Hello there! We're ushering in Autumn at The Greetery with the new Autumn Air Collection and I'm excited to show you what I've made with it! Let's dive right in!
I love this card and the elements on it so much!! Ok, so I used the new Autumn Crest stamp, stencil and die, and the Crest No. 1 die to create the focal point of this card. (Don't you love it when something is named No. 1.....that kind of implies there may be more coming down the road, doesn't it?? I sure hope so!!)
I stenciled the leaves and sure had fun playing with colors, going from a blue-y purple at the bottom, to a plum-y pinky purple in the middle and and orange at the top. I love the red tones that emerged from the overlap of the middle purple ink with the orange! Such a pretty ombre!!
PRO TIP: Remember when ink blending, that you don't have to use a zillion colors! When you blend one color into another, you're going to naturally be creating additional colors as those two colors mix! It's similar to mixing paint for an artist!
I only used three colors on the leaves, but it looks like quite a few more colors were used. You can especially see this if you look at the full-view photo of this card up above. Notice all the pink and red tones? I didn't use a single pink or red ink!
The sentiment is from the new Strength for Today sentiment set and let me just tell you, it's a good one! Had trouble deciding which sentiment to use because there are so many good ones to choose from!!
And how about that orange backer behind the Autumn Crest?! Look at that gorgeous dotted texture! That's from the new Pierced Plaid Plate and that might just be my favorite item from the release! *Might*! I have a few favorites! Haha!
PRO TIP: I did a bit of ink blending along the bottom half of that orange crest panel, to darken it at the bottom, which gives it some extra interest and dimension. When ink blending over a textured piece, start with a light hand so as to not flatten your texture! You can always go heavier with your hand and with the layering on of the ink, but you can't undo it if you do too much at the beginning.
I used the same Pierced Plaid on the strip of orange, and then used the previously released Nordic Slimline die for that skinny strip of purple card stock, as well as a die from Macrame Diamonds to add the diamond pattern at the bottom.
{Joy of the Lord supplies -- click on thumbnails}
Next up, you get a bigger and better view of just what the new Pierced Plaid Plate looks like when you use it to cover the whole front of the card! Isn't it cool?!!
I paired it with the new Oakwood stamps, stencils and die. All the sentiment elements are from the same stamp set. And behind that big, beautiful Oakwood die cut, I tucked an A2 Arches die cut.
PRO TIP: That arch helps to ground the branch, so it doesn't appear to just be floating on the card. Instead, it almost gives the feeling that you're looking through a window at that oak branch and just like that, your focal point gets a lot more interesting and dynamic!
PRO TIP: Here again, I had fun with ink blending on the leaves.....really concentrating more color toward the base of the leaves and letting the tips (where light would be more likely to hit them in real life) to be lighter/brighter. Adding shading and highlights like that, adds so much to a stamped image....again, much like you would do if you were painting it!
Something else to note: I used gray ink for the details on the brown stem. You might normally just think to use brown on the stem, but in real life, lots of tree branches have gray tones in them, even though they generally look brown from a distance. Using that dark gray ink gave it the depth it needed, to really let those cool branch details (like that knot) to stand out! (I love the details on that branch!!)
{Autumn Greetings supplies}
One more for today! This one pairs several new items! First up, I used the new Flourished Phrases Thanks stencil and die to create the amazing sentiment. Then, I used the "for all you do" from the companion Flourished Phrases Thanks stamp set. Lastly, I added the "Sending" stamp from the new Mum's The Word stamp, stencil and die set.
Mum's the Word, is also what I used to create that colorful floral background panel!!
PRO TIP: I know I tell you this all the time, but think outside the box a little when choosing colors sometimes! We had the coolest variety of mums a couple years ago, called Pink Flamingo. They were huge and they were decidedly pink with orange shading! They were my inspiration for these mums here! And even though these were inspired by actual real-life pink and orange mums, you don't always have to choose totally realistic colors! Don't be afraid to experiment and PLAY a little! Have you ever sat down to color with a little kid? They don't often care that elephants "should be" gray or that the sky "has to be" blue. They just color! And they use all the colors! (Except for the brown phase I went through in the first grade, when I decided brown was my favorite color. Colored an entire picture brown and when my teacher walked by my desk and saw it, she asked me if I was ok. LOL! I told her yes, I was fine and she said, "Well then, why did you color your picture brown?" I said, "Because I just really like brown." Hahahahaha!! Yes, ME! BROWN! I wish I could insert about five laughing face emojis here!!! Still makes me laugh to think about it! And sometimes I do still really like brown, but that phase of all brown lasted about one day! Haha! Thankfully, I've since developed an appreciation for many colors!
But the point is, MOST kiddos just have fun when they're choosing colors and they don't worry about "have to's" and "should be's" and there's nothing saying we can't take the same approach! I bet these mums would look super cool in shades of greens and turquoises! Or what about all all blues panel?!
{Thanks For All You Do supplies}
As always, there's loads more inspiration for you today over at The Greetery Blog, as well as on the Design Team blogs!
1. Angelica
2. Dana
3. Dawn
4. Kelly
5. Laurie
6. Melissa
7. Wanda
Thanks so much for spending a bit of your day with me! Be sure to leave a comment to be entered to win one of two $50 gift certificates today, from The Greetery!
What's your favorite so far??
Shop my artwork on my website! Follow me on Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest for all the latest updates. Shop my Amazon Storefront and my liketoknow.it page for all my current favorites!
(Affiliates Disclaimer: Just so you know, I sometimes use affiliate links here on my blog, which means that I participate in several affiliate programs, in which I may receive a small commission when you click one of these links and purchase a product at the corresponding product site (usually within a certain amount of time). There are no additional costs for you as a result of these links, but by shopping through these links, you are not only supporting me and the work I do here, but you're also helping me to continue to bring you beautiful content and inspiration here at my blog, for free! Please know that I share products with you that I use and enjoy and I make every effort to represent those to you honestly. Thanks so much, friends, for your support! I appreciate you!)
