The Card Concept #77

Hello everyone!  It's time for the challenges at The Card Concept to start back up with the return of school and this week we have a theme of  "Weathered Floral".  As always, we have this beautiful inspiration image to show you and the design team has tons of inspiration for you to see at the blog.

I was so inspired by the rustic door in this photo so I wanted to incorporate a wood element into my card.  I had a couple of options to achieve this; I could use an embossing folder or wood grained paper. I chose to use some wood grained paper although what I had was not the right color.  But since we just had a little tutorial from Lizzie Jones during Papertrey Ink's Stamp-A-Faire, I colored mine the color I wanted with an E37, Sepia Brown Copic Marker. I wanted the richer wood tone.

Here's a fun little story for you; I have a specialist that I see for check ups about every 4 months in Downtown Tulsa.  So when I was there a few weeks ago I wanted to stop in a the nearby Michaels Arts & Crafts Store.  Well, I was shocked when I got there and I couldn't even get near the front door because of the fence and equipment sitting there.  It got hit by the recent tornado that happened in Tulsa.  We live north of there quite a ways, but I hadn't realized there was any damage to Michaels.  I guess it took the roof completely off the store.  So I trotted on down to Joann's even though I knew they didn't carry the brand of paper I was searching for.  As I'm strolling along, I saw this paper pad that has the description as "Marble Paper Pad" with an image of different colors of wood grain paper.  I think it must have been a manufacturer error but for a 5.5 x 7.5 inch pad of 24 sheets of paper at $1.00, that baby was mine!  *Ü*  Every once in a while, I need a wood grained paper for a challenge, so I was happy to get it at almost no cost.

Now, on to my card!  I started by making a card base from Papertrey Ink Rustic White Cardstock. This is a kind of egg shell colored paper with little flecks in it - perfect for a rustic look.  I colored the wood grained paper with the copic marker and allowed that to dry completely before die cutting it with Papertrey Ink Tipped Top Dies.  I also cut two banners using MFT Angled Banner Dies. I cut a few of each shape from the Beautiful Berries: Autumn Dies and then stamped them in my Mini MISTI using the negative as a place holder. This works well because you can stamp all of them at once.  I just had to do 3 sets. In total, there are 4 layers to stamp including the stem and leaves although not all of the stems have leaves. I used Papertrey Ink's Lovely Lady, Autumn Rose, Classic Kraft and Ripe Avocado Inks.  I wanted to have kind of a wreath or swag look for my card, so I gathered the stems all up and tied a piece of gold cord around them.  The sentiments were also part of the Beautiful Berries: Autumn Stamps and I heat embossed them using Antique Gold Embossing Powder.

I thought I should add that the Beautiful Berries: Autumn are actually meant to be Bittersweet. But I'm thinking I can even use it to mimic Redbud blooms in the Spring.  I'm also anxious to try other color combinations because one of the best things about stamping is that we can make things any color we want.

I've already mailed this card out to some friends that we have been close to for all of the years that hubby and I have been married -- 33 years and counting. They visited us a few weeks ago and Carol Jean and I had a ton of fun together (as always) making a trip into Pawhuska, OK (about 45 minutes north of where I live) which you may know is the home of Ree Drummond, Pioneer Woman, co-owner of The Mercantile or The Merc as is is affectionately known and Food Network Star.  The Merc is a kitchen gadget heaven.  My personal favorite is the Plastic Wrap Dispenser - I have one for Plastic Wrap, one for my Press 'N Seal and I need another yet for my Waxed Paper.  There's also a similar one for aluminum foil.  It was a lot of fun but it was the first time I'd been on a Saturday and even at 9:30 in the morning, the wait for the lunch line was a couple of hours.  I'll share more about that another time, but this card was exactly what I was looking for.  It inspired another card which you can find in this post.  I hope you'll enjoy both cards and if you take time to comment, I really enjoy that.

It's (Almost) Fall Y'all!

Can you all believe that tomorrow is September 1st?  It's not officially Fall but once we hit September, I know it's going to start cooling down. It seems like this year has really flown by! This time of year always makes me long for one of my favorite places in my home state of Missouri. It is incredibly beautiful there and I especially love it in the fall.  I'm talking about Alley Spring & Mill in Eminence, Missouri. At one time, Alley Spring and Mill was the social center for several communities in Shannon County, Missouri and that lasted into the Prohibition Era in the United States. The Jacks Fork River runs through Alley Spring and the spring itself pumps through 81 million gallons per day on average.  The water is so clear there that it's hard to tell just how deep it is.  It's actually difficult to hear people speaking if you are standing next to where the water goes through the mill because the volume of water is so large and it's quite loud.

Alley Mill has also been the location of some interesting photographs in our family as well. Suffice it to say that we are convinced we saw a ghost here at least once and we actually had photographic evidence of that at one time. When my youngest brother was still in junior high or high school, we traveled to the mill from our dad's place down the road near the Current River. Both of these rivers are part of the Ozark National Scenic Riverways and were the first National Park in America to protect a river system. The discharge for the Current River is 2,815 cubic feet per second -- more than 21,056 gallons per second which equates to 1,263,372 gallons per minute and over 75 billion gallons per hour.  It's a powerful force and helps you understand why a float trip down the Current River gave you "I survived the Current River" bragging rights!  My hubby and I did that on our honeymoon going from Akers to Round Spring. Alley Spring is home to an annual event called "Haunting in the Hills" and the area school children are invited to decorate a pumpkin and display it on the grounds.  Anyway, all of this is just to say that this time of year reminds me of Alley Spring and Pumpkin Weather which was the inspiration for my card today.

When I created my background for this card, I was only playing a bit with my inks and my Finetec Gold Watercolor Paint leftovers.  Let me explain....

The first time I used my Finetec Mica Watercolors, I noticed that I was washing so much paint down the drain when I cleaned my brush so, I started saving my rinse water.  I have it in a container that easily lets me leave the lid open a bit to make the water evaporate and then I can reactivate it with a bit of water when I want to use it.  This is what I was doing last night when I got the idea for this card.

I used inks in Bright Buttercup, Berry Sorbet and Orange Zest with my reactivated rinse water to create my background just kind oif dabbing it on with a #8 Silver Black Velvet Round Brush. When I was happy with the way it dried, I doused it with a layer (or two) of Iridescent Gold Shimmer Spritz.  I love gold - it is the perfect neutral to dress anything up!  As far as I can tell, Tattered Angels is no longer in existence but that is the brand I am using.  I think you could use some Tsukineko Gold Shimmer Spritz to accomplish the same look.  You'd just have to try it to see.  I still have several bottles of the Gold and about a half bottle of Copper, Pearl, and few other colors as well.  I also tried out some water with a bit of Gold Perfect Pearls in it and feel it was pretty equivalent to the Shimmer Spritz so if you like the look, try that.  It is pretty hard to use too much water with watercolor, so just let it dry before you toss it.  You have to set it aside and walk away then come back to it because it is never the hot mess you think it was when you left it.  *Ü*

While that was drying, I stamped several pumpkins from Spooky Smiles using Versamark and heat embossed them with Rose Gold Embossing Powder from The Ton.  I also stamped the bat (my favorite of this set although I don't like real bats) from this set using Versafine Onyx Black Ink and heat set it with Simon Says Stamp Clear Embossing Powder.  The Simon brand clear powder is a Fine Detail powder and does a fantastic job. I watercolored the pumpkins using a combination of Ripe Persimmon Distress Marker and Zig Clean Color Real Brush Marker in Orange. I tried using Orange Zest Ink but it was too yellow once I added the water to it.  I cut a banner from watercolor paper using the Number The Stars Banner Die and stamped my greeting on it using the same Rose Gold Embossing Powder.  I die cut the leaves from the Stylized Autumn Dies and then stamped them in Ripe Avocado Ink with the Stylized Autumn Stamp Set for the area to the left of the pumpkins.  It really needed some filler in that area and the leaves were the perfect size and style.  The Spooky Smiles Stamp Set and Coordinating Dies also includes two different curly stems for the pumpkin, a little kitty and even a witches hat and a ghost.  I also used the same "reactivated" rinse water to watercolor the Pumpkins.

Once I had everything stamped, painted and spritzed, I started assembling my card onto a top folding card base made from Papertrey Ink Kraft Cardstock.  I die cut my background panel with the largest Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Die and adhered that to my card base. Then I adhered my greeting and deocrative elements with a combination of Ranger Multi Medium Matte, Bling Glue Dots and Thin 3D Foam Squares.  That finishes off my card.

I'll be entering this card over at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog where "Anything Goes".  Be sure to stop by and check out all of the Stamptember goodness starting at Midnight tonight, September 1, 2016.  I can't wait to see all the goodness that is STAMPtember and I hope to have a few more entries for the Simon Wednesday Challenge in the coming week!