Falling Leaves

Aloha, all!

     This week's challenge from the Stampin' Up! Only Challenge blog was to have leaves as a main feature in our project.  I originally thought about using these leaves in my project for the Fall Colors challenge last time around.  But when I started to add them to that card, I decided that I'd rather use it for THIS card and do something else with the fall colors.  Still Fall colors here, though – for sure!  I just LOVE the colors of leaves in the Fall.  I also love that, here in Hawaii, I don't have to rake them after they turn brown and "fall" to the ground!

     The leaf for this card is a stamp in one of this year's Hostess sets called Faith in Nature. And the leaf, along with the other two images in the set, have words running through them that give them a sort of vintage look.  As I'm not too bad at reading French, I determined that the words SEEM to be in French, though some of the longer ones have their letters interrupted with the leaf lines.  But they sure do look nice, especially when you do as I do and sponge them up and wrinkle their edges a bit.  At first I considered just layering these stamps using a masking technique.  But once I started cutting into the first stamped image to make the mask, I realized how relaxing that effort was and I really like the end result.

     The colors in the leaves are More Mustard, Lucky Limeade, Pumpkin Pie, Cherry Cobbler and Cajun Craze.  All Fall colors where I grew up on the east coast of the United States!  The card stock colors that I used as a backdrop for the leaves are Lucky Limeade, More Mustard and Cajun Craze.  I finished the card off with a variety of colors of brads – Cherry Cobbler, More Mustard and Old Olive.  The Old Olive seemed to match the Lucky Limeade well enough to carry that color combo off. 

     And, of course, "tying" it all together is some of the fun new Lucky Limeade 3/8" Ruffled Ribbon. 

     It's been awhile since I've had a sketch for you in one of my blog posts.  So I "leave" you today with this one!  Have fun with whatever you do with this sketch!