WREATH ON A BRICK WALL

Did you happen to notice the loveliness that is the Painted Autumn Designer Series Paper (page 49 of the Holiday catalog)?

Each and every one of the designs in this pack is beautiful, and I'd have a really difficult time choosing just one favorite. Seriously. While most of the sheets are definitely autumn-colored, one in particular jumped out at me as being a little too GREEN for fall. To me, this particular design reminded me of the beautiful wreath stamp set (and matching dies) that retired with the last catalog. Oh, woe is me! I love that wreath. LOVE IT.

I did not invest in the coordinating dies. And that is mostly because I decided not to stamp it "correctly" so it could be cut out with the die. I stamped each layer more randomly. Thus I was forced to -- OH NO! FUSSY CUT! -- the wreath. Which, of course, I absolutely love to do.

Since I refuse to ever get rid of my Christmas stamp sets, I intend to use them year after year. It matters little to me that a set may be retired. If I love it, I will use it.

Anyway, back to this sheet of DSP. The card I made using it is shown below. Doesn't the design match up well with the leaves and berries in the wreath? Kismet.

I stamped the wreath to mimic the colors in the DSP. When I finished the stamping, I cut it and the ribbon bow out. I discovered that laying the wreath against the busy background was an absolute no-no. It pretty much got lost.

To make this card even a little more special and to give the wreath a home of its own, I incorporated a few other Stampin' Up! products, pictured below. I used the Embossing Paste, one of the Palette Knives and the brick wall from the Pattern Party Decorative Masks, all shown on page 201. And, notice that little scrap of paper at the bottom of the photo? I will get back to that.

Being fairly haphazard when applying the Embossing Paste through the brick wall mask, I used the technique on a quarter sheet of Very Vanilla cardstock. I did not want my bricks to be perfection. BO-RING. 

From that quarter sheet of cardstock, I die cut a circle that enshrined the fussy cut wreath.

I was careful about the placement of the circle die so I had a nice strip of the brick wall left over to add to the bottom to carry the brick look throughout the card. The bottom strip measures  3 3/4" x about 1 1/4".

For the sentiment across the small brick wall, it is, of course, from a retired set. I stamped it and carefully cut it out, adding it to the card with a couple Mini Stampin' Dimensionals.

OK, now is the time to talk about that scrap of paper in the previous picture. I applied ink direct to paper to make the Very Vanilla the same color as the berries. I then punched out two dots with the 1/4" circle punch. I also punched out two 1/8" dots from the matching green cardstock. Piling these on top of each other, I created my own little embellishments.

I added clear Wink of Stella to the berries and to the green dots in the embellishment. I am chagrined that -- once again -- the sparkle does not make itself apparent in my photo.

Oh, why not?? Let's take another close look at the lovely DSP.

This card came together so well, with the help of the non-autumn-ish DSP. It makes me smile when I look at it.

Have you been using the Embossing Paste and masks? What have your experiences been with the product? 

I really love using it. It is a cinch to add a cool dimensional background to any card. The only thing you need to worry about is quickly cleaning off your mask and palette knife before the paste hardens on them and . . . well, that wouldn't be a good thing. 

Non-Autumn-Ish

Smiles.