Autumn Time

I love Autumn with its wonderful vibrant colours, all the fresh and delicious fruits and vegetables to be harvested and the endless possibilities to go out and enjoy the fresh air and changing nature ... so many things to grateful for

Supplies:
papers: American Crafts - stamps: Waltzing Mouse - Nestabilities labels, Stampin'Up edge punch,
some little friendly wooden kites, some machine stitching

To see more delightful Thanksgiving creations just pop over to Vicki's blog The Cheerful Stamp Pad. Hope you have time to join us. Petra.

Bags

To complement my daughter's wedding dress I made a little bag for her using the same fabrics as her dress and a wonderful pattern from Emma Brennan's book: Making Vintage Bags. It is a little crescent bag with a bit of a different handle

... and therefore very easy to carry it around on the wedding day. It is surprisingly roomy as well taking mobile phone, make-up, ... and even a sandwich(lol)
I enjoyed making this bag and it is so easy to make that I created a second one for Autumn

Have a great weekend, Petra.

Black & Greys

... for the new Gingersnap Creations Colour challenge
with greys ranging from light to stone grey for the background, black soot and jet black for the stamping. I sponged the background on soft watercolour card using the square That Special Touch mask and various inks. It gave a bit of a hazey feel to the background which just worked great with the theme and stamps (stamps: Elzybells, Artistic Outpost, Paperbag). The image is mounted onto black card whereby I made two slits into the black card as 'photo corner'. The black card is dry-embossed with the Creative Expression crackle embossing folder.

Come and join us for this fabulous colour challenge! Pop over to the Gingersnaps blog and see some brilliantly scary and arty pieces from the DT, Petra.

Forest Treasures

... for the Craft Artwork Trinchie challenge: Forest. Working with a trinchie format (7.5x7.5cm) is completely new for me but I like it very much. It is small enough to be reltively quick but big enough to elaborate on embellishments!
It is not quite Summer anymore as the stamped background might suggest, the leaves are getting all dressed in their Autumn colours. Some trees are already almost bare, Autumn is progressing fast (sigh). For the background I coloured a Crafty Individual stamp with various Distress Inks and stamped it on slightly textured off-white card. The colouring between the leaves was done using colour pencils with OMS. The edges of the twinchie are distressed with Distress inks and lightly sanded.
All natural elements were collected in the forest and then dried. The squirrel (stamp: Artemio) enjoys itself after having been stamped using a mix of Distress ink Fired Brick and Walnut Stain, cut out and 'improved' with quite a thick layer of Glossy Accents ... which is better visible in this photo
The finishing touch was a bling from my stash to adorn the inside of a little acorn hat, Petra.

A Visit To The Botanical Garden

We just love to visit the botanical garden in London (UK), Kew Gardens. It is a place full of beauty, tranquility and excitement at the same time. It offers so much at all seasons but Autumn is my favourite with the rich colours, the long shadows in the afternoon and the anticipation that the cycle of nature is about to come to a close to be reborn.
It is also a wonderful place to visit with children. They can run, explore and play to their hearts content.
Enjoy the season, Petra. x

Thankful

This is my first Thanksgiving creation and it centres around the pumpkin ... I love pumpkins and it was a good year for growing them! My card is based on a sketch from here
and it worked very well with the elements I had prepared for the card

Supplies:
image: Graphics Fairy, paper: Kraftcard and Kaisercraft,
embellishments and ribbon/lace from my stash,
letters: BoBunny and some crazy stitching

You can find more wonderful Thanksgiving creations over at the Cheerful Stamp Pad for Vicki's new challenge. Hope you join us! Petra.

Linked to: The Graphics Fairy, Artblog

Autumn Leaves

For Alexa and the September KindredSpirit Postcard challenge I created an autumn leave postcard. The base was a pre-prepared watercolour postcard which I worked on with various shades of distress ink to create the background.
For the stamping I used real leaves from the garden. The idea came about when a little while ago I found a little table cloth in my drawer which had been decorated with leave prints. And I remembered that my kids and me created this cloth during a weekend activity a VERY long time ago
For the postcard I collected acer leaves in varied sizes which I brushed with acrylic paint and pressed them onto the background - I covered the leave with white paper and rolled it very lightly with a brayer. I like this technique a lot. When taking the leaves off, quite a bit of the leave structure has been preserved
And who is just taking a quick peek from behind the leaves? A little witch from the Octopode Factory who is just about to go for a little ride (sentiment from Red Lead PaperWorks) (lol) - Petra.

Rainy Inchie

Ok, it does not really rain on my inchie but the rain left a big enough puddle to have fun with wellington boots (lol). I created this inchie for the Craftwork inchie challenge: Rainy Inchie
The background of the inchie is a mix of VersaColor and Elzybells inks, water mist, Copics and some dabbing with baby wipes. For the boots and the puddle I stamped images from Little Claire on slightly textured card, coloured it with Copics and did some fussy cutting. The little puddle has been highlighted with glossy accents. The final bit is some handwriting. Enjoy the weekend, Petra.

The Raven

It is Edgar Allan Poe month at Gingersnap Creations ....
What would such a month be without The Raven?
I created an altered book page with the little help of a collage sheet by Plush Possum Studio and Artistic Outpost stamps. The text page is printed on slightly textured off-white paper while Poe's image is printed on transparency and then layered onto the text page. For one of the ravens at the top and the one in the middle I did some fussy cutting. The transparency is attached by staples and ravens. The eye ring around Poe's eye is a l eftover from some inking experiment! The edges of the text page and the transparency are distressed with Vintage Photo distress ink. ..... Oh, and of course, the page is signed by Poe ... how cool is this? (lol)

Check out the Gingersnap blog for the current Random Redhead challenge. You will see some absolutely brilliant raven creations. Petra.

Also linked to: Our Creative Corner - Totally Transparent

Button(s) and Bow(s)

My very talented crafty friend Debbie had birthday last Sunday and it was too good an opportunity to miss to make a birthday card for her
It all started with a photo of one of the flower table decorations at my daughter's wedding. I combined the photo with Kraft card, doily and patterned paper from BoBunny and layered it onto a square white card. The sentiment is created using BoBunny letter stickers. The finishing touches are some lace, pearl and bling and a button and a bow (lol). Happy crafting, Petra.

Linked to: Cupcake Craft Challenges - Buttons and Bows

Sweet Halloween

My first Halloween creation this year! I made the card for Vicki's current challenge using the very sweet image from Bumble Button and the very scary BOO letters from Karen, the Graphics Fairy

Spiders from Elybells have also found their way into the inside of the card.

To get more scared by the fabulous creations of the DT and to join in the fun just pop over to the Cheerful Stamp Pad and its current challenge. Petra.

Birdsong

I created this book for the last Art 'n' Soul challenge: GOTHIC ARCHES with a MUSIC/MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS/ANYTHING MUSIC OR SONG RELATED theme. We had to make three arches with front and back decorated. I chose birds and birdsong as my musical theme

The book pages are connected at the top with some string. The edge of every page is also lined with string to give it some definition. These are the plain individual pages of the booklet

All patterend paper is from The Girl's Paperie, stamps are Stempelglede, Red Lead PaperWorks, Obsession Impressions, Darcies and 7Gypsies.

Petra.

My Daughter's Wedding

Once upon a time .... the activities were intense, time was more than tight with last minute cakes and wedding dress accessories ... but it was all worthwhile: my daughter's wedding day. The wedding ceremony was so lovely, the newly Weds looking as happy as you can imagine

Even the weather was friendly with only an occasional shower (lol). With my daughter being German and her husband British the celebrations were a mix of both German and British traditions - a sit-down coffee and cake after the wedding ceremony and dinner and hog-roast afterwards

... and they lived happily ever after ..... Petra.