WLS #1 Sept - Trees & Leaves

Good Morning everyone

Its the first Sunday of September so time for a new challenge at We Love Stamping where the theme picked by me is 

TREES &/OR LEAVES

So apt for the season but don't just think Autumn, we can have lovely bright spring or summer trees/leaves or a wintery wreath full of different foliage's so lots of choices.

For my card I decided to go for both and used a leaf background stamp inked with all the colours of autumn leaves as they change, my ombre ink pads were perfect for this and finished with a brown mirri card die cut tree trunk.

5x6.5" Card cut from cream linen card.

Onto cream linen card i stamped the leaf stamp inking up with 3 different ombre ink pads and die cut into long rectangles.  

As the stamped die cut rectangles were slightly too short for the die i wanted to use for my topper panel i cut them apart where i decided i wanted my tree to go as this would hide the join - originally i planed to adhere back in a continued line but as they slipped on my topper before i glued them in place and i thought ooooh i wonder if i off set them....happy accident but i liked it so adhered them offset slightly - i think it adds interest to want is quite a simple design and adds to the movement of the leaves in the seasons - they go from greens into orange/reds into browns and then drop to the floor. Photo below shows this better.

I die cut the tree trunk from dark chocolate brown mirror card and adhered into place, covering the join in the leaf panels.  I adhered the topper panel onto the card front.  Stamped the quote with dark brown ink onto more cream linen card and added across the bottom of the card front with glue gel so its slightly raised.  Enamel dots added to finish to give the feel of falling leaves.

You can see the shine on the mirror card better at this angle, it just adds another texture and finish.  It was only after adding the enamel dots to my sentiment strip when i realised they were UK traffic lights😂

Quote reads

'Nothing is more peaceful than the whispers of the wind through the trees'

My topper showing how i added the stamped panels.  I could of course just have cut all the panels with a trimmer to fit the stamped panel size but as i was making a fairly CAS design I wanted to use my stitched edged dies to add interest so I made the stamped image fit the dies with some hidden cuts.

Items Used:

aall&create stamp #556 'leaves'

Inkylicious quote stamp 'forest quote'

Kaleidacolor ink pads 'carribean sky, cappuccino delight & desert heat'

Enamel and glitter dots

Memory box birch tree die

MFT stitched panel dies 

CraftUk ltd cream linen card

We have 2 prizes this month, a $30 store voucher from Taylored Expressions and Penny Black stamp set and stencil from Buddly Crafts so hop over to We Love Stamping to join in 

Id love to join in the following:

https://cinspirations.blogspot.com/2026/09/september-challenge-hello-autumn.html - #2

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https://thefourseasonschallenge.blogspot.com/2026/09/fall-season-september-2026.html - 2nd entry

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https://www.simplyellibelle.com/2026/08/ellibelles-garden-party-no-18-anything.html

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https://sweetstampinchallengeblog.blogspot.com/2026/08/use-die-cut.html

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Autumn Leaves

Good Bank holiday Monday to you.  I hope you enjoy the day if here in the UK, looks like its going to be a sunny one.  

Today is a card made using all the little offcuts and left over die cut leaves from Charlottes birthday card.  I teamed them up with this fab autumn quote stamp which is years old and was a magazine freebie 

'Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the Autumn tree'

There are signs of Autumn about down here, a lot of the trees in the fields just beginning to turn and a different feel in the early morning air

Ive used ivory for the cardbase as white was too stark with the papers.  I die cut the off cuts of paper into panels and layered onto coffee coloured cardstock and added the base card.  I then added a strip across the middle, it wasn't long enough so i cut it in half and the middle is hidden behind my sentiment topper!

Just a close up, ive had these hessian roses for years in my stash so good to finally use them, they are lovely but very bulky.

Items Used
MFT stitched panel dies

Circle dies

Various leaf dies

Poundland paper pad - 'changing seasons'

payper box white woodgrain & brown card 

Sentiment is a magazine freebie from years ago

Thank you for stopping by, i hope you enjoy your week. Hugs Emmaxxx

Happy 1st Birthday

Good Morning everyone, i hope you had a good weekend, wasn't it lovely to see some spring sunshine..

Well i can't believe that today my youngest niece turns 1, where did that year go to?  As she has such a unique name i just had to add it to the cards as you certainly wouldn't be able to buy a card with her name on it.  Yes Kitty-Bea is her birth cert name. As I do for all family birthdays i make 2 cards, one for my parents to give and one from me. I always try to make them 2 completely different cards, not always easy. 

I originally bought this lion die to make her new baby card but he went 'missing' so when he finally turned up I decided to use him on her birthday card. 

6x6 White cardbase.  I used all papers from the same paper pad, nice and bright and cheerful in red, yellow  & blue.  I first cut a panel of white card smaller than the card front and layered onto a sheet of pale blue paper from the pad and stuck to the card front. I die cut 3 panels of red paper and one of the diamond paper and layered onto the card front.  

I die cut the lion from a yellow polka dot paper, added him onto a white die cut circle which i mounted onto a larger white die cut circle with foam tape.  I computer printed the age and name in blue and die cut into circles. I added them to the card. 

Close up of Mr Lion, my die cut rectangle panels were actually shorter but as i knew i was going to be hiding the middle of them behind other die cuts, i cut them in half to extend to fit the card size.  This is a good way to make more of some die cuts if they are too small for your design. 

*****

And onto the second card, i just made the name the focal point, a design ive used several times for childrens cards.  Its a XL DL card, which is an A4 sheet folded in half lengthwise. 

The photos don't do the colours justice really, its green and purple.  My starting point was the scrap of brusho/pixie powder card i had in pale green and purple.  I first die cut enough circles to spell the name, making sure they were big enough for my alpha dies.  I then die cut the letters from the centre of each circle.  I mounted these circles onto purple mirri card with foam so that the purple really shines through the letter apertures. 

I mounted a panel of white linen card onto pale green glitter card and then to the card front. I stamped my birthday sentiment in black.  I die cut my bee from purple mirri card and lilac glitter card and added her to the card front to finish. 

This one shows the purple mirri card  & colours a bit better. 

Items Used:

My Minds Eye paper pad - On the Sunny Side

MFT stitched rectangle die

Stitched circle dies

Lion die

Memory box 'parker' alpha dies

Bee die

Clearly besotted sentiment stamp

Brusho's

Pixie Powders

Purple Mirri card

Pale green & lilac glitter card

Thank you all for stopping by and all your wonderful comments.  Im going up with my mum to see Kitty-Bea today so that will be fun, she isn't quite walking yet but is a real chatter box - of course not much of it yet makes sense.  I hope you all have a wonderful week. Emmax

Gold or Silver - alcohol inks

Good Morning all,  Brrr what a cold one, i hope you are all keeping warm and cosy. 

So the theme this fortnight at Make My Monday  is

GOLD OR SILVER

I dug out the mirror card and decided to go all out and use it as the main feature with alcohol inks, getting a decent photo has not been easy at all. 

I first die cut silver mirror card into stripes and dry embossed with flowers, i then used alcohol inks to colour it.  I then used a cotton bud and blending solution i removed the ink from the flowers.  I mounted them onto white card, then silver mirror card and a white 6.5 x 5" card blank

I then stamped a sentiment onto white card and die cut into an oval and mounted onto silver mirror card.  I kept the embellishment simple with one metal flower to show of the background. 

Trying to show the colour better.

This shows the embossed panels coloured with the inks before i removed it from the flowers, you can see the colours so much better here. 

and onto a gold mirror card version

Same details as the first ones but instead i used red, orange and yellow alcohol inks onto gold mirror card and all the mats are gold. 

This shows the colour a bit better

and below is the embossed panels before i added the alcohol inks

Its a shame i couldn't get a photo to do it justice, but i really enjoyed playing with my alcohol inks again and in a different way for me so will be doing it again. 

Items Used

Silver & Gold mirror card

Ranger Tim Holtz Alcohol inks

Lettuce, bottle, stream & wild plum (on the silver)

Red Pepper, sunshine yellow & Terra cotta (on the gold)

Spellbinders M-bossabilities EL-005 

MFT Stitched rectangle set

Clearly besotted sentiment stamps 'Fancy sayings'

Spellbinders oval dies

Tim Holtz Ideology metal flowers

Please do pop over to MMM we love to see what you will come up with for gold or silver.

I hope you all have a good week whatever the weather brings us. Emma

I wish to enter this in the following challenge

alphabetchallengeblog - Y You Choose

simplypapercraftsforalloccassions.blogspot - anything goes