Vintage Leaves Thankful

You'd never know by the weather that we are approaching fall.  The heat and humidity have been stifling and certainly does not put one in the mood to make Christmas cards let alone Thanksgiving or Halloween cards.  However, my craft shows are coming up so I'd better get cracking!!

 had some coloured leaves left over from another project so I  made this Thanksgiving card.  I used the Woodlands Embossing Folder as a background and included an acorn and a feather.

• The base cardstock is Chocolate Chip, layered with Very Vanilla cardstock embossed with the Woodlands Embossing Folder.  To make the birch trees stamp out a little better, I lightly sponged the surface with some chocolate chip ink.

• Using the colours of autumn - Old Olive, Cajun Craze, Daffodil Delight, Real red, some leaves were randomly stamped between the trees.  These are from the stamp set: "Among the Leaves".
  A barn owl and some black birds completed the scene.
  
  At the bottom of this layer, a piece of  Into the Woods Designer paper was adhered.  I did sponge this lightly with Crumb Cake as the background of this paper was Whisper White.  That made the DSP fit in better with the colour scheme of the card. At the top of the DSP I added some gold glitter ribbon.
  
  The leaves were built on a 1 3/8" chocolate chip circle using a hot glue gun. As I mentioned, these leaves and feathers were left over from another project.  The acorn was made using the Acorny Thank You stamp set with its coordinating punch.
  
  The sentiment was stamped in chocolate chip ink and die cut using the bitty banners framelit.
  
  Supplies Used:
  
  Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Give Thanks - Vintage Leafs - Pals Paper Arts #266

The challenge this weekwith Pals Paper Arts is a colour one - perfect Autumn colours - Delightful Dejan, Cajun Craze, and Old Olive.  So I pulled out my Vintage Leaves stamp set and the coordinating framelit set and got to work.

 

• The leaves and the feather were stamped with Versa Mark on Whisper white cardstock, and embossed with gold embossing powder.  They were then die cut using the coordinating framelits.
• Each leaf was coloured with  leaf with the 3 colours, spritzed them lightly with water and scrunched them up.  They were unfurled slowly, leaving most of the creases and folds, and allowed to dry.
• While they were drying, I assembled the rest of the card.
• The base cardstock is Cajun Craze, layered with Very Vanilla cardstock embossed with the Woodgrain embossing folder.  Some Cajun Craze ink was lightly grazed over the embossed surface using a sponge.
• The sentiment is from "Thankful Forest Friends".  It was coloured with markers in the 3 challenge colours and stamped onto a piece of Very Vanilla.  The edges were sponged with Cajun Craze ink.  This piece was matted with two colours - Cajun Craze and Old Olive.  It was adhered near the top towards the right side.
• The leaves were now dry, so I added them one by one with the stems facing the bottom of the card.  I used a hot glue gun to do this.
• A gold metallic button threaded with linen thread was added to the base of the leaves with a glue dot.

Supplies Used: 

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

The Eagle - The Paper Players #252

The theme of this week's challenge with The Paper Players is the Great Outdoors.  After all it is summer and what a better time to connect with nature.
I bought this Eagle stamp when I was in Vancouver a couple of weeks ago, and thought the image would be perfect for this challenge.

• The base card is Basic Black cardstock, layered with Crumb Cake carstock embossed with the Boho Chic embossing folder.  Before embossing I stamped the image of the single tree from "Lovely as a Tree" multiple times near the bottom, using Old Olive ink.  The images didn't turn out as well as I hoped.  The idea was for the Eagle to appear to be flying over the forest.
• On the left hand side I adhered a piece of Go Wild DSP pack, sponging the edges with Crumb Cake Ink.
• Near the bottom, horizontally, I embossed a piece of Basic Gray cardstock with the Woodgrain folder and sponged the edges with Basic Gray ink.
• The Eagle was coloured with ink pads and an Aquapainter, using multiple shades of browns and rusts.  The head was highlighted with a white gel pen.
• The image panel was sponged with Crumb Cake ink and then matted with Basic black cardstock.  It was adhered to the card front using dimensionals.
• The embellishment is an Eagle feather.  I stamped a feather "Four Feathers" stamp set, using Versa Mark  and Crumb Cake ink and embossed it with Clear embossing powder.  It was die cut using the Feathers framelits.  I attached it to the upper left corner using a glue dot and tying some linen thread in a bow around the top.  Another glue dot near the bottom kept it from sliding out of place. 

The sentiment on the inside says:  "Even a little bird can FLY like an Eagle"

Supplies Used:

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

A Wetlands Masculine Card - The Paper Players #248

Yes, Father's Day is approaching quickly, so it's time to make some special cards for that special man in your life. But even if you don't have a special man, it's always good to have masculine cards on hand. This week with The Paper Players  the theme is to make a masculine card.  I immediately thought of the stamp set "Wetlands".  I can remember breathing a sigh of relief that this stamp set was not retired when the new catalogue came out.

• The base card is Soft Suede cardstock, layered with Whisper White.  On top of that are 2 layers of cardstock.  The top half is Whisper white which was coloured using theSoft Sky ink pad directly on the block and stamping it on the cardstock.  The bottom of this top piece was die cut with the Large Scallop edgelit die.  Using the Four Feather's stamp set, feathers were randomly stamped over it using Soft Sky ink.

If you look closely you can see the feathers that were stamped in the background.

• The bottom piece is Soft Suede cardstock, the top of which was die cut with the same large Scallop edgelit, but the edgelit was placed so that it was upsidedown.  The image of the sea grass was stamped all over this surface using Soft Suede ink.

• All edges were sponged with Soft Suede ink prior to them being adhered to the cardstock base.
• The smaller image panel was coloured in the same manner.  The top part with Soft Sky ink directly on the stamping block and the bottom with Crumb Cake ink.
• The clouds in the sky were made by adhering 3 pieces of 1 3/4" scallop punchies together and sponging the edges with Soft Sky ink in a random pattern.
• The sand pipers were stamped with Soft Suede ink at the water line.
• The image of the goose was stamped on a separate piece of Whisper white paper and coloured with markers.  It was then cut out and adhered to the panel with dimensionals in such a way that the goose was in front of the sandpipers. The grass was stamped separately using Old Olive ink, cut out and sponged with Soft Suede ink.  It was adhered to the bottom of the image panel beneath the goose.
• The sentiment is from "A Dozen Thoughts", made into a banner, sponged and adhered to the card by the goose.

Supplies Used:

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

• A natural buttom, with a Black Baker's Twine bow on top was adhered to the upper right of the image panel.
• The image panel was adhered to the card front using dimensionals.

Autumn Leaves - a Thanksgiving Card

This is my last Thanksgiving card - for today anyway.  This morning I die cut two pieces of Very Vanilla card stock with the Autumn Accents die so I had more than enough leaves to make 2 cards.
See previous post for how I prepared the leaves.  The only thing different is that I placed Crystal Effects on the acorn, and spritzed the leaves with my homemade glitter spritz.
I did not have a Happy Thanksgiving sentiment, so I took the work "Happy" for one stamp, and "Thanksgiving" from another stamp.

Stamps: Four Feathers, Mingle All the Way
Inks: Real Red, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Daffodil Delight, Tangerine Tango, Soft Suede, SU markers (Soft Suede, Tangerine Tango)
Papers: Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, Early Espresso, Color Me Autumn DSP
Accessories: Autumn Accents die, Four Feathers framelit, Crystal Effects, Stylish Strips embossing folder, Square lattice embossing folder, Natural 5/8" Chevron ribbon (reverse side), dimensionals, homemade glitter spritz

Falling Leaves Happy Thanksgiving

Today is the day for making Thanksgiving Cards.  I think I'm finished now as I have enough for my craft shows.
For this card I used the Autumn Accents die with Very Vanilla card stock, and the stamp set "Four Feathers"

After die cutting the leaves, I sponged them with several colours (Real Red, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Tangerine Tango, Chocolate Chip) and sponged the edges with Soft Suede.  Each leaf was then slightly spritzed with water and crumpled up - and restraightened but leaving a lot of the creases in them.
While they were drying, I stamped and die cut two of the feathers, and sponged the edges with Soft Suede.
The basic card is Soft Suede, layered with Very Vanilla embossed with the Woodgrain embossing folder.  This layer was sponged on the edges and lightly all over.

Once dry, I arranged the leaves in the upper left hand corner and adhered them with an Antique brad.  A bow of twine was adhered just under this brad.

Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes, Four Feathers
Inks: Real Red, Old Olive, Daffodil Delight, Chocolate Chip, Tangerine Tango, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede
Papers: Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, Early Espresso (top of acorn)
Accessories: Autumn Accents die, Four Feathers framelit, Antique Brad, twine, square lattice embossing folder (top of acorn), Woodgrain embossing folder

Hello Fall - Technostamper 329

I'm not really saying hello to Fall, not yet anyway!  Although all the signs are there - the changing colours of the leaves, the cool nights, the decline of the blooms in my garden, and of course, back to school.
Fall is associated with change.  And there has been a lot of change in my life lately.  My favourite craft store has closed; a friend has sold her house and moved; my son's place of employment closed and he is returning to college for a fresh start; and my daughter and her husband are undergoing an acrimonious divorce.  The latter has been very disturbing as there are 3 young children involved.

I decided to made a card with 3 feathers on it - one for each of my grandchildren who are going to have to be tough like these feathers.
I used the sketch from Technostamper here to make this card.

Stamps:  Four Feathers, For All Things

Inks: Bravo Burgundy, Mossy Meadow, Smoky Slate

Papers: Bravo Burgundy, Very Vanilla, Whisper White, Color Me Autumn DSP

Accessories: Four Feathers Framelits, Circle Framelits, Fringe Scissors, Gold Metal Button, Twine, Toothpick (non SU), Fancy Fan Embossing Folder, 1/8" Very Vanilla taffeta ribbon