Monday, September 23, 2019

Fall Leaves Thank You Card


Hello and welcome to my blog; today I am going to share with you a thank you card I made using the large leaf stamp from the Gather Together Stamp Set from the 2019 Holiday Catalog, and my Stampin' Blends.  This card take you to the essence of fall with the feel of the cool crisp air and the crinkling of leaves under your feet when you look at it.  This one image is just one of my favorites from the stamp set and I just love using it.  You will see a card later this week where I use it again in a different way.  Here's a look at my card.
You may be asking how I got all those leaves on this piece of cardstock.  Well I just did a little planning and a little simple masking.  I started out by using the matching die for this image and some post it notes and just cut out some very simple masks to use.  I cut out about five or so.  If you have the full sticky backed post it notes it would be much easier, The die no matter how you lay it on the regular post it notes doesn't cut a lot of the sticky on the edge no matter where you place it.  It cuts just enough to hold it in place but I think the full sticky backed post its would work so much better.  Just a little tip there.  I started out by stamping my leaves that I wanted to be on top first.  Each leaf was stamped in the color I was going to color them in.  Then I placed my simple mask on top of that and stamped again.  I would stamp a few and remove the masks and move to another section masking and then stamping.   I repeated this process until I had the entire 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 piece of thick whisper white cardstock covered with leaves.
Now it was time to start coloring.  I pulled out the colors I thought or knew I wanted to use for the coloring.  I used the following Combo Packs of both light and dark Stampin' Blends; Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Cajun Craze, Cherry Cobbler, and Soft Suede.  I then added a few additional colors where needed.  I added a little Mango Melody and Calypso Coral Dark blends to the mix every little bit to add in a little visual interest and to add in to the blending section.  For some of the shadows on the yellow leaves I used a little Highland Heather Dark; since yellow and violet are complementary colors they create a natural that's perfect for adding a little shading to each other.  If you look at the the yellow leaf on the very top left of the image above you can see the shadow between the brown leaf and the yellow one.
To finish off the card I die cut the Thank You Die about five times from white cardstock.  Four of those were from scrap cardstock that had things stamped on them  that had been missed up.  And the top layer was just plain new Whisper White Cardstock.  I then glued all these together one on top of the other using Multipurpose Liquid Glue.  Once I had that I glued together I laid it on my card to look at it and see what I thought.  It needed something to help it pop just a little more so I cut another Thank You from Basic Black Cardstock and used it as a drop Shadow.  Meaning I off set it just a little to the left when I glued it to the other stacked die cuts.   This added just the right amount of pop to the simple card, and allowed the sentiment to stand off the page a little more.  I then attached the finished die cut sentiment to the card front and trimmed it down to 4 x 5 1/4.  When I am coloring a background or a scene I will often start out with a quarter sheet of cardstock knowing I am going to cut it down.
Once I had the sentiment glued down I added it to a Whisper White mat cut at 4 1/8 x 5 3/8 and attached it to my Crumb Cake Card base (4 1/4 x 11 scored at 5 1/2).  To finish off the card I came back in with a white gel pen and added just a few highlights here and there on the leaves to make them stand out a little bit more.  And that my friends finishes my card.  Thanks for dropping by today for a quick little look at how to color Fall leaves with your Stampin' Blends. 

If you live in the US.  I would love you to choose me as your demonstrator.  If you would like to purchase any of these products you can click on the Shop Now Button or by clicking on any of the images below.  Alternatively, you can also contact me by email to place your order.  Please be sure to use the monthly host code and I’ll send a little something out to you the following month to say Thank You!
September HOST CODE:  SQ2WWJZN
  1. Spend any amount with me this month and receive the Creative Stampers Tutorial Bundle featuring Fancy Fold or Interactive Projects.  Plus get a gift from me in October. 


Please remember that if you use the host code you can not use that order towards my KCRP’s (Kinmon Crafty Reward Points) that would be double dipping and is not allowed.  For more information on KCRP’s click here.  


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Sunday, September 22, 2019

You Make Me Smile's Fall Color Inspiration featuring Harvest Hellos

Hello and welcome to my blog; today I am going to share with you my color inspiration for my You Make me Smile card featuring the Harvest Hellos Bundle.  Color drives most of our decisions and we don't even know it.  It's very important when crafting that you can find color inspiration and this is what I based this entire bi-weekly series on.  I get asked all the time where I come up with color combinations and there's inspiration out there everywhere.  It's just a matter of being observant and stopping and noticing all the beautiful colors around you.  I crated this series to help you find inspiration for your projects by sharing some of the ways I find mine.  Since tomorrow is the first day of Fall I drew inspiration from Fall leaves and harvest pumpkins.  Here's a look at my card.

Harvest Hellos: 

The Harvest Hellos Bundle includes the Harvest Hellos Photopolymer Stamp Set and the Apple Builder Punch.  The Harvest Hellos Stamp Set is an A+!  Use the apples for teacher or student gifts.  Then, like the autumn colors shifting from red to orange, the apple becomes a pumpkin with a spooky face!  The stamp set features 15 photopolymer stamps.  When matched with the Apple Builder Punch you can create beautiful die-cut apples (or pumpkins) for your projects. {* Largest punched image: 2-1/2" (6.4 cm)}  The Harvest Hello Bundle is in the Holiday Catalog on page 49.

Tips & Tricks:  

To start off my card I picked out the supplies that I knew I wanted to use.  I already knew my colors from picking my inspiration so I started out by picking the pumpkin stamp from the Harvest Hellos stamp set.  I stamped three of the pumpkins stems and larger leaves in Memento Tuxedo Black ink because I knew that I wanted to use my Stampin' Blends to color them.  To color I picked Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Soft Suede, and Old Olive all in light and dark tones.  I started out coloring the pumpkins in light Daffodil Delight and then brought in the darker and slowly built up the colors to Pumpkin Pie as my darkest colors.  I did the same thing with the pumpkin leaves.  Once the pumpkin was colored I punched them out with the Apple Builder Punch.  I also punched out the stem but sadly the punch doesn't cut out this leaf but does do the other leaf design in the set. Since I couldn't punch that leaf out I had to pull out the paper snips and fussy cut it out.  Which was super simple to do.  

Once I had the main focal images cut out either by punching or fussy cutting I put them all together using a little liquid glue.  Next I picked my card base.  I knew the colors I was using but had to decided which one to use for the card base.  I went with my favorite color Crumb Cake.  I cut my Crumb Cake Cardstock to 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 scored at 4 1/4.  I then cut down a piece of the Regals Designer Series Paper  to 3" x 5 1/2".  Out of the four patterns in the this pack of paper I picked the gingham pattern in Cajun Craze.  I layered the designer series paper on a piece of Crushed Curry cardstock cut at 3 1/2 x 5 1/2" and then layered that on a piece of Early Espresso Cardstock that was 3 3/4 x 5 1/2".  I placed all my layered cardstock and designer series paper onto my card base.  Once I had everything stuck down it was time to start arranging the pumpkins.  Before I started layering my pumpkins I stamped the little curly cues that you normally see on pumpkins in Early Espresso ink on the designer series paper.  Once I had that stamped down I added the pumpkins.  The two on the sides I just glued them onto the card.  The center one I placed on Stampin' Dimensionals and placed on the center.  I tied a little double bow on the stem of the center pumpkin.  I stamped the sentiment on a little piece of Whisper White cardstock and made a fish tail banner.  I also popped it up on dimensionals.  This finished off my card.  

Pin Me!  

The photo below shows the key color inspiration along with the Stampin’ Up! Coordinating colors for today’s project idea that you can save or pin to Pinterest.  If you are viewing this post by email, you will need to click the title of the post to access my blog and pin.   You can view my entire project recipes by visiting my Color Inspiration Pinterest board by clicking here!  Make sure that you follow my board to be notified when a new color inspiration is added.
Thanks for dropping by today I hope that you have found a little inspiration from my card today.  If you live in the US.  I would love you to choose me as your demonstrator.  If you would like to purchase any of these products you can click on the Shop Now Button or by clicking on any of the images below.  Alternatively, you can also contact me by email to place your order.  Please be sure to use the monthly host code and I’ll send a little something out to you the following month to say Thank You!  
Happy Stampin' 
Rick 



Host Code and Free Gift:

September HOST CODE:  SQ2WWJZN
  1. Spend any amount with me this month and receive the Creative Stampers Tutorial Bundle featuring Fancy Fold or Interactive Projects.  Plus get a gift from me in October. 

Please remember that if you use the host code you can not use that order towards my KCRP’s (Kinmon Crafty Reward Points) that would be double dipping and is not allowed.  For more information on KCRP’s click here. 

Stampin' Up! Shopping List:

Paper Snips
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