The Last Rose of Summer

(Isn't there a song by that title?) I adore fall...colorful leaves, pumpkins, gourds, mums, sunflowers, candy corn, cool crisp air....ahhhh....can't you hear the strains of "the falling leaves, float by my window" in the background?....!!! I've decided the perfect seasonal year would be 5 months of autumn, 1 month of snowy winter, 5 months of spring, and 1 month of swimming hot summer. My only regret is losing my tomatoes and flowers. This is probably my last bouquet of roses for the year. There's sure to be a frost soon. And eventually...hopefully...snow. Woo-hoo!! But that's another post.

Birds and Stars and Buttons and Brads, Oh My!

Yes, those are all the things I had to put on this card. This Monday's featured stamper name was jstarbright, and this was a combination of things she likes and things relating to her name. The owl image was stamped in silver pigment ink on black paper and embossed with stardust transparent ep. I drew the tiny stars with silver gel pen and put a teeny dot of crystal Stickles in the center of each. The stripe in the black paper is silver, as is the background edging. For the buttons I put the prongs of silver brads through the buttonholes, then coated the top of each brad with the Stickles. So the card has sparkle and shine that the photo fails to show.

Recipe: Stamps- Inkadinkado (Winter Birds), MFT (Essential Sentiments); Paper- Basic Grey (Ambrosia), DCWV (striped, mellalic silver), black; Ink- silver pigment; Accessories- silver ep, stardust transparent ep, silver brads, black buttons, silver gel pen.

Do-It-Yourself Designer Paper

The challenge issued for Monday, October 6 was to create your own patterned paper and use a fall theme. The floral paper was created using the flower from SU's Carte Postale, colored with rust and artichoke markers. The stripe was done with those two colors, plus mellow moss. I just did it freehand using a straightedge, no measuring. I finisheded each stripe grouping with a fine line of chocolate chip. All three panels were topped off with linen stamped in river rock. It's nice to know if you need patterned paper and do not have the right colors, you can just make your own.

Recipe: stamps- Carte Postale, Linen, and Simple Sayings II (all SU); Paper- always artichoke, chocolate chip, off-white; Ink- chocolate chip, river rock; Accessories- Cuttlebug, SU markers, brads, Prima flowers.

A Generous Friend

The stamps used on this card and a previous one with the leaf charms are from a delightful new set designed by a friend and fellow CCEE member, Carolyn King (aka 'Cammie' on SCS). The set is called "Whimsical Autumn" and is manufactured and distributed by Gina K. Designs. Cammie recently lost her grandmother to the devastating Alzheimer's disease and is donating 100% of her proceeds from the sale of this set to the Alzheimer's Association in her memory. I think that is just awesome. This is a wonderful way to add to your stamp collection and do some good at the same time.

The pumpkin is paper pieced.

Recipe: Paper- always artichoke (Stampin'Up), off-white, dp; Stamps- Whimsical Autumn by Carolyn King (Gina K. Designs); Ink- black archival, always artichoke SU marker; Accessories- Cuttlebug (distressed stripes), ribbon (Offray), brads.

Basic Grey

As I first began exploring SCS (SplitcoastStampers), I kept seeing cards made with the most gorgeous and unique designer paper. And I kept seeing the words 'Basic Grey'. I finally figured out that BG was not a color, but the name of the company that manufactured this wonderful paper. It was the beginning of a love affair for me. This card uses one of their Christmas collections called "Dasher", and uses another sketch challenge layout from SCS. I love this sketch and it's a great way to use up scraps. The flower in the center is cut out from some of the dp. I wanted to use just the word 'peace', but didn't have a stamp I liked. So I inked up just that part of the word from "Peaceful Wishes". Also, the berry sprig is from that same set and I added a little red Stickles to the berries.

Recipe: Paper- Basic Grey dp (Dasher collection), blue bayou (Stampin'UP), white; Stamps- Peaceful Wishes (SU); Ink- black archival, real red and old olive SU markers; Accessories- red Stickles, red brads.

A "Charm"ing Card

Once a month, one of the CCEE challenges involves making a card around a unique or unusual user name on SCS. This month's is Charmwarm, so we were instructed to use a charm on our project. The catch....it couldn't be store-bought, we had to make it ourselves. I used two small leaves I had that had been punched out of green cardstock. I coated them with pigment ink and embossed them with clear ultra-thick embossing powder. The layout design used for my card was sketch challenge 191 on SCS.

Recipe: Paper- ivory, green (leaves), dp; Stamps- Whimsical Autumn by Carolyn King (Gina K. Designs); Ink- gold and forest green pigment (Color Box); always artichoke, really rust and chocolate chip SU markers; Accessories- clear ultra thick ep, charm pin, SU scallop edge punch, leaf punch (source unknown), gold ribbon (Offray).

Catching Up

I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted. It's been such a busy month, plus I had a little minor surgery on the 4th. It was same day surgery, went well, but I didn't bounce back quite as quickly as I anticipated. That darned ole age thing again! I didn't even feel much like stamping, so you know I wasn't quite myself, lol.
I did, however, do some catching up on the challenges I missed. This card was for a CCEE supply challenge. Tosh sent us this beautiful double-sided designer paper and a sheet of pale pink pearl accents. I cut a panel of Cuttlebug embossed dotted swiss the width of the wide sheer ribbon. The butterfly is white embossed on vellum.

Recipe: Paper- off white, vellum, designer paper (My Mind's Eye); Stamps- Wonderful Words (Stampin'Up), Butterfly Garden (Storage Units, Inks & More); Ink- white pigment; Accessories- Cuttlebug, sheer ribbon (Offray), pearls (Kaiser Scrapbook), white ep.