Autumn/Fall

Hi everyone! I am so delighted to be in the Designer Spotlight this month over at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. Thanks so much for inviting me!

This week the theme is Autumn/Fall.

As it is the first Monday of the month, Simon Says Stamp are featuring Tim Holtz so I created this birthday card as I have lots of family birthdays this time of year.

For the centre piece of my card, I stamped a maple leaf using a Tim Holtz Maple Sketch stamp and black Archival Ink onto a piece of Ranger Kraft paper which I tore along the edges to give it more of a rustic look and then coloured using a Sanguine and Black Faber-Castell marker. I also added a piece of lace and bound some twine to the bottom of the Kraft panel and attached a button which I threaded using the same twine.

I used the Tim Holtz Maple Sketch stamp again to stamp the maple leaf onto some Watercolour card stock using my Tim Holtz stamping platform. This enabled me to stamp the watercolour card again after I had coloured the leaf using Fired Brick, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed and Picked Raspberry Distress Ink. I cut out the leaf, edged it with a black Faber-Castell Big Brush marker and stuck it over the top of the leaf that I stamped on the Kraft panel using double-sided foam tape so it stood out more. The card was completed by mounting the finished Kraft panel onto a 6x4inch card which I made from white cardstock, stamped with a repeating pattern of “Happy Birthday” using Rich Cocoa, Toffee Crunch and Potter’s Clay Memento Ink and then finely splattered with Fired Brick, Spiced Marmalade and Picked Raspberry Distress Ink.

Maple leaves always reminds me of fall in New England …

… so the colours on my card were inspired by this beautiful tree in Biddeford, Maine that we saw this time last year whilst on vacation to celebrate our 30^th wedding anniversary.

It happens to be our 31^st wedding anniversary tomorrow, so as T Stands for Tuesday I’m sharing a photo of me and hubby enjoying some samplers of beer at Banded Brewery in Biddeford, Maine which we also visited whilst we were there – cheers and Happy T Day!

Which reminds me to wish Erika a very Happy Anniversary too!

I enjoyed creating this card with my Tim Holtz products for the Autumn/Fall challenge and I hope you will join in the fun too! For more inspiration please check out the fabulous creations from the Design Team over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.

Don’t forget that Simon Says Stamp is generously giving away a $50 voucher to shop at the Simon Says Stamp Store! and one lucky participant will be randomly drawn to win this voucher. How amazing is that! Good Luck to everyone!

Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.

Here is a list of materials to make this card:

• Ranger Kraft Paper
• Ranger Distress Watercolour Cardstock
• Tim Holtz Maple Sketch Stamp
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink – Fired Brick
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink – Spiced Marmalade
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink – Mustard Seed
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink – Picked Raspberry
• Tim Holtz Stamping Platform
• Ranger Archival Ink – Jet Black
• Faber-Castell Big Brush marker – Black
• May Arts Natural Twine
• Tim Holtz Shabby Accountrements Buttons
• Crafter’s Companion Ultra Smooth Premium White Cardstock
• Fiskars Paper Trimmer
• Tsukineko Memento Ink – Rich Cocoa
• Tsukineko Memento Ink – Toffee Crunch
• Tsukineko Memento Ink – Potter’s Clay
• X-Press It double-sided tape
• X-Press it double-sided foam tape
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Marker – Sanguine
• Lace – gifted from friend
• Happy Birthday Stamp