The Leaves are Smiling

Hi friends! Today I'm popping in with a fun autumn card featuring the August Stamp of the Month, Fall Background. I knew I wanted to do a blended background for this image, so decided to emboss it on white cardstock in dark ink for an emboss resist effect.

Once the leaves were embossed, I blended with Catherine Pooler inks all over the panel, then buffed with a clean cloth.  I sprinkled with water for a distress effect, then dried, and blended the same colors over the watered areas to bring back some of the vibrancy.

Next I pulled out the previously released Autumn Splendor set. The images in this set are larger versions of the ones in the background, so they pair beautifully together.  I stamped a couple of the leaves and two acorns, then blended with the same colors of ink and fussy cut.  For the smaller leaf in the center, I used one of the leaves left over when I cut my background panel down to size.  I arranged these in a cluser, then added to the lovely embossed sentiment from the My Thoughts of You set.

Fall Background is available for purchase, or you can earn it as a free gift with a $60 order in the month of August. Just add it to your cart and the discount will apply once your order total qualifies. If you're looking for another fabulous fall set, check out this week's Stamp of the Week, Leaf Silhouettes. It's on sale for just $5 through 8/30. Here's a card I made previously with it, the coordinating dies, and the Typewriter Text Background.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you have a fantastically creative day!

Coffee is My Spirit Animal

Hi friends! Today I'm popping in with another sample card I made for one of the Splitcoaststampers Dare to Get Dirty Challenges. 

I've been trying to dig through my stamps and pull out ones I've purchased that haven't seen ink lately. My dig this crafty day came up with some coffee sets fabulous sets from Ellen Hutson. While I was on vacation last month I watched a few videos on different techniques to dye your papers with coffee and tea. One person made instant coffee, put it in a spray bottle and sprayed it on her papers.  I liked the idea, since it didn't require reams of paper or hours of drying.

So, first things first, I'm going to tell you that instant coffee smells terrible! I'm apparently a coffee snob, and haven't had instant coffee before. I only have it on hand for a mocha cake recipe my Mom makes that is amazing. I didn't drink this Folger's "coffee" concoction, but I really wanted the smell to stop! My craft room smelled for hours. LOL

I started with distress watercolor paper, since I knew I was going to be adding a lot of liquid. I threw down some salt crystals to do a resist, then sprayed the paper with the coffee.  I dried, then repeated. Next I pulled the spray nozzle off the bottle and splattered more coffee on the background.  Then I went in with a layer of teal watercolor, adding just some puddles and drying. Lots of spraying and drying until I was happy with the finished look.  

When this was done, I pulled out the Breve Note set (this one is currently half off)  and used the images to stamp a background in Fallen Leaves Versafine Clair Ink.  I then stenciled with a Paint Splatters stencil with ground espresso and sponged the edges of the panel.

Next I stamped the coffee cup and the sentiment from Latte Love and embossed.  I watercolored with the same color of teal and the instant coffee, then cut the image with the coordinating Latte Love Dies.  I then stamped the little kitty image, watercolored with coffee, adding some stripes and a patch around his eye.  I fussy cut him and attached him to the coffee cup.  To finish off, I decided where I wanted the cup, then embossed the heart steam image in white above that position.  I gave it a little shadowing with a Copic marker, then layered everything together to finish off the card.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you have a fabulous weekend! It's the last weekend before school for us, so we've got plans for fun!

Compensated affiliate links are used where possible. When you place an order after clicking one of my links, I receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks so much for using my links and supporting this blog. 💙

Autumn Blessings Instagram Hop

Hi friends! It's time for the SNSS August Release Inspiration Hop on Instagram. You can head over to my Instagram feed to hop along. I'm so excited about my new stamp set with Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps that I just had to use it for my hop card this month.  I paired it with the adorable Autumn Gnomes set illustrated by my friend, Jenn Nilsson. Isn't this image adorable?

I colored it and the leaves from Fall Breeze with Copic markers and then maksed off the gnome and wheelbarrow and sponged the sky and added the ground with the Texture Tiles 6 set, sponging for an earthen look.  

The pretty papers are from last year's Pumkin & Spice pad from Prima. I hadn't used it yet, so I figured there's no time like the present to bust it out! LOL  I added the sentiment from Fall Breeze directly on the patterned paper, matted everything in dark brown and inked the edges, then layered some of the leaves at as a little embellishment to finish things off.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you have a fabulous day. If you haven't checked it out already, I've linked the entire August SNSS release in the linky widget below.

Compensated affiliate links are used where possible. When you place an order after clicking one of my links, I receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks so much for using my links and supporting this blog. 💙

Squared Blessings

Hi friends! Today I’m popping in with a little autumn goodness. I love autumn leaves and could color them for days. It just seems like the world is ablaze with color when the leaves start falling. Definitely the touch of the Master’s hand!

This month’s Stamp of the Month at Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps is the 4 x 4” Fall Background set. It’s available for purchase or you can receive it as a FREE gift with a $60 order this month. Definitely a must have in my book. I stamped the background in Memento ink, then did a loose style of coloring and sponged. With antique linen and gathered twigs distress inks.  I then splattered on some watered down gathered twigs ink.

For my focal piece I stamped the sentiment from Fall Breeze and die cut with the Bookmarks & More Die set. Then I stamped the three sizes of leaves from Fall Breeze and colored up with Copic markers and fussy cut. I then added a bit of inking around the sentiment and layered everything together. Finished size is 4.25” square.

Compensated affiliate links are used where possible. When you place an order after clicking one of my links, I receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks so much for using my links and supporting this blog. 💙

Birthday Treats and Dare To Get Dirty

Hi friends! Today is the start of Dare to Get Dirty over on Splitcoaststampers. It's a week long celebration with multiple daily challenges hosted by the current and alumni Dirty Dozen design team members to give back and interact with the Splitcoaststampers fan club members. My card today is a sample for the challenge I'm hosting. If you're a fan club member, you can check out the challenges here. I'd love it if you'd join me! If not, there's still time to become a member and play along in the challenges for chances to win some fantastic prizes. Find info about the fan club here.  

My card combines the new Sweet Treats set with my Fall Breeze set, for some delectable birthday fun. I colored the cup from Fall Breeze in corals & turquoise, then used the same colors for the sweet little treats, flowers, and heart images.

We had a new hobby lobby open up in our area. Well, apparently it's been there since April, but I just now found out about it! Anyhow, I got to go on a little shopping trip to check it out and picked up a couple of Paper Studio pads at half price. The papers on this card are from the Painted Petals pad.

I finished with the fun sentiment from Sweet Treats, then added the treat yourself sentiment from Birthday Wordfetti to finish things off.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I hope you have a fabulous weekend!

Compensated affiliate links are used where possible. When you place an order after clicking one of my links, I receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks so much for using my links and supporting this blog. 💙

Gnome Blessings

Hi friends! I'm popping in today with a fun autumn card featuring a couple of products from the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps August release. This summer I decided to invest in an assortment of Ciao Copic markers that I could travel with. It's been a highlight of the summer for me, since I spend several hours a week sitting outside while the boys attend tennis lessons. It makes the time go by a little faster and all that practice seems to be improving my coloring skills! Win, win.  I have always used sketch markers, but my achy hands really enjoy the smaller barrel of the ciao, so that's been a blessing. And since football starts up as soon as tennis ends, my coloring time won't be dwindling anytime soon!

I thought this image from Autumn Gnomes went perfectly with the sunflower inspiration photo for the August challenge in the SNSS VIP group on Facebook. I kept the yellow, green, and brown, and added in a bit of orange and red to complete an autumn palette. His little sign is so cute, and I picked out a sentiment from the previously released Leaf Silhouettes set to stamp on it.  I finished the image with a crow resting atop the sign, then a light blending of antique linen around the edges so it wasn't so stark white.

The background is done with the GORGEOUS new Fall Leaves Stencil. I just randomly sponged the leaves with a selection of autumn colors, then sponged all over with antique linen. A few dark roast mats and a little more antique linen on the card base and this sweet card was finished.

Thanks so much for stopping by! We'd love it if you'd join in the fun and enter a card or two in the August VIP challenge. The group is free to join, and we just ask that you use at least one SNSS product on your challenge entry. There's always a digital freebie for those who don't have any of our stamps yet, and this month's freebie is a super fun autumn printable. A winner is randomly selected from the entries each month to win a $10 gift code to the shop. Hope to see you in the group!

Compensated affiliate links are used where possible. When you place an order after clicking one of my links, I receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks so much for using my links and supporting this blog. 💙

Exciting News

Hi friends! It's the first day of August and I've got some exciting news! Fourteen years ago today I launched my first stamp set with Verve Stamps. Today, August 1, 2021, I'm launching my first stamp set with Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps under the J Tilman Designs label.  Hooray!

My first set, Fall Breeze, is a mash-up of a digi set I had available from Verve that later became the Autumn Leaves 4 x 8 stamp set. I added a few more stamps than were in the original stamp set and changed up the sizes just a smidge, so the new Fall Breeze set is a 6x6" set.  It also has coordinating dies! And all new releases (excluding bundles) are 10% off through August 9! 

These images were some  of my favorites to play with, and since I LOVE coffee, I just had to bring them back to the stamp world!

I started by stamping off all the images and coloring them with Copic markers while I watched my boys' 2 hour long tennis lessons. I definitely get a lot of coloring practice in!  LOL My dies didn't arrive in time for my samples, so I opted to fussy cut the images. Things like the pumpkin image and the leaf in the sentiment I stamp directly on the card, then fussy cut just the main image, leaving off the delicate vines and such, then paper piece for a nice clean look.

The background is stamped with the August Stamp of the Month, Fall Background (available for purchase or as a FREE gift with a $60 purchase during the month of August). I stamped it tone on tone on soft sky cardstock (a throwback to the early days of Verve), then layered everything together and matted with pacific point cardstock inked with Prize Ribbon Distress ink.  My finished card is a 3.5" x 8.5" slimline.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  If you're feeling like shopping, I'd love it if you'd use the links in this post. You can buy the stamp and die together in one click in the Fall Breeze Bundle. I've also included the entire August release in the linky widget below.  I have several completely new stamp sets coming over the next few months, so be sure to watch this space for my latest stamp designs. 

Compensated affiliate links are used where possible. When you place an order after clicking one of my links, I receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks so much for using my links and supporting this blog. 💙