Today, September 23, is the first day of fall! Thank goodness!! We had such a hot, hot, hot summer here in Houston and most of Texas I think that we are SO ready for a break in this heat! I’m hoping this Hello First Day of Fall Card will help usher in more comfortable weather! It will be a while before the heat goes away, though.
In thinking about fall, I naturally thought about the Layering Leaves Stamp Set. In kind of looking for ideas online, I saw someone had made a card using the Masterfully Made Designer Series Paper. That made me look through my package to see if an idea popped into my head using one of the paper patterns. This one that I used seemed to have some fall colors in the flowers so I chose it! It’s a different look for a fall leaves card, I admit, but this whole package of paper is a little daring so it’s okay to do something a little different with it!
In the Layering Leaves Stamp Set, there are two stamps you can use for two-step stamping. I stamped the outline stamp of the leafy stem with Garden Green. Then I colored on the stamp that was just the fill-in leaves using two or three different colors of Stampin’ Write Markers. I wanted each leaf to have several colors on it as if it were turning colors for fall. I used Crushed Curry, Garden Green, Pumpkin Pie, and Granny Apple Green. Just play and see what you come up with! Everyone will be different. On a few leaves, I added a little marker color to fill in some empty spaces. Then I cut out each stem with my Paper Snips. The Bough Punch has been out of stock for a while but you can order it now, earlier than expected!
The card base is Crushed Curry. I used the Radiating Stitches Dies to diecut a piece of Pumpkin Pie for a layer for the focal point of the card, and the next smaller piece of Basic White. To fill in the white background a little bit, I stamped lightly with the dotted stamp using Granny Apple Green and Lemon Lime Twist. Not one to leave well enough alone, I also stamped the little flower image in Pumpkin Pie.
The greeting is in the Layering Leaves Stamp Set. I thought “Hello” was appropriate for saying “Hello” to the first day of fall! I love the font of the greetings in this stamp set. I stamped it in Pumpkin Pie ink and die cut it with a label die in the Cheerful Daisies Dies. I also cut a piece of Crushed Curry with the same die and cut it in half horizontally to make a layer under the greeting. I just adhered one half of the Crushed Curry to peek out from the top of the greeting and the other half for the bottom. Just line the two pieces up evenly and they look like a full layer underneath the greeting!
Before adhering the greeting, see where you want the leaves placed and glue those down. I decided to add a piece of ribbon underneath the popped-up greeting. It is the Burlap Ribbon in the Combo Pack with Real Red Ribbon. I also added some gold Pastel Adhesive-Backed Sequins around on the card.
You can make a similar card to this one with the Layering Leaves Stamp Set. You can change the background designer paper and change the colors of paper and ink that I used. The best part of the Layering Leaves set, I believe, is the beautiful fonts and words you can use a lot.
Fall and fall decorating is just around the corner now! It is fall and it is almost October! Make a few cards to send to celebrate fall!