Thankful Vintage Leaves

In creating today's card, I had planned to use a new technique but unfortunately, the technique did not produce the results that I wanted so I will save that one for another day! Luckily, I still had the color scheme and rough card design so I set forth to create it.

I started by stamping three oak leaves and one poplar leaf, from the Vintage Leaves stamp set, on Thick Whisper White using Night of Navy. These were die cut using the coordinating framelits.

Next, I stamped the sentiment from the Painted Harvest stamp set on Gold Foil with Jet Black Stazon and then die cut it using the #3 oval from the Stitched Shapes Framelits.

After cutting a Night of Navy matte, I used the Layered Leaves Embossing Folder to dry emboss it. My plan was to adhere this matte to the Thick Whisper White card front but it didn't look right so I decided that a little bit of gold would help. Instead of using a large piece of Gold Foil when only a tiny edge of it would be seen, I decided to use a trick that I learned.

I cut a second matte from Thick Whisper White and then dragged my Versamark along the edges. I heat embossed the edges using Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder. Now, when I placed my embossed matte on top, my design looked better but it still needed something else. While I thought about it, I adhered the embossed matte to the one with the gold edges and then tied a length of the Night of Navy Crinkled Seam Binding Ribbon around both mattes.

The three oak leaves were adhered using Dimensionals and a little bit of liquid adhesive. The gold oval was adhered over the leaves with the poplar leaf adhered on top of that. It was then that I realized that I had forgot to add some flecks of gold with my Gold Wink of Stella! Too late now.

After finishing with my mattes and sentiments, I decided to stamp leaves around the edge of the card front. With the mattes then adhered with Dimensionals, the card design was perfect!

The Whisper White card front stamped

I stamped three offset oak leaves on the inside of the card and called it done!

I'm thrilled with how this card turned out! Love the navy and gold together. And what's not to like about leaves?

Hope YOU like my card! Would love to hear from you in the comments below!

Cable Knit Thank You

Though Autumn is not my favorite season–I much prefer Spring–I do love leaves! The Vintage Leaves stamp set is one of my most treasured because I think it is very realistic and it can be used in so many ways and the coordinating Framelits are nice too!

For my thank you card today, I started with a standard card base cut from Cajun Craze. I cut a matte from the now retired Naturals Ivory card stock and embossed it with the Cable Knit Embossing Folder. I find myself reaching for this folder over and over again!

Though the color and texture of the Naturals Ivory was what I wanted, the paper did not react well to being spritzed with water and then being embossed. The dried paper was very warped and I resorted to placing a sheet over it and ironing it to get any sort of flat matte from it! It was finally adhered to the card front using Fast Fuse.

Next, I stamped both the maple and oak leaves, on Cherry Cobbler and Delightful Dijon respectively, with Versamark and heat embossed using Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder. Each leaf was then die cut using the coordinating Leaflets Framelits.

The leaves were adhered to the card front using Dimensionals and then one of the now retired Gold Basic Metal Buttons was threaded with Linen Thread and adhered to the leaf stems.

The sentiment, from the now retired Happy Watercolor stamp set, was stamped with Basic Black on on a strip of Cajun Craze and then the Triple Banner Punch used to flag the end. It was adhered just under the leaves.

A matte of the Naturals Ivory card stock was stamped with both the oak and maple leaves using Cherry Cobbler and Delightful Dijon and then adhered inside the card.

I love all the texture achieved by combining both the embossing folder and the embossed leaves!

Vintage Leaves Card Set Giveaway

Jennifer McGuire posted a tutorial the other day for a gate fold technique that used border dies. I really liked the result and kept mulling it over in my mind as to how I could make it my own. With Autumn just around the corner, I decided to create a card set using Autumn hues and employ Jennifer's technique.

For my colors, I chose Cherry Cobbler, Cajun Craze, Delightful Dijon, and Garden Green. I cut a piece of each color at 11 x 4.25", modifying Jennifer's size to be more in line with that of a standard size card. Each piece was scored on the long side at 4" from one end and 2" from the other end. After folding on the score lines, the card front overlapped slightly.

I placed the single edge die from the Detailed Floral Thinlits along the edge of the longest flap and ran it through the Big Shot. It easily cut through the top and partially through the next layer. I had to open the card, reposition the die and run it through again to finish cutting the second flap. There was a resulting indent from the die on the inside of the card but that would be hidden by a matte.

I chose a leaf stamp, from the Vintage Leaves stamp set, for each of the four colors and then stamped the front of the card using matching ink except for the Cherry Cobbler card. When using my Cherry Cobbler on the matching card stock, the color appeared "greenish" so I chose to use Real Red as an alternative.

After stamping the card fronts, I cut white mattes for the inside of the cards and stamped a leaf on each of those to match each card. In addition, I used my Envelope Punch Board to create envelopes for each card and stamped leaves on the fronts of those as well before assembling the envelopes, using Post It notes to mask off the non-inked sides of the envelopes.

Next, I stamped sentiments from the Watercolor Wishes Card Set, in Versamark on the four colors of card stock and heat embossed them with Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder. These were then die cut with the matching Leaflets Framelits. Each die cut had its edges inked with the corresponding ink.
It was then that I got the idea to heat emboss the edges of the die cut gate fold edges themselves! To do this, I used a Versamark Pen to ink each edge, repeating the process to really get a nice embossed gold effect.

Another idea struck and I decided to add flecks of ink onto the cards to provide a bit more texture to my design. I used both my Stampin' Write Markers, flicking the marker off the edge of the cap, and my Tim Holtz Distress Splatter Brush with reinkers, which produced larger splatters.

To finish each card, I added a thread nest, using Gold Metallic Thread secured with a glue dot, and adhered a leaf over it using Dimensionals.

After completing the cards and envelopes, I needed a container to put them in so I consulted this tutorial by Catherine Pooler on how to create a box. Once I had figured out what size I needed for my card box and lid, I cut the two pieces from Kraft card stock.

I scored, cut and glued the piece for the box bottom and then used my stamps to create my own paper for the box top. After stamping the leaves, I again used my Tim Holtz Distress Splatter Brush to add flecks of Crumb Cake reinker. After it was dry, I scored, cut and glued the lid together.

A belly band was created for my card box using a strip of Garden Green card stock topped with the now retired Cherry Cobbler Sheer Linen Ribbon. I stamped two oak leaves in Delightful Dijon on the matching card stock and die cut them with the framelits. The edges of the leaves were inked with matching ink and then I used my McGill Paper Blossom Tool Kit to give some dimension to the leaves. I used Glue Dots to adhere them to the top of the belly band to complete the box.

I am really loving the rich hues of this color combo! Feel free to copy this image if you'd like to use it!

I'm very pleased with how this card set turned out! And now the fun part–I'm going to give it away!

If you live in either Canada or the United States, here is what you need to do to be entered into a draw to win this card set:

1. Leave a comment either below or on my Facebook post (or both!).
2. Pin any image from this blog post to Pinterest.
3. Share my Facebook post about this card set.

On Sunday, September 4, at 7:00 pm CDT, I will draw to see who wins the card set! Be sure to check back here for the announcement of the winner. I will need the winner to contact me so that I may get a mailing address for where to send the card set.

The lucky winner could be YOU!

Autumn Leaf Shaker and Four Fuse Tool Tips

With Autumn in the air, I decided that my next shaker card made using the Fuse tool would have to have a leaf (or two) in it!

I chose a leaf patterned paper from the now retired Color Me Autumn DSP and adhered it to a piece of Crushed Curry card stock to give it strength.

I then used the Leaflet Framelits Dies to cut a maple leaf in the bottom left. I used the same die to create my shaker from a piece of a page protector. I filled it with an assortment of sequins, including some from Pretty Pink Posh.

As I created the shaker for this card, I realized that there was a bit of a learning curve for the Fuse tool.While my first shaker with the Fuse had been a straight-sided window, a leaf shape was much more complicated!

As I tried to trace the outside of the leaf die, I found it very tricky to fuse all the little angles of the die. It was then that I decided that my first piece of advice for the Fuse Tool was:

1. Don't choose complicated shapes. With that said, there is a caveat to this piece of advice; though a die shape maybe somewhat complicated, your fusing doesn't have to be ie. because the fused edge of the shaker will be generally hidden from view, you can fudge the fuse line a bit so that it is not so complicated to create.

I also had to create the leaf shaker a second time because the first time I was actually trying to fuse the INSIDE of the leaf die! I found it somewhat difficult to wrap my mind around where the die would cut the shape and where I would fuse it. This brings me to my second tip:

2. Die cut the inside of the die; fuse the outside of the die. The fused area of the shaker has to be OUTSIDE of the area where the opening is die cut, providing you with an area to adhere to the surrounding card and allowing you to keep the actual fused line hidden.

As I played more and more with creating the leaf shaker, my Fuse was still plugged in but sitting idle. when I used it to fuse again I actually ended up melting my plastic instead of fusing it! :( So my third tip becomes:

3. Unplug the Fuse when you are not planning to use it for awhile. On my iPhone, I have Siri set a timer for 15 minutes when I first plug in the Fuse so that I get it heated to its optimum heat setting. When I unplug it, I use the stopwatch function on my phone until I am once again ready to work with the Fuse tool. I then set a timer for the elapsed time on the stopwatch (or 15 minutes if it has been longer than 30 minutes) to reheat the Fuse.

4. While the Fuse is plugged in, use a heat safe container in which to hold it. I found that the little stand included with the tool to be somewhat useless. Because of the cord is so short, trying to rest the Fuse on its stand seems to be a very wobbly accident waiting to happen! Instead, I use a squat little canning jar to rest the Fuse in when I'm not holding it. Makes me feel a whole lot safer!

After my shaker was created, I taped it in place on the back of the card stock and then adhered the matte using mounting tape to a Crushed Curry card base. I used a Project Life journaling pen to create a stitched line around the leaf shaker.

The sentiment was die cut from Cajun Craze card stock using the Hello You thinlits and glued in place using the Fine Tip Glue Pen (my newest favorite adhesive!).

I'm going to keep playing with my Fuse to learn more about how it works best. Hopefully you will find the tips I have shared today useful in your fusing endeavours!

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