Hi, There, Stampers!
As you might imagine, I found it hard to put away the Autumn Leaves print from the Celebrate Everything Designer Series Paper set. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it – until I was browsing in my computer and came across an old tutorial for the Snip & Tuck fun fold. So off I went to figure out how to put the paper and the fun fold together.
One Step At a Time
This was one of those cards that I designed one step at a time. That is, I didn’t have a vision of what the card might look like once I was finished.
The first step was to have a piece of the Autumn Leaves print on the front of the card over to the left of the cut section. Step two was to decide which of the four main colors in the print I was going to choose as the cardstock for the card base. I wanted something brighter that the Poppy Parade or Shaded Spruce colors in the fall leaves. So Crushed Curry Cardstock it was. It wasn’t hard to then figure out that one of the other colors of the leaves should be the mat for the print. That meant I quickly finished with step four with the selection of Cherry Cobbler Cardstock.
Then on to step five which was to find a stamp set that would be fun to use for the piece of the back of the card base that would “tuck” itself over to the front of the card. After searching through my entire stash of current stamp sets, I finally found what I wanted in the Acorn and Oak Leafe in the Fond of Autumn Stamp Set. I used Cherry Cobbler Ink to stamp several of each on the inside of the card. To fill in some blank spots, I tried to mimic some of the little swirls on the leaf print by stamping a similar image from the Hello Harvest Stamp Set.
If you look at the picture above right, you’ll see how I stamped the images on the inside of the card. After I finished the stamping, I added a layer of Basic White Cardstock to the left side of the inside, giving myself a place to write a note and sign the card. That was step six. I was almost there.
Figuring Out the Last Steps
At this point, I thought the card look just about done – except for a sentiment. Step seven, selecting the sentiment, didn’t take all that long. I already had the Fond of Autumn Stamp Set out, and there was a perfectly good sentiment right in front of me: Autumn Wishes. The problem with this is that a rectangle around the sentiment just didn’t seem to fit well with the overall card design. Then I remembered that Stampin’ Up! has a stamp set with dies to match that cut closely around the sentiments in the stamp set. So what I did with this sentiment was simply to fussy cut around the text of the images. I think that was a pretty cool idea, IMHO.
Then there was the final step. I didn’t realize until the next day that there would actually be a final step. When I walked into my craft room and saw the card sitting there with all that plain Crushed Curry Cardstock on the front, I declared that it needed some texture. But with what?
Have you ever bought something from a Stampin’ Up! catalog and forgot you bought it? If you answered, “No,” you’re a much better organizer than I am. So it was quite a surprise to find the Leaf Fall 3D Embossing Folder in my box of folders. Of course that’s what I would use on the front of this card. So I pried the printed paper layer off the front of the card (yes, it made a mess; but I was going to cover it up again) and embossed the card front – step eight, the real final step. I attached the paper layer again and it was, indeed, finished.
So I Made More!
All in all, this wasn’t a hard card to make once I figured out the design – step by step. It happened that one thing I had on my plate was to make some cards for a small card swap I’d joined. I thought this was a pretty nice looking card, so I made them for the swap. I’ll find out in a couple of weeks whether it was a hit!
And the Sketch
There are only two cuts to make this card. But you have to be careful in making the cuts. What you see here is the INSIDE of the card base. Sure, I could have done the outside of the base. But either way, you need to pay attention to where you are when you make the cuts. I’d suggest that you do whatever stamping or other decorating that you’re going to do on the INSIDE of the card before you do the cutting. That way you’ll be sure to cut in the right place.
Have fun with it!
