November Inspiration Station Blog Hop Challenge

 This month's inspiration photo

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My take on the inspiration photo!

When I'm inspired to a card project with flowers, I really try to figure out a fun fold card so they can "pop" off the card. This project is built on a 6"x6" golden yellow cardstock base. The folding is super simple:

I cut an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of cardstock to 6" on the 8 1/2" side, reserving the cut off portion. I scored the cut piece at 6". Since it's not cut from a 12"x12" sheet, one side measures under six inches. But, for this fun fold, it doesn't matter. I just measured 2 1/2" from the center fold and scored. Then I made a mountain fold. Next, I went thru my stash because I knew I had paper with poppies on it. It was from Stampin' Up! years ago. 

This cardstock also had a coordination stamp and die set-woot!  I also pulled out other papers for consideration, based on the inspiration photo.

Using Real Red ink from Stampin Up! I stamped details onto some of the poppies. 

I then went in with the outline stamp and embossed gold outlines on some of the poppies with WOW! embossing powder in Metallic Gold Rich Regular embossing powder.

Going back to the card base, I used the reserved golden yellow cardstock to make a footer on the mountain fold.  I cut this at 6".

On the 6"x6" left side of the card I applied a piece of black cardstock, cut to 5 7/8" square and attached it. I then trimmed the poppy paper down to 5 3/4" square and attached that to the black piece. I wanted to pull the black details of the poppies in the inspiration photo out. To the mountain folded side, I cut some pretty green with gold accented pieces to fit.

On the footer I cut to fit a fun piece of argyle paper in soft blues and browns to bring out the color of the sky in the inspiration photo and attached that to the right-side mountain folded panel.

Next came the fun part: stamping and die-cutting leaves and flowers for embellishments:

I did some layout work with the sentiment stamps I chose from this same stamp set (and again, sorry, it has been long retired from Stampin' Up!)

I used Mossy Meadow ink from Stampin' Up to stamp some background foliage around the footer.

Next, I added the flowers and leaves and stamped the sentiments. I did use some foam dots on some flowers to give them depth.

I have to admit, at first, I had no idea how to approach this month's inspiration photo, but I think it came together pretty good! I hope you like it! And I hope you play along with us at Inspiration Station!  See you next month!

Themed Friday Cardmaking/Papercraftin Instagram Hop: Fall Inspiration Mood Board

 

How comfy cozy is this mood board!!  Yes, it's not exactly the colors or tone that I consider cozy...lol, so I did have to think outside my comfort zone for this week's project. I did use the tones of the mood board, but went for a more artsy style card.

I chose to make the base of this 5x7 card base from Stampin' Up! Basic Beige cardstock. I love their cardstock and highly recommend it! It's color rich and perfect weight. (You can order from me via my email address at the bottom of this post :)

I used a page from a super old book as the base of the composition for this card. I at first was going to use altered and embossed paper to go for a blanket look...but again, it just isn't "my thing." lol

I have been saving the most beautiful sheet of Rubons from 49 and Market called "Moonlit Garden" and the large cluster of white flowers was perfect to tie in the colors from the mood board, while sticking to the look I was going for. I also have been sitting on these amazing 3D urn stickers I picked up at Dollar Tree. And I grabbed my stash of fall leaves I made for this season's card making. They are all cut from the Altenew Mini-Delight subscription "Garden Friends" (check it out at the link to Altenew at the bottom of this post!)

I cut out the inside of the urn I chose so I could tuck in the leaves.

For a final addition to the urn I added an acorn cluster cut from the same set as the leaves.

The sentiment is stamped with Early Espresso ink from Stampin' Up! and a stamp from a retired Stampin' Up set, and cut from a scrap of "cozy" brown cardstock.

Thanks for stopping by! If you are interested in my classes, or purchasing my tutorials, email me at: stampthefunup@yahoo.com 

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October Inspiration Station Blog Hop Challenge

This month's inspiration photo

 

My project inspired by this month's inspiration photo (above)

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I was so inspired by the colors from this month's inspiration photo!  I don't have a cornucopia, but thanks to my amazing crafty friends, I recently received the Altenew Radiant Blossoms Build A Garden Set and it has the cutest basket! It's a good size too, I can't wait to use this element with other sets and creations!!  So, I wasn't sure when I started this project exactly where it would go, so I started with the basket (which, as you can see from my finished photo, YOU CAN'T SEE IT ANYWAYS because I got carried away with the flowers and pumpkins lol). Oh well, it was fun to do.  Below are the steps I used to make the basket look as realistic as I could.

 I stamped the image in Toasted Mauve ink on craft cardstock to start with a good base.  Pro tip: stamping on colored cardstock gives a great base to inking if you are inking something in similar colors.

I used the Pink Sand ink pad to rub across the basket, to give it a little "wicker" texture. The Pink Sand ink is just a bit darker than the craft cardstock.

The set comes with stencils, so, for the basket stencil I used Toasted Mauve again and a mini blending brush to add shadows around the basket.

I added depth to the shadows by lightly applying Redwood ink around the shadows.

I added Redwood ink shadows on the inside of the basket as well- The stencil is amazing to allow you to add these details!!

I edged the basked using Altenew Artist Marker in Espresso

Then I finished the rim using Altenew Artist Marker in Sunkissed.

 

Came out super cute!!

Next was the flower cluster that comes in the set.  Since I don't have a lot of fruits and things as elements, I decided to fill the basket up first with the large flower cluster.  This I also stamped on colored cardstock.

Pro Tip:  When stamping and ink blending on colored cardstock, you definitely need to do some test blending with your chosen colors to see how they will come out.  I was going for a vintage tone for the flower cluster.

Pro Tip:  I used a mustard color cardstock as the base of this flower cluster. Instead of choosing green inks for the leaves, I used tones of blues because blue and yellow make green.  Yes, you can use greens, but working with the colored cardstock to blend a completely new tone of "green" with the blue inks kept the depth of the leaves in that toned-down vintage look.

Now I had a sense of the tone this project was going, so I used a muted light green cardstock as a 5 x 7 card base.  From there I antiqued it in vintage tones and gold.

Using the big blending brush I edged the card base face in Mocha ink. This large brush smooths out edge blending like a dream! No brush marks!

I used the Regal Beauty mask and stencil set from Altenew and a mini blending brush with the Mocha ink to add tone on tone details. Pro Tip: varying pressure with the brush gives the depth to the stenciling.

For some true vintage style I dabbed Altenew Enchanted Gold Pigment Ink. I used a micro mini blending brush to keep the gold on the stenciled areas. I also rad the gold ink pad around the edge of the card face.

(Whew!!  Yes, lol, this card took a while to put together...lots of juicy steps, lots of different techniques.... but it was so much fun to get lost in the process of building this card!)

Next comes to fun part!!  (I know, it's all the fun part lol) THE FILLER ELEMENTS!!!
 

I used pumpkin stamps and dies from an old, retired set from my stash. To keep with the vintage, washed out tone of the rest of the card, I stamped the pumpkins in coordinating ink on colored cardstock. 

I colored them with Prismacolor colored pencils:

 Next came the super fun part of picking washed out, jewel toned card stock to cut out the leaves and fillers.  I had some leaf die-cuts left over from a previous project, so I added those as well.  I used the leaf dies from the Altenew Mini Delight Garden Friends set and the Altenew Zero Waste Berries and Branches die. I cut them all out, then went over them with brown and gold ink, applied with a sponge:

EMBELLISHMENTS:  ASSEMBLE!!!!!

I cut a little slit in the basket to nestle the smaller pumpkins:

               

I played with the layout of the big elements and when I figured out where I wanted them, I went in with a mini blending brush and the Mocha ink and laid down shadows from the elements:

Last step was stuffing all the branches, filler leaves and acorns :)

 

I hope you had fun following me along in the process of building this card project!  I also hope you hit the link at the top of the page and follow along the hop challenge!!  To snag the products I used in this project (except the pumpkins) click HERE to visit the Altenew Store.

See you all next month for another Inspiration Station Blog Hop Challenge!