Autumn ~ a time when every leaf becomes a flower!

I mentioned in yesterdays post,  a card I made for Beverly of More Ink Please which I couldn’t post yesterday because I hadn’t re-sized the photos .. well I have now, and I’m here to share.

I previously made just one leaf like these some time ago after I saw one on Pinterest, and fell in love with it.  The leaf I made that time, I made using the Ranger Melting Pot, however these leaves I made using a regular heat gun, to see if I could make them in the same sort of way, as I know that not everyone has a Melt Pot, and this was the result:

I stamped leaves in various sizes then cut them out,  and using ink I coloured the leaves so that they had those wonderful autumnal colours.  I then shaped them and manipulated them gently so that they had ‘groves’ and bends where the should be.  Then smoothed an embossing pad over them and using extra thick embossing powders I heated the leaves using a regular heat gun.  I found that roughly three layers was enough to make the leaves have that deep, thick glow which suggested that they were made of porcelain or glass and precious.

Once cool I dragged a gold ink pen around the outside of the leaf, and finally I wrapped some gold wire around the leaves.

Then using a hot glue gun I attached them to a card which I’d prior to this, embossed the background in a tree bark look, and framed that background with a cut out,  –  but I’d embossed around the edges of that cut out in a random way using two colours of embossing powders and carefully melting them into each other.

I added a sentiment, and a bow and that was it.  Finished!  It was ready to be sent to Beverly.

And that was all there was to it!  😊

I’m still taking part in the InkTober challenge, but I ran out of time today to finish my drawing, so I’ll hopefully finish it tomorrow and post a blog post about it then.

Thank you so much for coming and sharing a coffee with me.  It’s so lovely of you to visit, and I just love seeing you.

Oh … and before you go  …  Let’s all wish Britt Ekland a Happy Birthday for today. She was born on this day, in 1942.  This fabulous fact about this lovely lady leaves me feeling wonderful and very young.    If she looks that good (I Googled to find an up to date photo of her) at her age today, then there is hope for me. (I was born a good maaany years after 1942!).  

I’m off now to put on a full face of cosmetics, find my favourite outfit out of the wardrobe and go somewhere where my glamour will be appreciated.  Somehow, Tesco’s just won’t cut it today.

As for you …  I wish you a truly blessed day.  Please do something to make someone else smile.  It doesn’t have to cost you anything.  You can simply say a bright ‘good morning’ to them, but just try to make someone smile today.  It costs nothing, and you’ll never run out of them.

Sending buckets of squidges through my computer screen, along the cables and bursting through your computer screen.  Wait for the moment they hit you … get ready …  …. NOW!  Feel that warm little wiggle inside?  You’ve just had a download of Cobs Squidges.  You should now be smiling a little smile.  Just a turn upwards of the corners of your mouth.  YES… THERE IT IS!  Aw my goodness, you look so fabulous when you smile like that.  Your eyes twinkle like little diamonds!

Have a lovely day my friend. 

 

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#InkTober 4th 2017

Well I did say yesterday that I’d be hard pushed to not, at some point, break open a coloured ink during InkTober this year  … and I didn’t last even a quarter of the month.  How dreadful am I?

There are gazillions of the InkTober Artists around the globe all pushing their black ink pens loyally and here I am being the bad girl.  Oooooohhh  but it’s so delicious to be bad sometimes!  😉

And .. I’m not really bad.  Not really … for I still used ink.  I used Brown Ink instead of black, and I used it straight from the bottle.  A proper glass bottle too!

Aw anyhoo, enough of my bad … let’s crack on and talk about todays inky offering…

This drawing (with some painting) was inspired by a handmade card which I made for Beverly of More Ink Please,  – no the name of her blog isn’t made up for InkTober, that really is the name of her blog. Ha!  I sent her the card just over a week ago, and she emailed me to tell me that it had arrived. YAY!  I’ll blog the card probably tomorrow as I have to re-size the photo’s still, but for today I’m sharing my offering for the 4th day of InkTober2017, which was inspired, as I said, by the card I made for Beverly.

Autumn is a much-loved season by me, so it made sense that I would have to do some sort of nod to Autumn, and here is the inking I created…

#InkTober2017 day 4

I started with the acorns on branches, on the upper left corner, and pencilled in where I wanted them to be before using ink straight from the bottle and a fine paint brush to ink up both the branches and the cups and acorns themselves.  The ink used is called Chronicle Acrylic Dip Pen Ink, in Sepia.  (I’ve had this bottle of never ending ink for years, and I’m not even sure they still make it).  I also used a Kuretake Zig Memory System Ink Pen in black, (size 005) to give some dark shadows to places where they would normally fall.  Those two things were the only colours and items used to make the acorn branches.

#InkTober2017 day 4

The Autumn leaf wreath was first drawn out lightly in pencil, then lightly again using a Zig Memory System Pigment Ink Pen, in Chocolate.  I then used Kuretake Gansai Watercolour Paints to add Autumnal colours to the leaves.  I added the twisted vine to the ‘wreath’ using the same Chronicle Ink I’d used on the Acorn branches, and also added some twisted tumbling vines too.

Using the Zig Memory System Ink Pen in chocolate, I added the ‘Autumn’ word, and that’s all there was to it!

It was quite quick to make, the majority of the time seemed to be waiting for parts to dry before moving on.

I’ve told myself that I have to be a good girl for a few days now and not dip my brushes or pens into the blue ink.  So … fingers crossed…. I might be able to do it without falling off the wagon.  (to borrow a phrase from somewhere else.  lol)

Autumn has really arrived to the South of England.  It’s so heart stoppingly pretty here right now.  Green is beautiful .. but ohhh.. the yellows, reds and oranges,  those stunning sunburst shades that only nature can summon up from her paint-box … those colours just make me want to lie down in those leaves and do the snow angel thing.  So yummy!

Hot meals have come back onto the menu, and my soft pashmina type scarves have come out and are enjoying the odd outing now and again.

Did you know …. that today, in 1883, it was the first run of the  Orient Express.?  Well, you do now!  You can go and impress someone with your new-found knowledge and watch them as they try to work out why you’re so amazing!!  You’re welcome.  😀

Have a wonderful rest of your day!  And … when you get there … Sleep well, for tomorrow you will be gifted with another 24 hours (if you’re lucky enough) and you can join the rest of us as we do it all again … with some differences.

Sending squidges, from me in my corner to you in yours.

 

The falling leaves drift by my window The falling leaves of red and gold . . .

Well, actually, they’re red, gold, orange and brown .. but I couldn’t think of a song that mentioned all those colours.

I don’t normally do multiple cards at once unless it’s Christmas, but I made these two cards on Saturday  . . .  well now that’s not entirely true.   I almost made two …  but I still had to decide what to do with the pure white card background behind the little girl with the umbrella.   Pure white just didn’t cut it.  So in the end I put in a pale, watery blue sky, and then below it I made it look like that fine, murky, misty, spray, wet you right through rain, so that it would suggest that this really was brolly weather. (brolly – a kind of shortening of word in the UK for Umbrella).

The papers used are all from Craftwork Cards.  I think it’s their Rose Heritage Range, if I remember correctly.  (It’s in my craftroom and I don’t want to make the trip across the decking, in the cold, and in my jammies – because the motion sensor lights will come on and that makes me feel like the last act of the night, [X-Factor?] … and like I should do a song, a dance and a bit of tap just to impress the judges.  It’s pretty paper and in a great variety of prints – which all ‘go’ together well.

The little girl is a stamped image, onto the white Stamping Card (by Clever Cut – aka Stamps Away), then stamped again onto the blue rosy paper and again onto the pink rosey paper.  Her hat and coat are cut from the blue paper.  Her boots and umbrella are cut from the pink paper.  Her scarf is something I added (it wasn’t part of the stamped image) as it kind of added a little movement to the image.

I added a little blue ric-rac ribbon and finished it off with a decorative frame of pink gingham.  (These can be found at The Works (UK only store) – in various sizes and shapes, all very cheaply – normally a pack of 6 totally different ones for around £1.  (sorry to folks outside the UK))

The second card is an Autumn card.  Although Autumn is meant to start at the beginning of September, (here in the UK)  but for me personally it doesn’t really feel like Autumn until October is here.  So when October the 1st arrived on Saturday my mind and heart was instantly switched on to Autumn.

I love the Autumn – the colours, the beautiful skies, the time to get out your warmer clothes and rake the leaves.  Children coming in from playing with little pink noses, as if they’d been pinched.  Hot drinking chocolate.  Snuggly, tucked in and that beautiful moment that it gets too cold in the house so you pop the heating on just to take the chill out of the air.  Yummy!

So … I made an Autumn card.  Not for anyone in particular, just because I wanted to.

The white scored and folded card is a gently hammered card in a lovely weight.  The dotty card is by Anna Marie Designs.  I stamped a ‘naked tree’ directly onto the card using memento ink pad and then stamped different leaves in different colours onto white stamping card, and then cut all the leaves out and coloured them in different colours.  I added just a few stamped leaves directly to the tree, just to give it a little depth.  The leaves were adhered to the tree using tiny double-sided sticky foam mounts, and I kept four stamped leaf images to one side so that I could use them as a pile of leaves …with one leaf being swept up and away by a gust of wind.

At this point, although I liked the card, it was missing a bit of the magic of Autumn, so I got my selection of WOW glitters out and chose three different colours.  An orange, a brown and a gold, and, using a glue pen with a fine nib, I added the various colours of glitters where I felt they should be.

The sentiment which I stamped onto the card is paler than I would normally have stamped it, but I wanted the tree to be the main event, so stamped the words, which read: Autumn…  the year’s last loveliest smile – in a soft brown.

Both of these cards were based on two cards I’d seen in a magazine quite some time ago.  I loved the originals and kind of stored them to memory.  They popped back into my head last week as I began to think about Autumn, so I scribbled myself a ‘post it note’ and stuck it to my big glass mat on my desk, to remind me to make them at the weekend.  I LOVE post it notes.  I don’t think I would I’d remember anything if it weren’t for post it notes!

So .. we have a new week and a new month  …  not only do I wish you a Happy Monday, I also wish you a Happy October.

Here are some facts about October that you might not know …

• The Anglo-Saxons called October Winterfylleth, meaning the ‘fullness’ of winter.
• The Welsh for October is Hydref (originally Hyddfref), a word signifying the lowing of cattle.
• The ‘October Revolution’ in Russia in 1917 took place in November, but at the time Russians had not yet changed from the Julian calendar.
• The Hunt For Red October, with Sean Connery, is the only film with ‘October’ in its title ever to win an Oscar (for best sound editing).
• More US presidents have been born in October than in any other month.

• October in the UK is the Awareness Month for Lupus, breast cancer, national cyber security and domestic violence.

• On 1 October 1982, the world’s first CD (Compact Disc) player went on sale. It was developed jointly by Sony, Philips and Polygram.

• In the US, October is National Pizza Month, Popcorn Month, Pork Month and Sausage Month.

• October is not mentioned in any Shakespeare play or sonnet.

• Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on 2 October 1869, in Porbander in western India.
• On 3 October 1906 the ‘SOS’ signal was established as an International Distress Signal by an agreement made between the British Marconi Society and the German Telefunk organisation at the Berlin Radio Conference. The signal was formally introduced on 1 July 1908.
• Also on the 3rd October,  in 1990 :  East and West Germany re-united and became one country.

I hope that October came into your home gently, and that as each day of this month comes along, it’s filled with little moments of happiness.

As Anne of Greengables (Anne Shirley)  said:  I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.  And I am.  October is one of my favourite colours.

Thank you so much for coming and having a coffee with me.

Sending you love and an October sort of squidge, from me, to you.  ~

Beautiful Roses made from real Autumn Leaves

Autumn Leaf Rose by Vanesseva
(link to Eva’s blog, below)

Aren’t these beautiful?  Can you imagine having a display of these on your dining room table, or a vase of these on your coffee table?

Visiting a blog which I follow led me to discovering the tutorial to make these fabulous roses, all made from real Autumn leaves.  The link to the tutorial is here:  http://sistersknowbest.com/2014/10/11/nicole-dukes-easy-free-diy-fall-decoration/

The photograph at the very top of this post is one owned by Nicole Duke – however a Google search hasn’t turned up anything which I can link to in order to credit this talented lady.  So I hope she doesn’t mind that I shared her beautiful creation with you, but I give her credit both for her skill in the making of the rose and also as the owner of the photograph.

However – I do want to share with you a link to the blog I follow,  –  (which in turn led to the discovery of the rose leaf tutorial in the link above) –  http://mypaperrosegarden.wordpress.com/  – and thank the blog owner – Vanesseva – for the share of the link and also give her masses of crafty credit for the incredible Autumn Leaf Rose which she herself made. (photograph credited above)

Have a truly beautiful autumnal day!

Two Hand-made Plant Pot Cards for Autumn Gardeners

As any gardener will tell you, gardening doesn’t stop when the summer sun does, and it was this thought that made me realise that there were very few gardening or ‘plant growing’ cards for gardeners in the autumn/winter months to be seen on the high street (or on hand-made card makers blogs that I’ve come across) at these times of year, so I thought I’d make some cards for those of us who garden and pot all year round!

Card one:

I decided upon warm terracotta and copper tones for this first card and hand painted the little pots on some Neenah card then cut them out and shaped them (just with my fingers) to give them that dimensional look.

The deep ruby-red flower is made from felt with three glass beads in the centre, and I teamed it with two lovely burnt orange skeleton leaves.

The little Bumble Bee actually started off life as a photo corner –  ones which I’ve had for a gazillion years! (ok, I might be stretching that a little, but I’ve had them so long that I can’t even remember when I bought them nor where from).

The rim of the pot is made from coppery coloured corrugated card with the addition of a little brown and dotty ribbon, which brings a bit of happy whimsy to the pot rim.

I added a little smile to the inside by adding another hand painted pot, to which I added a ‘seed packet’ –  cut from some cardstock which had little seed packets all over the page.  I fixed the seed packet at an angle so that I could ‘sprinkle’ seeds falling out of the packet and into the pot.  The addition of the sentiment  ‘Sow Lovely’ finished the little inside scene off.

Card number two:

The second card began life in the same way (as a Craft Card terracotta pot shaped base) but for this card I cut out papers for the rim and the base then coloured them up so that the pot took on a much deeper colour than a normal terracotta pot in order to give it a more autumnal feel.  I added three half daisies along the rim (with Candi to the centres) and added the Happy Birthday sentiment so that they looked as if they were tucked behind it.

The watering can at the bottom of the card is actually a wooden one, which I coloured silver by using a silver marker pen, and added a flower to the centre.  The dragonfly, (like the bumble bee in the first card), began life as a photo corner – and again, I’ve had them for ever so can’t tell you where I bought them from – but they’re so adorable and I’ve used them lots of times.  I hope that I can still get those from somewhere because I’ll buy them in a heartbeat.  They’re perfect for that little accent when you need one).

This time, the inside of the card was a pop up – in the shape of some flowers….

These flowers started life as:

…7 x 2″ square pieces of decorative cardstock,   folded and then trimmed to shape, then cut, coloured . . .

. . . and then glued to turn them into ‘cone’ shaped flowers . . .

Then they’re re-folded and glued together in a specific way in order to make them close up and open again as ‘one’ pop up.  Once the flowers were in place I added the little heart shaped sentiment to the inside, on a belly bar, over some printed gardening themed text paper.

And that’s all  there is to it! 

Two cards, both really simple,  but both with friendly little smiles to brighten the birthday of someone who still likes to garden even when the sun isn’t there!

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and check out my blog, it’s really lovely to see you here!

Have a wonderful Friday, and a truly fabulous weekend, doing whatever makes you happiest.