkin patches and savory recipes that it brings. After a fall trip out of town for a week, I am back to cardmaking and saw the autumn Inspired by Challenge IB354 and its pumpkins in a grid. I knew I had a grid die that needs some attention, so I started there!

The pumpkins are die cut from copper metallic, rose gold glitter, and regular card stock scraps. Most of the grid is white, but the inner grid and stitched main panel are a dove grey. I popped up every other square on foam tape for fun and ended with a rust sentiment. I kept it CAS.

What I used:

Impression Obsession - Scalloped Nine-Patch die

Sugar Pea Designs - Card front Element Builder die

Poppy Stamps - Whittle Creatures dies

Pretty Pink Posh - Giving Thanks stamp set

Spellbinders - Mirror and Glitter rose gold card stocks

Concord & 9th - Mini ink pad

Foam tape

Where are you in your autumn makes? Zucchini bread is all I have made so far this fall and uses a favorite recipe I've had forever.  I love all the spices and I add nuts for texture. Next I want to try a new-to-me recipe for chai cookies!

Thanks for visiting,

Carol

Stay Cozy

Fall is well on its way and if you have been in stores, it is already everywhere! Our Just Us Girls #793 Moodboard is so pretty that I couldn't resist making my card for this week's challenge. I took the grey, orange and yellow colors from all over the photo for my leaves, wood planks and stenciling. The photo gave me the ideas for leaves and distressed wood.

Products I used:

Concord & 9th - Stay Cozy Stencil Pack, Mini ink pads (sentiment)

Spellbinders - Delicious Decorations dies (leaves)

Ranger - Distress Inks (leaves)

Woodgrain coverplate die (either Papertrey or Stampin' Up!) 

Handheld small circle punch (nails)

First I made my stenciled panel. I just love the sentiment. The stenciling part was quick, but cutting and arranging the leaves, not so much. When I have a tedious project like this I turn on some music and take my time. I added each leaf from the back of the main panel, then made two distressed wood planks to go above and below the sentiment. I popped the resulting completed panel onto an A2 panel in dark grey like the lantern in the photo. Finally, I adhered the grey panel to an A2 card base! The leaves have veins in them making nice details, but they don't show well in the photos.

We hope you will join us this week for some fall cozy cardmaking. Check out the team's cards and that of our special guest Jaydee. See you in the gallery!

Carol

Fall Thanks

It is time for the CASE It Instagram Hop for September! I CASEd Jeff Lindberg's fun card with a white cover plate die cut and gorgeous ink blending behind it. His card just pops with color! I recently won a gift card to Pink Fresh Studio and these Twisted Pattern and Fall Leaf dies had to go into my cart. Jeff's card also uses a Pink Fresh Studio Simply Diamonds coverplate on his card.

Jeff's bold and fun card that I took inspiration from for today's hop card. Here is a video of Jeff and Laura Fadora (Bassen) making these cards.

Products I used:

Pink Fresh Studio - Twist Pattern die, Fall Leaf die

Ranger - Distress Oxide ink pads

Concord & 9th - Mini ink pad

Pink and Main - Enamel dots

Gold metallic card stock (thanks)

After I ink blended an ombré look on an A2 panel (with the colors of leaves changing colors in the fall), I popped up my white die cut coverplate on thick foam squares. Using the same ink colors as on my background panel, I ink blended a scrap of white card stock with blotches of color, die cut the leaves out of it, then arranged them on top of the white "twisted" die. I die cut the sentiment twice out of gold metallic card stock and glued them together. The last thing was to add a bit of water spatter and a few sparkly enamel dots to complete the card.

You can hop over to Instagram and start with my card by going to @sawithadtomakeit if you like. I am sure you will enjoy all the cards this talented group made.

See you back here soon,

Carol

Sweetie

It's my turn to hostess our Just Us Girls Challenge #792 and it is Word Week. I chose Containers as the word which can mean a vase, bucket, jar, basket, box, mug, cup, glass, bowl, pitcher, kettle, etc. Some sort of container that is preferably holding something. My card has wire baskets that are holding fresh strawberries and cherries.

Products I used:

The Greetery - Market Basket dies

My Favorite Thinkgs - Sweet as Pie die

Spellbinders - Delicious Decorations dies

Altenew - Masonry Wall 3D Embossing folder

Distress ink pad

Concord &9th ink pad

Silver card stock

I started by ink blending scraps of white card stock with 2 reds and 2 green inks. Then I die cut the strawberries, cherries and their leaves from these scraps. Next, I die cut the baskets. Then I played with arrangements of the fruit to see if I had enough to fill the baskets. There is a background piece for the different sized baskets, so I die cut those and ink blended them to match the fruit that they would hold. I adhered the berries to the backs, then adhered the baskets over them. I knew I wanted the masonry wall and plank floor, so I prepared them and adhered them to the A2 white card base.

I die cut the sentiment and stamped and heat embossed the "love you" on a scrap of black card stock. After those were adhered, the card was complete!

We hope you will join us this week. We love seeing your creations in our gallery!

Carol

Warm Cocoa Wishes

Recently I created a paper shadow box with an easel for our Time Out #297 "Your Favorite Season" Inspired By-themed challenge. It is difficult to have a favorite season where I live now because summer is HOT, fall is the very unwanted hot/humid hurricane season, winter is nice, mildly warm/low humidity with about a week of cold (60 degrees Fahrenheit?), and spring is very short with increasing temps. 

From age 5 through retirement I was always in schools in other climates and my favorite season was of course summer (vacation). To make things simple, my favorite unconventional choice for the challenge is the Christmas season! Calm and pleasant weather, baking, cooking, stitching, shopping, crafting and gifting; It encompasses all of my favorite things!

Our wonderful sponsor, Waffle Flower Crafts, is generously offering a $25 store credit as a prize for our Challenge Winner, who will also get an invitation to join us as Guest Designer for a future challenge.

We are joined by Darnell Knauss of djkardcreations, and winner of Time Out #292 as Guest Designer. Darnell runs the wonderful NBUS Challenge, Never Before Used Schtuff.

What I used for my card:

Spellbinders - Cocoa Wonderland and Mugs and Mittens die sets

PinkFresh Studio - Festive Grid Coverplate die

Impression Obsession- Easel die

Card stock scraps, including glitter papers in rose gold and red shimmer

Stampin' Up! - Classic ink pad

I have made this paper shadowbox frame before, but a long time ago. I had to search You Tube for a formula (here) to make the exact size I was looking for, which is A2. Her (Papercrafting Threads) example is another size. On my third try I got mine right, thankfully. 

Next, I die cut the background and ink blended an ombré teal color. I just love the little symbols of the season in this coverplate. I added bits of the rose gold glitter card stock behind each star in the background panel.

I assembled the pieces of the mug and adhered them together. Then I popped it all up on foam tape inside the frame.

Last, I die cut the sentiment out of a pretty red shimmery card stock and added it to the scene. 

There is an easel behind my shadowbox that can be undone to lie flat.

Which season will you pick for your favorite? We can't wait to see your cards in the gallery with the seasons represented! See you there?

Carol

 

 

 

Keep It Cozy

Hi there! Today is the September Gorgeous Tags Hop on Instagram and I am sharing my fall mug tag here and over there. We have an optional "Autumn" theme for you, so some tags with relfect that.

What I used:

Pretty Pink Posh - Winter Mug dies (mug, leaves)

Concord & 9th - Basket Weave Card Front die

Ellen Hutson - Piercing Plate 2

My Favorite Things - Snow Swirls Cover-Up die

Twine

Hero Arts - Tag die, Hero Hues Espresso ink pad

Park Lane - Foil Printed Paper Pad

The whole tag was made by die cutting shapes! 

I die cut a patterned paper mug with a print that reminds me of Rifle Paper Company prints.

The die for the leaves comes with the mug die and I just love the stitching on them. 

I cut three tags, plus an extra to back the main tag, plus several mugs (out of plain card stock) for thickness. 

Next, I ran the tags through my Big Shot to add texture from a few of my cover plates. I purposely chose the stitching on the main tag to look like steam coming off the hot beverage. There is a little bit of ink blending on the edges of the main tag, too.

Last, I stamped and fussy cut the sentiment and used brown, blue and orange twine to tie the three tags together.

We hope you will drop by the Instagam hop...you can start at mine: @sawithadtomakeit.

The participants all enjoy making tags for you with an optional theme, this month being Autumn. Hope to see you over there! Thanks for checking in here.

Carol

Seashells for the Brides

I love this Hero Arts shell die set and have been making  several cards with it. The two cards here are for a recent bride and another bride-to-be for their blue beachy themes. Our Just Us Girls Die Week #791 Anything Goes starts today so I also made the cards with our challenge in mind! We hope you will play along and check out the team's blogs and our September guest Jaydee's blog for all the cardmaking details.

What I used:

Hero Arts - Sophisticated Shells Die set

Simon Says Stamp - Wonky Stitched Rectangle dies

Stampin' Up! - Classic ink pad, Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set (very old set)

Tim Holtz - Pearls

The first card was inspired by the idea of sand castle building and the second one used some of the leftover shells I had already die cut. I love the blue pearls with these shells.

Join us this week!

Carol Mc