The musings and offerings of a burgeoning greetings master

Showing posts with label Fall. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fall. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Mr Cardmaker is in Autumn Heaven

Autumn is my favorite time of year.  Not so surprising, really.  How could you NOT love the colors, the smells, the crisp air? 
Now, I once knew a man who got depressed when autumn came.  When I asked him about it, he said it was because "it only means that winter is coming."  Terribly unfortunate for him, to have that reaction to such a beautiful time of year. 

Anyway, I decided to do some autumn cards, and I came up with a Thanksgiving (or just a thank you) card that I am really happy with. 


I made this--


 
This card's inspiration comes from the little gold colored panel.  I started with a piece of cream cardstock, and hand colored it with a direct to paper technique, using Mostly Mustard and Crumb Cake inks (SU).  Then I ran it through the Cuttlebug in an embossing folder, and re inked it with more crumbcake ink, hitting only the raised portions.
 
I backed it with a panel of gray card stock , colored with more crumbcake ink and edged with Memento Espresso Truffle ink, and added some white brads that I colored to look cream with a copic marker (E53).
 
The background was stamped with my Inkadinkadoo flourish stamps in Versamark ink, then wet embossed in clear embossing powder.  Then, more crumbcake ink to make it all pop.
 
The leaves were the super fun part for me.  I grabbed scraps of designer paper AND the piece of scrap paper that was under the cardstock I did my hand coloring on, and punched leaves with my Fiskars leaf punch. 
The scrap leaf looks like this--
 
 
 
I did MORE direct to paper on the rest of the leaves, making them bright but streaky and worn looking.  Doing the direct to paper AFTER punching helped to give the edges more presence, and I didn't have to go back and add edging on each leaf with a sponge dauber later.
 
They looked just a bit flat to me, so I grabbed my Delicata gold ink, and hit them all with that.  WOW! what a difference!  Lots of life, and a wonderful little shimmer and glow. 
 
I curled the leaves around a pencil, with some edges going forward, and some going back, and I adhered them by adding tape only to the places where the leaf hit the surface, so lots of edges were loose, and lots of texture was visible. 
 
The label was made with memento Espresso Truffle ink on a stamp by inkadinkadoo, and punched with an SU punch.  I punched a second label out of Kraft card stock, edged it in the same ink, and cut it in half to add a backing to the sentiment piece. That was added with some foam tape for some dimension.
Here's a close-up of that--
 
 
 
All in all, I really like this one, especially because of the shiny stuff! 
 
I hope your autumn is a beautiful one, and that you are getting wonderful inspiration from Nature at its finest!
 
Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard
 
Supplies:  Cardstock-GinaKDesigns, Bazzill Basics; Embellishments- Recollections(brads)Ink-Tsukineko Memento and Delicata, Stampin'Up, Studio G, Copic Marker;  Papers, Me & My big Ideas, My Mind's Eye;  Stamps- Inkadinkadoo;  Tools-Stampin' Up and FIskars punches, Scor Buddy, Cuttlebug machine and embossing folder.
 
 

 



Monday, October 1, 2012

Some Call Me Mr. Mojo

No, not really.  I was able to get myself a bit of mojo though, in time to put together a card for Mojo Monday 261.    That sketch looks like this--


I made a card for my SIL Andrea, who is having a birthday with a ZERO in it!  Maybe it'l be lucky for me over at Mojo Monday.

I made this--


I went out on a limb and substituted my circle of leaves for the large circle in the sketch.  Gotta take some chances, sometimes!

This is on GinaK Designs Pure Luxury Kraft card stock. with random bits of very old card stock used in the other elements.  The leaves are Punched with an EK Tools punch from  scraps (mostly from Me & My Big Ideas), that I inked up using a "direct to paper" method.  I also curled up some of the edges of the leaves.
This picture doesn't show it, but they're all coated with some Brilliant gold Delicata ink, so they're really sort of glitzy.  I wish the picture was better at showing that, because it's sort of the best part.  *sigh*....

The gold flag started as textured white card stock, that I ran through my Cuttlebug with an embossing folder, then inked with both sponge daubers and "direct to paper" on the raised surfaces.

I stamped the sentiment in Memento Espresso Truffle ink with a stamp from GKD Enjoy the Sunshine set, and stamped flourishes from inkadinkadoo, then cut it out with a Spellbinders Nestabilities die.  I stamped the flourishes both in Crumb Cake ink from Stampin' Up, and more Delicata ink.

The backgrounds stamp is from Ditto, and I got that pup at Michael's for $1.99!!  Love that!  The ribbon is from the dollar bin at Michael's too.  The button is an old one, and the twine is some random stuff from AC Moore.

This is actually the THIRD in a series using that embossing folder.  I made two others, that are more, Autumn/Thanksgiving themed.  I'll show you more of those next time. 

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best--
Richard