Whimsy Stamps ~ New Release ~ Hello Autumn

A warm hello to you all my lovely crafty pals. Can you believe it's September?! Where oh where does the time go?!! This year has hit high gear now and is racing past at breakneck speed for us! Today is officially the first day of Spring here in New Zealand, which means that it's now Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere. So for my US and UK pals, here is a lil' Autumnal creation to celebrate the season you're entering!

A new digital release this month by the incredibly talented Whimsy Stamps artist, Crissy Armstrong. She draws the most enchanting images and her lil' boys and girls are my favourites! This image was once a rubber stamp image at Whimsy Stamps and has now been released this month as a digital image. I think she's utterly charming with her giant pumpkin and she reminds me of my wee niece sitting in the pumpkin patch last Autumn in America. So I'll be sending this to her mama as a sweet reminder of that time. I've coloured her with my Copic markers and for those interested, her blue jeans after quite some discussion with crafty pals, were coloured with B99, B97, B95 and B93.

I've gone all out for the Autumn theme, with a deliciously Autumnal plaid paper from my stash. I've diecut a very glittery SugarPea 'hello' in a rich chocolate glitter paper which I've stuck down with Olba glue to be sure it stays in place! This is a clever trick when you have two different surface heights to work over. Once it's stuck down, it stays down!

I've gone for an ombré effect with the CC Designs word 'autumn' to finish the greeting in the bottom right corner. I've used my Copics to create this ombré effect. It doesn't show as well as I'd hoped against the plaid paper, but it's very effective close up. Just a fun thing I wanted to try.

I wanted to add a bunch of Autumn themed foliage, so I started with white diecuts and coloured them with my Copics in Autumn shades. I just love how they came out! This was a total experiment, to see if I could find Copic shades to pull off this effect and I'm so pleased with the result, so here's a snap that includes the pens I used. The lovely 3 leaf die is from a Whimsy Stamps Peony Flower set. The Pumpkin and Oak leaves are SugarPea from their Stitched Autumn Icons set.

It's hard to show a close up of the foliage in one shot as it runs right up the side of the card. So here are two shots of the top and bottom of the foliage to get a closer peek at all the lil' treats in there. I've added lil' apples, which you can see in the first pic, along with seed pods, acorn hats and other bits of Autumn foliage that the kids and I had foraged from what had fallen from the trees around my sons school. I love the mix of real seed pods and foliage and the paper roses and paper foliage. It came together so well! The orange roses I won in a challenge a long time ago, so it was lovely to finally use those!

I hope you enjoy this new season we're entering, whether it's Spring or Autumn for you. I know I am more than ready for some Spring beauty after all the Winter ill's we've had. I'm finally back to my old self again and feeling joyfully optimistic for some sunshine and lovely weather after rather a lot of rainy days lately.

We have an awesome new release going live today at Whimsy Stamps and you're going to LOVE it! I can't even begin to tell you what a treat it's been for me to be designing for one of my favourite crafty stores! I've been a Whimsy Stamps fan for so many years and I still can't quite believe the joys of working with their stunning imagery as a Digital Design Diva. Don't pinch me, I LOVE this dream! I've linked all the Whimsy products below for easy reference. Hugs to you all until I am back again with my next new release creation which will be on Wednesday this week. Until then, have a beautiful week and happy crafting! Hugs xoxo

Challenge Entries:

Card Mania: #108 ~ Colour Combo

Alphabet Challenge: L is for Leaves

PIP Challenge: #1834 ~ Anything Goes

Crafty Gals Corner: #173 ~ Anything Goes

Simon Says Monday Challenge: Fall/Autumn

Mod Squad: Anything Goes ~ HoneyBee Sponsor

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes

4 Crafty Chicks: #418 ~ Crazy Egg ~ Anything Goes

Addicted To Stamps & More: #307 ~ Make Your Mark

Little Red Wagon: #461 ~ Old or New Trends (I love adding 'real' items to a card, shells, seed pods, sticks, this is an 'old' trend of mine)

Card Mania ~ Colour Combo

Update: I made the Top Honours at 4 Crafty Chicks! Woohoo, thank you so much ladies! I'm delighted.

Second Update: I rated an 'Honorable Mention' at Card Mania for their Colour Combo Challenge. Thank you so much ladies. I'm delighted xoxo