Anything for Autumn!

The theme over on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge is "Anything Goes", so time to put on your thinking caps and let your imagination run wild!  Make an entry for this week's challenge and you'll be in the draw for a $50 shopping voucher! :)

While we're on the subject of Simon Says Stamp, hopefully you're all aware that their blog address has changed?  You can now find the blog at www.simonsaysstampblog.com with links to both Monday and Wednesday challenges in the sidebar.  (You can also click on the image on the right).

It's already the end of October and I still haven't made anything with an autumn theme this year!  I love autumn for both the misty moist weather and the beautiful changes in nature that accompany it.  For me it's a time of looking forward to dark cosy nights at home, digging out the warming comfort food recipes and (some of you will gasp at this, lol) starting to think about Christmas.  I decided that this week I'd break my autumn "duck" and make something with an autumn theme.

(BTW, I agonised over writing autumn or Autumn and in the end I had to look it up.  If anyone else is as confused as I was, the rule goes like this - no capital letter unless you're talking about it like a person.  So "autumn is my favourite season" and "the leaves turned gold by Autumn's chilly breath" are both correct but "we pick blackberries in Autumn" would not be.  You live and learn!).

I started out by using two of Tim Holtz's layering stencils on my background, using white gesso on the dots and Wild Honey distress paint on the burlap.  I coloured my background with a range of autumnal distress inks and then stamped the acorn and leaf.  The acorn was painted with Peeled Paint and Gathered Twigs distress stains using a water brush and the leaf was painted with Fired Brick and Wild Honey distress paint, then stamped again with Black Archival.

The maple leaf was stamped, cut out and coloured with Fired Brick and Wild Honey distress inks and then I rubbed on some Tarnished Brass distress stain for a little golden shimmer, before fixing it to my card.  I've had the Simple Sayings stamp set for ages and never gotten around to using it, so I used it here.  I stamped the cartouche using Black Archival and the words using Gathered Twigs distress ink, and cut it out, using foam tape to fix it (and the maple leaf) onto my card.  As a final touch I edged the whole thing with Tarnished Brass distress stain for an extra hint of gold (something I used to do a lot back in the day, thought I'd break that one out of the archive for another outing).

Supplies I used included:

InLinkz.com

Our ever-generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp is offering a $50 gift voucher as the prize again this week, just make something for the challenge and you could the winner! The winner will be chosen at random from those who enter the challenge, so why not give it a try? At the very least why not head over to the Challenge Blog to see how the other members of the design team have interpreted this weeks theme! :)

Don't forget, Simon Says Stamp have a great Facebook page too!  Check them out here!

Tip-toe, tip-toe, boo!

The theme over on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge is "Spooky", perfect for this time of year, with Halloween on the way!  Why not dig out your creepiest and spookiest crafty supplies and make something spine-chilling?  You could win a prize! :)

When I was a kid in Chicago (I think - we lived in New Jersey too so it could have been there) we learned a Halloween song in school that went...

Stirring and stirring and stirring our brew,
Tip-toe, tip-toe, BOO!

 ... hence the title of this post!  Do any others of you out there in blogland know that song?  No one I've ever asked has ever heard of it!

I had planned to make some Halloween-themed candy boxes for this challenge, only to have my Cuttlebug break on me half way through the project!  I was basing it around Tim's Pillow Box die so I had to have a project re-think.   (I've heard a whisper on the tinsel grapevine that Santa might be bringing me an Ebosser - hurrah!)

I started out by covering my tag with sections from Tim Holtz's Laboratorie paper stash. The black and white designs make them perfect for Halloween projects, but because they're not Halloween-specific, they can be used for so many general themes too.  Spots of colour were added with a range of distress inks and I stamped the spiders webs from the Trick or Treat stamp set in various places.

The skull was stamped, cut out, flicked with Fired Brick distress stain and fixed in place.  I cut the hat, band and buckle freehand with scissors.  The band was coloured with Dusty Concord distress ink and I used a cotton bud (q-tip) dipped in Picket Fence distress paint to add a highlight.  The buckle was coloured with a couple of layers of tarnished brass distress stain and fixed in place.

I stamped the Halloween ticket twice, once in Archival black, once in Fired Brick distress ink.  I used a baby wipe to remove ink from parts of the stamp each time to give the two-colour result.  The cat was stamped, cut out and fixed in place.  After the Poison label was stamped, I masked the skull and crossbones while I coloured the rest of the label with Fired Brick ink before fixing it in place.  Finally I used a warm grey Promarker to add shadows in some places.

Supplies I used included:

InLinkz.com
Our ever-generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp is offering a $50 gift voucher as the prize again this week, just make something for the challenge and you could the winner! The winner will be chosen at random from those who enter the challenge, so why not give it a try? At the very least why not head over to the Challenge Blog to see how the other members of the design team have interpreted this weeks theme! :)

Don't forget, Simon Says Stamp have a great Facebook page too!  Check them out here!