Fun with Die from Serendipity Stamps

 I love diecutting and I love Serendipity's new die for the fall and winter! When I get new die, I like to just sit down and play with them. There are two new die, a pumpkin and an ornament.
Who says the color behind the filigree pumpkin has to be all the same color? Above, I pieced different colors, a brown for the stem and three shades behind the pumpkin...fun! Now I want to try vellum behind the filigree, for kind of a stain glass look!
Also, who says you can't cut things off of die....below, I cut off the ornament hanger and made a quilt!

 And don't forget to use the negative part of the image....both of these die have great negative shapes. I saved the little part from the ornament hanger and the two little pieces from the vine and these will be great for cards on their own.

 Who says everything has to lie flat....above, I have embossed the filigree pumpkin and then raised some of the portions for a metalwork look.....below I have used the colors of an apple, cut off the vine and added a green leaf....

 I couldn't resist doing a Christmas quilt. Also, to coordinate with the die is a Merry Christmas stamp....

 and also a stamp of the Christmas ornament....that creates a lot of possibilities!!!

 I haven't tried it with the new die designs, but I recently made a honeycomb type design with the Serendipity Heart by layering several diecuts together to create a dimensional piece.

I just began playing with these new die, so I am sure I will come up with a lot more possibilities!

Callaway Gardens

Each year, my husband has something he attends with business at Callaway Gardens the week before Thanksgiving. I tag along as his company sponsors part of it and we go to the Christmas light show. I spend the day wandering around the gardens and then at night we see the lights. I just love going and since it falls near my birthday, it is another birthday treat for me. These are some of the photos I took last fall. Can't wait to see what photos I get this week! There is a small chapel on a lake and I think the stained glass windows are so pretty. Notice the nature details in the glass.

There is a horticultural center and it is always beautiful there....they will have a "Christmas tree' made of poinsettias. Spring time is a beautiful time at the garden as they have azalea gardens.....I promised myself I would go there this past spring and never made it....I will shoot for spring '09!

It is a great place for nature walks or bike riding. My friend Tina loves to go there with their bikes.

There is also a butterfly house....gorgeous plants and butterflies there! Kind of warm inside, though.

The southern "Victory garden" is at Callaway that is seen on television.

I hope you have enjoyed this little trip....I should have more photos next week!

Colorful Reflections

I often run away to a cabin in the Northeast Georgia Mountains (the foothills of the Appalachians) and autumn is one of the best times to be there. Well, anytime is good, except the dead of winter when an ice storm comes! Anyway, we did some leaf looking last Sunday afternoon and walked around the lake that is nearby. I love the reflections of the colors in the water and the silhouettes in the foreground of some of the photos. This lake is part of the highest state park in Georgia, which the cabin shares a boundary with. My Dad spends time fishing here in the spring and summer.

We also rode up to Moon Valley, a group of cabins for rent near Dillard, GA. This cabin scene always reminds me of the scene on the SAS shoe boxes.

I can see how the impressionists were inspired by reflections. Hope you enjoyed this glimpse of autumn in the south!

Nuts about you!

Last week, I posted a sketch and watercolor painting I had done while at my daughter's home in Memphis. I wanted to report in and let you know what I did with that. I simply scanned the painting and then printed it out on Avery Ink Jet Textured Half-fold Cards (#3378) and made a card of my copies. I stamped a quarter sheet of paper with Kitchen Sink Stamps (3 Step Autumn Squirrel SMC 015), using the saying, squirrel and larger acorn. If you have not seen these stamps, you should check them out. You begin with a light color and then work up to the darker color and it achieves much more detail than you can with a single stamp. I used coluzzle to cut the opening so I could cut around the squirrel and acorns. Normally I would cut an oval with a Spellbinders nestibility, but since I wanted to do that detail work, I used coluzzle. You can prevent a nestability from cutting by placing a piece of the tan polymer embossing mat where you want the die to NOT cut (I will post an example of that later). I did use the Spellbinders acorn die to cut a copper foil embellishment. Before inking the edges of the card, I trimmed it just a little and mounted it with eyelets on a black A2 card.
I am sure I will come up with more ways to use the sketch.....the squirrel stamp set was new, so I had to use it!!!

Gift of Gratitude

Well, it is the time of year to start thinking about autumn cards, so I thought I would post some Halloween and Autumn cards I have made in the past. Todays card is one I did for Serendipity Stamps. Mary has beautiful images and lots of card examples on her website. I did this image using watercolor crayons, applied directly to the rubber and then spritzed and stamped. I like that method as you can put the colors where you want them and you can get the look of watercolors without lines of ink from the image. I scored the edges with the wonderful ScorIt and antiqued the corners with metallic rub ons (CrafT). The ovals were cut with a coluzzle (too large to use Spellbinders die) and as most of my cards include, a few eyelets and some ribbon were added.
After the rough time we have had this past week, hopefully we can all give the gift of gratitude for the things we do have and perhaps take for granted.