A feeling of Fall...

...is in the air, but we still have had some wonderful warm and sunny days, which makes me a happy girl!  It's not that I mind Fall, I actually like a subtle change in seasons, but I am such a Summer gal and truly love the very warm and sunny days the most.  I dread winter and a great part of that has become worse, because I now have to live through it with Fibromyalgia and it makes me feel sooo much worse....Yuk!!   So, I'm savoring every day that is still nice and warm and not at all ready to give into the thought of Winter....

   This week I had a great time at Card Club which is a monthly card making type workshop that is hosted by my LSS "Absolutely Everything".  I love the new ideas is brings to me and we also always typically try new stamps, colors and techniques that I would never normally do on my own.  I like that it makes me create things a bit outside of my norm, but I also try to make all the cards my own and never finish any in class.  I prefer to take them home and then finish them here making any changes that I think make them work better for me!!

   I'm finally done with this week's cards and am happy to now share most of them with you.  There were a couple that I did not finish or just did NOT love, so I kept the elements from them and will use them on new cards in the future.   I'm starting with a few of my favorites --

   I own and love this Gratitude Design Stamp by Hero Arts, but never would thought of using it this way, in the three different ink colors.  Yet, I love this and love the CAS style!!  I am also happily submitting this card to the current "Anything Goes" challenge over the Through the Craftroom Door Challenge Blog!!!

And these are the rest, including this next cutie, which

is another one I really think is sweet!!

I am submitting this card to the current "Animals and Autumn" challenge over at Die Cut Divas.   Come on over and play along, the more the merrier!!

This next card has a ton of detail, but was super

easy and fun!  All we did was add a piece of patterned/Glittered cardstock,

and then some cute stickers from a Halloween Themed Pak!!   

This was done by first embossing the white flowers

and then spritzing the rest of the background with Dylusion Inks!

Another cool technique card, yet one that is easy!!

And last by by no means least...this card, is also

a technique cards, were were painted with Dylusion Sprays, using

one of Dyan's awesome Stamp sets!  I first learned this technique of adding the Dylusion Spray directly into a Ranger water brush, when I took a workshop with Dyan, last Fall!  It's so fun and you can quickly color in any image or 

create a fun background!

  And that catches me up to today and I have two new Christmas Cards that I created with playing in the newest 90 Minute Scramble over at the Hero Arts Flickr Group.  Judy was today's hostess and her challenge today was to use "Snowflakes" and "Glitter" on our card and as always, we also need to use at least ONE Hero Arts Stamp/Product!   

  The first thing I did was pick out which Stamp set I wanted to use and I chose the "Winter Wishes" clear stamp set, which is also one of those created for Operation Write Home, making it even more special!   In case you didn't know, Hero Arts is a wonderful sponsor to OWH and the sets they have designed for OWH, have the special benefit of donating 25% of each set sold, directly to this amazing group!  

   I quickly grabbed some deep purple cardstock and knew the I wanted to use the two snowflakes in the set to create a background.  I stamped them in Champagne Versamark, and then heat embossed all the larges flakes with Hero's Silver Embossing Powder and the smaller one with Ranger's Lavender Glitter Embossing Powder.  The fun sentiment is from the same set and I popped that up on Pop Dots and then added matching sequins and purple bling to complete my first card.

  I am also submitting this card to the current challenge being hosted over at Hero Arts, where there are three different themes for this month's challenge.  I'm submitting mine to the "Deck the Card" theme because I focused on the bling and sparkle...my favorite things!!   Additionally, I am also submitting this card to the current "Christmas/Holiday" Card Challenge being hosted over at Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge Blog!!   -- Come on over and PLAY!!!

   After finishing that card, I still had time to spare, so I quick ran back to my desk and started on a second card, using the items still out.  I then was able to make this card, which I also submitted to the challenge!   

   And now I'm hoping to spend the rest of the afternoon working on more cards for challenges, as well as adding more cards to my Christmas basket.  Some will be send out to my family and friends and some will get sent out for some of my favorite Card Drives!  

   UPDATE:   I'm Back!!  A very happy to have had the time to create two more cards, both of which are for challenges, including two that happen to be favorties for me.
 
   My first card is for the current challenge over at Cas(E) THis Sketch, where it's amazingly Challenge #50!!  WOW!!  Congratulations to everyone in this fabulous group for making this such a fun challenge!!  I'm so happy to be playing and always love the sketches you share as inspiration.   THis is a copy of this week's sketch which is the inspiration for my card --

CTS # 50

My Card

  I'm sure you'll quickly see that I continued to use scraps along with the stamps that were already out and on my desk.   I am also happy that I have another card done to put in my Christmas collection.   This is a very CAS style card, which is now my favorite style and it also features my favorite color -- Purple, of course!!

  And next is another card that was created with Christmas in mind and also for another fun CAS style challenge, this one is for the current "Transparent" themed challenge over at "Addicted to CAS", which fits me perfectly!!   

 

   This card started with Hero Hues Card base in Wet Cement.  I took the card front along with this fun new Curved Edge Die from Simon Says Stamp and cut off the bottom on my card to have an area to add some clear acetate.  I also added a layer of patterned paper (by Lawn Fawn), on the side that now shows through the transparent layer.   My sentiment is also from SSS and from their amazing new Holiday Line, which I totally LOVE.  You'll see quite a few stamps and dies from this collection in many of my upcoming cards.  I especially love these circles and the stamp I chose, because it reminds me of one of Shari Carroll's Trees, which I adore and happily own!  She has also teamed up with Hero Arts once again and designed some fabulous new Exclusives Stamp/Die Sets for SSS!   You can find them HERE and HERE!  You can also see more of Shari's fabulous talent on her blog HERE!

   

   I have included a few views so that you can better see the acetate bottom.  I love this look and first learned about using acetate on cards from Jennifer McGuire.  Hero Arts also sells Acetate Cards, which you can see HERE and they would also be perfect to use for this Challenge.   

  This card is also being submitted to the current challenge at Hero's Blog, and this one is being submitted as "A Few of My Favorite Things", since I pretty MUCH love Hero Arts and used several of their products on this card!    My sweet little tree was colored with Copics and if you look very closely, you'll see I also die cut an acetate circle that covers it on the front of the card!