An Elegant Fall Tree

I'm enjoying our beautiful Fall weather.  Although I haven't been able to take a walk, due to my leg injury, I still notice and enjoy the trees as we drive by them.  Many have already lost all their leaves and some are still working on it.  Trees, even bare ones, have an artistic beauty to them that has always fascinated me.  Here's another tree card (with plenty of leaves) that I enjoyed using my new MISTI to create.  

Our Lovely As A Tree is our oldest (an perhaps best loved) stamp set!

I added a couple of Vintage Leaves over some gently coiled thread for a nice element to embellish the lower part of the oval frames.

I love how this turned out.  This would be a nice masculine card, but I think anyone would enjoy receiving it in the mail.

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Fall Banner with Embossed Copper Letters

I am excited to share my latest banner with you today.  It's for Fall and it has embossed letters.  In my next post, I'll share a tutorial on how I made them. 

The pictures kind of speak for themselves.  

I added embossed leaves between each of the banner pieces.

This was really fun to create and I love how it turned out.

In my next post, I'll share a tutorial for how to create the embossed letters.

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Birch and Copper Fall Card

I have a Fall card for you today that has lots of rich texture and color.  Enjoy! 

The 'birch' leaf is cut from a left-over piece from an old kit.  I added a copper leaf, a Soft Suede embossed leaf, a sponged panel of Fall colors and a strip of copper along the edge of the sponged panel.  The top layer over the card base is embossed, as well.

The leaves are attached with dimensionals and then a double sprig of linen thread is tied around their stems.  The sponged panel was spritzed with shimmer mist before attaching it to the card, so it has a bit of beautiful sparkle, in addition to all the rich texture.  I love how it all came together.

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4-Leaf Fall Card

I am loving making my Fall cards this year (and every year) as I love, love, love working with the beautiful and warm colors of Fall.  Today's card is what I call a 4-leaf card.  I think you'll see why I named it so.

Each leaf has a special, unique treatment and yet they all work together to create a beautiful and yet easy to make Fall card.  I love it!

I sponged and then added shimmer mist to the strip across the card.

I tied linen thread around the stem of the larger copper leaf.  I used a double strand, to give it even more texture.

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Pear Pizzazz Trio

Today, I have 3 versions of a card design for you.  These were actually inspired by a card in our Annual Catalog (page 37).  I added my own take to their design and then went on to make 3 versions.  I really like them all ... a lot!

The card below is another version of the design.  I added some fun score lines to each of my cards, to add some texture.

The card below is my version of the one in our catalog.

The card below is actually one of the cards we'll be making in my Fun Card Techniques class on Saturday, August 20.  I only have 2 spots left, so if you would like to come, please sign up ASAP.  It's going to be a lot of fun!  Look over on the left side of this page to see a sneak peek at three of the cards we'll be making, in addition to this one.  I have one or two others we'll be making, too.  Gee, I wonder what they could be?

Here are all three again.  Which version do you like the best?

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Square Pillow Box Party Favors

Before I share more cards from my Christmas Retreat, I want to show you the party favors that everyone got with their lunch.  Even though we were all about Christmas in my studio, it was still Fall in my dining room, so I kept the lunch favors within a Fall theme.  I love how they turned out.

I made them in 3 colors.  Each person got one in Soft Suede, Mossy Meadow or Rich Razzleberry.  I've already given away all the Rich Razzleberry favors.

Here are some ideas from Stampin' Up! for using the Pillow Box Thinlits.  I love how they cut off the top of the middle one and used it to hold 3X3" cards!

Click here to enjoy a video about making these adorable pillow box favors.

Here's a peek at my Fall centerpiece.  I love decorating for Fall almost as much as decorating for Christmas.

With my Christmas Open House just around the corner (November 1) I am already starting today to turn my studio completely into Christmas.  This is the crazy time of year for me when my porch and upstairs are beautiful Fall and my studio becomes all Christmas.  It's pretty fun... and a bit crazy!

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OSW Tutorial Series, Part 6

I have one more OSW card for you today and it's a Fall card.  Right now, it's that crazy time of the crafting year when you switch back and forth between seasons and holidays and it's all just plain fun.

I got to thinking that, especially with Christmas card-making time fast approaching, let's get even more bang for our buck and cut a 12 X 12" sheet of DSP into 1" strips.  Now, you can use them for 24 cards!  That's a big deal when you're making a bunch for Christmas.  You'll also have 12 (1") squares left over.  These can come in handy for cute little accents on other cards or for scrapbook pages.

This card has a top layer that is embossed and then gently sponged in random places to highlight the 'brick' wall look from the embossing.  I attached this layer with dimensionals.

The leaves are heat embossed with Gold EP and then cut with our framelits.  I added a sprig of linen thread to tie it all together.  This card is a good example of how a 1" strip can work nicely to highlight a card design.  You wouldn't want a larger strip because it would fight with the leaves and it would cover up too much of the embossed layer beneath it.  I really like how this one turned out.

For more ideas... 
          click here to check out my Pinterest board.

I hope you enjoyed my little Tutorial Series.  By now, you should be totally inspired to make some OSW cards of your own. 

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OSW Tutorial Series, Part 3

Are your ready for Part 3?  I really excited to share today's card with you.  I think you'll love it as much as I do.  It's even prettier in real life because it has a Champagne Shimmer Mist spritz over it.   

The OSW design for this one just takes it down another 1/4" inch from the design in my previous post.  As you can see, we started with our largest size in my first post, then went down 1/4" for the second post and now, we're down yet another 1/4" inch.  My thinking on doing this was to leave more of the card base color showing behind the top layers, as the mat behind the top layer is still just 1/4" larger than this top layer.  This design works well when you want to really pull a strong color from your top background layer.
Tips:
Play around with different colors for your card base.
You'll know it when you see it as to which one works the best.
Choose only colors that are in your sponged layer.

You'll start by stamping all your leaves.  (I used Soft Suede to stamp all my leaves.)  After you let them dry a bit, choose several complimentary colors and randomly sponge directly over all the leaves.  Do these steps before you cut.  Let them dry a bit and then you can cut, using my diagram as a guide.  You'll have slightly larger scraps this time, so try to plan a clever way to use those.  Remember, you can always use scraps on smaller cards, note cards, gift card enclosures and even tags, so they won't go to waste.

Tips:
It's best to add the shimmer spritzing to the card top layer after cutting... one piece at a time.
You can control the spritzing better this way and it's not as messy.
Isn't it pretty?  I just love it.  I wish you could see the shimmer!

In the photo below, you can see a bit of the shimmer, but not the sparkle.  The top two cut leaves are embossed with Gold EP and the bottom leaf is cut from a Gold Foil Sheet.  Notice that I've used linen thread in two ways on this card.  First, I wrapped it around the top 2 layers of the card.  Second, I tied a double strand of thread around the stems.

I chose not to add a text to the front of the card, so I could have it ready for most any occasion for the Fall season.  Who wouldn't love to get a pretty card like this one?  I think this one is a WOW for a male or female recipient.  

I have several more parts to this series, so keep coming back to see what's next.  Leave me a comment if you have questions or suggestions. 

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Fall Comes in Surprising Colors

I'm back to a Fall card today, in surprising colors.  If you're like me, you love the beauty of nature's colors in the Fall.  They're just gorgeous.  I take a walk or just stand in my back yard and look at the fallen leaves and I'm instantly inspired. 

I wanted this card to host some unexpected colors for Fall... thus adding the blues.  I also added touches of gold to give a nice contrast to the texture of the embossing.  To make the background trees stand out a bit, I lightly sponged them.  I LOVE this embossing folder.

Because this was another card for the church to send, I kept it pretty flat, for easier mailing.

In my next post, I'll be starting a little mini series on OSW cards that I know you won't want to miss.  Some of these will be from my Saturday Stampers class and some will be in addition to those cards.  So... be sure to come back so you won't miss anything:)

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world. 

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