Colorful Seasons Autumn Leaves

The change of season inspired the cards I have to share today. It seems like just overnight many of our trees went from having lush green foliage to leaves the shade of golden yellow. Our maple and oak trees are still holding onto their green leaves, but when they do start to change, the maple are my favorite...with beautiful vibrant oranges and reds. The Colorful Seasons stamp set and coordinating Seasonal Layers Thinlits have some great maple leaves included, which is what I used here.

To create this autumn branch, I first cut out the large branch from Soft Suede card stock using the Seasonal Layers Thinlits.  I placed the branch onto my Very Vanilla panel and lightly traced the outline of the branch to help with the leaf placement.

I stamped the leaves using the Wet Wipe Technique...which is perfect for creating the look of fall leaves. If you've never tried this technique it's really fun and super easy to use with any bold, solid image to get a multicolor look. Simply fold  a wet wipe to increase thickness and create a more manageable size...roughly the size of an ink pad. Place wet wipe onto a flat plastic surface that you don't mind getting inky. The image sheet from your Stamp-a-ma-jig works well for this. Use several colors of Ink Refills to ink up the wet wipe. Colors will mix together to create new shades, so try and use colors that look good mixed or you will end up with brown, muddy colors.

After stamping leaves, I lightly sponged the background with Dapper Denim and the edges with Soft Suede, adhered the branch and added my sentiment. Then I ran the piece through the Big Shot using the Pinewood Planks Embossing Folder.

I thought it made quite a nice masculine card so I made several since I had my wet wipe "ink pad" all made and I needed to send out some guy cards. This one gets an extra pop with the intricate Copper Foil die cut leaf. Here's a look at the group of cards I made...just like in nature, they all turned out a little different. As you can see, its a card suitable for all different occasions.

Have a wonderful day!

Best of Flowers - Wiped Daisies

I always loved the Upsy Daisy stamp set, but for some reason I never purchased it?! Yes, I'm probably the only one who didn't? So when I saw the Upsy Daisy image in the Best of Flowers set I just had to get it! Here is the first card I created using this image.

I used the Wet Wipe Technique to ink the stamp. It had been a long time since I'd used this fun technique and I thought this solid image would be perfect for it. The Wet Wipe Technique is basically making your own ink pad using a folded wet wipe (or baby wipe...whatever you want to call them) and re-inkers. I folded the wet wipe into about a 3 inch square and then used Certainly Celery, Pool Party, Wisteria Wonder & Rose Red re-inkers on mine.

I like how it fits inside the Basic Label stamp. This is one of the Single Stamp Images that are available for a limited time. I had to stamp the image twice (masking the edge the second time) to fill the entire window. It also seems I can't stop using the Needle Point Border Embossing Folder. I just love the cute added touch it gives to my projects!

Here is another idea using the same image, but this time I used the Designer Frame Embossing Folder.

If you are not familiar with Stampin' Up!'s "Best of Sets" here is the link to see all of the Best of Sets released so far. They will release one set each month during 2013 in honor of their 25th Anniversary. The Best of Flowers set was the March set, but it will be available until March of 2014...along with the other eleven sets. This months set is the Best of Butterflies.