Rich Autumn Leaves

I don't know where the month of September has gone, but here I am posting my last Stamp Simply Guest DT card as a part of Sharon Johnson's Friday Stamp Simply challenges. I have had so much fun participating in the challenges with Sharon and all the terrific design team members. Sharon, thank you so much for this honor!

Sharon's challenge this Friday is Rich Autumn Leaves to create a project with leaves (or acorns, pinecones, trees with leaves, if you don't have actual leaf images) making your project rich in color and texture, adding sponging to create that richness and depth of color.



I bought this All Natural stamp set at a garage sale this summer (never used) and wanted to use this simple, yet classy leaf image for my project this week. Using Stazon Brown ink, I stamped the leaf onto kraft cardstock three times. I colored my leaves by sponging (using daubers) the leaves with Marigold Morning, Really Rust, and Ruby Red. I cut the images and adhered them to Very Vanilla cardstock sponged on the outer edges with Close to Cocoa.

I used a reverse Nestability die cut piece of River Rock, as a part of my Doubledog Dare Challenge, given to us by Anne (aka Itsapassion)to use reverse punching or die cut images in our design. After adhering the three chocolately rich brads, I attached the frame to my base cardstock with dimensionals for depth. If you'd like to play in the Doubledog Dare Challenge, please check out this Splitcoaststampers thread here and go to post #32. Be sure to use keyword DDC so we can see your projects.

You can play this challenge and upload your project at Splitcoaststampers and/or your blog, anytime at all. Be sure to use keyword ssnotime106. You can play as many times as you like!!! The point is to keep it simple, quick and have fun! Please link back to Sharon's blog here.

I hope you can take a few extra minutes to check out the fabulous samples the entire Stamp Simply team made today:

Janine
Jennifer
Julie
AJ
Deb
Tammy
Barbara
Jenny
Miss Sharon

Stamps: All Natural (Stampin' Up); Autumn Beauty (sentiment - Gina K Designs)
Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, River Rock, Kraft, Very Vanilla
Ink: Stazon Brown, Close to Cocoa, Ruby Red, Marigold Morning, Really Rust
Accessories: Square Nestabilities, chocolate brads, sponge daubers, dimensionals

Gina K Release Party Begins!

Hop on over to Splitcoaststampers (SCS) for Gina K's August release party and check out all the new stamp sets, join the contests, challenges, and chatter going on right now (7:00-10:00 p.m. CST)!

This is a card I made for my great uncle who turned 90 years old today!! He still golfs and keeps very active. Woo-hoo! Way to go Uncle Russ!

I used the mailbox image from Theresa Momber's newest release called Autumn Beauty. You are going to love and want this stamp set! I stamped the mailbox in Tuxedo Memento Black Ink and colored it with Copic markers. The flourished image is also a part of this set and is stamped on the Moonlit Fog cardstock, which is a new Pure Luxury cardstock color Gina is also releasing this month! The Moonlit Fog cardstock is a grayish color with what I see as a bit of a greenish hue and others see a bluish hue. However, if you pair it with navy blue, as I did, it picks up the blue color. Very cool, if you ask me!


I used a photo corner punch in the Moonlit Fog and layered the smaller version of this punch with the navy over it and then paper pierced around the photocorners. I like the dimension it gives.

This next card is the third one I promised in my earlier blog post today. I wanted to show you how good the turquoise looks with Gina's new Pure Luxury cardstock she is also releasing this month called Pumpkin Spice. I stamped one of the other flourishy images from the Tropical Blooms set onto the Pumpkin Spice. It looks so rich with the chocolate and turquoise. Tropical Blooms is Gina's free with the purchase of three set.


I stamped the Tropical Bloom images in white craft ink onto chocolate cardstock and let the white craft ink dry before I colored the blooms with colored pencils. This is called a pencil over technique. I used various shades of yellow, pumpkin, and rust to blend the blooms and three shades of greens for the stems and leaves. I left a little of the white craft ink outline for dimension and then I added some extra white highlighting with a white gel pen. I then cut out the oval slightly smaller than my images so I could do the out-of-the-box technique with this floral array. I love how the turquoise brads in the center of the flowers just make it all pop!

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you'll join us at the release party! As my friend and I always teasingly say to each other "Be there or be square!"