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