Sheena Autumn Inky Ink-ette challenge

Hello lovely peeps!

Well, we have been very busy here at Sheena HQ!  Another amazing launch is coming, the fabulous Sheena will be on Hochanda from Monday with her new Time Traveller collection... It's truly stunning, I can tell you, more about that later...

Now,  the teamies recently put their heads together to see how we could encourage Sheena's Ink-ettes to share more of their makes with us. I suggested a monthly challenge and then together we formulated a plan we thought would work well. So, alongside some of my fellow inkoids, I have been causing crafting mayhem! It's the best kind lol... and our cunning plan worked out very well! :) Every three weeks a inkoid will host a challenge and we invite the Ink-ettes to enter, it's lots of fun.

Seen as how I was partially responsible, I volunteered first (it was only fair lol.) So we kicked the challenge off with an autumn theme. This is one of my favourite times of year for the colours, not so much the cold and the rain but you can't have everything can you?

So this is the card I created to inspire the Ink-ettes. I do love Squirrels too. The team chose a favourite from all the entries and then Sheena shared it on her facebook page and as it was the launch and my chosen challenge, I also personally said I would share the chosen card on my blog too. :)

Coming up is the tutorial for how I made this card and the wonderful creation we chose as our favourite by Anita Dufton. 

To begin I used Aquatints to create a background. I wanted it to have that dappled light effect you get in forests. I sponged them on and then sprinkled table salt over the top. It has to be quite wet when you do this (but not too much) as the salt does need to react with the water. You have to let this dry naturally. This is a very unpredictable technique but that is part of the fun, each time will result in different patterns and I was pleased with how this turned out.

Next I took Sheena's Tumbling leaves embossing folder and ran it through the machine twice because I wanted two leaf corners. They were painted using Aquatints and then gold gilding wax was rubbed over them to bring out the detail more. 

The other leaves from the folder were then cut out.

As well as colouring these embossed leaves I also stamped and cut out some leaves and acorns from Sheena's squirrel stamp set, Little Acorn. The leaves were stamped on to paper. Acorns were stamped on to card and paper as I wanted some to sit more flat on the design and have some slightly thicker for the foreground. 

The background was layered on to kraft card which had gold gilding wax around the edge and this was mounted on a 8" card.

Foam tape was attached to the back of the corners and the squirrel. I created a branch for the squirrel to sit on by scoring some texture into a piece of Sheena card and painting it with Aquatints. I was still deciding on some of the loose leaf layouts.

Began to add my elements...also used Sheen's Autumn branch die...

I hid some of the acorns throughout the card as you will see in the finished photo, as we know squirrels love to stash them! 

This is the wonderful creation by Anita Dufton that the team chose as their favourite. Isn't it beautiful? We loved the choice of colours and the layout, we felt it really captured the spirit of Autumn. Well done Anita! :) 

So lots of fab things coming up from Sheena next week! Prepare yourselves folks! You won't want to miss it....here is a sneaky peek for you...

Being a Steampunk myself I can't tell you how excited I am about this collection!!!! eeek... and breathe...steampunk is very craft orientated and members make their own costumes and things..It is also about story telling and character creating, therefore, with this in mind, some of my makes for this collection will tell a story..firstly, I would like to introduce you to Sir Edward Harrison, inventor, here we greet him as he steps off his time machine and surveys his surroundings.. The Time Traveller shows start Monday the 24th on Hochanda (times yet to be announced) .... ooh I can't wait. bet you can't either... maybe I shall have to have a word with Sir Edward and ask to borrow his time machine!!

Adele

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