Colorful Seasons Autumn Leaves

The change of season inspired the cards I have to share today. It seems like just overnight many of our trees went from having lush green foliage to leaves the shade of golden yellow. Our maple and oak trees are still holding onto their green leaves, but when they do start to change, the maple are my favorite...with beautiful vibrant oranges and reds. The Colorful Seasons stamp set and coordinating Seasonal Layers Thinlits have some great maple leaves included, which is what I used here.

To create this autumn branch, I first cut out the large branch from Soft Suede card stock using the Seasonal Layers Thinlits.  I placed the branch onto my Very Vanilla panel and lightly traced the outline of the branch to help with the leaf placement.

I stamped the leaves using the Wet Wipe Technique...which is perfect for creating the look of fall leaves. If you've never tried this technique it's really fun and super easy to use with any bold, solid image to get a multicolor look. Simply fold  a wet wipe to increase thickness and create a more manageable size...roughly the size of an ink pad. Place wet wipe onto a flat plastic surface that you don't mind getting inky. The image sheet from your Stamp-a-ma-jig works well for this. Use several colors of Ink Refills to ink up the wet wipe. Colors will mix together to create new shades, so try and use colors that look good mixed or you will end up with brown, muddy colors.

After stamping leaves, I lightly sponged the background with Dapper Denim and the edges with Soft Suede, adhered the branch and added my sentiment. Then I ran the piece through the Big Shot using the Pinewood Planks Embossing Folder.

I thought it made quite a nice masculine card so I made several since I had my wet wipe "ink pad" all made and I needed to send out some guy cards. This one gets an extra pop with the intricate Copper Foil die cut leaf. Here's a look at the group of cards I made...just like in nature, they all turned out a little different. As you can see, its a card suitable for all different occasions.

Have a wonderful day!