Happy Fall, Y'all : August InKing Royalty Blog Hop

Welcome to InKing Royalty's August Blog Hop! This year's Blog Hop themes are inspired by popular songs - this month's song is "Dog Days Are Over." While we still feel the heat from a long, hot summer, August is a perfect time of year to start planning our Fall-themed cards. The projects in our hop will showcase Autumn, back-to-school and warm colors - you might even see a dog or two! 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.

Hello everyone!

It's only mid-August, but my mind is already on the cool weather of fall. I can't wait! Fall is my favorite season, and I'm so looking forward to the cooler temperatures. I also love the beautiful, rich colors I associate with fall. With those colors in mind, I created today's project.

I love a good banner. Like, more than any normal member of society should. I made very elaborate banners for my daughters first couple birthdays, and I saved them because I loved them so much. Though that might not be particularly newsworthy, since I'm known to be a bit of a hoarder and save everything :)

I was going to just make a banner, but then I thought it might be nice to attach it to a wreath so I can hang it easier. I'm going to take this one to work for the office door...I think my residents are going to love it.

A touch of nature : I started with Wood Textures and Nature's Poem Designer Series Papers. The wood textures stack is so versatile, and it makes the perfect base for the banner. I chose two sheets from the Nature's Poem papers: a Blackberry Bliss with thicker stripes and a Cajun Craze patterned piece. 

Large Letters to the Rescue : My large letters framelits are some of my most frequently used dies. I keep them on a large magnet sheet I glued to an acrylic picture frame from the dollar store. They sit right on my desk all the time, so they're easy to get to and use.

A touch of ink, but no stamping : Not every project has to have stamping to make it work, but I love to use ink in other ways when there's no stamping involved. I made my letters from Crushed Curry cardstock, then used a sponge to lightly sponge Crushed Curry ink to give them a little more depth. On the sunflowers, I used a dauber to add a little Mango Melody ink around the centers of the flower to make them a touch more special.

So many punches : So easy. So versatile. So many! I used The Banner Triple, Tailored Tag, Daisy, 1" circle, and Lemon Builder punches.  I made the daisy into a sunflower by scoring down the middle of each petal with the scoring stylus, and doing two layers. I used a 1" circle of Early Espresso for the centers, that I topped with a piece of Copper Trim that I pulled apart. I love the added bit of texture.

I love this rich color combo, perfect for fall:

To be fair, I love Blackberry Bliss with pretty much anything but I really love it with Crushed Curry. Autumn perfection!

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

Have a magical day!
Nina

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

1. Brian King at Stamp with Brian
2. Nina King at InkPaperSequins    <you are here
3. Lynn Kolcun at Avery's Owlery
4. Rachael Shedeed at Bluebonnet Stampin'
5. Pam Morris at Tap Tap Stamp
6. Julie DiMatteo at The Paper Pixie
7. Shawn de Oliveira at Shawn Stamps
8. Candy Ford at Stamp Candy
9. Linda Krueger at The Stamp Coach
10. Sheryl Sharp at Sharp Notes by Sheryl
11. Robbye Hamilton at Miss Hammie's Crafts
12. Jackie Beers at Blue Line Stamping
13. Robin Myren at Songbird Designs by Robin
14. Denise Hoepfner at The Mountain Magpie

A Magical Mermaid card for GDP#149

Hello Everyone!

Today's card was an idea that popped into my head a couple days ago, and I just knew I had to give it a try. Then I checked out this weeks color challenge at Global Design Project, and I was so inspired!

Night of Navy and Bermuda Bay are such a classic combo, and the addition of Lovely Lipstick makes for a beautiful update on the classic.

My card:

My idea was to make a "mermaid scales" card, but I thought using the colors as is would be a little too dark for what I was looking for. Instead, I used my Stampin' Sponges to watercolor on Shimmery White paper. I really wanted a touch of whimsy and sparkle for the scales.

Punch, punch, punch and punch some more : My 1" circle punch got quite the workout punching out all the scales, but I knew I wanted the texture and 3D effect of individual scales. Punches are one of my absolute favorite tools to use! I know I could have done it with dies if I needed to, but seriously y'all : ain't nobody got time for that! :)

A close-up of my shimmery scales:

A little cutie: I was seriously bummed when Magical Day retired a few months ago. It's collection whimsical creatures quickly became a favorite, and I didn't want to see it go. Well, if you love it..use it! Magical Day came out of the Secret Vault of Retired Amazingness to be the perfect final touch for my card.

I hope you enjoyed my shimmery mermaid scale card, and be sure to check out all the beautiful submissions for this weeks GDP#149. Thanks for stopping by!

Have a magical day!

Nina