Stampin’ Up! Inlaid watercolor leaves

Finally, it is Friday! Well, I am not working outside of being self employed and doing volunteer work, so one day of the week is pretty much like another. However, I do look forward to a bit more relaxed pace on the weekends, sometimes anyway.

It is hard to believe that it has been a month since Hurricane Harvey inundated Houston and environs, and have you heard anything from there lately?? Nope! Not a word. The media certainly covers disasters well when they are happening, but not much of the aftermath and the human suffering. Pray for the folks in Puerto Rico hit by Maria. Such a season it has been already!

Today is the first day of fall, and I am celebrating that fact, even though it feels like July here. 92 degrees today, humid and breezy. They are saying we should be back to normal temps by Tuesday and beyond.

My card is a leafy card. Again. Yes, yes, I know, I do a lot of leaves. I love them. I love the trees. The pine cones, The acorns. The black walnuts. The hedge balls (otherwise known as Osage Orange). All of it! So, here it is!

I was inspired by the team over at Tic Tac Toe, with Challenge #016. You can find them here. I did the lower left to upper right diagonal, free, paper piece and autumn colors. I hope the inlay work counts as paper piece!

It also fits with the Color Throwdown Challenge #461. While my colors are more subdued, they are all there.

I started with a card front piece of Sahara Sand, dampened it, just a wee bit, then used my Aqua Painter to watercolor all over it, using Pumpkin Pie, Elegant Eggplant, Old Olive, Crushed Curry and Cajun Craze.

I decided to try some more of the inlay technique. I love this! Those cut out leaves with the teeny-tiny pieces were a little tedious, but only a little. For more on this method, see yesterday’s blog post. I didn’t mention yesterday that the Paper Piercing Tool is  very handy for pushing those itty-bitty pieces into place.

After letting the water color panel dry, I cut several leaves using the Seasonal Layers dies. I used the openwork leaf, a solid leaf of the same size and a smaller leaf. I cut more than I thought I would need, just because I could. You never know when you will need another leaf.

I then dry arranged them on my Sahara Sand card front panel, lightly marked where I wanted them and die cut them, leaving a negative space for the inlays. I saved all the die cuts for another project.

After inlaying all of the leaves and pieces, using adhesive sheets on the back to hold everything in place, I thought about dry embossing the front with the Pinewood Planks Dynamic Textured Embossing folder. This would be an experiment, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to experiment with my labor intensive card front and perhaps ruin it. I took one of the leaves I didn’t like so much and inlaid it into a scrap of Sahara Sand, ran it through the Big Shot and did a happy dance! It worked! None of the pieces fell out or curled up. Woo-Hoo! In fact, I think the added pressure of the Big Shot adhered them more firmly in place.

I then had the courage to emboss the whole front of the card. I REALLY like the way it turned out. I mounted this on a panel of Pumpkin Pie with liquid glue, wrapped a piece of Burlap Ribbon around it and taped it on the back. I didn’t want to use a plain label, or banner, or strip of something for my sentiment, but what? Well, why not another leaf???

I took the leftover scraps of the water colored paper and found one big enough to cut with the maple Leaflets framelit. I cut another in Elegant Eggplant to set it off and add some dimension. The sentiment, from Paisleys and Posies was stamped in Pumpkin Pie and quickly dipped into the Clear Emboss Powder and heat embossed. This leaf was attached to the Elegant Eggplant one with Glue Dots. Glue dots also adhered the leaves to the Burlap Ribbon. I used a few Stampin’ Dimensionals above and below the ribbon to secure them. Stampin’ Dimensionals also adhere this panel to the Elegant Eggplant card base, which, by the way, is a 5″ x &7″ card.

Inside I stamped the sentiments from a Gina K Thanksgiving stamp set in Pumpkin Pie on the Sahara Sand panel, then adhered it to a Pumpkin Pie panel and into the card base. It looked a bit plain, but I wasn’t sure I just wanted stamped leaves. Aha!! That experimental embossed leaf would do nicely. I trimmed it a bit, liquid glued it down and Hoop-Hoop this card is DONE.

The Kraft envelope front is adorned with a couple more of the extra leaves, adhered securely with liquid glue.

The flap is dry embossed with the Pinewood Planks Dynamic TIEF. The ‘seal’ is another of the extra leaves that had adhesive paper on the back. I removed the release paper at the top to stick it to the flap, leaving the paper on the rest until time to mail it.

I am very happy with this card. I may try it again in brighter colors next time, perhaps with larger leaves! 🙂

In looking at the card after I finished it, I thought it needed a little something something. Enameled dots were too bright. I didn’t want bling with burlap and wood. Hmmm, dig through the stash. A year or so ago I found some cute enameled brads in various themes and there was a package with leaves. Oh, My, Gosh! Perfect. I punched a couple of holes with my 1/8″ hole punch and added them to the front. NOW it is finished!

Card cuts are below as well as products used. Please leave a comment.

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September Card Class Tutorials

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Card Cuts: Elegant Eggplant: card base 7″ x 10″ scored at 5″, leaf 3″ x 3″; Pumpkin Pie: front mat 4-3/4″ x 6-3/4″, inside mat 4-3/4″ x 6-3/4″; Sahara Sand: front art panel (2-one to water color and one for the front) 4-5/8″ x 6-5/8″, inside panel 4-1/2″ x 6-1/2″

Non Stampin’ Up! products used: leaf brads for the front, Kraft envelope, Gina K Thanksgiving stamp set

Product List