fall is coming...

 Hello!  Yes, fall is coming.  In fact, it is just over a month away.  I love fall!  It is my absolute most favorite time of the year.  The weather can still be a little warm, but not too hot.  Just the way I like it.  So, I have a fall inspired card to share today.  I will be adding it to the following challenges:  Color Hues (yellow and orange), Paper Players (fall themed CAS) and Freshly Made Sketches.  Let's see what I made.

I used the Tim Holtz/Sizzix Leaf Fragments dies and several different distress sprays (Flickering Candle and Jack-o-Lantern mica spray and Fossilized Amber distress spritz).   I sprayed sheets of cream heavy stock with the sprays and then let them dry.  I also sprayed the left over sprays in my splatter box with water and then dragged more heavy stock through that.  I actually used that sheet for my leaf.  Unfortunately, there is more yellow than orange in my leaf.   So I added the orange sequins.  I did add score lines to the kraft cardstock, but they don't show up in the photo so you will have to take my word for it.   Finished with the sentiment.   I feel like this card is a bit of a fail, but let me know what you think.

That's it for me.  Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day.

fall leaves...

 Hello!  Fall is on its way.  I can feel it in the mornings when I walk the dog, but by mid-morning summer has come roaring back, lol!  Weather here in the PNW has been all over the place this year!  However, despite it feeling like summer I am ready for fall and with that in mind created this card for Color Throwdown and Just Us Girls - anything goes with dies.  Let's have a look at what I made.

A few weeks ago I received the Tim Holtz/Sizzix Leaf Fragments die set in the mail.  It has been sitting on my desk waiting for me to make something with it.  I thought the CTD combo was the perfect vehicle.  I started by spraying a panel of ivory heavystock with distress sprays in Festive Berries and Rustic Wilderness.  I was careful to let each layer dry first before adding the other color and I didn't do a lot of overlapping of colors.  Meaning if you saw the panel I created one side was mostly red and the other side mostly green.  Then I spritzed on bits of green on the red side and bits of red on the green side.   If there was excess color on one side I dabbed it up and pounced it on the other side to get the mix I wanted.   I finished with a light spritzing of Harvest Moon distress mica spray.   Once the panel was completely dry (ie the next day) I die cut my leaves.  I die cut the entire panel so that I had enough leaves to determine which ones to use. I tucked the extra leaves into the envelope with the dies to use in the future.   As I was determining the layout I thought about a very old Tim Holtz/Sizzix die set I have called Mixed Media.  I pulled that out and decided to use one that you see in the background.  As I was die cutting the kraft panel the washi tape I used to hold the dies in place pulled off some of the cardstock.  I decided to go with it and roughed up the corners where the cardstock was damaged with a distressing tool.   I determined where the panel would be placed and then spritz more Harvest Moon on to my card base for more yellow.  The sentiment from a Simon Says Stamp stamp set was stamped in the corner using VersaFine Clair Acorn ink.  I then glued the panel to my card base, added the leaves and the yellow twine bow.  Also going to add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge to stamp it since I did stamp the sentiment. 

Well, that's it for me.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

mixed media tag...

 Hello and happy March!  Can you believe it is already March?  Where is the time going?!  Spring isn't quite here, yet, but I'm definitely in a spring-like mood!   With that in mind, I decided to play along with the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge of fur or feathers.  And I will add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.  The amazing Emma William, who is on SSS Monday challenge design team, created a beautiful tag featuring a bird.  Her tag is a bit more moodier than mine, but I was 100% inspired by her tag.  Take a look at what I made.

I started off my tag by spritzing a #8 distress heavy stock tag with a combination of Speckled Egg, Salvaged Patina and Antique Linen distress spray stains and Frozen Fog distress mica spray.  I dried the tag in between the layers of color.  Once the tag was dry I uses a Simon Says Stamp pine bough stencil and some grit paste to add more texture to the background.  I also added some crackle paste.  Once both pastes were dry I scribbled some distress crayons in ground espresso and crushed olive onto an acrylic block, spritzed on some water, mixed the colors and then dabbed them onto the pastes with my finger.  I then adhered my tag to a #8 Etcetera thickboard tag.  Once that was dry I rubbed more of the ground espresso/crushed olive mix around the edge of the tag.   

For the bird I used my favorite Backyard Wren die set from Memory Box.  The twiggy wreath, feathers blossom stem and budding stems are from the Greetery.   For the wreath I sprized heavy stock with walnut stain and Crooked Broomstick distress mica spray.  I spritzed on water to move the colors around.  Once the panels were dry I die cut them with the wreath die and two dies that cut twiggy branches for layering on the wreath.  There is a wreath stamp that coordinates with the wreath base and I used that to stamp on some Scorched Timber distress ink.  Once that was dry I adhered on the branches.  The other pieces were inked with distress oxide inks in Speckled Egg, Pumice Store, Vintage Photo, Spun Sugar and Bundled Sage.   I assembled everything, let them dry and then adhered them to the tag as you see.  I finished off the tag with some chunky twine and a small key that I tried to grunge up with some grit paste and ground espresso distress crayon.  A small pin was used to attach the key to the twine.    I'm super pleased with how my tag turned out.

Birch Press Design Post

 Hello!  I popping in to let you know that I have a post up on the Birch Press Design blog today.  Here is a little peek of what I created. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!