Falling into Autumn

I love the crisp, cool tinge in the air during autumn...the whisper of winter's breath to come. I adore the crunch, crunch, crunch of fallen leaves under foot as the trees shake loose their leafy mantles. I drink in the dry, musty smell of those same fallen leaves. The warm, rich colors of the foliage are comfort food to my soul...

(Insert sound of a record-player needle dragging across a vinyl record)

Stop the music!

What am I talking about? This is Texas. Fall won't be here for at least another 2-3 months. *sigh*. Here it's still sizzling. Lawns (if they've been watered) are still green. Trees are still in full-leaf. The crepe myrtles are in full-bloom.

It's nowhere NEAR autumn here.

Ugh.

But, over at Kenny K's Krafty Krew, we're celebrating the warmth and richness of Autumn with this week's challenge of:

Autumn Hues

...where the colors of Fall and leaves are the order of this week...regardless of it being perpetual summer here in my corner of the world. 'Cuz, it's all about me, dontcha know.

This weeks first sponsor is Kenny K's Downloads

The prize from Kenny is the winner's choice of 5 digis.

And our second sponsor is Marianne Design

For this project, I decided on a warm palette of green and brown and chose one of Kenny's saucy Steampunk sirens...Capt. Locke, as the subject. I must say, Kenny's Steampunk Burlesque line is my all-time favorite. The detail in these girls is PHENOMENAL. I colored up the fabulous Cap'n on Kraft cardstock with my Prismacolor pencils.  I added a few glittery elements (her buttons, keys and buckles) to make the image pop. I then fussy-cut her out and mounted her with foam tape on vellum to create a sort of "dimensional aura" around her. I made the background using some left-over Kraft cardstock which I ran through my Wizard using an embossing folder. I inked the raised surfaces of the embossed background and fussy-cut and popped off various elements of it to add even more dimension. I finished it off with a really old (but favorite) die cut from Spellbinders (it's one of their very first dies) and a banner stamp from Bombshell.

Here is a detail shot of my coloring

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:

• The Squirrel and the Fox: #26 Anything Goes
• Art With No Boundaries: Anything Goes
• Card Caravan: #25 Pop It Up 
• Cute Card Thursday: #233 Autumn Gold (I used fall colors)

Ingredients:
Capt. Locke image - Kenny K
Banner stamp - Bombshell Stamps
Heart lock die - Spellbinders
Cuttlebug Clockworks embossing folder - Provo Craft
star brads - Creative Impressions
rhinestones - Michaels
glitter pen - Sakura
Prismacolor Colored Pencils
Distress ink - Ranger
Kraft, black cardstock
Patterned paper
vellum