Lights... Camera... Welcome Autumn Easel Card

Hello, Monday! And just like that, the weekend flew by. Had a ton of fun at my 45th high school reunion Saturday night plus an after party at our local hangout, so yesterday was all about sleep and rest. The reunion started at 4 pm, we got there at 6 pm and about half had already left, which is sad proof that too many people have a 7 pm bedtime! Dang, lesson learned, next year I'll try being an hour early to see everyone, LOLOL. ;-)

So, I finally began working on this card last night. Looks like I'll be Steampunking for a little awhile, because I ended up planning a handful of cards using the Gecko Galz images I printed for their September theme style. I happened to open my birthdays calendar book and took sober stock of the fact that I need to make about a dozen more birthday cards just to cover the rest of 2019, as well as a few Fall, Halloween and Thanksgiving cards. Gecko Galz' Steampunk Autumn theme will prove to be quite helpful to me!

This is a 5x6 Easel card using a card blank from a set I bought somewhere online a few years ago. I was inspired by Fusion's current challenge sketch AND photo to make a Welcome Autumn card. The autumn leaves in the photo caught my eye, as did the two overlapping element layers in the sketch. I stretched the sketch to 5x6 landscape orientation in PSE to accommodate my image.

SUPPLIES:
Paper/Card Stock: SU and Neenah Index card stocks; unknown easel card base
Stamps: Artistic Outpost Hayride and Picture Star sets, Lawn Fawn siggie
Inks: VersaFine Clair; TH Distress Inks for all ink- and edge-distressing done
Dies: TH Swirling Stars Thinlits
Embossing Folder:  Darice Fall Leaf Background
Stash items:  Gecko Galz image from Steam Powered collage sheet; colored pencils; TH distress tool; Wink of Stella yellow glitter brush pen; blending brushes and finger sponge daubers

The card front base is ink-distressed with Shabber Shutters, Twisted Citron and Squeezed Lemonade DI's. My bottom mat layer is ink- and edge-distressed and then cut using the stars thinlit dies.

The horizontal element layer was folder-embossed with the leaf background, then edge- and ink-distressed, then coated with yellow Wink of Stella, mostly on the debossed surface.

Here is the card closed to be enveloped and mailed. The Gecko Galz image of the steampunk film maker and mat were also ink- and edge-distressed and then popped up a tad over the embossed leaf texture below. I added more yellow Wink of Stella to the camera light and his goggles.

So, when you open it and lay it flat, you see the scraps of leaves patterned paper from my stash (probably DCWV papers from a pad or stack) that I've adhered down to give the card stock some strength. I didn't add paper to the top third because the other side of it is the bottom of the card front and it's plenty sturdy.

Then, turning that over, you see the front and what is the bottom of the card once easeled. More DCWV patterned fall paper from my stash.

Here's the back of the easeled card where I've stamped the Lawn Fawn siggie. I was lucky to have gotten that good of an impression because the surface is tres bumpy. Because of this, I nixed plans to stamp some fall leaves and color them. Note to File for Future Easel Cards: decorate that surface first!

It was difficult for me to get a true reflection of the glittery shimmer coming off this card, so a few detail shots that halfway capture it.

My stamping on the front easel stop support uses 2 Artistic Outpost sets listed above in Supplies. I ink-distressed the support first using the same Distress inks as on the closed card front. To color the basket of apples and the pumpkins, I laid down a layer of white colored pencil and then colored in with a mix of colored pencils and ProMarkers until I was happy with them. I adhered 3 stars from the negative cut outs of the stars thinlits die used on the front, coating them with Wink of Stella.

I really like the way this card turned out. It's for our daughter and son-in-love. They both  love movies but he writes a Facebook review most every new movie he sees. It's serious beeswax with him so I'm betting he will like this cool Steampunk film maker. And since It's an Easel card, it's also a great Autumn home decoration for their new home that can be used again every year!

CHALLENGES:
1.  Fusion Card Challenge: Autumn  - I used the sketch in a landscape orientation.
2.  SanDee & Amelie's Sept. 2019 Steampunk Challenge: Anything Goes Steampuck/Industrial
3.  Gecko Galz Facebook September Challenge: Easel Card

4.  Gecko Galz September Blog Challenge: Steampunk Autumn

5.  More Mixed Media Sept. Challenge: AG + Opt. BROWNS - I've played option.
6.  Moo Mania #199: Use a Stamp
7.  Happy Little Stampers AG with DIES September Challenge
8.  Colour Crazy Week 35: AG with Colouring
9. The Creative Crafters Challenge #20: Always AG
10. Outlawz Monday Greetings: Distressing Ink or Paper -- I've done both!

This does it for me until next time. Thank you for visiting and come back soon! xox