MFT, Simon Says and PaperArtsy Cards

Hello friends!  I hope you had a wonderful weekend.  I had a few little spurts of time and worked on a few cards here and there.  Last weekend my friend Carol and I went to our local stamp convention and Top Flight Stamps was there with a huge range of PaperArtsy stamps.  I was more than inspired and pulled out my flower images. 

I already had ELB022 and purchased JOFY063 at the show.  The best part of these cards was that the backgrounds were in my pile from a mini album I was working on that just didn't pan out.  They were made with Distress Oxides a Tim Holtz stencil and stamping from ESA008.  I had scraped some white DecoArt crackle paste over them and splashed them with Glimmer Mist.

All that was left was to color my flower images with Distress Oxides and my waterbrush, then add some floral stamping in the background.  I used a white Uniball pen to add the accents.  The finished cards are 5x7".

Next up was a little CAS play with some new Simon Says Stamps products I got on a recent sale.  The theme for this fortnight's Flickr challenge is Coloring.  I hadn't a chance to use my lovely new Winter Flowers over the holiday so decided to try a spring palette with the poinsettia.  Does it work for you or seem off?  

I used my Christmas gift from DH, a set of Zig Clean Color Brush Markers to color them.  For the background panel I embossed the Love Is background stamp and sponged with Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide.  The tiny sentiment is from the Messages for Everyday set.  I won the little bauble stickers on Instagram and was so happy to get to use them! 

Finally I made a card for my youngest son's birthday for the current MFT (My Favorite Things) Stamps Birthday Project - How Old Are You.  I used the darling Stacey Yucula Sweet Holiday Penguins stamps and dies. 

Again with the Zig markers and a waterbrush for the cute little guy.  The hill die is by Tim Holtz.  I added Stickles to the tops.  The background was sponged with Blueprint Sketch and Cracked Pistachio Distress Oxide, then flicked with water.  I went back over several of the splashes with more Stickles for extra sparkle. 

And here's the happy birthday boy a few months ago getting his final belt in Tae Kwon Do before his black belt test this spring.  His birthday party was at the gym with tons of kids all playing a huge game of basketball.  Not many pics of the sweaty runners, so this one will suffice.  :)  He was super proud of his Student of the Month accomplishment!  I hope you had a crafty weekend too and look forward to seeing your makes.  Hugs, Autumn

I'm sharing with:
Simon Says Stamp: Flickr Challenge #117: Coloring
MFT The Birthday Project: How Old Are You?
Simon Says Stamp: Vintage/Past Times
Allsorts: Spring Flowers
Stamping Sensations: All Things Bright and Beautiful
Penny Black & More: Anything Goes w/Option of Tags

Wendy Vecchi Make Art Ink Pads and Stamps

Hello sweeties!  I'm back today to share a couple more cards I made with the beautiful new stamp/stencil/die cut sets by Wendy Vecchi for Ranger Ink.  I needed lots of thank you cards for all of the meals and care gifts we've received over the past few months.  The die cuts that are included with this new range of stamps make for easy card assembly, so I was able to whip out these and the other card I shared HERE in one evening.  :)

Honestly, I know NOTHING about flowers, but something about this floral collage made me think of coloring it like a succulent.  Now, here is the latest release of colors.  I chose Peat Moss, Thistle, Sky Blue and Potting Soil Make Art Blendable Dye Inks and tapped them onto my craft mat and used a waterbrush to loosely color the image. Notice how I exceeded the lines so that when it was cut with the coordinating die there was no odd white space.

As a final touch I embossed the A Million Thanks sentiment in gold against a panel sponged with Thistle and added a twine bow.

Next, in efforts to develop a completely different and third color palette, I sponged Peat Moss and Blue Sky on the top and bottom half of a card panel, leaving the center to blend into white.

I sponged the bottom to make the stripes then added a strip of torn book page for my base.  I splashed the panel with water and lifted some of the color away to make a more "textured" background.  Then I used the dye inks on the solid stamps and overstamped with Wendy's Archival Tree Branch ink pad.  I finished with the sentiment in Archival Cornflower Blue.  I love how the Make Art pads work so well with the Archival pads.  Maybe next time I will do a little more mixed media, but for now it was fun to make these simple, layered thank you cards.  Thanks for looking!  <3

New Wendy Vecchi Make Art Stamps by Ranger Ink

Hello dear friends.  I was thrilled to be contacted by Ranger Ink to see if I would like to try out some of the new Wendy Vecchi products released at Creativation this year.  Most of you know that our lives have been turned upside down these days dealing with our daughter's cancer diagnosis, but between the craziness I found a day to make a few cards and am happy to share one with you today.  A quick update to let you know that Sydney's treatment has been extremely difficult on her, with one complication after another, BUT she is in remission!  Praise the Lord!  The next two years of treatments will to keep the leukemia from returning.  We truly appreciate your prayers during this time.

I shared my unboxing on Instagram HERE.   These are the six new colors of Make Art Blendable Dye Ink Pads.  I wanted to label the sides of mine and shared the steps HERE.  I've ordered the other colors and can't wait for them to arrive!

I've also been super excited about the new makeup style brushes folks are using for ink blending.  I ordered a very cheap set on Amazon for $7 (HERE).  I LOVE the results.  I made this blended panel using Potting Soil, Buttercup and Tea Rose Make Art Blendable Dye Ink Pads.

I used the same colors to stamp my flowers and butterfly from the Country Flowers set and cut them with the dies included in the set.  Seriously guys, what a great value these stamps, dies and stencil sets are!  The whole collection for $15 US.  I framed my panel with a border of Wendy's new washi tape.  As a final touch, I cut a piece of embossed 3D wood grain paper in the shape of a planter.  The sentiment was stamped from the A Million Thanks set.  A bit of twine finishes the card.

Thanks for looking and have a happy crafty day!  Hugs, Autumn

I'm sharing with these challenges:

Addicted To Stamps: Anything But Square

Penny Black and More: Anything Goes w/the Option of Tags

Stamping Sensations: All Things Bright and Beautiful

Craft Stamper Make It Take It: Anything Goes

*Though these products were given to me for free to use as promotional material, the opinions I've shared are my own.

Tim Holtz New Faceted Heart and Ideaology

Hi guys!  Thank you so much for your sweet comments on my projects for the Tim Holtz Sizzix Chapter 1 release.  I had so much fun using the Faceted Hearts die for my rusty heart tag shared HERE that I decided to do another sample.  For that tag I tried to mimic pieced sheet metal, then it occurred to me I could use the Mechanics 3D texture fade to cut my heart for "easy sheet metal".  :)  I wasn't sure how the embossed panel would die cut, or if it would flatten the embossing, but it worked beautifully since it is a padded Bigz die.

I cut the 3D Mechanics from Metallic Kraft Core and colored with Distress Crayons.  I should have shared this tip in the first post, but for easy assembly make sure to crease all of your score lines with a bone folder before gluing the Faceted Heart together.

I layered lots of Tim Holtz ephemera/Ideaology together over a Paper Stash base.  I love sanding and altering this faux ephemera, distressing the edges and adding little tears and folds to give it a more authentic look.

I finished my paper doll collage with a snippet that reminds me of my own sweet boys.  Oh how I love this boy image!  I'm super excited about the new paper dolls and ephemera Tim is releasing.  Find out more HERE.

Tim Holtz Large Stems Spring Green Leaves Card

Hello hello!  Today I'm sharing another card featuring the Tim Holtz Large Stems Bigz L die, as part of the new Chapter 1 Sizzix release.  Make sure to check out the full release HERE.  When I saw the leafy branch I envisioned a vivid green like the early spring leaves, my absolute favorite color in the world.  I ended up going a tad darker with my card because I can't seem to help myself in regards to grunging everything up!  LOL!

I cut two pieces and sponged them heavily with Distress Inks, stamped them with the script from the Entomology stamp set, then curled the leaves and glued the stems together, slighly offsetting the design.

For my background I dipped some of Tim's Paper Stash in Distress Inks, stamped another of Tim's script stamps, then added strips of tissue tape.  I double stitched around the edge of the panel and layered over a sheet of paper canvas.

I used Tim's Friendship Words dies to make my sentiment, both sponged to coordinate.  I wrapped thin jute around the panel and tied a bow to finish it off.  I have SO many ideas for the leaves alone in this die and can't wait to get back in the studio.  Here's to crafty days ahead!