Good morning!
Well, it had to happen sooner or later… summer is on its way out with a bit of a whimper in these parts as August was really not a great month for the weather.
But with autumn around the corner it’s time to ease ourselves into a new colour palette and new card themes.
The September elemental inspiration challenge over on the Daring Cardmakers blog is doing just that.
For my elements I went with wood grain, leaves, and autumn colours:
Stamps: The Stamp Market – Big Botanicals
Dies: The Stamp Market – Big Botanicals, The Stamp Market – Jumbo Tag
Before all else I’d decided that I wanted to try out a colour combo I’d recently seen on The Stamp Market’s Instagram feed, and this makes selecting inks a whole lot easier when they are just there in your drawer. No time spent looking at swatch charts to check if you have something similar from another brand that you could substitute with.
So I had my inks to the ready and just needed to find a stamp/die that would fit the autumnal feel so I could create a background.
I checked on Evernote (my OCD cataloguing of stamp and die sets comes in very handy at times) and the best fit for what I had in mind was the Bold Botanicals set also from The Stamp Market.
I stamped the branch out in the various colours and die cut them ready to position on a card.
I realised pretty soon that I’d need to use a 5×7 card base to fit everything on.
I wanted to still go clean and simple with my project but that takes a bit of precision if popping elements up on foam tape and wanting to make sure they end up in the right place when you stick them down. I’m not so great at that…
My top tool for this card was Press n Seal – I couldn’t have kept everything in place without it. It’s pricey to purchase here in the UK as it’s an import item usually available via amazon or ebay. But a little goes a long way and you can be frugal with it and reuse sections you cut until they lose their stick. 🙂
Once I’d arranged all the leaf branches on the woodgrain panel just how I wanted, I took a piece of Press n Seal (from a previous project) and pressed it down onto the card front so everything was held right. I flipped it over with the panel still attached and then drew around the woodgrain panel with a pencil – marking the reverse of the die cuts so I would know where to apply slivers of foam tape and so it would be easy to line up the panel when sticking it onto the leaves.
It took some time to apply little slivers of foam tape here and there to all the branches, but it was worth the effort. 🙂
Once they were all in place I just needed a bold sentiment and I had some off cuts of Gravel and Slate cardstock on my desk needing to be used and so out came my Jumbo Tag again, but this time for the Happy Birthday word die.
Finally, I added clear Nuvo drops all over to fill in some of that white space between the branches.
Make sure you check out the wonderful projects from the rest of the design team – it’s not all autumn on the blog this week – and play along if you can. 🙂
Happy crafting!
 The Stamp Market – Big Botanicals stamps Shop at: MISC |
 The Stamp Market – Big Botanicals dies Shop at: MISC |
 The Stamp Market – Jumbo Tag dies Shop at: MISC |
 The Stamp Market – Blush Pink ink pad Shop at: MISC |
 The Stamp Market – Bubble Gum ink pad Shop at: MISC |
 The Stamp Market – Curry ink pad Shop at: MISC |
 The Stamp Market – Melon Orange ink pad Shop at: MISC |
 The Stamp Market – Peach ink pad Shop at: MISC |
 The Stamp Market – Rusty ink pad Shop at: MISC |
 Lawn Fawn – Woodgrain cardstock – Neutrals Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC |
 The Stamp Market – Gravel cardstock Shop at: MISC |
 The Stamp Market – Slate cardstock Shop at: MISC |
 Tonic Studios Nuvo Crystal Drops – Morning Dew (clear) Shop at: AZ | EH | SHC |
 Ranger – Multi-Medium Matte adhesive Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC |
 3M Scotch double-sided foam tape Shop at: AZ | EH |
 Lawn Fawn – Stamp shammy cleaner Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC | SHC |
 MISTI stamping tool Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC |
 Sizzix – Big Shot machine Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC |
 Sizzix – Sidekick machine Shop at: AZ | SBC |
 Tim Holtz – Tonic guillotine trimmer (maxi) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC |
 Tim Holtz – Tonic guillotine trimmer (small) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC |
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