Wednesday 20 September 2017

Horse Chestnut

Autumn seems to be coming early this year and some of the leaves started to turn before the end of August. So I'm sure it won't be very long before parks and footpaths are scattered with conkers, the nuts from the Horse Chestnut tree.

I love the colours of chestnut trees, both Horse and Sweet, in the autumn, although sadly in recent years some kind of disease means that many leaves go brown and withered without taking on their beautiful seasonal colours.

One of my favourite stamps, and one of the oldest in my collection, is this single Horse Chestnut leaf. It is so versatile, being a single leaf rather than a large stamp, and looks great in summer or autumn colours. It is so old that the lettering has worn off the side of the wood block, eroded away from hundreds of uses, so I can't tell you who originally made it.


Here I have made a background stripe of assorted inks, sponged and blended, then stamped the leaf over it in brown ink, adding a sentiment that I won last year in the Playground. I've stamped it again with Versamark ink on orange card and embossed it with a variegated brown embossing powder.

I am sharing this with
Allsorts challenge - Feels Like Autumn
Always Fun - Fall colours
Sweet Stampin - Your Favourite Stamp
Make My Monday - Autumn Colours
AAA  - Autumn Colours
 
Rubber Dance - Use your fave stamp

Creative with Stamps - leaves



14 comments:

R's Rue said...

Love.

brenda said...

A really beautiful Autumnal creation Jane and with all the warm colours we associate with the season, many thanks for joining us again at Allsorts challenge.

B x

Inky and Quirky Designs said...

What a beautiful card, love the rich Autumnal tones you’ve created and a leaf stamp is always my favourite too ;)
Thanks for joining us at the Rubber Dance blog
Hugs
Donna xx

Jane said...

Love that strip of Autumn colours with the leaves stamped on top, looks fabulous. Thanks so much for linking up to AAA Cards Autumn Colours Challenge.

Barb said...

A really beautiful autumn card Jane and that's a lovely sentiment. Barbxx

Chris said...

It's a lovely stamp and your design is beautiful...fabulous stamping!
Thanks for joining us at Sweet Stampin' this week.
Chris
x

Wendy L said...

Wonderful card Jane, just perfect for our challenge at Allsorts, thanks for joining us xxxx

Dotty Jo said...

What a gorgeous card! That leaf is a beauty, Jo x

Sammy said...

Oh that's gorgeous! I can definitely see why it's your favourite. I have a single leaf stamp that is one of my favourites too... You can do so much with them! Thank you for joining us at Sweet Stampin' this week. Sammy-x

Maria Valente said...

What an amazing card! Thank you for joining our Creative With Stamps challenges this month! Hope to see your great creations again!
Hugs, Mary (DT)

Cara said...

A perfect autumnal card, love that leaf stamp too x

LucieGCards said...

What a fabulous autumn card! Love the design with the strip of colour! Thanks for playing along with us at AAA Cards!

sweetpea said...

Love this card good luck in our challenge at MMM Janet DT

Gwendolyn said...

What a gorgeous inked autumn background! Thanks so much for joining our Leaves challenge over at Creative With Stamps and we hope to see you back next month! Cheers, Gwendolyn
P.S Your card is also perfect for our Encouragement Challenge over at the Calling All Sistahs challenge blog so I hope you'll join us there too!