Is it time for Autumn yet?

 It is the middle of July, over 90 degrees out and I am making cards for Autumn. Actually, I am in a swap for fall or Halloween cards and this is what I made.

I took a look at my stamp sets and decided to use two sets by GinaK  - So Grateful and Whimsical Autumn. I stamped them in Memento Tuxedo Black on GinaK luxury cardstock. I used my copics to color all the images in . The squirrel: E31 and E33; the basket of apples: R08, YG63, E42, YR21 and YR 24; the pumpkins: YR12, YR04 and YR16. I also used my Red atyou spica pen on top of the apples. Once these were colored, I cut them out and set them aside. For the background, I used a sheet of Coredinations Vintage collection Flower Power pack. I ran it through the Cuttlebug with my new Harlequin folder. I sanded it and distressed the edges with my Tim Holtz tool. I added a layer of PTI Dark Chocolate behind this and my Riding Hood Red layer. After distressing the red layer I tied a strip of ribbon into a knot, then added the images, popping up the pumpkins on foam. The sentiment is from PTI Mailbox Greetings and I used Memento Rich Cocoa ink.

Last night was a mini Paper Chef VSN challenge over on Splitcoast. There were four challenge beginning at 6 pm and I was able to do all of them. You have 45 minutes to work on the challenge and another 15 to upload your creation and get ready for the next one. The challenges are all based around food in some way shape or form. Here is what I made:

 This one was for the challenge Swiss Cheese Please. We had to use holes on our card. I took a piece of BG Eva paper and made a chunk of moldy cheese. I stamped Mudpie, colored him and had to hand write the sentiment as I am having printer issues. I sponged a bit of Soft Suede around the edges.

The next challenge was Dragon Fruit Salad.

For this we had to use the colors of dragon fruit which are pink, green black and white. The Bella image was a RAK from ages ago. I colored her with copics and then used my nesties for the ovals. The patterned paper is from BG Eva again. The card base is PTI Hibiscus Burst. I think the ribbon is curly and resembles her hair!

The third challenge was Wilted Lettuce. We were to use various shades of green, beige as our neutral color (we could use a bit of red for Italian lettuce) and we had to crumble the paper somewhere on the card. The writing on the card also had to be in Italian.

I began with a scrap of green Bazzill paper that I stamped an image from the Tropical Flower set by GinaK. I used SU Wild Wasabi ink. I then took a scrap of ivory and crumbled it numerous times. I stamped the same tropical foliage image with Wild Wasabi and Purely Pomegranate. I stamped off a few times before stamping on the paper. I used the ticket corner punch and rhinestones. The butterfly is from Prima flowers. I looked up the translation for butterfly and it is Farfalla.

The final challenge of the evening was called Sodium Reduced Soup. We had to make a background for the card using salt. I used Kosher salt and re-inkers in Agean Blue and Leaf green. I had never tried this technique before, but it turned out pretty well.

 Once the background was dry, I stamped Great Impressions sea grass in black. I used a gold pen to highlight the edges of the grass. I stamped GI fish in versamark and gold powder. I colored the fish in copics and used Robin’s nest dew drops for the bubbles. I added a layer of gold and put it on Bermuda Bay cardstock from SU.

My craft table looked like a tornado had blown over it this morning, but I really enjoy participating in the Virtual Stamp Night. It pushes me to try new things and not over analyze my work.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!