Warm Tones for Autumn

Although this beautiful card by Louise Healy is not an Autumn creation per se, it could be. I often connect warm tones like browns, reds, rusts, golds with the season...for good reason. This Fall I have traveled back and forth from Washington to So Cal several times and have really enjoyed the full spectrum of colors. Last weekend we spent a day up in the San Bernardino mountains and just caught the tail end of some color, but mostly things are now a bit brown. This coming weekend they are looking at a snowy forecast.

To create this card, Louise paste embossed the pussy willow stencil (LL3007) with Matte Black Embossing Paste. Whenever you use the crackle paste it is a good idea to basecoat the stencil with any of the other pastes, remove the stencil and let this layer dry. The reason for this is ...that if you don't, the crackle paste could easily crack and crumble off the paper. The basecoat will give your crackled stencil image flexibility. I often use the matte pastes because #1 they dry faster and #2 they have a bit of a "tooth" to them, so the crackle will attach better. Once the matte paste is dry, reposition the stencil and paste-emboss the crackle paste on top. During this process, instead of scraping the crackle paste down to the stencil's surface, I leave just a thin skim of it over the entire stencil design. This will ensure that you don't scrape down to the level of the original matte paste layer. Now just wait and let it do it's crackle thing.

Louise finished the card by stenciling the stem with Chocolate Brilliance ink and then using a slightly larger brush she brushed the same ink off the edges of the card using a circular rouging motion. (Tip: the larger the brush you use for this edging, the softer the look.) She also used the "Picasso" stencil shield as she was stenciling with the brown to protect the white areas. She finished off the card with the dark brown embellishments placed on the diagonal. This card would be great to send to your favorite guy for any special occasion or gal for that matter.

The Santa Ana's are Blowing

It is finally Fall here is Southern Calif. How do I know? The weather has cooled down to a dull roar and the Santa Ana winds are blowing. These beautiful clear warm days of Autumn remind me that this is the reason we stay in this highly populated area.

Marj Marion has again used her technique of using micro beads on the embossing paste. This card's background was created by brushing a warm colored ink on white card stock and then stamping the word "Windy" (Fun Stamps #A2821) randomly using the same color of ink. The Fall leaves (LG728) were then paste embossed onto acetate using Metallic Copper embossing paste. While the stencil was still in place she sprinkled it with the microbeads. The colors she used were highly contrasting--a gold and a dark brown or black, making a point of leaving some of the metallic copper paste exposed. She then dry embossed the Autumn stencil (LM295) on pumpkin colored cardstock that she had stamped with a small leaf stamp. (Marj ...if you're listening and know the maker of that little leaf stamp, just let us know in the comments.) To finish off the sentiment she stenciled the word with a dark brown ink, a lovely accent color.

The end results of her card creation was to make an easel card. This happens to be a card she sent me in the mail and it is so nice to enjoy it by propping it into position and leaving it on my desk. I love getting pretty cards in the mail. Don't forget to actually send your creations to friends and other loved ones. There is nothing like going to the mail box and seeing that hand addressed envelope greeting you.

The Last Hurrah!!!

Thanksgiving is just next week, but for the "Last Hurrah", I would like to post just a few cards that have an Autumn flare. The two cards seen here were created by Oregon teacher, Cherylynn Moser. The falling leaves (LL3004) were stenciled with bright colored pigment inks. Once she finished the stenciling she wiped the ink off of her stencil and taped out all the edges to add Dreamweaver's translucent embossing paste. After removing the stencil, and while the paste was still wet, she sprinkled on a transparent ultrafine glitter. When it is wet the paste is very milky, but once it is dry you can see the colors very clearly through the transparent glitter. The finishing touch on this card was to use a large stencil brush and a gentle pressure to stencil a chocolate brown color onto the edges.

The second card, using the tree background (LJ849), was paste embossed on a dark brown cardstock with the original embossing paste (that's the one with the maroon label). Once it was dry (this dries in half the time of the translucent paste) about 25 minutes, she repositioned the clean stencil onto the design and stenciled it with stencil brushes using Autumn toned pigment inks. I have also seen this tree design paste-embossed on creamy metallic paper with glossy white embossing paste...then glittered. This stencil has been done many different ways and I love every way I have seen it rendered.

Metallic F/X ...a Simple Creation

Cherylynn Moser teaches with Dreamweaver Stencils in the state of Oregon. As I end my theme today with Simple Cards for Christmas I would like to tell you that this card couldn't be simpler. I know it looks elegant, but elegant can be easy to achieve with stencils. She paste embossed the Holly flourishes (LG731) using the Matte Black Embossing Paste. After it dried she repositioned the stencil onto the pasted design and then daubed the pasted holly flourish witha glue from a glue stamp pad. Next she took a small stencil brush and loaded the ends of it with the Ivy Garden green Metallic F/X color. Metallic F/X are the Dreamweaver brand of mica powders. To make sure she didn't have too much on the brush she tapped off the excess into the opened jar lid of her color and then stenciled it onto the holly. She used the Kimono Red color of Metallic F/X to achieve the berries. So that the red color didn't get onto the greenery she used a stencil shield called Picasso (LL332). This is a tool used by stencilers that has curves and holes in it so that you can hold it up to the work that you are stenciling on and put color exactly where you want it. The book "New Dimensions in Cardmaking Using Embossing Pastes with Metal Stencils" shows several different ways to use this clever tool. If you don't own this book it is a great reference book for working with the pastes. It was published a few years ago, but the gallery in the back was recently updated with new card designs.

Elegant, but Still Simple...

Deborah March made this gorgeous card. The details in the card...the bow, the nested gold ovals, the gold embellishment pin, the red crystal berries and the layers of paper may have taken a bit of time to put together, but the holly sprig (stencil LL3005) was merely paste embossed with the metallic gold paste. Very simple yet very elegant as well, Deborah. Recently I had a customer ask about how to tie a nice bow, and several of the design team have chatted back and forth about doing a tutorial. Louise Healy did post a step-by-step on her blog. Deborah mentioned that she uses a plastic template called "Bow Easy" which works well, and uses it all the time for her work. As you can see, here are the results of the "Bow Easy". Hop around on the Dream Team's blogs, because you may see some other recommendations over the next few days for bow tying.

Simply ....Merry Christmas!

Theresa Winters made this technique easy as pie...well as easy as paste embossing the LM250 Merry Christmas and LL532 Line of Christmas trees using the regular embossing paste and while it was still wet she added ultrafine glitter. Whew! But wasn't that easy? I also love the corner punch with the delicate filigree, this added card construction turns "simple to make" into a classy creation!

Could be a Christmas card? ...

...or it could be a special occasion card. This simple yet "effective" card by Louise Healy, was done using the pearlescent embossing paste on the Hallelujah stencil (LM2007). One of the things that adds to the beauty of this card is the use of the beautiful paper from Hanko Designs. The background paper has an almost vintage feel to it. But other than the triple mounting that was done to this creation, the time involved is minimal. Great for some of us who lead very busy lives. You could create three or four of these and have them on hand for celebratory moments, like when a special friend has good medical news or when your daughter hears that she passed her boards or when the hubbie gets a raise at work....well you get the idea. It doesn't have to be a Christmas card, but it could.