Last-minute stamping

Today is my 14th wedding anniversary. How time flies! Especially since last night I realized I hadn't even thought about the card I would need to make. So I looked through my stamps and found a couple challenges and ended up with this card. I hope it's not too girly - he's getting it, even if it is!

The challenges I chose to play are Pink Elephant's sketch and autumn colors from SUO Challenges. Looking through my stamp sets, I decided to use Choose Happiness. The leaves in Mossy Meadow and the elegant frame in Early Espresso both come from that set. I liked the idea of a wood grain inside the frame, but the stamp in Choose Happiness is already in a banner shape, so I used the wood chevron background from Truly Grateful (stamped off once with Crumb Cake). To bring in a bit more fall color, I punched and glued teeny tiny dots from the ribbon border punch in Tangelo Twist. I love how it looks but it's not something I would have my club members do! The sentiment is from A Dozen Thoughts.

The background is Mossy Meadow card stock with a faux suede look. To achieve this I ran the card stock back and forth over the edge of a table, in all directions, to loosen the grain of the paper. Then I was able to peel one layer off to leave this thinner textured piece. A burlap banner anchors the bottom of the card, and then to balance the orange berries I added thin strips of Tangelo Twist card stock. I think that's it for this card - I'm happy to have this finished with some time to spare!

Testing the waters...

Wow, it's been a long break from posting for me. I haven't done much stamping in a couple months - travel and a busy summer took my attention elsewhere. But my club will be starting again soon and I have lots of new products that haven't even been opened yet. Time to dust off my stamps and get back to creating!

What better way to jump start my creative juices than a few challenges. I found inspiration for my card at Freshly Made Sketches, SUO Challenges (embellishments - I used pearls), and colourQ (Blackberry Bliss, Hello Honey, So Saffron, Going Gray, and white). (I used Smoky Slate instead so that all my colors would be current.) Here is what I came up with:

 

All of the stamps on this card come from the new set called Kinda Eclectic. This was one of the first sets from the new catalog to go on my must-have list. These images are fun to combine and

the butterfly punches are always fabulous. I'm feeling really rusty, so a fairly simple card fit the bill for tonight. Let's hope this is the start of a lot more stamping for me - I've missed it more than I realized!