Happy Fall ~ Always Use Rubber, Challenge #6

Hello friends! I'm presenting a card for the Always Use Rubber Design team, challenge #6, in the theme of summer or autumn.  We would be THRILLED if you joined us! In fact, if you'd like to check out my teamies creations, Jane & Zoe, I'll wait here. 

And, as always, once the challenge ends (two whole weeks from today) we will choose a top 3.  Then, at the end of the month all of our top 3 winners have the chance to win a gift certificate from our fabulous sponsor, Alleystamp. 

Unfortunately this is our last challenge.  A few of our members will be pursuing other adventures and I hope to be able to keep in touch with them.  I wish them both the best of luck!  I want to thank all of our guest designers and participants XO

Our faithful & generous sponsor:

If you are looking for something, be it the newest goodies, or perhaps something that hasn't been around for a while, I urge you to go to Alleystamp.  If what you need isn't in stock they can get it for you SO fast - and the prices can't be beat! 

If you are familiar with me you know I love cats (truthfully, I love all animals, but I have a special place in my heart for cats) and I am amassing quite the collection of cat stamps.  The stamp company Newton's Nook makes some of the cutest cat stamps, well, adorable stamp sets in general, but I totally fell in LOVE with Newton when I saw him.  Plus, the stamps are easy to color!

What I Used to Make my Card:
Brown Card Base
Newton's Nook Newton's Antics Stamp Set
Newton's Nook Newton's Antics Die Set
Watercolor Paper
Derwent Inktense Watercolor Pencils
Tim Holtz/Sizzix Alphanumerics, #660056
Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 17
Glitter Cardstock
Vanilla Cardstock
Adirondack Archival Ink by Ranger, in Jet Black
Bag of Fall Leaves 

The very first step I took in making this card was to stamp & color the kitty. You can see how I altered him a bit so he'd sit in the leaves:

I basically just cut him out of his box. I used the matching die cut to cut him out and then just snipped off the box.  I can SO relate to this stamp because Bud (one of my four current fabulous felines) is a total box kitty.  He will try to get into any box, no matter the size.  And it's your typical "buy them $1,000 worth of toys and all they want to do is play in the box" situation.  He does favor the square USPS Priority boxes the best.  Anyway, I could seriously talk about my cats all day and I will blather on if I am not careful.

So I stamped, colored and cut my kitty.  Then I set him aside and began to glue each leaf on the card to build the pile of leaves.  For some reason I have a hell of a time getting these to stick to the card base - it's almost as if they resist the glue, so I have to go very slowly and let each leaf that is glued on dry before I pile more leaves on or they will just stick to each other and all come off (ask me how I know this!).  I've had this bag forever and there are plenty left.  I wish I could recall where I purchased them from, but, nope.  I re-bagged them ages ago so I can't even recall what company they came from, but I do know they were made to make model train landscaping and they are made from fabric, but are a stiff fabric and a bit shiny.  

While I was in between leaf gluing, I cut out my letters for the sentiment.  I am really lacking in sentiment stamps so if anyone has a good set that they use over and over, please let me know!  I used glitter card in a copperish brown color for the letters and glued them onto a label from Spellbinders cut out of the vanilla cardstock.  I went back and forth between leaf gluing and trying to get

those letters straight for a good while.  I finally decided to use removable tape on the letters (with the letters on the sticky side, backwards, so I could glue them down while keeping them straight - I hope that makes sense) and then when the glue was dry, I carefully peeled the tape off.  I actually use a lot of removable tape, I've been using it long before washi tape became a thing and the removable tape is much cheaper (and I didn't get the "fall" as straight as I would have liked, but, like I always say, that's the charm of handmade!).

Finally, the card was finished.  I am very pleased with how it came out, even if the letters are a bit wonky.  Thank you so much for reading my very long, full of information that I told you about even if you didn't ask, blog post.  Please consider joining us at Always Use Rubber but PLEASE check out our very reasonable rules first! I hope you all have a very happy holiday, however you choose to celebrate! Hugs, Christi

I would like to enter my Happy Fall Card in the following challenges: 
Crafty Catz - #351, Anything Goes
Through The Purple Haze - #115, Anything Goes
Crafty Gals Challenge - #101, Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Work it Wednesday - December - Use Dies
Tuesday Throwdown - #323, Anything Goes
Try it on Tuesday - Celebrate!