How quickly September has flown by. The leaves are beginning to turn colors and fall has officially arrived. We’ve enjoyed cool mornings and pleasant afternoons and evenings.

It’s also been fun to create cards using old and new techniques that will be delivered the first part of the month. This first card is the October ministering card. I saw a similar idea on Pinterest — but put my own twist on it using Procreate to “paint” the image using some of the techniques I’ve learned in a couple of online classes. The leaves are a brush from Sandra Createinspain. There were lots to choose from in a recent online offering. The sentiment stamp was found in a collection from Fun Stampers Journey (retired). Using my stamp jig made it very easy to add the sentiment on each card front after printing the main image.

We have two birthdays at the beginning of the month. Mother and daughter. I had a difficult time choosing the designs, but I think ultimately, these will work just fine for them this year. The first card is print to cut — I used Impact font, filling each of the letters with a patterned paper from Creative Fabrica. Each letter is backed with a cut in black paper set slightly to one side to create a shadow. Birthday script is done in Edwardian Script and all pieces are printed using the SCAL software’s Print 2 Cut process. The dry embossed piece is distressed and adhered to a regular A2 card base. The embossing folder is from Fun Stampers Journey (retired). I love using some of my older products! It can be used either vertically or horizontally as used in this card.

Maybe in next iterations, I’ll add some additional inking for a little more texture and depth.

The last card for this post was designed in SCAL 6 – using basic shapes from the library. The flowers and leaves are printed in a base color with additional depth and details added using colored pencils and an embossing tool. The label was created using basic shapes — a rectangle and oval and then using the Mirror Symmetry command under the Effects tab to create the shape – I added some additional details using a Winsor Newton .01 gray pen, a background stamp (Stampin’ Up! retired), and inking the edges after some distressing using an emory board to achieve the desired look. The Happy Birthday banner has been shaped a bit and glued in place before adhering the piece to the panel that was embossed using a Provo Craft embossing folder — another item from the cupboard. I really enjoyed seeing this one come to life — adding additional color to each flower and leaf was a great way to add som more depth and the embossing tool added the texture that made a lot of difference in how the light impacts the design.

As always, the Skycut performed well and each print 2 cut design was spot on! I’ve had the machine for over 4 years and haven’t had to make any additional adjustments to the calibration after the initial set up for my machine!