Hello Gourd-geous

Woohoo, it’s day 3 of the inspiration hop celebrating the new release from The Rabbit Hole Designs and I’m so excited about the cards I’m sharing today! They feature the brand new Gourd-geous and Pumpkin Friends stamp sets. These are nice big pumpkins that can easily fill up a card. In fact, for today’s cards, I made them both on A6 sized bases, so I’d have a little more real estate to play with. Make sure you watch my 30 second video below, because I have an extra special sneak peek to show you today too!

         

How cute are these two sets? They also coordinate perfectly with the new Pumpkin Hair Don’t Care set you saw yesterday. 

My first card is a light-up card. You’re shocked, I know 😉 But the very first thing I thought of when I saw those Jack-O-Lanterns was how adorable they’d be lit up for real. I started by stamping and embossing my images. I stamped Pumpkin Friends first, then masked it and stamped Gourd-geous. Since I used Versafine Clair ink, I was able to emboss the images after removing the mask (no need to emboss the first image before the second). Then, I masked both images and taped off a horizon so I could ink blend the background. Both of my cards today feature a beautiful color combo I saw Mindy Eggen use. Hubba, hubba, do I love that blend?! It’s Chipped Saphire, Pine Needles, and Peacock Feathers Distress Oxide inks for the sky. Then I moved the tape up and used Hickory Smoke to create the ground. I used a stencil and Black Soot to turn it into a brick path and darken up the edges all the way around to create a vignette. I splattered a little water onto the sky to lift some of the ink and create fun texture. (I recommend removing the masks before spritzing on water because sometimes the color on the masks can bleed through when they get wet.) With the background done, it was time to color the pumpkins. I used my Copic markers and a little white gel pen for highlights. Then it was time to make them glow…

[row]

[column size=”1/10″ stack=”sm”][/column]

[column size=”8/10″ stack=”sm”]

[/column]

[column size=”1/10″ stack=”sm”][/column]

[/row]

I stamped and embossed Push Here in the lower right corner of my panel. Then, I used a craft knife to cut out the eyes and mouth of the pumpkins and backed them with yellow colored vellum. Since I wanted a purple card base, I cut a panel of white cardstock to the same size as my stamped panel and glued that in place on the purple base. (This gives me a nice bright white surface for my lights to reflect off of underneith.) I taped the three LEDs of my new EZ-Light* down under the eyes, and the battery pack down under the push here stamp. I used a double layer of foam tape to pop the stamped panel up onto the card base. I embossed my sentiment on a black strip and popped it up with a little more foam tape. A few sequins glued to the outside of the card finished it up. Isn’t it fun?

My second card doesn’t light up, but I added some Aqua Shimmer to the Gourd-geous eyes and it gives them a cool glimmer. For this card, I ink blended a 3″ square panel of cardstock using Mindy’s blend again, then used a black marker to draw a horizon at the bottom. I cut a 2½” square out of a 3 3/8″ x 4 1/8″ panel of white cardstock to mimic a Polaroid® picture. I also cut a fun foam piece to the same dimensions and glued the three layers together. I stamped and embossed the sentiment onto the picture frame and the pumpkin onto a scrap of cardstock. I Copic colored and die cut him. (Yes, there is a coordinating die for this set!) I die cut a few floral pieces from black carstock and tucked them into the frame, then popped the pumpkin in with foam tape. I glued it to a royal blue A6 card base. To finish the card, I glued on a purple die cut bow near the sentiment and a few sequins all over the card. Then I added the Aqua Shimmer to his eyes and nose. I love the way the orange pops off the blue behind it. Let me know which card you like better down below. 

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope I’ve inspired you to want to play with the new Gourd-geous and Pumpkin Friends stamp sets. For more inspiration, hop along with us and see the other awesome cards from the design team! You can also comment on the participating blogs for your chance to win these new sets! (Details below.)

[row]

[column size=”1/2″ stack=”sm”]

Katie

Shanna 

Niccole  

Amanda S – you are here

[/column]

[column size=”1/2″ stack=”sm”]

Amanda W – next stop

Lisa

Charmaine

Echo

[/column]

[/row]