Fall Into Winter

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you are doing well and you had a nice weekend! We had three days of clear air as the winds were in our favor and it was lovely. Now we are heating up again and having an Indian Summer. 

It turns out there is no proven origin of the term, "Indian Summer." While I was researching it, I did find that in many European countries a warm period in the middle of autumn is called, "old women's summer." Haha. I'm not even lying. I mean, why? Too funny. If any of you can explain why it's called that, I'd love to know. (See below.) And is there an "old men's winter?"

Okay, I'd better get to it, so I can get outside and enjoy "my" summer!

Onefer

As soon as I saw this stamp on someone's blog, I had to buy it. I couldn't wait to get it and try coloring it with fall colors. The NBUS stamp and die set is called, "Harvest Love and Kindness," from Memory Box. I made this as a one-layer card in all it's 5x7 glory because I have all these 5x7 envelopes that come free with cards from charities I support. The gold heat-embossed sediment is also from the set. I used a combination of my Kuretake Gansai Tambi paints, Ziggies, and Karin watercolor brushes to paint it.

You know how some fabulous card artists have a real talent for zhuzhing their art just right? And you know how sometimes your hamster is nagging you to make something he can schplatter? Well, after finishing this card, which is very minimalist, we thought we'd try adding a little zhuzh.

To shrink my post a bit, I made a collage of the three different stages. Hopefully you can click to enlarge if you want a closer look. 

First, the top photo shows the card after I added a soft ink border all around using Tim's Old Paper ink and a makeup brush. In the second photo, you can see where Hammy went to town schplattering gold paint all over it.

And the third photo shows the addition of white paint schplatters by Hammy, but to make sure they landed just on the leaves, I die-cut a second image from a piece of scratch paper and laid the negative over the entire card so that only the watercolored image was showing. Then Hammy got a little heavy-pawed for the look I was going for, but don't tell him I said that. It's growing on me.

Do you have a favorite? I like them all, but to varying degrees. By taking photos in between each enhancement, it helped me see which I prefer and gives me more confidence to get a little more artsy in the future when the image calls for it. Of course, I still like the very first CAS look, too.

Challenges

• Fun Friday: (YNS) Give thanks.
  
• NBUS #19: Use never-before-used-schtuff.
  
• Sunday Stamps: Earthy tones.

Twofer

Okay, so this design is a bit far-fetched. Think of it like you would a card with a unicorn on it. Once I thought of the design and laid it out, I just loved the Cute Factor with the way these two friends adore each other. The hummingbird is from Pretty Pink Posh. The little polar bear die cut was a gift from a friend, but I think it might be Poppystamps. The sediment is from Sunny Studio.

Here is a closeup to show you that those tiny fluttering snowflakes are each touched with a bit of Nuvo schparkle and Hammy winked the hummer and the scarf. 

Challenges

• CAS October Christmas Card Challenge: Christmas birds. Here in California, we are blessed to have our hummingbirds year round, even at Christmas! (On the other hand, we don't have that many polar bears.😊)
  
• Krafty Chicks: Christmas.
  
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Make it sparkle.

~~~

Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy, and please be careful out there! LITS!*

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse and special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower! Please let me know you came by so I can be sure and return the flavor!

ETA: GerJanne from the Netherlands sent me this explanation:

In the old days 'woman' was the common word for woman. The term old wives summer comes from old knitting women (females) and spiders. In quiet late summer weather spiders make long threads. When dew is deposited on them during the night, beautiful drops glisten on the threads at sunrise. In ancient times it was thought that those beautiful strands were the hairs of goddesses or female water spirits, which they lost at night. Because this phenomenon occurs on quiet, sunny days in autumn, this old wives' summer is called. Something we still know today. Another name for this late summer is Indian Summer, because of the beautiful colors in the autumn that the sun brings out even more.

*Life is too short!

To open the pop-up comment box that let's you jump to the end w/o scrolling: Click CTL + Home. Click the Home tab under my blog banner which resets the post. Click Page Down to reach the end of the post. Click Comments and a pop-up box opens. Click "Jump to Comment Form" and wallah, no more car pool tunnel! Mwah! (p.s. If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me your email address so I can respond. Thank you!)