Shabby Chic or not and cat's meow

Has anyone else been crazy busy with their fall schedule? I don't see it on the calendar, but somehow when the cool brisk air comes along the schedule seems to get busy. All that to say I've had less time to be in the craft studio.



The shabby chic card is for October's Viva La Verve Week 1. I had a tough time making my elements work on this card, but I like the end result. The added blue top note layer to the challenges sketch help anchor this card together. I had a spool card of twill tape from Stampin' Up that has been collecting dust and it was just crying for some attention. The inspiration I had was to assemble an embroidered element onto the card. I designed a flower filigree digi stamp to fit exactly the width of the card and printed it out to use as a paper foundation for the hand embroidery. I like how it looks VERY homemade with the irregular stitch lengths and spaces. I enjoyed it so much that I put the same flowers, sans filigree, on the sentiment layer. I fussed over the rest of the elements for almost a week and finally went to my scrap element box and found a few items. I stitched all the layers and sponged Ranger Tea Dye ink around the edges of all the layers and the ribbon. What do you think?

Edit: I wanted to share my flower filigree doodle I made to embroider on the twill tape. Here it is with a complementary ribbon flower file for layering technique.



My next card was for the MyGraphico sketch challenge #18. I downloaded some of their free digital stamps and ended up only using the black cat out of the whole set. That's what creative process will do, I guess.



I made the orange distressed paper by rolling Only Orange onto my brayer and layering it a couple of time over white cardstock. I went back around the edges with Really Rust, again with the brayer. The darkest edges were sponged on Basic Black. After that I distressed a bit more with Really Rust stamp pad directly to the paper until I saw streak lines and lines across the paper. Now what do you think is the center element? It's meant to me a floating cat collar. LOL I think I should have added some black fur (shredded black paper) underneath it to help identify it, but I was trying to meet the challenge deadline. The sentiment is digital from kevinandamanda.com's free scrapbook font called "Love Ya Like A Sister".

Shabby Chic Card Details:
Stamps: MyDigi stamp, Verve Little Pumpkin
Paper: LSS white and cream paper, unknown pattern paper, kraft, Brocade Blue, watercolored white paper with Brilliant Blue re-inker and Isopropyl Alcohol mixed (scallop circle)
Ink: Brilliant Blue re-inker, Bliss Blue, Ranger Tea Dye Ink, Versamark
Accessories: Clear Emboss Powder, Kaisercrafts rhinestones, DMC Floss 800 and 3755, SU! Twill Tape, scrap lace edging, Nestabilities Scallop Circle and Circle die, CB Just My Type EF, SU! Top Note Die, Sewing machine

Cat's meow Card Detail:
Stamps: MyGraphico Free Halloween Stamps, LaserJet Printer
Paper: Mohawk Smooth White, LSS orange and Purple, Basic Black
Ink: Only Orange, Really Rust, Basic Black, Lovely Lilac
Accessories: Quickutz Retro Diamond EF, Kaisercrafts purple rhinstones, Stickles, paper piercer, aluminum wire,DMC Floss unknown color, MS Onyx and Charoite glitter mixed in Glossy Accents for dots on oval layer