Stamps Stencils and Printables Mixed Media Card

 Welcome sweet friends!  A very happy Wednesday to you.  Today I am sharing my final card as guest designer for Word Art Wednesday.  I really pondered this week's project.  On one hand I wanted to do a New Year's card, as this verse will help most of us as we resolve to eat better and exercise more!  I also wanted to create a plaque for my office so I could enjoy this verse all year, but in the end I veered towards Valentine's Day (who knows?!)  Ha!

What a beautifully designed printable verse this week!  I used a Sizzix die to cut it out and some new Frantage embossing powder, which I picked up on my trip to the country.  I was so excited to find it and when I got home it was PINK!  AHHHH!  Not the white and gold that everyone's using...  But I aimed to get my $7 worth!  ;0

 I embossed the edges of the die and then inked it with Distress Inks.  I stamped a Tim Holtz splatter stamp in Rose Romance by SU! to further distress it.

 I made a pretty little flower from sheer fabric and the Tattered Florals die, but I couldn't get it to glue together properly and in the end I popped one of my DIY paper flowers over it!  I bundled some other TH dies in behind it.

 For my background I stenciled that awesome new dotty stencil with texture paste and poured the Frantage powder over it then heat set.  I sponged it in Rose Romance, then rubbed some white Distress Paint along the edges.  I stamped a crackle stamp too.

 I cut this bird from brown scrapbook paper, then embossed him lightly with pewter EP, then rubbed him over with gold Distress Paint, then with Stickles.  I'm quite refreshed to see some pink in my life, having been drowned in seas of red and green for the past few months.  Valentine's Day is my absolute FAVORITE crafting holiday!!!

I'm also sharing with That Craft Place for Anything Goes HERE, with Frilly and Funkie for Holiday Hues (Valentines - shabby pink) HERE, with Mixed Media Monthly Challenge for Silver and Gold HERE, with HLS for Anything Goes MM HERE, and with Allsorts for Anything but Christmas HERE.

Handmade Christmas and Thankfulness

 As 2015 winds down, my heart is overflowing with gratitude to God for bringing so many special people into my life.  Instagram is blowing up with #2015bestnine, where people share their nine best projects and is is quite fun, but for me the best part of my year has been the handmade love shared from friends.  I am so thankful for my friends and blog buddies.  My friend Barbara, who I have been pining over for several months while she is in England, sent me the beautiful card above.  I can see parts of her daughter, that she is visiting, in the style of the card, which makes it so special to me.

 My friend Nancy painted this gorgeous cow and I won it in our Christmas swap at our local craft group party.  Nancy lives out in the country raising horses and loves animals, so I really feel like this is a piece of her.

 She also gave me this gorgeous thank you card for the hostess gift I brought to the party.

And Nancy always remembers my birthday.  She files her cards in a catalog by month and never fails to send them, so thoughtful!  I wish I could be more mindful, like Nancy.

 Linda, my precious friend from when we were stationed in TX, sent me this mixed media wonder.  It means so much to me because Linda's craft time is very valuable to her as she deals with her DH's illness.  And Linda's carefree style makes me want to be more adventurous in my crafting.

 Trish hand delivered this beauty.  I had taught her how to make faux Jolee's 3D embellishments during a recent craft session and she went home and made this from layers of the same paper - CLEVER!  I'm so proud of her!

 My mom and I started these cards together, but then she finished hers so beautifully.  I will have to find my pieces and try to copy this!  I love how she embossed the edges and stamped the card back.  <3

 Bonnie gave me this gorgeous card with the most beautiful stamped verse for my birthday this year.  It is an ornament in my cube, which I have tried to decorate with yellow and red to make it more cheery.  Bonnie can sew wonders and this card reminds me of gorgeous fabric!

 Bonnie also gave me this amazing bird card as a thank you for helping with our office craft party - I love it!!!  That bird!

And my friend Madelyn, who has proclaimed that she can't do cards - yeah right!!! - made this amazing Tim Holtz style creation.  I mean, look at this thing!  It is my favorite things all combined, a true treasure!  

 I am also quite thankful for my DH, who is a mailman.  He has supported and spoiled me with the best of intentions all year and I feel like a princess.  One of his customers left him $60 in this beautiful card for Christmas.  She runs a small business from her house and he is so helpful in loading her packages.  How sweet!!!

 And speaking of mail, I was kindly delivered this gorgeous card handmade by the one and only Mindy Lacefield after leaving her a comment on Instagram.  Isn't that the kindest thing ever?!  I was swooning over her gorgeous Madonna painting and she said she'd love to send me a card.  This was a RAK that really blew me away, my heart is overjoyed still!

As it was when this Verve beauty arrived from the stampin' guru Julee Tilman, owner of Verve Stamps.  This card is one of those that puts Hallmark to shame!  Julee was so kind to think of me this Christmas.  

I always say my favorite thing about Christmas is handmade.  I love baking goodies with my kids, carefully choosing Christmas cards that I know the recipient will love, and making home feel like home.  I truly hope that you had a wonderful Christmas and that 2016 will bring you love, laughter, thankfulness, and a bit of homemade.  Hugs, Autumn

Mixed Media Triptych Tag for 12 Tags of Christmas

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas and appreciate the kind comments and wishes from you.  I finally finished my twelfth tag for The Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas challenge and I am quite relieved, just in the nick of time!  For my final tag, I decided to create a triptych rather than do a side fold like Linda did because all along I couldn't wait to line my tags all up and photograph them!  Ha!  So I wanted the size on this one to be the same as the others.  (Thanks for the idea, Sara Emily! ;0)   

I decided to go for neutral since the Christmas season is winding down.  I used layers of DI and a crackle stamp for my background, with a spritz of glimmer mist.  I loved Linda's plaid, but was in the mood for dots, so I used a new stencil and dropped gold EP into the wet paste to create this texture.

 I used Tim Holtz' Tattered Poinsettia in a new way, which I was very pleased with.  I scored each distressed petal.  The cardboard and dies are all dripping with puff paint snow.

 I decided to stamp a scene inside and used a mix of Stampendous and SU! stamps for the silhouettes.  The flourish is Penny Black and the poinsettia is a great find on a recent adventure out into the country to a forgotten about stamp shop.  JOY!  It is by Judith.

 The sentiment banner is from Verve over a MFT doily.

 Sorry that the details are lacking, do ask any questions.  I'm so tired today...

I'm ever so pleased with this tag and will be creating these triptych tags again soon!  Thanks so much to Linda for the challenge and win or lose, I'm sure we all have completed our wish lists from her lovely shop, The Funkie Junkie Boutique.  Mine is getting longer with each tag added to the linky.  So much inspiration!!!  I'll leave you with my favorites from my 12 Tags of Christmas 2015.

Click HERE for all of my 12 Tags of Christmas posts.  

I'm sharing with The Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas HERE, with A Vintage Journey, A Vintage Christmas HERE, with SSS for their Winter Wonderland challenge HERE, with SSS for their Make It Sparkle challenge HERE, with Emerald Creek Dares for their Christmas challenge HERE, with Our Creative Corner for their Stars challenge HERE, with The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge for their Silver & Gold challenge HERE, and with Country View Challenges for their Create a Scene challenge HERE.  To every one of you, I pray the spirit of Christmas will find its way into your hearts all the year and the great gift from our Father will overwhelm you with His love.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Winter Snowflakes 12 Days of Christmas Tag

 EEEK!  I've made it to tag 11 from the 12 Tags of Christmas with the Funkie Junkie!  I couldn't be happier that I started these tags in October and have kept to it!  Today's tag was greatly  inspired by Linda's tag, but with a more vintage grungy style.  Linda's tag is a gem this week!  My inspiration came from this new Cuttle Bug die that I ordered and when it arrived it was HUGE!!!  I thought I would never find a way to use it, but decided to use it in place of the stencil paste from Linda's version.

 I did spackle some paste onto my tag that was covered in this cool old paper.  Next I glued the die down with matte medium.  Then wen I inked it with Vintage Photo and Frayed Burlap Distress Inks, it puddled in the strangest places, but I loved the effect!

 I decided to add some embossing powder along the edges for some shimmer.  Then I simply die cut some dyed snowflakes and glued them on.  This tag was a breeze!

 I added pearls to the snowflakes and this little flurry of pearls to create the snow storm effect.  :)  The sticker is by Cosmo Cricket and is mounted on some inky, distressed paper.

 I just love the dimension this created and will definitely be using my dies in this new way now!  I hope so much to make it to tag 12!  I really love it!  Please head right over to The Funkie Junkie Boutique and show Linda some shopping love for hostessing this fabulous challenge.  There is a super sale going on!  Thanks Linda!

To see all of my 12 Tags of Christmas click HERE.

I'm linking up to:

The Funkie Junkie: 12 Tags of Christmas

Try it on Tuesday: Snow or Winter Whites

Sparkles Christmas Challenge: Die Cuts for Christmas

A Vintage Journey: A Vintage Christmas

Stamps & Stencils: Grungy Christmas

Craft Stamper: Take a Technique

Happy Little Stampers: Mixed Media

Mixed Media Bird Tag and Free Printable

 Happy Wednesday to you!  Today I am sharing this inspirational mixed media tag with Word Art Wednesday.  We will take a break next week and I'll have one more WAW project for you before the end of the year.  I hope you've enjoyed seeing how I've used these free printables.  This week I decided to take a break from all my Christmas tag making.  Actually, I was DYING to play with this new Stampendous bird stamp and die that I won!  :)  I'm also breaking out my stencils more in light of my new DT gig with Stamps & Stencils - YAY!

 First I colored my bird by dipping him into puddles of Vintage Photo and Frayed Burlap Distress Inks.  I didn't want him to look like clip art, and was going for a more altered look.  Then I decided to contrast the brown I used for the bird with some aqua on the tag.  I stenciled this gorgeous Joggles stencil with gritty texture paste, allowed it to dry, then inked it up with Evergreen Bough and Frayed Burlap.  I really love embossing the edges of my tags, especially when the tag is textured!  I love how this highlights the grooves!

 I decided to perch my bird on this lovely scrolly holly die by Darcies.  I also used Tim Holtz greenery die and a purchased flower.  The leaves are TH Tattered Leaves, but I scrunched them up tightly.  For the scripture I tore the edges, then inked it the same way, sponging the edges afterward.

 I finished it off with the last of this beautiful hand dyed silk ribbon in a loopy bow.  Matthew 6:26 "Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?"  This week my meditation has been the song, "You're a good, good Father - It's who You are.  And I'm loved by You - it's who I am."

I hope this has been an inspiration to you today.  I'm sharing my tag with SSS Monday for their Just a Pinch challenge HERE (I used a pinch of EP along the edges of my tag), to SSS for their Die Crazy challenge HERE, with Craft Stamper Magazine for their Take a Technique challenge HERE, and with HLS for their mixed media challenge HERE.

Silver and Gold 12 Tags of Christmas

As promised, I'm sharing the last of my 12 Tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie style with you this week.  Today's tag was based on one of my favorite's of Linda's.  Linda used the gorgeous snowflake die and embossing folder set by Tim Holtz that she carries in her shop, The Funkie Junkie Boutique.  It is a must have!  Definitely on my wish list, but I had to use what I have, well, what my friends have in this case!  I borrowed this gorgeous tree die from my friend Bonnie and used it instead.  I glued a hymnal page to a piece of chipboard and cut it out, then sponged Vintage Photo Distress Ink on the edges.

For my background I did some inky dipping in Vintage Photo and Frayed Burlap.  Then I did a rag technique with gesso, which I was quite pleased with.  I used a baby wipe and scrunched it up to make my "rag."  I was very inspired by the asymmetrical design in Linda's tag, as well as her beautiful use of ivory and gold.  In the end I didn't pull off the asymmetry, but you just have to go with what looks best.

I wished I had a mini deer die, but do not.  I decided to use this new stamp I picked up for a buck and double embossed it in gold to try to create the silhouette effect.  I embossed silver snowflakes randomly for contrast.

I treated the edges of my tag with a gold foil treatment.  Love this!

To top it off I stamped this pretty sentiment and bundled some silver tattered foliage and two real pine cones.  I picked hundreds of these up on a girl scout trip to the NC mountains.  :)  I used sheer shimmery ribbon to create a bow.  Lastly, I gave everything a dose of white puff paint to create faux snow.  

To see all of my 12 Tags of Christmas click HERE.

I'm sharing with The Funkie Junkie for her 12 Tags of Christmas challenge HERE, with SSS Monday for their Just a Pinch challenge HERE (I used a touch of foil), with Stamping Sensations for their Stamp & Ribbon challenge HERE, with RRR for their Shimmer & Sparkle challenge HERE, with Mixed Media Monthly Challenge for their Silver & Gold challenge HERE, with Countryview Crafts for their Create a Scene challenge HERE, and with TioT for their Snow challenge HERE.