Autumn Glory and a special anniversary

It's time for our challenges at Stamping Sensations and Penny Black and More where our themes are 'Autumn Glory' and some Colour Inspiration which screams out Autumn, I know they are much the same but it's such a glorious time of year and always seems such a popular theme. As always there are wonderful prizes to be won at both.

For my Penny Black share I used Broshos to create a background and dabbed with a piece of kitchen towel to tone down the colours a little and when dry used a Tinny die in one corner. I then randomly stamped a script background and PB leaves from Nature's Gifts inking the stamp with distress markers. The flowers are stamped with PB Blush and cut out with the coordinating die called Bashful. Some hessian and a button to finish.

For my Stamping Sensations piece I again started with a Brusho background dabbing off some of the wet colour with a paper towel. Using a stencil and grunge paste I added the flourish and when dry sponged some DI. The Butterfly and sentiment are from Inklylicious and the Butterfly coloured in with the same colour Brusho's.

Yesterday hubby and I celebrated a rather special wedding anniversary, instead of a card I made him a wall handing for his office using chipboard hearts, paint and crackle glaze and several Penny Black stamps along with some stenciled wheat.

I'm not saying which anniversary it was, all I will say is it seems a lifetime ago when at seventeen I walked down the aisle with my dear Dad in a dress made by one of the Royal dressmakers......no we weren't rich, my Mum just happened to work with the sister of one and that's how it came about. And much to the horror of my elderly Aunts I had a bouquet of Lilies, I know they are a popular choice now, but back in those days they were for funerals only and not readily available year round as they are now, mine were Longiforum Lilies and had to be brought in from France. Now that we have grandchildren the same age and older than I was then it is quite scary as they seem so young and marriage is the last thing on some of their minds, let alone becoming a Mum at nineteen as I did.

But I wouldn't change a thing, it just meant we did things in a different order to nowadays. At thirty eight soon after being diagnosed with MS and despite my Mum thinking I was mad I embarked on a Psychology degree. Then as the children got older we started to travel to all those distant places we were unable to afford when they were small.

We knew the children would feel a party was essential so decided to explain in advance, much to their disappointment, that we would be far happier enjoying a lovely family meal with immediate family at a nice restaurant and left them to sort that out among themselves. That's eighteen of us in total so almost a party in itself.........the benefits of a large family.

Hope I have't sent you all to sleep and looking forward to seeing all your lovely Autumnal creations this month and as always we have some super prizes to be won.