Flowers all the way

Time for our monthly challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where our themes are 'Warm Autumn Colours' and 'Get Ahead for Christmas'. Plus don't miss the news further down about a great Penny Black candy giveaway next week.

So onto my cards and this post is very much reflective on my Dad who always grew the most amazing Chrysanthemums and won many prizes with them. Gardening was his escape from daily farming and a whole section of the garden was dedicated to Chrysanthemums, as the blooms developed he lovingly covered each in a white bag to protect them from both early frost and rain. As an onlooker it must have been a strange sight but to us all totally normal. The blooms were always at their best in September and October so I always think of them as the Autum months arrive.

Although this Penny Black stamp 4237K Awakening is not actually Chrysanthemums it always reminds me of them.......call it artistic licence, I have used distress inks sage, tea dye and barn door to sponge the background through a honeycomb mask and used the same colour distress markers to repeat stamp the flowers.

And now for the lovely Penny Black Poinsettia stamp Christmas Star 4104K which I stamped and embossed in gold onto a background of Dylusions which I then bleached out and painted with Twinkling H2'0's. The sentiment randomly stamped is from the clear PB set called Christmas Cheer 30-140 and also in the background is some stenciling although I am far from impressed by the stencil. It's a music script stencil from Tando but to my mind it's back to front...........what I mean is the negative and positive elements should have been reversed as the notes just don't show up clearly, I even tried it on a full page and sprayed through it but all you really see are lines, so not convinced of it's usefulness as music !

I also have a second Autumnal card, this one a Chrysanthemum stencil from Imagination Crafts. The background has been randomly stamped with script and corners distressed, then copper paste added through the mask and after removing the mask I flicked gold perfect pearls over the wet paste and heat embossed. The paste resists the heat and makes it bubble and if you dab it lightly with your finger whilst still wet it gives a lovely mottled effect, when totally dry brush off the excess mica and gently buff up.

And just the one more for Penny Black and More using two Penny Black Twirls 40-282 and A Wonderful Christmas 4116H and a Nicecrane Robin for the Victorian Birds collection to which I added some glossy accents to the wing and his red breast ad corners cut on the Cricut. I just wanted to show how these pre coloured images will work alongside favourite stamps for a really quick and easy card.

Finally and at the risk of you all getting bored to tears I would like to very quickly tell you that later this month we are having a great candy giveaway over at Penny Black and More with prizes from Penny Black as well as other goodies to be won. Here is the logo and I would be so happy if you would share it on your own blogs to help us spread the word. And of course join in our challenges this month !

Happy Sunday all.