Fall is Coming

Isn't it funny how excited we are to have fall weather? I would love it if this, my hands down favorite season, lasted much longer. Fall is everything I love! The food, the colors, pumpkins, leaves and acorns, the clothes and the crafty feeling I get when the weather is cooler.

 I have a fun fall card to share today that I made following the Hero Arts video of the week found  on their blog here. I used BoBunny paper for the text and the leaves were stamped with a Hero Arts stamp in Barn Door, Wild Honey and Scattered Straw Distress Inks. I sprayed the images with a mist of water and heat them with my heat tool.  I touched the outside edges of the leaves with Vintage Photo Distress Ink after cutting them out and painted them with Distress Crackle Paint in Rock Candy, from Ranger. They almost look real, don't they?

This card is made from Jennifer Maguire Inspiration. The image is a Hero Arts stamp (hmmm, I'm seeing a pattern here) on watercolor paper and heat embossed in white embossing powder. The next step is to put Distress Ink directly onto the paper in two colors (I used Broken China and Wild Honey) and then spraying Glimmer Mist in Marshmallow heavily over the inking. This causes a beautiful, shimmery, water color effect. I am going to make more cards like this because it very easy and has such a lovely look.

I hope your having a crafty day and are enjoying the beautiful fall weather!

Hugs, Lorelei

Getting All Inked UP

Guess what? I'm a Fall girl. SHOCKER!!

 I love fall food, fall desserts (ooops back to food again), fall clothes, fall leaves, fall cards.... I could go on. Oh I forgot to say I just LOVE fall weather!! It's starting to be cooler in the evenings and mornings and I just love that.

I'm also just loving the Inspiration Showcase class I'm taking. Yesterday we worked on dry embossing techniques. I'll be sharing what I made with this technique soon. I have lots of embossing envelopes for my Cuttlebug but haven't used them much. After yesterday, Lookout world! I am loving the inking over (and under) dry embossing.

The card above is my favorite from the class so far. Nicole Magourik made a card similar to this and of course, being the Fall girl that I am, I just had to try my hand at my version of the card.

What do you think? You can make this card too. Here's how:

Stamp a big swirl (used Hero Arts Bold Flourish) or full card size stamp over book text with Versamark and heat emboss that with white embossing powder. Then ink up your piece with Tumbled Glass and Scattered Straw Distress Ranger Inks (did I mention that I love these inks?). Finish the edges off with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and spray Tattered Angels Marshmallow or similar mica based spray over the whole piece to get a little sparkle.

The flower is made by stamping the same flower 3 times with Versamark ink and embossing with white embossing powder and then cutting the flowers out and crumpling them up and layering them on top of each other.  An old Marvy punch I have was perfect for the leaves. I used a clear embossing pen by Ranger to draw the leaf lines and then embossed that with white embossing powder. Put it all together over a bow made of cord and add some rhinestones and pearls and wahlah!!

If you haven't already, get your Ranger Distress Inks out and play with them. The backgrounds you can make to enhance your cards will made you smile. Jennifer Maguire says she buys very little colored cardstock because she can always change white cardstock into the perfect color for her project!

I'm loving life, hope you are too.

Lorelei 

  

Inspiration Showcase

Seriously, who is your favorite cardmaker?  Of course it's Jennifer Maguire! Who else has the energy and  talent she does?  I love Nicole Magourik and Kristina Werner and others but Jennifer has the style that most often matches my tastes.  Her latest on-line class called Inspiration Showcase is packed full of inspirational goodness and beautiful card ideas and I'm only on Day Two!! The card above is a sympathy card I made for my husband's brother's in-laws. The technique here is stamping with paint and then applying ink to the the card and going back over it with a baby wipe to get the paint to show through. I love the softness of the imperfections of the stamped image. I also love using my favorite inks: Ranger Distress Inks. My new favorite color is Wild Honey!! What not green??? Not this time.

This card uses the same background technique as the card above but I added the panel on top with foam tape. On the panel I used Distress Inks over a white embossed image from Magenta.  The white embossing also resists the Distress Inks. This card is the beginning of my Thanksgiving stash for those members of our church who can no longer join us on Sunday.

Inspiration Showcase is the best class ever. It is so packed with wonderful, fun techniques all while using my favorite products. What more could a girl who has a passion for cardmaking ask for?

I hope you'll stay tuned, I know I'll have more to share with you shortly. I hope you're having a blessed week and can find the time to do what you love most!

Lorelei