Stamping with JoJo

Welcome to InKing Royalty's August Blog Hop! During this year's blog hops, we are enjoying a year of celebrations. This month's projects celebrate Autumn Weather, so prepare yourself for projects that are filled with warm tones and beautiful nods to the upcoming change in weather. We are excited to share our creations with you today! After you read my post, I hope you'll hop over to the next person on the list at the base of this post.

I'm going to admit, I struggled with this month's topic. So many things make me think of "autumn" - changing leaves, pumpkins, turkey, Halloween, etc. But, Autumn WEATHER??? How do you use stamps and dies to portray cool, crisp, windy days? Not to mention the fact that autumn weather here in Atlanta is like the end of summer weather back home in Southern Michigan!

I stood in front of my bookcase of stamps and pondered for a long time. It rains a lot in the fall back home in Michigan - so Under My Umbrella and Pretty Parasol came off the shelf and into my pile of "I might use this". Most people associate rain with Spring though - April Showers Bring May Flowers, right? Hmmmm.....more pondering!

This past Sunday, my friend and fellow Candy Heart/Royal Lisa Graham came over and we attended the virtual Candy Hearts Team Meeting together. She did a fabulous demonstration on ink blending and before she left, she insisted that I take a stab at it. We pulled 4 colors off the shelf and I attempted a sunset look - Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Terracotta Tile and Cajun Craze. It was beautiful, I can't lie (it helps to have a great teacher!).

I sat and looked at that piece of Whisper White that had been beautifully transformed into a sunset background...I thought about using it as a background for a silhouette holding an umbrella on a windy day! The colors of this sunset are also very fall-like, after all. But would that be realistic? Would someone have an umbrella out while the sky is beautiful shades of yellows and oranges?? Probably not. so scratch that idea.

I kept looking at the paper. I kept thinking about my idea with the silhouette. I pulled out Silhouette Scenes and the coordinating dies, Sweet Silhouettes. The tree! What if I die cut the tree out of my beautifully blended paper? How cool would those leaves be?? So, I did it - I loved the paper and I CUT it!

It wasn't very realistic looking though...the branches don't turn to yellows and oranges! Que the Early Espresso paper, the die and my paper snips. I die-cut the Early Espresso paper and carefully snipped off the leaves, resulting in a layer of beautiful brown to layer over my off-colored tree trunk and branches. Perfect-o!!!

I was still seeing a silhouette with the wind-struck umbrella. The little girl pointing up to the sky would be perfect. I used my Stamparatus to stamp her so I could re-ink a few times to get a deep, full impression. I fussy-cut her out and placed her under the tree.

Next, I punched an umbrella out of Basic Black using the Umbrella Builder punch. I played around with the two different umbrella shapes and decided that the partially opened umbrella looked most like it was being pulled in the wind. I stamped a decorative image onto the Basic Black using Versamark and heat embossed Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder onto it, to give it some texture and interest but still allow it to be a silhouette.

Now I needed a card base and a background. I didn't want rain, but I wanted a grey-ish blue, to simulate a dreary day, as is common on windy, autumn days in Michigan. I settled on a background of Seaside Spray and a Smoky Slate card base to bring out the grays in the Seaside Spray. I embossed the Seaside Spray using the Subtle Embossing Folder, making sure that the pattern went side-to-side across the background, because it's windy in my scene!

I assembled the card, popping the inside-out-umbrella with Stampin' Dimensionals. Finally, I stamped the sentiment "No matter the weather, we're friends forever" onto a scrap of Terracotta Tile and punched it out using the Timeless Label and adhered it to the card front, adding a final touch of sparkle with a single Artistry Blooms Adhesive-backed sequin.

I hope you enjoyed hearing about how my thought process worked to come up with a card for this challenge! Here is the final creation:

Thank you for stopping by today. I hope you'll hop along to the next stop on the blog hop, Sheryl Abernathy at Elegant Sentiments. There's lots of inspiration to be found in this group - and you don't want to miss it!

Thank you for hopping along with us. If you get stuck during the Blog Hop, please use this line-up as a guide: