Stampin! with Jaydee

Hi Everyone.  Happy Sunday.

It's my turn to host the Paper Players challenge this week and it's a theme challenge.

Now... I could have just left this post with the challenge badge.  Why?  I can hear you asking.  Well, that's cos the badge itself is an absolute work of art!  Nance really does rock the badges.

Now, I don't have many halloween themed sets, so decided to go digging around in My Digital Studio and make a hybrid card instead.  I remembered that I had the "Sophisticated Spooks" download and, because MDS allows me to color specific elements within my image, I decided that the head of the witch would be perfect.

I started by zooming in on specific areas of the image and coloring them with Crushed Curry or Basic Gray.   I left the majority of the images black, but really liked the touch of yellow and grey.  I printed it out onto Whisper White cardstock and then fussy cut around the image.  Once the image was all cut out, I popped it up onto a Basic Black card base and stamped "Happy Halloween" in Silver Encore ink.  Easy Peasy.

Here's my card:

Of course, I had to use my Wink of Stella glitter pen and add a little bling... I'm sorry you can't see it, but it does add just the right touch.

As usual, the design team have created some fabulous projects as inspiration for you.  So, I hope you will pop along to their blogs and then come back and play along with us this week.

• Ann
• Andrea
• Ann
• Claire
• Joanne
• Laurie
• LeAnne
• Mike
• Nance
• Sandy
• Yapha

On a personal note:

I wanted to share a photo of our Fall wetland.  Gone are the rich greens and yellow flowers.  The wetland has taken on paler grees, and various shades of orange, rust and yellow.  Such a different view to earlier in the year when the wetland was covered with water!

I really love that it constantly changes throughout the year and provides us with a glorious backdrop.  The birds are loving the wetland (and our little prairie) as it is all going to seed.  I thought you might like a close up of those grasses that are providing that gorgeous rust color.

They are bluestems and are absolutely gorgeous at this time of the year.  We planted Little Bluestems in our prairie, but out in the wetland the large bluestems have taken hold.  They are just a boring old shade of green in summer - but take on this magnificent hue in fall.

Talking of fall... I have resisted pulling down the summer decoarations and replacing them with the fall ones.  In fact, I still have the summer cushions in the family room.  I guess I am going to have to give in and finally let go of summer.  After all, Mother Nature seems to have made up her mind, so I might as well follow suit :-)

Over the next couple of weeks I am going to be showcasing the swap cards that I talked about earlier this week.  There are some gorgeous cards and I want to share them all with you to give you ideas on what you can do with the items in the new holiday catalog.  

In the meantime, warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift today.

Hugs

Jaydee

Card recipe - all ingredients Stampin' Up:

• Stamp - Digital Stamp:  Sophisticated Spooks.  Sentiment:  Holiday Home
• Card stock:  Whisper White.  Basic Black
•  Tools:  Silver Encore Ink.  Stampin' Dimensionals