Autumn Blessings

 Autumn - the most beautiful season in my opinion. Therefore, the current challenge at Try it on Tuesday, "Autumn Blessings" was perfect for me.

I have a box labelled "Fall" that contains all of my autumn themed stamps and embellishments. I haven't bought any new stamps or embellishments or papers for ages and was just digging through my old stuff. No new images or add-ons, all of these cards are made with whatever was available. Oldies but goldies.

"Autumn is a second spring"

I cut the file folder card with my Coluzzle out of patterned cardstock (Scenic Route), attached the stamped pumpkin (Stampendous) and embellished with brown ribbon, a pumpkin brad and a trianlge shaped paper clip. I don't know who made the stamp with the beautiful quote by Albert Camus.

"Autumn Pears"

Again I used the same Coluzzle template to cut a different file folder shape out of Bazzill cardstock.  I still have some glossy paper that I made with alcohol inks years ago that I cut and attached to metallic cardstock. The pears (A Stamp in the Hand) were stamped with green Stazon ink. Maple leaves were punched out of metallic paper and the tiny paper clip added as a final touch.

"Bountiful"

Yellow, olive green and ochre cardstock were matted on top of each other (with the yellow as the card base). Another alcohol ink paper piece was stamped with a cornucopia and a text stamp (Hero Arts). Two maple leaves, punched out of the alcohol ink paper, were added as well as the word "bountiful" (Hero Arts).

"Turning Leaves"

A super simple card! Different pieces of patterned (Scenic Route) and solid cardstock were mounted on top of each other, the top one with the autumn tree (Inkadinkado) stamped with Kaleidacolor. I cut two circles from leftover bits of cardstock and stamped the top one with "turning leaves" (Hero Arts). Finally, a maple leaf brad - done.

"Autumn"

The base of the card is Bazzill cardstock, topped with scrapbook paper that I randomly stamped with the leafy twig (Magenta). The oval was stamped with autumn themed words (Hero Arts), I punched two holes to pull the ribbon through and added an oak leaf die-cut.

"Autumn Greetings" - my favorite.

This card is based on olive green Bazzill cardstock. I cut out squares from an old dictionary and "painted" them with stamp pads. Using bubble wrap I stamped dots with orange acrylic paint and stamped a row of colorful leaves on the bottom. This bare tree is one of my favorite stamps (PSX), I use it all the time. "Autumn Greetings" (Northwoods Rubber Stamps) appear on the left.

If you're still here - thanks for your patience and looking at my cards. There are so many creative works with this theme that you can see here.

T Tuesday with Circles

 I am way late to Elizabeth's T party today - and this will be a short one.

"Going round in circles" is the current challenge at Try it on Tuesday. I love circles, so this was a lovely opportunity for me to work in circles again. I created a spread in my art journal.

The background was created quite a while ago, it's a pink and purple spiral that I painted with acrylic colors. After it was done, I had no idea how to go on and so it sat for a few months - until this challenge came up. Suddenly I knew what to do with it. I journaled within the spiral and then added smaller circles that I cut out of the papers that I had created using the gelli plate. This became a fun project.

When I looked through my art journal and other sketchbooks I realized that I am using circles quite a lot. It is not always obvious at first sight. Years ago, when I was still scrapbooking, I loved to cut circles as well.

I created this layout 20 years ago, it is the right page of a two-page layout. And see - here is where the drink comes in. We had visited Fetzer Vineyards and had joined a tour through the garden. At the end of the tour there was some wine tasting. Of course my daughter, three years old at the time, did not get wine (what were you thinking???). She is drinking their grape juice - and you can see that she really liked it and loved drinking it out of a "grown up" glass.

These are such lovely memories. I miss her so much. 

T Tuesday with Art Journal

 

Tomorrow is Tuesday which means the past week just flew by and it's time for Elizabeth's T Tuesday post. Didn't I just write last week's post?

Last week I found another challenge called Try it on Tuesday. Every other week a new challenge is posted. The current one is "use book pages" and we can use any medium we wish as long as we follow the challenge theme. I love to include book pages when I create and I decided to make a spread in my art journal. I tore up pages from books in different languages and fonts and glued them dowm randomly. A watercolor wash of burnt sienna followed. The two women and the image of the door are from a catalog of my favorite clothes company. Finally, I added some stamps and stenciled patterns. (She remained true to herself by Unity Stamp; vine flourish by Scrappy Cat; scalloped border by Fiskars; Tim Holtz stencil by Stampers Anonymous)

I hadn't worked in my art journal for a way too long time, but through a short class (more about that in a later post) and a couple challenges I rediscovered my creativity. One of those challenges beside the one above was through colorcrushcreative on Instagram. Every week a different color was the theme of the challenge. Unfortunately I found this challenge only a couple weeks ago when most of the colors were already done. I started out with violet, which is not a color I include in my work a lot, but thanks to this challenge it has made more appearances. I don't think I was particularly creative with that color, just playing around with watercolor, scrapbook paper scraps, stencils, stamps and an attempt to paint a nondescript flower. Drawing/painting is not my strong suit. However, I loved using these Inktense Pens by Derwent, they have such a brilliant color when you activate them with water. (Art text stamp by Stampers Anonymous; Divinata Seasons by Stampington; swirly stamp unknown; stencil by Stencil Girl)

Magenta was the chosen color the following week. Now, this color is much easier for me. I love to include magenta in its boldness. A color that makes a statement all on its own. Everything on this page is re-used - the book pages are from a Greek encyclopedia, the flowers and radishes from seed packages, a tag on a piece of clothing from the clothing company I mentioned above, a piece of wrapping paper, a Métro ticket from Paris, an index card I made. All covered with watercolor magenta that I mixed myself and finished with a stencil by The Crafters Workshop. Creating this spread was pure fun.

The current color is pink and I decided to keep it simple. I took the photo of the Black-crowned night heron several years ago while I was at the lake early in the morning. The fog was still hovering over the lake, it was very peaceful. It is still one of my favorite photos. A soft pink, I thought, would fit this particular mood. I mainly used scrapbook paper (for the background, and the poppies are cut from one as well and then painted with water-soluble wax pastels by Caran-d'Ache), the letter stamps are by Creative Imaginations. Somehow I love this page.

Even this week's drink - a pineapple-hibiscus cooler that I ordered at a lunch with a friend - sticks to the color scheme!