Yesterday was the first day of Autumn here in the US, and the change in seasons is in full swing. The Oregon rain has begun to reappear, leaves are turning yellow and red, and the cooler weather is telling us that Fall is here. I’m excited to be part of our Autumn themed blog hop – grab yourself a Pumpkin Spiced Latte and be inspired by our Autumn creations!
When I think of Autumn, the first things to come to mind are the gorgeous colors that we all think of in this time of year. I’m obsessed with color. The ability to play around with different colors in the form of stamp ink, watercolor pencils, and markers is one of my favorite things about Stampin’ Up! I often look at crafting the same way that I look at the wardrobe in my closet. I focus on the basics, and then change things up throughout the year with different items depending on the season. In the same way, I have some go-to stamp sets that I use all the time, but change up with different color inks and pens.
For the items I created this month, I used an older set of Designer Series Papers (DSP) as my color inspiration. “Color Me Autumn” was a set of papers in 2014 and included some colors that were eventually retired (Blackberry Bliss and Mossy Meadow) but they just returned, so I couldn’t wait to play around with these inks for the cards I made! These are the papers just so you have an idea of my inspiration.
The colors that I used are:
Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, Mossy Meadow, Old Olive, Blackberry Bliss, and Soft Suede
(These colors are similar to the colors used in the current DSPs “Nature’s Poem” and “Country Lane” and “Frosted Floral”- these DSPs are currently available and have some gorgeous patterns with colors like Blackberry Bliss.)
I have a few birthday cards to send off in October, so I thought it would be lovely to use Fall colors on a few birthday cards. On this one, I used Blackberry Bliss, Old Olive, and Cajun Craze for the candle stamps, Crushed Curry for the flame, and Soft Suede for the sentiment. I have a subtle layer of Blackberry Bliss cardstock layered underneath the top white layer of paper for a tiny bit of color contrast.
For this card with the yellow “watercolor” background stamp, the Crushed Curry yellow was a bit too bold so I “stamped off” the yellow on a piece of scrap paper (I just grab what is around me, in this case it was a half finished coloring page that my kids had discarded) and then stamped on the card. Thanks to Caro’s Kaartjes for the inspiration for this card.
I absolutely adore the Stampin’ Blends markers, and used an Old Olive marker to color in the flower in the card below. Then I used Cajun Craze ink (again, stamping off on that scrap paper first) for the “watercolor background behind the words “It’s a beautiful day.” After I did all the stamping, I ran the top layer of paper through my Big Shot diecutter with the Subtle Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder. I love this embossing folder and how it adds just a bit of subtle texture to the paper – it is quite aptly named.
I hope you enjoyed these creations and can see how easy it is to use color along with simple go-to stamps to evoke the feeling of whatever season you are in!
Now hop on over to the next post in our blog hop to continue with the Autumn inspiration:
Jennyfer Schütz