Fond of Autumn Idea

Hello Friends!  I know it's smack-dab in the middle of July and who is thinking about autumn anyway?  Ummm, that would be me.  I love the changing of the seasons, crisp fall air, and all the fabulous color.  No, it's not like that outside my window at all.  Temps are in the mid - high 80's with either sunshine or rainstorms.  So, I thought I'd cool things down a bit with cards from the Fond of Autumn set that I think is overlooked in the July -December 2022 Mini Catalog.  When I tell people that this is one of the first new sets I ordered, everyone says "why?  It's just another fall flower stamp."  Oh my goodness!  Look again on page 52!  Can you see that the dies do fabulous things?  There is a die that cuts out the entire floral cluster, but there's another one that cuts that same cluster into 4 different parts.   Love that!!  For today's card, I want to share a card made with one of the parts of that cluster.  Tomorrow, I have another card that uses a different part of the cluster.  I haven't figured out what to do with the other two sections yet, but I'm working on that.  First of all, let me show you the work in progress and then get to the nitty gritty details.

Here's the very beginning of the process.  The flower and leaf cluster were stamped on Basic White cardstock.  In fact, I stamped it twice on a half sheet of cardstock using Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  Then the coloring started with my Stampin' Blends.  As you can see, I have them laid out to see all the colors.  On a scrap piece of white cardstock, I colored swatches of colors I thought I might like on it.  I didn't use all of the colors I had out, but almost every single one is on that design!  

If you look closely, you can see the die on the finished design piece just as it cuts them out in the first picture.  Here, I have the die on the piece that's not finished and the separated die-cut pieces.  In the first picture you can see I also colored some extra pieces in the set and die-cut them to be used in the projects too.

The list of Stampin' Blends used is:  Daffodil Delight, So Saffron, Pale Papaya, Pumpkin Pie, Real Red, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Bronze, Mint Macaron, Soft Succulent, Evening Evergreen, Granny Apple Green, Old Olive, and Mossy Meadow.  Oh yes, the Color Lifter too. 

One of the very best things about the Blends is how you can put one color on top of another and you can still see that two different colors are used.  Check out the oak leaves with their multiple colors but blended together to be totally gorgeous in my humble opinion.

Okay, now you've got an idea of how the set is used, let's see a finished card.

No matter how many times I tried this picture, the colors just aren't showing up as nicely as in the other pictures!  Can you see the Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, and Mossy Meadow Blends on the leaves?  And the Bronze and Pumpkin Pie mix on the acorns? It's even hard to see the two colors on the acorn caps.  But it's all there and I love it!

This card started with a Pumpkin Pie card base that's 8 1/2" x 5 1/2", scored and folded in half.  I liked the idea of wood behind the images but had no current wood DSP.  I found the In Good Taste DSP with all the lovely wood grained patterns.  The one I chose has traces of Pumpkin Pie in the design, so I thought it'd be perfect.  It's cut to 5 1/4" x 4".  

Before attaching the DSP, a length of Natural 1/2" Woven Ribbon (found on page 25 of the Mini Catalog) was wrapped around and attached to the folded card base using MultiPurpose Liquid Glue.  A short length of ribbon was tied to it off to the side.

I was thinking about Thanksgiving time, so looked for a sentiment that would work.  I wanted the images to flow around the sentiment and this one from the Hope & Prayer set (page 71 in the Annual Catalog) worked fine.

The Stylish Shapes Die set was used for a nice, stitched square to stamp on.   The sentiment was stamped with Memento tuxedo Black ink in the center, then the die-cut images were arranged around it.  The sentiment was attached to the card front using Dimensionals.  The main image on the bottom was attached with a mix of adhesive and Dimensionals where needed to keep it flat.  The little extra pieces were attached both above and below the white layer with the acorn attached with a Dimensional.

Five of the amber gems from the Leaf Label and Amber Gem pack were added for some bling.  (Now I have to find a way to use the Leaf Labels too!)  I think that's it for this card.  If you don't feel comfortable using so many colors of Blends together on one piece, practice on scrap paper til you get the hang of it.  It's amazing when you start playing around with your colors to see what you can come up with by mixing!!  I'm curious to hear what you think of this idea.

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Thanks for stopping by to see what's happening here.   Hope you've been inspired to play with your Stampin' Blends some more.  They really are an awesome coloring tool.

Happy stamping and creating!

Sharon