November 5th Mid-Week Post

 Hey there, it's me on a Wednesday!

I've had a weird few days since I last posted.

So has Honey.

We decided it's the stupid time change.

While we wait for our bodies to adjust to the time/nature difference, we're just being lazy bums even more than we usually are HA! Taking a nap and getting plenty of bedtime sleep, that kind of thing. 

So, I finally finished my entry for the Autumn theme hosted by Mandy at Sunday Postcard Art.

The moment I saw the theme, my mind went to this Frantic Stamper Fall Harvest Card Panel die that I'd won a few years back and still had never used yet. It was like this voice said, figure out how to use it on a 4x6 card and do it!!! And it was either put it in the middle, the top or the bottom, lol. I also wanted to use the Crafty Individuals quote stamp (with Pinecone Versafine Clair ink). For my base, I used a 4x6 sheet of deckle-edge watercolor paper (Amazon), wet the surface with water and a mop brush, then brushed various colors left to right in an ombre fashion using my Grabie metallic watercolors. The photo doesn't pick it up but in real life the ombre is gorgeous. That would be my sky. Next, I die cut the panel out of white scrap card and colored it with Promarkers (and edged the frame with an Artistro gold acrylic paint marker). I glued the frame to the watercolored card base and stamped the quote. The panel comes with an extra small leaf die and pumpkin die, so I cut several more leaves and a few more pumpkins, colored them and added them to my scene. Then, at top, I stamped the Avery Elle Hello and the Impression Obsession Autumn words, using the Versafine Clair ink. I added some shading to the Autumn word with a lighter brown Micron pen for the finish.

Fun fact:

When I began making this, I was excited to use the panel die. I ran it through my Big Shot but there were several areas the cut did not go through, even after multiple attempts. So, then I wanted to trash it. But I hand cut them with a knife and after coloring it up, I realized it was an enjoyable experience overall and the tree alone was worth saving the die. But I came THISSSSS close to File 13ing it.

Yes, I did use my metal adapter plate with it, but not on the first pass as I would have had to have known I needed it beforehand. From now on, though, it's a definite with this die.

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This card has a Kraft card base and Kraft card mats, and the designer papers are all mystery stash scraps. The mats and papers are all edge- and ink-distressed (Vintage Photo DI).

Here's the sketch I used:

The sketch element 2 on my card is a scrap that was already cut out that way. I kept it thinking it would make a cool card topper or bottom. So, hey! Maybe it did!

😁

The cute children are very old Collage Stuff collage sheet images I had in my stash already printed out. I used QuicKutz nested hexagon dies to cut them out along with their Kraft card mats. 

The My Favorite Things die sentiment was cut once out of white card and again out of Kraft card, stacked a bit askew and added to the card for the finish.

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Do you have any vintage collaged Christmas papers, perhaps made by Paper Love? Well, I do. Too many sheets! A case, many years ago, of me not being experienced enough to realize that the 12x12 sheets were gorgeous but really hard to use! Anyway, I saw an opportunity to use a section of a sheet with this sketch (stretched to 6X6):

I used some very skinny gold German border scrap to make the V and used the Avery Elle sentiment die in place of the circle element, cut out of white card 2 times and stacked, then heat-embossed with gold powder. The base is cut from a dark reddish-brown Chatterbox card stock. The base layer is Recollections cream card cut with a Carnation Crafts die and edged with a gold metallic marker. The next layer is the Paper Love designer paper, cut with a Spellbinders Art Deco die and edged with an Artistro gold acrylic paint marker.

And done.

Here's a shot that shows the shine more. It's a really nice-looking card in real life and had I not gone with my gut I would never have used this paper. Now, to find other sections that can work like this and then throw the rest away!

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Well, that's it for me today.

Thanks for stopping by to visit me!

I hope your week is going great.

See you again on Sunday,

XXO