It finally feels like fall!

Autumn is my favorite time of the year!  I love the crispness of the cooler air, the feel of wearing sweaters, the colors of the changing season.  This morning on my walk, I could definitely feel the change in the air as I quickened my pace due to the cooler temperature.  The card pictured above displays those wonderful fall colors, and is just one of the cards I will be presenting at Card Factory at Stamp Antonio this Saturday.  A little bit of marker color, a little bit of heat embossing with various leaf colored powders, and a little bit of colorful paper all tied together with a smooth overlay of vellum--this card whispers "fall!"

My Tiny Space

What you are seeing in the picture above is the tiny little space in which I usually do my stamping in my craft room.  I cleared the space off today so I could actually work on some cards.  It had been filled with a Cuttlebug (see the embossed kraft paper) and littered with tons of stuff I needed to put somewhere.  Actually my space, when cleared off, is very use-able and cozy.  I sit in a large overstuffed easy chair pulled up to the desk.  My large cutter is in another area of the room, so I have to get up for that, but I'm a jack rabbit by nature.  (My dog gets very mad at this--she wants me to stay put so she can nap!)  Close by, as you can see in the photo, I have most of the things I need handy--colored pencils and jewels are in the green topped bins, pens, glitter markers, and Stickles are in some of the open containers, as well as glues and small tools.  I keep my very large wood block Hero stamps at the ready for backgrounds.  Not shown in the photo are tons of papers on a rack, a turntable of supplies, and a tiered basket of stuff, just above my workspace. Also, not shown, is a tray of three small metal flowerpots to the right of my workspace which house scissors and other tools.  Very handy.  The card I am working on at present is another of the Asian Art cards from our Hero Club meeting at Stamp Antonio.  I had a few leftover supplies so I am making "copy cats" of the original card that I will be able to use later.  I stamped the circle image in Versafine black and heat set it so the Copics I am going to use will not smear.  Where are the Copic markers you might ask?  They are handy in a bin just under my workspace..I just reach down and pick it up!  Always at hand!  And what makes this space extra special?  My Ott light!  I can't work without it!  There are some things that are present that I hardly ever use..my original Sizzix die cutter and the pasta machine, but they have been there so long and are so heavy I am not going to move them!  They often just get draped with clutter until it's time to pick up again!

Asian Art Fun

Last week we had our Hero Arts Club meeting at Stamp Antonio--Asian Art Fun Night!  This cute little card was very fun (although it has some intricate cutting!)  I stamped the lanterns from Hero Arts CL373 Good Fortune set onto various colors of vellum.  When you stamp on vellum you have to use a dye ink that will dry on vellum, and give it time to dry.  Stamping off once onto scratch paper before stamping on the vellum will reduce drying time.  Lanterns must be dry before cutting out, or the images will smear.  After cutting out the lanterns, I cut small holes with a 1/16" hole punch in the top of each and strung them along a line of mizuhiki paper cord.  If you put a glue dot at the top of each lantern after arranging them along the cord, they will stick nicely to the card.  The glue dots do not show very much behind the colored vellum.  I also used a glue dot at the bottom of each lantern to hold a bit of floss.  I folded the six strand DMC floss a few times, attached it to the lantern, fluffed it out with a pin or the tip of my scissors, and then snipped it off to the length I wanted.  I really like using a piece of ribbon, cord, or floss that is big enough to hold onto, and then cut it to the size I want after I arrange it.  The card above has a strip of Hero Arts washi paper at the top, and I added a sentiment and the "lucky cat" at the bottom.  The cat is colored with Tombow markers (yes, I still use them!) so the colors won't show through to the inside of the card.  I really like how this card turned out.  The only thing I would change is I wanted to use dimensional adhesive so the lanterns would "pop" from the back of the card.  I just didn't know how to do this without the adhesive showing through the transparency of the vellum.  I thought about dimensional pop dots, but they are so large.  Any ideas?