AUTUMN LOVE

I just have to admit that I am having loads of fun with the recent Haunts and Harvest Paper Pumkin kit! The kit contained all the components to make 12 adorable treat boxes. Not being a treat box lover, I only made one -- and didn't even complete that one to be honest. Instead, I am most intrigued with the leaves and the stamps that came in the kit. I actually have made several cards already using these things.

Yesterday, I made the card I show in the photos below. A very simple looking card, it took a bit of planning to make the leafy circle work.

Do you notice that the leaves are inside a perfect circle? Check out the next two photos to see how I did that.

I grabbed an old piece of used copy paper (notice the lettering showing through? Recycle!) and, using a circle die that measures about 3 1/8" in diameter, I cut a circle in the copy paper. The reason you want to use something thin like copy paper is that, if you use anything thicker -- say, cardstock -- the images would not go right up to the edge of the circle space. So we want to use next to nothing. If you know what I mean.

I cut a piece of Basic White cardstock that measures 4" x 5 1/4" to use as my base for the leaves. It is easy to line up the circle perfectly onto the white by holding the two up to a light source and moving it until the circle is exactly where you want it on the cardstock. Once that is positioned the way you want it, add two pieces of tape on the backside to hold it all in place as you work.

Choose whichever colors of inks you want to use for your fall composition. I used Mango Melody, Pumpkin Pie and Merry Merlot. Nice autumn-y colors. I kept all the ink pads open as long as I was stamping for ease. And I cleaned the stamp each time I stamped a leaf so I didn't contaminate any of the inks. Ink up a leaf stamp and start with your first leaf close to the center of the masked off circle. Keep alternating colors and leaves and continue to stamp from that first leaf and working outward. Stamp the leaves as close together as you can without overlapping them. 

You can see in the next photo how I went off the edge to make a complete and unified composition. The copy paper mask kept it all to a perfect circle.

Once all the leaf stamping is finished, gently peel off the tape and the mask, and, voila, a nice circle-shaped image of falling leaves!

Just a creative note here: I considered briefly about stamping the veins on the leaves once I had the leaf shapes stamped. I thought that would add a bit more realism. But, then I decided not to, feeling it would add too much distraction to this clean design. I'm glad I decided not to add the veins.

To make this into a card, I just added a coordinating bow tied from cord that came in a long ago Paper Pumpkin kit. I attached it with a glue dot.

The sentiment, stamped in Merry Merlot ink, was cut out with one of the really cool dies from the Seasonal Labels dies, which can be found in the Mini Catalog on page 18. Check these dies (and coordinating stamps) out! The labels in the die set are so versatile and can be (and WILL be!) used all year long.

I had a couple of Merry Merlot rhinestones from days gone by, that were perfect to add a little bling to the sentiment label,, which was popped up at the bottom of the card with Stampin' Dimensionals.

Added to a Merry Merlot card base, my card was finished. And I love the clean and simple look of it!

Are you a Paper Pumpkin subscriber? If you're not, I almost feel sorry for you, because you are really missing out on a lot of wonderful projects, stamps and components that can be used over and over again for projects that don't even resemble the original intent of the Paper Pumpkin kit. 

If you'd like to become a subscriber of this nifty monthly playground, just click on the link on the right column of any of my blog posts. You will never regret it!

Leafy

Smiles.