Autumn Shades with a Flourish

Hello

How are you?

I'm waiting for my grocery order to arrive, so if I dash off in a minute, you'll know why 😀

It's my turn to set the challenge for the Daring Cardmakers this week and I decided to keep it really simple - at least for me, anyway!  You can read why that is in my blurb:

It's me, Kathy here this week and I challenge you to
~  ~  Add a Flourish ~  ~
Using flourishes and swirls is one of my favourite card-making techniques.
 I'll let you into a secret - it's a bit of a trick really! They are often last-minute additions when I've put a card together and get one of those  'something missing', 'too much white space', 'hmm, the balance isn't quite right' feelings.  Adding some kind of swirly accent almost always sets things right.
So please add a swirl or flourish to your cards this week - in any way you like; die cuts, beads and gems, stamping, embossing, stencilling - there's lots of ways to do it as you'll see on the wonderful inspirational cards made by our design team [HERE] this week.

I loved seeing the different ways my lovely teamies chose to add their flourishes.  It's what I love most about The Daring Cardmakers; the way a challenge is given then everyone runs with it in their own way, it's so inspiring.
 

It was harder to make sure I actually started my card with the thought of having swirls and flourishes in there as opposed to just adding them as an 'extra' when everything else was in place!

I really wanted to use Autumn shades and flowers (for a change), but I wasn't keen on the first background I made, so this was my second attempt.  

This time I started with a piece of corrugated card that was poking out from the scraps box, and a lovely dark red card blank that caught my eye just as I was about to reach for a white one. 

Info

Dark red square card blank

Corrugated card from a box

Soft Old Gold card for matting

Mirror Gold card for lower swirls 

Green card (some inked) for leafy flourish and some leaves

Orange, Beige and light brown card, with added inky shading for other leaves

Various wired flowers from my stash

Dies are all by Spellbinders:

Gold swirls (under flowers) Cinch and Go Flowers set one

Green Leafy Flourish (at top): Foliage Flourish Shapeabilities Etched Dies

Acorns and oak leaves from Woodland Acorns  Shapeabilities Etched Dies

I curled some of the wire rosebud stems around skewers for some extra swirl shapes

 I'm pretty happy with how this turned out and I love the mix of colours.  It was one of those cards that I enjoy putting together as all I do is move around and add more bits and pieces until I like the arrangement.

Anyway, I hope you like it too and feel inspired to have a go at the challenge yourself - we welcome all-comers and love to see how people respond to the challenges.

That's it for now, thank you for visiting - don't forget to leave a message!

Happy Crafting