Colors of autumn

We seem to be heading directly into winter in my neck of the woods, so I think I should share my autumn and Thanksgiving cards before it seems too late.

Supplies:
Stamps: Fall Tree #2 (Rubbernecker Stamps), Shiplap Background (Taylored Expressions), Mini Strips - Harvest (Taylored Expressions)
Paper: Whisper White, Crumb Cake card stock (Stampin' Up!); watercolor paper (Strathmore)
Ink: Chocolate Truffle amalgam ink, Wild Dandelion, Coral Reef, Key Lime, Grass Green, Tangerine Twist (Gina K Designs); embossing ink (Hero Arts)
Accessories: Large and Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables dies (Lawn Fawn), Mini Strips die (Taylored Expressions), sequins (Stampin' Up!), water mister (Ranger), white embossing powder (Hero Arts), foam tape (3M), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute)

I created these cards a couple of weeks ago during my annual craft weekend. At the time, many of our trees were still covered with vibrant orange, red, and yellow leaves. Sadly, now most of the leaves are on the ground covered by today's dusting of snow. But I love the way these cards turned out!

I wanted to create a watercolor look with these trees using regular dye-based ink pads, so my first step was to set up the watercolor paper and stamp in a stamp positioner. Using a small ink cube, I randomly applied the lightest color ink (yellow) on the stamp. I spritzed it with water and stamped it on the watercolor paper. Then I cleaned off the stamp, applied the next lightest color ink, spritzed it, and stamped. With the stamp positioner, the stamp and paper stay in place, so you just keep adding colors to the image. I continued following those steps until I had used all the desired colors, and then I set the panel aside to dry for a bit. Once it was dry I stamped the tree trunk and cut it out with a stitched rectangle die.

For the card base I used Crumb Cake card stock and stamped the Shiplap Background in dark brown ink. I adhered the watercolor panel to the card with foam tape and added a few orange and gold sequins. For the sentiments, I stamped the Mini Strips - Harvest stamp on Crumb Cake and embossed it with white embossing powder. I cut it out with the matching die, and then I had sentiments for a bunch of autumn cards!

Supplies:
Stamps: Bamboo Bucket (Rubbernecker Stamps), Mini Strips - Harvest (Taylored Expressions)
Paper: Crumb Cake card stock (Stampin' Up!), watercolor paper (Strathmore)
Ink: Chocolate Truffle amalgam ink, Wild Dandelion, Tangerine Twist (Gina K Designs); Sandstone, Cocoa, embossing ink (Hero Arts); Gray Granite (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Mini Strips die (Taylored Expressions), sequins (Stampin' Up!), foam tape (3M), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute)

For these cards, I followed the same basic process I described above. But once the panels were dry, I decided I really liked the placement of the image and the extra white space, so I didn't die cut them. I simply adhered the panels to Crumb Cake card bases and added a few sequins and sentiment strips.

Supplies:
Stamps: Fabulous Florals, Tiny Words (Simon Says Stamp)
Paper: Very Vanilla card stock (Stampin' Up!); Coral Reef, Plum Punch card stock (Gina K Designs)
Ink: Plum Punch, Coral Reef, Wild Dandelion, Grass Green, Sandy Beach (Gina K Designs); Sandstone (Hero Arts); Metallic Accents paint (Art Philosophy)
Accessories: Jute twine (May Arts Ribbon), Simple Strips die (Taylored Expressions), gold sequins (The Makery), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute), foam tape (3M)

For this batch of autumn cards I used an oldie-but-goodie technique. I filled an entire sheet of Very Vanilla card stock with stamped floral images and then cut the sheet down to four 4" x 5-1/4" pieces to use as card fronts. For my stamped images, I chose rich, fall-ish colors, using a different image for each color. When I use this technique I always start stamping with the largest image first and then work down to the smallest image, which you can tuck in all the little empty spaces. I also spattered the background with some gold metallic paint to add a little sparkle.

I created my own sentiment strips by running the Simple Strips die through my die-cutting machine with plain Very Vanilla card stock to get the strips with the flagged ends. Then I chose two words from the Tiny Words stamp, lined them up on a clear block and stamped them on the blank strips.

I attached each strip to a card with foam tape. For a simple finishing touch, I wrapped jute twine around the card front, tied it off in a bow and glued on three gold sequins.

Supplies:
Stamps: Floral Heart (Simon Says Stamp)
Paper: Coral Reef card stock (Gina K Designs), Whisper White card stock (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Coral Reef (Gina K Designs), Metallic Accents paint (Art Philosophy)
Accessories: Grateful die (Taylored Expressions), jute twine (May Arts Ribbon), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute)

I absolutely love this floral heart image, and I knew I was going to buy it as soon as I saw it. But when I made this card, I didn't want to spend a lot of time coloring all the little flowers. So instead I stamped it in one color of ink on the same color card base. Then to add a little glitz and some visual interest, I carefully added gold paint to just a few of the flowers and some little dots that were scattered around the image.

I wrapped jute twine around the bottom of the card front and tied it off in a little bow. I think this card would have been beautiful just like that, but I decided to add a gold die-cut word to work with the Thanksgiving theme. This would be a perfect layout for a set of cards; each card could be a different color and have a different word. (This stamp set also comes with a variety of sentiments, which would be perfect in place of the die-cut words.)

Thanks for stopping by!