Monkey 71 - I Missed it!

Okay so last week I had lots going on, but I really wanted to do the Monkey 71- Fall Sketch.  I'd dutifully saved the picture of the sketch to my challenge file, printed out a copy of the sketch so I knew what I was making.  Because I have a very limited number of Fall stamps, seasonal sentiments and designer papers I was really feeling stumped about what to make.  A few days passed and then one afternoon towards the end of the week when I was walking Murphy around the lake, a lightening bolt of inspiration hit me.  Here I was walking through these beautiful woods and all about me golden brown and rust leaves are falling and gathering at my feet.  At that moment I knew what I was going to design and so I ran home, dragging poor Murphy behind me so I could get at this card.  This is what I came up with, but alas it was too late!  The Monkey 71 linky was closed.  Oh well I decided I loved the card and was going to post it anyway.  So here you are: 

I remembered a tutorial on watercolouring with blender pens that Ann Schach made last fall that used the Autumn Spendor set and the simplicity of her techique and her beautiful finished card really impressed me.  So, before starting my project, I  went back and viewed her video and I was really happy I did.  Because I often feel challenged in the watercolouring department and Ann made this technique look so easy, I think viewing the video really helped make me make these leaves look real.  If you want to check out Ann's video and blog post click here. 

The card base is Always Artichoke, topped with a layer of River Rock that's been texturized with the ever popular Square Lattice Embossing Folder.  The rectangle is made with layers of Always Artichoke, Cajun Craze, and River Rock.  The leaves from the Autum Spendor stamp set were stamped on River Rock and cut out by hand.  I used a blender pen to colour them using Cajun Craze, Old Olive and More Mustard inks.  I've used glitter (non SU) to accent the leaf veins. 

Three artichoke buttons are tied with teeny little stips or Cajun Craze cardstock.  The "Many Thanks" sentiment is from a retired Stampin' UP! set called "Of the Earth" that I simply can't part with, and it was stamped in Cajun Crase on River Rock cardstock and then punched out with the Decorative Label punch. 

The inside of the card has a Lacey Border punched from Cajun Craze and a layer of River Rock for the base layer.  The sentiment again from the "Of the Earth" set was stamped in Cajun Craze too. Okay that's it.