Sweet Stampin' - Autumn Leaves

Hey there my lovely blogging buddies. Well it's been a week, this wee mama is exhausted! But I managed to feed two families four days this week and fit in a fireworks display on Friday, so feeling pretty satisfied! Even more so, that I actually managed to sneak in a couple of crafting hours yesterday to pull together this Autumnal card. It's time again for a new challenge at Sweet Stampin' and our theme this week is 'Autumn Leaves'. So we'd love to see your Autumnal creations this week too. We're sponsored by Crafty Ribbons this challenge, so the winner is in store for a gorgeous treat!

I decided to use Kraft card as my main element for this card, so I began by stamping along a Kraft card strip with random leaves, Sugar Nellie acorns, and a cute little Bildmalarna tree stump and mushroom. I used one of those clever '5 colours in 1' stamp pads. The one I used is from the Kaleidacolor range by Tsukineko called Creole Spice. It's a very clever ink pad actually, as the individual inks are kept separate by a sliding mechanism. You slide them together to ink and separate them to store, so the inks don't bleed into each other. Really clever.

The sentiment I used is one I bought years ago now at the Ally Pally Craft Market in London. I so wish I knew the name of the store who sold these grey rubber stamps. Every year I went, they had big barrels of sentiment stamps for 50p and over. I bought oodles, but I didn't pay attention to the name of the store. I so wish I had, as they would get loads of credit in my posts if I had! So if anyone knows, please enlighten me!

The maple leaf I've used and the acorn stamp are both from the fabulous Autumn Kit from Sugar Nellie. I had intended initially to colour up one of the kiddies from the set too, but ran out of time to complete the colouring, so went for a more masculine themed, simple card. I initially had the 'swirly leaves embossed white panel' straight on the Kraft card background, but the whole card needed a lift, something to create a bit of interest besides the ink work. So I hunted through some digi' papers and came across this fabulous plaid paper in just the right tones, to work with the ink work et voilà! Thanks to the amazingly talented women at Pixel Scrapper for sharing their fabulous handy work. They have some wonderful digi' papers and scrapbooking elements shared freely (with a daily cap) once you sign up. This page was created by Pauline Thompson.

Well, that's all I have for you today. I need to take my girlie to her Archery practice in a few minutes, so I'll wrap up here. Pop on over to the Sweet Stampin' challenge to check out what my incredibly talented teamies have been up to. They're created some pretty special Autumnal creations. You're gonna love them! Come and join our challenge with your own Autumnal creations. We'd love to see what you're inspired to do! Thanks for popping in to see me today. It totally makes my day! Hugs, Wends x

Challenge Entries:
CAS Colours & Sketches: #149 ~ Colours
ABC Challenge: U for Unlimited (Anything Goes)
Moving Along With The Times: Leaves and/or Trees
Crafty Creations Challenges: #301 ~ Colourful (Autumn Colours)
CASology: #172 ~ Give (Giving thanks for the beauty of Autumn)
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Thanksgiving (Thankful for the beauty of Autumn)

Stamping Sensations: November ~ Festive Flowers and Foliage. (More foliage than flowers, but celebrating the beauty of Autumn)