The musings and offerings of a burgeoning greetings master

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Mr Cardmaker is in Autumn Heaven

Autumn is my favorite time of year.  Not so surprising, really.  How could you NOT love the colors, the smells, the crisp air? 
Now, I once knew a man who got depressed when autumn came.  When I asked him about it, he said it was because "it only means that winter is coming."  Terribly unfortunate for him, to have that reaction to such a beautiful time of year. 

Anyway, I decided to do some autumn cards, and I came up with a Thanksgiving (or just a thank you) card that I am really happy with. 


I made this--


 
This card's inspiration comes from the little gold colored panel.  I started with a piece of cream cardstock, and hand colored it with a direct to paper technique, using Mostly Mustard and Crumb Cake inks (SU).  Then I ran it through the Cuttlebug in an embossing folder, and re inked it with more crumbcake ink, hitting only the raised portions.
 
I backed it with a panel of gray card stock , colored with more crumbcake ink and edged with Memento Espresso Truffle ink, and added some white brads that I colored to look cream with a copic marker (E53).
 
The background was stamped with my Inkadinkadoo flourish stamps in Versamark ink, then wet embossed in clear embossing powder.  Then, more crumbcake ink to make it all pop.
 
The leaves were the super fun part for me.  I grabbed scraps of designer paper AND the piece of scrap paper that was under the cardstock I did my hand coloring on, and punched leaves with my Fiskars leaf punch. 
The scrap leaf looks like this--
 
 
 
I did MORE direct to paper on the rest of the leaves, making them bright but streaky and worn looking.  Doing the direct to paper AFTER punching helped to give the edges more presence, and I didn't have to go back and add edging on each leaf with a sponge dauber later.
 
They looked just a bit flat to me, so I grabbed my Delicata gold ink, and hit them all with that.  WOW! what a difference!  Lots of life, and a wonderful little shimmer and glow. 
 
I curled the leaves around a pencil, with some edges going forward, and some going back, and I adhered them by adding tape only to the places where the leaf hit the surface, so lots of edges were loose, and lots of texture was visible. 
 
The label was made with memento Espresso Truffle ink on a stamp by inkadinkadoo, and punched with an SU punch.  I punched a second label out of Kraft card stock, edged it in the same ink, and cut it in half to add a backing to the sentiment piece. That was added with some foam tape for some dimension.
Here's a close-up of that--
 
 
 
All in all, I really like this one, especially because of the shiny stuff! 
 
I hope your autumn is a beautiful one, and that you are getting wonderful inspiration from Nature at its finest!
 
Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard
 
Supplies:  Cardstock-GinaKDesigns, Bazzill Basics; Embellishments- Recollections(brads)Ink-Tsukineko Memento and Delicata, Stampin'Up, Studio G, Copic Marker;  Papers, Me & My big Ideas, My Mind's Eye;  Stamps- Inkadinkadoo;  Tools-Stampin' Up and FIskars punches, Scor Buddy, Cuttlebug machine and embossing folder.
 
 

 



9 comments:

  1. I too just love Autumn! Rich, warm colors, and cool crisp days! You captured the colors beautifully in your leaves...the touch of gold was a perfect touch!

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  2. This is beautiful...love the fall leaves and all the wonderful earthy textures. Fabulous job!

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  3. This is so pretty! I love the texture on this!

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  4. This is beautiful! the leaves are simply fabulous with all their variation and detail! Are those hot air balloons? excellent work!!!

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  5. Autumn is my favorite crafting season! Love the colors of the trees, and the freshness in the air. And, dear friend, what a gorgeous card you have created! Wow!!! Thanks for sharing :) Can't wait to see what you do next!

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  6. I just wanna rake 'em all into a BIG pile and jump right in the MIDDLE of it!!!! Freakin' awesome textures, the colors and designs and inking completely grasp the crispness of the wonderful Autumn season. The wood grained embossing is essential and suberbly inked.
    Here I go....GERONIMO!!!!!!!!
    hugs,
    Lisa xx

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  7. fabulous card. love all the texture---perfect for an autumn card!

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  8. This is beautiful Richard. Love the fine detail in all of the leaves and the background panel. Happy Fall! Best, Curt

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