Sweet Stampin' ~ Autumn

Hey friends, I'm popping in today with a card I ought to have shared last week, but time has not been my friend this past couple of weeks. I've been stretching my days and running a little ragged, thank goodness for my crafty pal who always has my back and posted our challenge, when it ought to have been my turn. So grateful to her! Susan, you know who you are, jus' sayin'! Mwah xoxo

So here, much delayed but with a good deal of joy in the sharing because I LOVE how this card turned out! There's a story behind it too. I did a course with Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner and actually Cathy Zielske taught too, another crafter I love to follow and this card was a result of that class. The focus of the class was on stencils and how to use them. Which if you've not done one of these talented ladies 'Online Card Classes', I cannot recommend them enough. The price point is always far more accessible for me than some of the 'branded' classes. You work with your own stash, though they make great recommendations and honestly, I left those classes feeling joyful and a little more adventurous with my stash, because they don't just teach you how to straight up use a stencil, they teach you hacks and tricks, many of which I'd not have ever thought of! So it was genuinely a great experience for me. I was blessed to have won this class from Mindy Eggan, which was so fabulous as funds were a little tough for us at the time and I really wanted to do the class, but couldn't afford to, so it was a sweet last minute surprise to win a ticket for the course. Mindy was another fantastic teacher of this course. Honestly, SO worth doing! I'm hoping they'll do another Christmas class this year, cos' I'm in if they do! Okay, no money exchanged hands in the making of this review, honest!! 

One of the first techniques we learnt was how to use a stencil as an embossing tool. Now I know many of you will know how to do this and have been doing it for ages, but I hadn't. I had no confidence with the embossing folder sandwich etc and how to get it right for my machine. But with a bit of gentle coaching from Jennifer in the Q & A, I worked it out and was off to a flying start!

I embossed a whole bunch of white pages with various stencils, most of them Whimsy Stencils, but I also had a couple from Hero Arts and Vicki Boutin. I've really enjoyed getting some of Vicki's sets, because you can often get 3 of her stencils in a set for the price that most charge for one! Great price point! Great designs too. On the course they showed how to bring colour to the designs by swiping ink pads across the raised edges etc, which was really fun to try with a various range of inks. I decided to take one of the white panels I'd embossed and rather than ink on that, to cut a strip from the metallic cardstock I'd embossed of the same design (which by the way works really well!) and lay this over the white as a feature strip with the design edges matching up. But I thought I'd try to throw a little ink on the panel first for some interest, totally forgetting metallic cardstock doesn't tend to take ink well! So I wound up with a sticky mess and couldn't figure out what to do with it, until the 'aha moment' when I decided to sprinkle a little embossing powder over it! Well, a careful heat setting later, (so as not to lift the metallic coating on the cardstock) I had a grungy distressed, but kinda cool looking metallic panel. Love a happy accident!

As you can see the embossed panel above looked a dog's breakfast, so I was initially a little unsure what to do with it, but decided to persevere with my idea to use the white and metallic embossed panels together and boy am I glad I did! I really love how this card turned out, it may be my favourite card I've made this year! It was just such a departure from my usual style and a real adventure! So, I cut the panel down to the vision I'd had earlier, popped it up on foam tape and then wrapped some brown twine around it before adhering it down to the white layer, but leaving the twine ends free in the front. I adhered the white layer to a lovely woodgrain cardstock in a deep chocolate brown and all that remained was to add the finishings. I have a lovely Hero Arts Autumn Leaves Die set which I really like and thought was perfect to finish this design. I cut them from cardstock I had used several different distress ink colours on and had water splattered some for texture. I cut the leaves where there was overlap of two colours I'd inked for a fun Autumnal 'leaves turning' vibe. I added three to the card and then tied a bow with the twine I'd wrapped around the metallic cardstock. Simple but so lovely I think. I added the beautiful Autumn sentiment which is from Whimsy Stamps over a vellum shadow layer and then adhered that to the card. I just needed a sub-sentiment to complete the card and found the word 'perfection' in one of my stamps sets. I can't recall which set this is from, so will have to come back with that detail.

Thanks so much for stopping in today friends, sorry about the massive amount of detail to read through, I just thought it might be interesting and it's a nice reminder for me looking back at this journey, so thanks for hanging in there! Do let me know what you think of this crafty adventure and it's twists and turns. Have you had things like this happen?

I hope you'll come and join us at Sweet Stampin' with your Autumn makes too if you're creating for Autumn, we'd LOVE to see what you're inspired to create. Also, check out my madly talented teamies and their fantastic interpretations of the theme too. I'm always inspired by their creations! I'll be back again soon with another crafty adventure, until then, hugs and happy crafting, Wends xoxo

#OCCStenciled2

(I use affiliate links where possible and I receive a small commission, which costs you no extra at all, but helps these companies see where their marketing efforts are most effective. I only design for companies whose products I love and buy for myself. My opinions are always my own.)

Challenge Entries:

Crafty Gals Corner: #247 ~ Signs of Fall

Dragonfly Dreams Challenge: October ~ Autumn

Crafty Catz Challenge: #653 ~ Colours of Autumn

Unicorn Challenge: #92 ~ Autumn and/or Halloween

Creative Inspirations Challenge: October ~ Autumn or Halloween

Moving Along With The Times: #159 ~ October ~ Anything Goes

Aud Sentiments: #306 ~ Ink Blending (leaves) + Fall + Sentiment

Stamping Sensations: October ~ Autumn Colours (tiny bit of stamping on this, hope it's okay!)