Birthday blessings - October Mood Board

Hello!
It's Donna here, and I'm very excited to be joining the Kennedy Grace Creations family as a Design team member. It really has felt like a family right from the start, and it's a blessing to be a part of it.
Just briefly, I thought I'd tell you a little about myself.

I live in a beautiful rural part of Southern Australia, which is probably not the Australia that you imagine. The weather here is frequently cold, although summer can be incredibly hot, and bushfires are always a concern. For most of the year the scenery looks more like England than the rest of Australia.
I love to garden, and spend a lot of my time growing food for our family. We have bees, chickens, sheep, vegetables and fruit trees, and a very full freezer!
I am a teacher, teaching both music (piano) and Japanese from home.
I am a Christian and love to be involved with our local church. You can often find me playing piano and singing in the services.
I play the oboe.
I have three children, aged in their teens and slightly above, and a keeper of a husband.
I try to live zero waste, creating as little waste as I can.

So, I hope that you feel that you know me a little better. Now, onto the main event - this month's Mood Board! Isn't it gorgeous!

I have created a set of four cards to highlight the Mood Board.

I started out making just one card, but I wasn't quite happy with it, so I created another variation, and another and yet another until I was happy with one. Funnily enough, when I looked at them in the morning, I quite liked them all!

Firstly, I used the lovely crocus image from the Friendship Blessings stamp set. Isn't it gorgeous?

I stamped the images in black ink and heat embossed them in clear, changing the arrangement just a little each time. Because I was using Watercolour paper, I had to stamp more than once to get a clear impression.

I used Lindy's Stamp Gang Magicals in Hag's Wart Orange for the flowers. I added the teeniest amount with the tip of a pin, and then sprayed the paper with clean water, facing the spray towards the top of the page, so that any overspray moved the ink towards the top of the page. The leaves were coloured with the same process, but I used Ken Oliver Color Burst in Lime Green. I had to be very careful not to re-wet the orange portion of the cards, or the blend of colours was a mucky brown (as you can see in a few places!)

This next card below is the one I decided I was finally happy with. I like the paler colours, and the flyaway look of the sky.

I finished off three of the cards with the beautiful new sequins from Kennedy Grace Creations new release. This selection is called Chantilly Cream, and it goes so well with every colour. The different sizes of the sequins add interest.

What a long post this has been! I'll leave you with a couple of close ups of the cards I made. I hope that you have been inspired to try something new, and get the most out of these lovely stamps.