A lovely wandering path of “Gorgeous Leaves”

This beautiful card is an excellent choice for a solemn occasion – sympathy, encouragement.  But I think that it could also be a beautiful wedding card as well.  It is subtle and rich in color and texture.

It is also a 6” x 6” card, which is not a size that I usually use.  It commands more postage as square cards must be hand-cancelled.  And I haven’t had good experience with the condition in which they arrive.  However, this size as well as the slimline are very popular now and can command a nice presence that is different from the rest of the cards that will be received.

The lion’s share of this card is made with the Stampin’ Up! Gorgeous Leaves bundle.  The texture stamp uses Sahara Sand and Gray Granite ink.  There is no cutting once you have created the card base using Stampin’ Up! Basic White 12” x 12”.  The cardstock is cut in half and scored to create the 6” x 6” base.  There’s no more cutting – although there is some tearing.

It’s a nice effect to have it meandering a bit.  The stamped texture will create a nice pathway.  Take a look at the effect when you remove the masks.

I then used the little leaf trios from this same set and stamped them randomly with Soft Suede ink.  Cleaning the texture stamp of the gray and brown inks, I used Blushing Bride ink to create a soft edge on the sides of the pathway.

With the Stampin’ Up! Gold Foil that I had embossed with one of the current embossing folders, I cut out one gold maple leaf and three others from white cardstock scraps.  I wanted the maple leaf to have some dimension to it, but it is too detailed to allow Stampin’ Up! Dimensionals to be helpful.

However, if you stack and glue the three white maple leaves and top it with the gold foil leaf, it will pop up beautifully.  I used Stampin’ Up! Fine Tip Glue Pen which is great for detailed work.  Make sure that you put something heavy on top of it while it dries to assure that the leaf is good and flat.  (Usually, I use my cell phone for that!  But one of the larger acrylic stamp blocks works just as well – and does better in photographs.)

I painted a short length of Stampin’ Up! 3/8” Fine Art ribbon with the Blushing Bride ink pad and frayed it.  Adhere the ribbon to the maple leaf, taking care not to have glue seep through to the front of the card.  Then use liquid glue to adhere the ribbon and the leaf to the front of the card.  It should look wispy with just a little pop of pink.

Have you ever had glue seep through and it stays sticky even after it dries? Here is a simple fix: dust it with powder or with an anti-static bag. The powder can be dusted off but it will dry the glue. It works wonders!

The sentiments both inside and outside came from the Stampin’ Up! Inspired Thoughts stamp set.  I used the Double Oval punch – also from Stampin’ Up! for the sentiment on the card front.  My suggestion is that you stamp the sentiment first and then punch.  (My hand is just not steady enough to get a perfectly centered stamp on a small punch out.)

And voila – we are done!

It works for me…but may not be for everyone.

Thank you so much for stopping in to see my card for today!  If you have any questions or if my directions weren’t clear, please give me a holler.

The supplies that I used for this project include: