Transitioning to Fall

It's time.
Time to start the annual transition to autumn; autumn colors, autumn leaves, and grateful sentiments.

Here's my first card for the season:

Copper is a new Stampin' UP! color this year.  And I'm lovin' it!  I wanted to highlight the new Copper Foil Sheets, so I decided to play along with the Watercooler Wednesday Challenge.  (see it here)

The challenge was to play Tic Tac Toe:



And I decided to run straight across the bottom:  Copper, Banner and Die Cut.

So I started with the leaves.  Vintage Leaves is a great autumn set, and has matching Leaflets Framelits dies.  I pulled out an old technique - Saran Wrap Pouncing (at least that's what I call it) to create a sheet of fall colors.  Using Very Vanilla card stock, I scrunched up a piece of Saran Wrap, mashed it into my Crushed Curry ink pad, and pounced on the paper.  I repeated it with Cajun Craze and Old Olive inks.  Once done, I stamped my leaves in Versamark and embossed them with new Copper Embossing Powder.  Pretty!

I cut an oval with the Layering Oval Framelits and the Copper Foil, and layered my leaves over it (two are popped up with Dimensionals).  A Mini Pinecone (so cute!) was threaded onto two strands of Linen Thread, which was tied into a bow and added with a Mini Glue Dot.

I

The sentiment from Thankful Thoughts was stamped in Versamark on Early Espresso and also embossed with Copper.

The card base is Early Espresso, and the Very Vanilla layer was stamped with Hardwood in Early Espresso ink, then heavily sponged with Early Espresso.

OK, autumn--I'm ready for you!

All products can be purchased here.

Bad Card, Good Card--Trying to Find My Mojo

When I create a card, I often have an idea in my head and try to translate it onto paper.  It doesn't always work.  (insert sad face)

But once I get going, I don't often complete a card that ends up in the trash.  I fiddle and change elements until I like what I have, even if it isn't the best card I've ever made.

So when I finally got into my craft room after being gone for 2 weeks, I had a card in my head and I couldn't wait to get it out.  I stamped, colored, cut, and pasted, and I've never been so disappointed in a card...(insert another sad face).  And the worst part was that I felt I had just totally lost my card-creating mojo!

Now I'm going to show you the card, and ask you to stay with me here (there IS a happy ending):

Honestly, looking at it here, it's really NOT quite as bad as I've made it out to be, but I was not happy about it.  This adorable new stamp set, Jar of Haunts, is available now in the Holiday Catalog.  It coordinates with the fabulous Everyday Jars Framelits (which was introduced with Jar of Love in the Annual Catalog) and I couldn't wait to play with it.

So I stamped the jars, added eyeballs, the spider and the mummy, and used Tangerine Tango to create the pumpkin jar.  They were all cut out and I began setting them on paper.  This is a 3" x 8" card--just right for the height of the jars.  But it just wasn't coming together.  So I added some bats:

and then some Halloween Night Enamel Dots to the corners, but I was totally deflated--it just had NOTHING.

And then, to top it all off, I realized I had stamped the bats upside down!  Argh!

So I chalked it all up to jet lag, and went to bed.

Then last night I started over.  I was apprehensive (had I truly lost my ability?), and frustrated, but I sat down and started to stamp.  I pulled out all the stops.  And THIS was the result:

Now THAT'S what I'm talkin' about!  L.O.V.E!

First of all, I made the card a little bigger--4" x 8".  This gave me much more room for the background.  Then I stamped the fantastic Ghoulish Grunge (is that the best name ever?) to create the broken brick wall (using Smoky Slate ink).  And a spider web (also from Ghoulish Grunge) in Memento Tuxedo Black.

The jars were stamped (Tuxedo Black); the eyeballs were added and I colored the "water" with Soft Sky marker.  The little hanging spiders in the second jar are from Spooky Fun (just wait til you see THAT set!).  And this time I used the pumpkin/face, stamped on Tangerine Tango, with the stem and leaves colored and fussy-cut.

Of course I needed some blood dripping down my wall (also from Ghoulish Grunge) and then those bats:

I got them right this time!  Yippee!

And I've been dying to try the Labeler Alphabet, so I stamped the fun "spooky" and popped it up on Dimensionals.  And I finished it all off with little spiders across the bottom.

MUCH happier!  (insert pumpkin grin!)

So what do you think?  Is my mojo returning?  I'm going to say yes...and now off to the craft room to try something else!

Don't forget--the holiday catalog is now live; click on the catalog on the right to take a peek inside.  But you better have your pen and paper ready--it's a fabulous catalog that will tempt anyone!

Place orders here.



 And look!  Stampin' UP! has introduced some Special Offers.  For this week only, here are some great prices on CURRENT catalog items--25% off!  Check back each week for the next 3--there will be more Special Offers. 


Orders for these items can be added to your Holiday Catalog order, or placed individually.  Don't miss out!