Dreaming of fall

Oh. My. Goodness. I don't know about where you live, but it is hotter than Hades here today. Every time I step outside I feel as if I'm either going to melt or fall victim to spontaneous combustion. (Hmm ... if spontaneous combustion is truly spontaneous, would a person feel it happening? Maybe a split second before? Guess we'll never know.) I decided today was a perfect day to create two fall-themed cards -- while I sat in the cool of my air-conditioned apartment, thank you very much -- and at least dream about cooler weather.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!^®):
Stamps: Branch Out
Card stock: Whisper White, Summer Starfruit
Ink: Summer Starfruit, Gumball Green, Cajun Craze, Early Espresso, Jet Black StazOn
Accessories: 1/8" Early Espresso taffeta ribbon, Dimensionals

This card is a very basic clean and simple card. I stamped the tree, the leaves in three different colors, the tire swing and the boots on a white panel. Then I tied the ribbon around the white card stock and adhered the panel to the Summer Starfruit card base with Dimensionals. I did think about adding some embellishments, scoring or paper piercing, but I decided I really just liked the clean look.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: French Foliage, Happy Harmony
Card stock: Early Espresso, River Rock, Very Vanilla
Ink: Early Espresso, River Rock, Cajun Craze, Pool Party
Accessories: River Rock stitched ribbon, 1/8" Early Espresso taffeta ribbon, metallic brad (Making Memories), Dimensionals, Scor Bug (EK Success), Simply Scored tool, sponge

I started out with the intention of making this a clean and simple card, too, but it got away from me a bit. First I stamped the background elements in River Rock and Pool Party on Very Vanilla card stock. (It's hard to see in the picture, but I used Pool Party to stamp a few of the "splatter" images.) Then I stamped a few leaves on the card layer and on a separate sheet of Very Vanilla. I tore the bottom of the Very Vanilla layer, sponged the three straight edges with Early Espresso and layered it on a piece of River Rock card stock (also with a torn edge along the bottom).

I wrapped a piece of River Rock ribbon around the layered card stock and then tied a piece of Early Espresso ribbon over that. I don't think about layering ribbon too often, but I really like how it works here. Then I cut out two of the leaves I had stamped on separate card stock and used Dimensionals to adhere them just below the knot in the ribbon. I stamped the greeting and added a brad to the layers and pierced two rows of holes along the bottom edge of the card base. Then I used Dimensionals to adhere the layered pieces of card stock to the card base.

Here's wishing for cooler weather. Thanks for stopping by!