Wondrous Wreath for The Paper Players

In all the excitement of the new Holiday Catalogue, the poor old Annual Catalogue often gets forgotten and left behind. But I wanted to show you that there are many great stamp sets and framelits in the Annual Catalogue that are perfect for this time of year as well as for the holiday season. The stamp set I wanted to highlight today is Wondrous Wreath and the coordinating Wondrous Wreath Framelits. It was meant to be a Christmas stamp set and is terrific for making classy Christmas cards, but it can also be used for the other seasons, simply by changing the colour palette. For this card, I gave it a fall theme in line with The Paper Players' Challenge 263:

As this is a Clean-and-Simple Challenge, I didn't want to have a lot of different images. Simply an image, and sentiment and the background.

• The Wondrous Wreath photopolymer stamp set is designed for a 3 step stamping experience, and the great thing is that Stampin' Up! has added a directional tab to each of the 3 stamps so you can line up the images by aligning the tap of each one with the others. The coordinating Wondrous Wreath framelits also have a tab to make aligning them with the images easy.
• I chose an autumn palette for my wreath with Pumpkin Pie ink for the first image, Versamark Ink with Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder for the second and Cherry Cobbler ink for the little berries and the bow. The touch of gold elegance on the card contrasts effectively with the rustic background.
• The background is the Hardwood stamp, stamped in Crumb Cake ink on a piece of Crumb Cake cardstock. This wreath needs a fairly non-busy background and the Hardwood filled the bill when Designer Series Paper and other background stamps just didn't work.

• The sentiment is from the For All Things stamp set and I inked up the two lines separately using Stampin' Write Markers in Pumpkin Pie and Cherry Cobbler, cleaning them thoroughly in between stamping them so as not to end up with ghost images of the other part on the sentiment from the residue on the Stampin' Scrub. The stamp has the two lines aligned left, but when I stamped each line separately, I could center each one. The label and it's backing pieces are die cut using the Tags & Labels Framelits.

This was a fun card to make! I hope you'll give it a try. The list of supplies is below.

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today!

Product List

Wondrous Wreath Photopolymer Stamp Set [135047]	For All Things Clear-Mount Stamp Set [135155]	For All Things Wood-Mount Stamp Set [135152]	Hardwood Wood-Mount Stamp Set [133032]	Hardwood Clear-Mount Stamp Set [133035]
Gold Foil Sheets [132622]	Pumpkin Pie 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [105117]	Crumb Cake 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [120953]	Cherry Cobbler 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [119685]	Very Vanilla 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [101650]
Versamark Pad [102283]	Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad [126975]	Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin' Pad [126945]	Brights Stampin' Write Markers [131259]	Regals Stampin' Write Markers [131262]
Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder [109129]	Embossing Buddy [103083]	Heat Tool [129053]	Wonderful Wreath Framelits Dies [135851]	Tags & Labels Framelits Dies [138282]
Big Shot [113439]	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755]	Fast Fuse Adhesive [129026]	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430]

Grateful for Freshly Made Sketches

Today I felt like making a Grateful fall card. Heaven knows why. I was just missing the warmth and texture of fall I guess. I'm not ready for summer to be over, not by a long shot, but the feeling didn't pass and I went with it!

The simplicity of the Freshly Made Sketches Challenge felt just right for the kind of card I was thinking of:

I've also been keen to use Delightful Dijon in an autumn design, so this was my chance:

• Oh, hello, Soft Suede! It's been a while! Good to see you again, and I love how you pair with Delightful Dijon!
• I dug out For All Things because of the shape of the watercolour wash stamp. It fit perfectly with the square shape of the image panel. I debated a while before picking the acorns for the image as opposed to the sheaf of leaves or wheat or whatever it is, but I chose the acorns in the end because I could use a different colour ink on them instead of the Delightful Dijon I used for the sentiment. Both are from For All Things stamp set.
• Burlap ribbon has been another stranger lately and imagining the banner in burlap was what really set my mind on a fall card in the first place. I continue to love the texture it creates on any project.
• I combined the rustic texture of burlap and the sparkle and class of gold when I created the "rat's nest" of thread behind the main panel to add to the texture of the card. If you cut yourself a 12" or so piece of burlap ribbon, trim off the sewing on the edge and pull out the threads, it gives you a wavy piece of burlap thread to use in place of linen thread. The Gold Metallic Thread comes just as you see, wound on a spool, ready to use.

Well, maybe thinking about the colours of fall, the chill in the air that it brings and the return to routine will make you cherish another month of summer a little more!

Thanks for dropping by today, and tomorrow I'll have another design for As You See It Challenges!

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today!

Product List

For All Things Wood-Mount Stamp Set [135152]	For All Things Clear-Mount Stamp Set [135155]	Soft Suede 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [115318]	Delightful Dijon 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [138338]	Very Vanilla 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [101650]
Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad [126978]	Delightful Dijon Classic Stampin' Pad [138327]	Cajun Craze Classic Stampin' Pad [126965]	1-1/4" Burlap Ribbon [132140]	Gold Metallic Thread [138401]
Craft Scissors [108360]	Fuse Fast Adhesive [129026]	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755]	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430]

Time for a Fall Card in a Box

Hello!  Hope you had a fine, fine fall weekend.  We had beautiful weather and warm temperatures, but I did notice lots of leaves turning colour, so I thought it was time for new design for a card-in-a-box.

This is a very cool card that folds flat to fit in a standard envelope, but when you take it out and open it, you get a little box full of surprises!

• I used Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry and Always Artichoke as my fall themed colours.  There is something so satisfying about the warmth of autumn hues and I love working with them.  There is also the sparkle of Champagne Glimmer Paper to add to the mix plus some of the Colour Me Autumn DSP.
• The main stamp set used was Fall Fest with it's coordinating Fun Fall Framelits, but I also stamped some images from For All Things and used the Flower Frenzy Bigz L die as well. So today's card is brought to you by the letter "F"!!
• Some of the images were fussy cut, for example the sprigs of leaves from For All Things and the oak leaves from the same set.  It got a bit tricky in places especially on the leaf sprigs.
• I added some Autumn Wooden Elements to the middle display for variety and it works out well.

If you would like instructions on how to make a card-in-a-box card, leave me a comment with your email or send me an email to hcooper52@gmail.com  and sign up to receive my monthly newsletters, and I will email you a completely free step-by-step photo tutorial along with a template to help you.  The tutorial includes a list of products needed and measurements.  You may unsubscribe to the newsletter at any time.