Hello … bonjour! Welcome to another Twofer Card Challenge … this month, we have a prompt that’s perfectly appropriate for this time of year, whether you’re looking forward to the richness of autumn or the freshness of spring where you are in the world. It’s …
Here’s how mine tumbled …
My common stamp here is a small leafy sprig from Concord & 9th‘s Wildflower stamp set … here’s a closer look at each card …
Some judicious masking and lots of different colours of greens, rusts, yellows and browns stamped into a leafy autumn wreath … the small sprig was joined by a bigger leaf image from the same Concord & 9th set. I gold heat embossed the Avery Elle sentiment, trimmed it out, edged it with more gold heat embossing … and popped the panel up on foam tape across the outline stamping. There’s no added bling as this is for a man’s birthday … though it could easily be dressed up with some shimmer and shine for a girl!
My Twofer …
Here the leafy sprig was turned into mistletoe for a Christmas card. I die cut the peek a boo window (MFT) first, then did some selective stamping of the image to create a nice full bunch of mistletoe. The leaves were coloured with Zigs, I made berries with dots of black fine liner and some Nuvo Jewel Drops … and added a shadow with a light grey-green alcohol marker. The Uniko sentiment was stamped in Delicata Gold and I added a tiny gold thread bow to finish off. How about a closer look at those berries …
In the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you that this is the third version of this design. The first had red berries … hmmm … it was jolly enough but didn’t look right. I could have claimed artistic licence and left it like that, but has anyone ever seen mistletoe with red berries?? So, the second version got white berries … Nuvo drops first, black fine liner dots second. Did you know (I didn’t) that black liner on a slick surface can smudge horribly, even days later? I know now … and nasty smudges aren’t a Good Thing when the photographs have yet to be taken! Onto attempt three … black pen dots first, Nuvo drops over the top. The drops magnified the tiny dots rather a lot and to my eyes the berries now look a little frogs’ spawn-y. However, my creative energy was all but gone by this time, so you’re seeing the best version I could muster!
Where will our ‘Leaves’ prompt take you this month? We’d love to see what you make in our gallery! All the details are over at the Twofer blog … along with lots of lovely inspiration from our fabulous DT … it’s just a click away! We’re delighted to have two Guest Designers with us this time round, winners of our July challenge … Linda fromScrappin’ Stampin’ and Singin’ and Susan from Cat’s Ink.Corporated. Do go and have a visit with Linda and Susan … apart from their delicious Twofer cards, you’ll find a whole heap of wonderful projects to meander through and enjoy!
My autumn birthday wreath is joining in the fun at …
Simon Says Stamp Monday – Stamp It On
Simon Says Stamp Stamptember – Concord & 9th
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Stamp On It
The Birthday Project – Clean and Simple
The Cat’s Pyjamas – Fall
… and my Christmas card will be celebrating at …
Addicted To Stamps And More – Holiday
MFT Sketch – See Below
Simon Says Stamp Monday – Stamp It On
Simon Says Stamp Stamptember – Concord & 9th
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Stamp On It
Thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy! Anita 🙂
My Papercraft World 
beautiful card Anita and love the tale of the frog spawn dots, thank you so much for sharing with us at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge, hugs kath xxx
These are so beautiful, Anita ! Love yout coloring and I love the stitched frames. Very pretty. Thank you so much for joining us at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge!
Marge
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So enjoyed reading your post….frogs spawn and all x. Both your cards are super classy, elegant and CAS perfection. Love what you’ve done with the leaves and so very creative. Great masking and the fall colours are glorious on your first masculine card x. Cute mistletoe on the second and well done you on persevering to create a beautiful and perfect CAS Christmas card. We crafters are so perfectionist and I always love your attention to detail x Thank you Anita for your fabulous inspiration x
Two lovely cards, Anita. I really like how you created the wreath on the first one. SO pretty. And then to morph it into a holly cluster. So clever. I’m sorry you had such a difficult time getting the look you were after, but I must say, it was absolutely worth the effort. You are a stronger and more persistent woman than I! But I applaud you as all the effort and angst was worth it! Hope you have a wonderful day. 🙂
Such beautiful cards!! They are both gorgeous and so are the glossy little dots. Thank you so much for sharing with us at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog!!
Love how you turned the sprig into mistletoe, what a beautiful and elegant Christmas card! The outlined colors on the other card are equally as beautiful! You have inspired me Anita!
Love how you turned the sprig into mistletoe, what a beautiful and elegant Christmas card! The outlined colors on the other card are equally as beautiful! You have inspired me Anita!
They both LEAVE me yearning to reach for my stash… I have TONS of leaves! Oftentimes, I like the flowers in a set, but LOVE the leaves!
Your cards are lovely, and that mistletoe was worth every second of effort, Anita! Certain to provoke a few kisses!
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Both of these are beautiful Anita! I love cards made with leaf images and perfectly timely as the leaves (sadly because that indicates winter is coming) are starting to change and the nights are cooler.
Gorgeous fall wreath and elegant mistletoe, Anita! I had to laugh at the froggy babies! I did not see that at all – only a gorgeous bunch of mistletoe . I was half expecting that you were going to say the second attempt looked like eyeballs! Oh the highs and lows of cardmaking!
Wow, what beautiful cards Anita! I am loving both of them. The first card is so pretty in all those colors, but because the sprigs are open and just has the outline of color it is nice and subtle. Love the sentiment in the center of the wreath of leaves. Great card for male or female! Your second card I am adoring. I knew as soon as I seen it you had made mistletoe from that sprig of leaves! Wow, it looks so real and your berries, they are amazing and real looking too. Until you told me they looked like fish spawns. lol Now that is all I see dang it! How does the suggestion of something make us see it?! I was seeing berries before-perfect little white berries that mistletoe has. So lets keep that little story about the fish spawns to ourselves shall we?!! lol Wonderful twofers my friend! Hugs, Brenda
Saw “leaves” on Darnell’s post and knew that your fertile mind would come up with something spectacular for the Twofer. And, I wasn’t disappointed, all. Both are elegant and beautiful in their simplicity despite the false starts on the second card. I, too, have the same difficulty with embellishing. Usually takes me longer to do that than the cardmaking takes. Oh well, I chalk it up to an embarrassing lack of creativity and horse sense.
Oh, Anita, what a lot of work went into that sensational mistletoe Christmas card! That makes it even more special, although now I’m having a hard time not seeing tadpoles!! You shouldn’t have said that! No, seriously, it does NOT. It is simply brilliant, both in terms of innovation and execution!! And not to be forgotten, your manly birthday card with all the colors of fall is a fantastic design! I just have to say, I love that we are in sync and tend to reach for the same prompt elements!! LYAMYMA! SYS!! Hugs, Darnell
Two absolutely beautiful cards, Anita! I love the delicate effect of your autumn design with all those gorgeous colors, and your CAS design is just perfect! Your Christmas card is so lovely…creating mistletoe with your embossed leaves is so clever and totally elegant! I can’t wait to play along!
Very creative and wonderful designs again this month, Anita! Love the delicate branches surrounding the gold embossed birthday sentiment! Very inspiring since I just got the Wildflower set! Sorry to hear that the Christmas card gave you so much trouble but the result is gorgeous! No way do the berries look like frog spawn but the story was very entertaining!
Two beauties, Anita – just love the colorful outline branches on card one and the creative mistletoe on card two!!
always amazed at your creativity when it comes to this challenge, anita! both cards are amazing! you are a fabulous ambassador for the two-fer challenge!
Just picking my jaw up from the floor Anita! Love the frog spawn berries BTW!!!
Beautiful cards Anita! Love the mix of autumn colours for your multi-stamped leaf birthday card. Great card for a man or a woman. All the colours just make me happy! 🙂
And your mistletoe card is awesome! Great masking to create a lovely bunch of hanging mistletoe. Glad you kept trying as the third time is lucky … this is beautiful. I smudge ink all the time, so I totally get your frustration. It’s something you’ll never forget now … black pen and then crystal drops. 🙂 Fantastic CAS Christmas card … wonderful design! xx
Oh, that mistletoe, very creative Anita! Both are wispy and lovely!
Great colours for both cards and so clever with the colours and the coloring using the same stamp so different! Beautiful cards again Anita! Hugs, Gerrina
Frog spawny…ha! I’m still chuckling. I would have never thought it if you hadn’t said it, but I love it. I was too busy admiring and being in complete awe of your brilliant mind…and wonderful execution! That set is on of my all time favorites, and I would have never thought to turn those leaves into mistletoe, but it works beautifully! I adore your multi-colored leaves framing the sentiment as well. You inspire me every single time I visit your blog!!!
I think your berries are perfect for the design. I see no amphibious beginnings here. Both cards are stunners Anita so well worth the efforts you put forth.
Gorgeous CAS cards Anita! They are so elegant and pretty.
Thanks for joining us at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge
Mandy xx
Magnifique, Anita ! Très délicates et chics, j’adore. J’aime beaucoup les jolies nuances d’automne de la première carte mais mon cœur bat surtout pour ce magnifique rameau de gui. Tu as bien fait d’insister car vraiment le résultat est bluffant. Un superbe défi et une très belle inspiration, merci ! Bises & hugs
As expected you delivered two fabulous cards! I am especially taken by your Christmas card – such a fabulous idea to turn this into mistletoe. The subtle shading enhances this beauty! Not sure, if I will be able to come up with something…I will try – hoping as usual for another last minute eureka moment…
Totally amazing and beautiful leafy card designs. Just by coloring in the one leafy branch and by leaving the others open was a fantastic way to get two different looks. The leaves make wonderful mistletoe.
Loved the description of your mistletoe design! 🙂 It’s so wonderful with the pretty green and tiny berries. And thanks for the inspiration for a new way to use my Wildflower set. Leaves are the perfect choice for an autumn theme!
The third time’s the charm, Anita, and I’m with you on the color of mistletoe berries. Yours don’t look fishy at all. It was very creative to turn those leave into mistletoe but I like them just as well as a Fall colored wreath.
They look so different, you wouldn’t know it’s the same stamp, what a great inspiration you are!
I’m back to thank you for sharing your wonderful mistletoe with us at Addicted to Stamps and More, Anita.
Both cards are really lovely but I especially like the holiday card – so clever.
I always love your clean, crisp cards and these are no exception. Two terrific ways to use that stamp and they look altogether different. I love the colorful card and the mistletoe is gorgeous. Frogs have to do their thing too but I don’t think they did it on this card! Glad you hung in there.
Hi Anita,
what very super creations and you have used the leaf stamps so wonderfully in both designs.
Lots of crafty love. Jenny L.
A beautiful CAS fall card (love the Christmas one also). Thank you for joining the TCP Tuesday challenge at The Cat’s Pajamas.
I always love your cards and these are no exception. So simple and yet so effective. Thank you for visiting me and leaving a lovely encouraging message x
Gorgeous cards Anita. I particularly love the square and the sprig of leaves – a great Christmas card. Hugs, B
You’ve nailed Darnell’s challenge as usual – fab way to use those leaves in a Christmas card…they look so different when coloured in.
Mmmm. So beautiful cards. I am especially fond of the Happy birthday card. So simple (a compliment) and yet so refined. And the cardstock … I have ordered two package that a friend brought from England after your tip off. Very nice – thank you!