Gorgeous Leaves Combo

 Hey there, so glad you stopped by.   Today I have two versions of the same card for you.  I have this problem of always making too many little pieces to go on a card and have them laying around waiting for me to do something with them.  Well, that's not going to happen today, because I made two cards to use up all the bits that were left over.   Smart, right?

Here are the both of them together.  I'm so into the idea of autumn coming and all the glorious leaves that put on a show for us to enjoy.  These cards highlight the colors of autumn at their finest.

Both cards started out the same with a card base of a half sheet of Crumb Cake cardstock, folded in half.  Each also has a layer of Soft Suede cardstock that is cut to 5" x 3 3/4".   Next is another layer of Crumb Cake cut at 4 3/4" x 3 1/2".  This layer has the stamping on it.

Stamping started with the Gorgeous leaves Bundle.  The larger speckle image was inked with Crumb Cake ink and stamped in a diagonal pattern from the bottom center up to the right top corner.  Over this was randomly stamped the smaller speckle image using Soft Suede ink.  Over on the left top corner, the 3 leaf stamp was inked, off-stamped, then stamped randomly to give just a light touch of pattern.   This layer was attached to the Soft Suede layer with adhesive.  Then attached to the folded Crumb Cake base using Dimensionals.

The first solid leaf image was stamped on Very Vanilla cardstock using 2 inks.  First the stamp was inked on the one side with Crushed Curry ink and on the other side with Old Olive ink, then stamped.  The maple leaf was mostly inked with Pumpkin Pie ink, then Cajun Craze ink was added to the side.  Both leaves were die-cut using the coordinating dies from the Intricate Leaves Dies.  These were set aside and I moved along to the open-work leaf dies.  The large maple leaf and tall leaf were both die-cut from Cajun Craze cardstock.  Two of the little leaves were die-cut from Crushed Curry cardstock.  Then it was a matter of playing around to see which leaves went where.  They were attached to the card fronts using Glue Dots rolled up like croissants under the veining on the open leaves and the solid one too. 

The sentiment posed a bit of a problem.  I knew what I wanted it to say, but didn't have a stamp that really worked.  This is where omitting while stamping comes into play.  There is a wonderful set called Heartwarming Hugs that is all sentiments in a pretty scripty-style font.  One of them is:  & heartfelt wishes.  I just made sure that I didn't ink the "&" so I have just the words I wanted.   You can do this by very carefully inking, or place some scotch tape over the part you don't want, ink, then pull off the tape before stamping  Voila!

The sentiments were stamped on Very Vanilla strips using Soft Suede ink.  The strip was then die-cut with the Stitched Rectangle Dies.  The next up size of Stitched Rectangle was die-cut from Soft Suede cardstock.  The layers were attached together with adhesive.

The wording was kept to the right edge so there would be plenty of room on the left for wrapping some Linen Thread around it several times and knotting off.  After the sentiments were ready to go, they were attached over the leaves with Dimensionals to make them stand out.  That was it for these two cards except for the sentiment inside.  And as usual, I decided to leave it blank so I could write my own notes inside.

I love how the cards turned out quite neutral looking except for a splash of color on the side.  If you notice on the maple leaf cut-out, I left some of the die-cut little pieces in the leaf.  This reminded me on the way maple leaves start looking like skeleton leaves with part of the leaf still there and other parts gone.  Does it look weird to you?  I'm still trying to decide if that was a mistake to do or not.  Give me your opinion on this please!

Here we are with just a few more days left to take advantage of Sale-a-bration.  If you've been thinking about getting one more item from the batch of free items, you've got to hustle..  Remember for every $50 you spend (before tax and shipping) you can choose one of the free Sale-a-bration items.  And be sure to use the host code posted here.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Leave a comment if you would.  It makes me so happy to know you're out there reading about what I've been making lately.  

Blessings and hugs,

Sharon