KNITTED ACORN

In the Holiday Catalog, which is current now until January 3, Stampin' Up! introduced something new in their lineup of products. On page 13 you can find the Cable Knit Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, a mouthful, I know. But it is honestly so cool! It has the most texture and dimension of any embossing folder I've ever seen.

Ever since I got my hands on one of these exquisite folders, I was anxious to use it in a card. Since it is a warm and cozy cable knit, that's the type of card I wanted to feature it on. I wanted the textured background to be very prominent and easy to enjoy. But I didn't want it to completely take over the card.

I used two of the acorn components from the Acorny Thank You stamp set on page 202 of the big catalog. 

The ultra wide ribbon is some that I've had from years past and I have always loved it, although I don't get much of a chance to use it. So I called it into play for this fall-flavored card. The ribbon is Chocolate Chip and Very Vanilla. So, to create my acorn, I made the bottom in Chocolate Chip, and since the cable knit was in Soft Suede, that's the color of my acorn cap.

Do you love the awesome Very Vanilla tag on which my acorn rests? It is one of the Cheerful Tags Framelits Dies (page 39 of the Holiday Catalog). Except I snipped off the portion that has the big circle in it. That left a cool shape with two slits through which I was able to slip my stripe-y ribbon.

The Chocolate Chip swirl-y shapes that bracket the acorn are also from that Framelits set.

A little close-up of the fantastic texture. This photo still doesn't do it justice though. You really needd to see and touch it in person.

One thing to remember about this embossing folder: If you simply run a piece of cardstock through the embossing folder as you usually would, that's just what you would get: a piece of embossed cardstock. Nice. But not the purpose of this specialized embossing folder. It sounds sort of weird, but in order to get the deeply textured dimension that it was meant to give, you need to SPRITZ THE CARDSTOCK LIGHTLY WITH WATER ON BOTH SIDES before putting it into the embossing folder. The wetness fades quickly. But the extra dimension you get from stretching the paper fibers a little with the water first is AMAZING! 

One more close-up of the overall texture. Don't you just LOVE it??

My girls created this card at the Stamp-In Workshop I held last week. I had meant it to be a cozy Thanksgiving card, so I encouraged them to choose from among the Thanksgiving sentiments I had to stamp inside the card.

If you'd like to re-create this card, following are the supplies and directions:

SUPPLIES:

Acorny Thank You stamp set

Soft Suede cardstock

Chocolate Chip cardstock

Very Vanilla cardstock

Soft Suede ink

Chocolate Chip ink

Big Shot

Cheerful Tags Framelits

Cable Knit Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

Striped Ribbon

Stampin' Dimensionals

DIRECTIONS:

Fold a 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" sheet of Very Vanilla cardstock in half, creasing well with a bone folder.

Spritz with water both sides of a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of Soft Suede cardstock. Immediately place it inside the Cable Knit Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder and run it through the Big Shot. Be sure to feed the hinge edge of the embossing folder through the Big Shot first. Once this piece is completely dry, adhere it to the card base.

Run a scrap of Very Vanilla cardstock through the Big Shot and cut with the Cheerful Frames Framelit with the hole in the center. Trim off the portion that has the hole. You won't be using that part.

Insert a 5" piece of wide striped ribbon through the holes at the top and bottom of the tag. Making the ribbon lay as nicely as possible, fold the top end over to the back of the tag, and secure it in place with a piece of tape. Trim the bottom portion of the ribbon to produce two points. Arrange the ribbon within its slit as you wish.

Run scraps of Chocolate Chip cardstock through the Big Shot and create two of the fancy scrolls from the Framelits set. Adhere these to the sides of the label.

On a scrap of Very Vanilla cardstock, stamp the cap of the acorn in Soft Suede and the bottom of it in Chocolate Chip. Cut out the two pieces. WHEN CUTTING THE BOTTOM PIECE, LEAVE A PORTION AT THE TOP SO THERE IS ROOM TO ATTACH THE CAP BY OVERLAPPING. Attach the cap to the bottom with a piece of Stampin' Dimensional. Then attach the acorn to the center of the tag with a Stampin' Dimenisonal.

Now, don't you just want to snuggle up in a cozy cable knit sweater in front of the fire with a cup of hot chocolate and a good book?

Knitted

Smiles.