Country View Crafts - Time Flies when you're Layering!

Hello friends and followers and welcome to Magpieheaven! Time does seem to fly these days! There's  a new challenge at Country View Crafts, a great supplier of all kinds of craft goodies, and suddenly it's Autumn, which means lots of birthdays in our family! My brother-in-law's comes first and it has a way of sneaking up on me, so once again I was late and I needed to make him a card fast! I don't know if it's because his birthday falls at this time of year, but Ian loves the Autumn and Autumn colours so I got out my stash and gathered all the layers that reminded me of this season of 'mists and mellow fruitfulness'. I think I tried to evoke the mists rather than the fruitfulness and that mix of winter and summer in early Autumn skies.

 I always feel a bit challenged when it comes to male cards so I thought very carefully about this one: I would try to make this quirky and fun and not too 'frilly'. I began by making an A4 sized card with my Crafter's Companion multi-board. My first layer was some Coredinations canvas textured paper in brown, which I edged with Washi Tape with a design of antique clocks on it in a kind of translucent sepia. I liked the effect of the Washi over the brown paper. I had some beautiful hand-made paper in a kind of sage with leaves embedded in it. I so love the texture of this paper and its closeness to nature and it was given me by my dear Magpie Cousin Dianne. I've been keeping it for something special, but I decided it would be perfect for this project. Ian loves walking in the countryside just like my husband and these subtle colours are taking over from the vivid shades of summer as the days shorten. Next I took a piece of Smoothy card from my stock of Paper Artsy papers.

Now I was going to layer my paint as well as layering my papers. I chose a selection of Fresco Finish Paints by Paper Artsy: Sage, Hey Pesto, Tinned Peas, Butternut, Snowflake, Mermaid and Chocolate Pudding. I blended tiny spots of colour onto the card using the reverse side of a piece of Ranger Cut and Dry foam and sanded back until I had the effect I wanted. This is a technique demonstrated by Leandra on the Paper Artsy blog HERE. I edged my card first with some Chocolate Pudding and then with Treasure Gold. I then stamped a quirky image from a 'Lost Coast' stamp, which echoed the idea of time from my Washi border.

If you look closely, you can see the words, Tempus Fugit under the image. This is going to be my excuse for Ian's card being a day late, I think!

For the final touch I added a strip of ribbon I discovered in a tiny craft shop when I was out walking. The button is a Prima one in colours that coordinated with those on the card, threaded with a little olive green embroidery silk. I should like to enter my card for The Country View Crafts competition Layers. Thank you so much for stopping by today and taking a look at my quick layered card.