Leaves of Autumn {CCMC165}

Happy September 1st, friends, and welcome to another week at Create with Connie & Mary!  Wow, September 1st is a great day because it's the first day of the Holiday Mini Catalog!  It's an exciting time at CCMC, too, because subscriptions to the Holiday Edition of CCMC are now available with early bird pricing--that's $5 off the normal $34.95 price...$29.95 US for six weeks of daily posts and tutorials featuring items from the Holiday Mini.   So, how about this week's challenge?!  It's a fabulous color combination perfect for autumn or Halloween cards:

And here is the Thanksgiving card I designed using The Paper Players sketch:

 

Next to birds and leaves, trees are my favorite stamp images--I think I own every one that SU makes.  So, of course, I had to have Leaves of a Tree from the new Holiday Mini!  I embossed it in gold onto Very Vanilla cardstock and colored scattered leaves with a Blender pen and inks in all three challenge colors.  Here's a closer look:

Love the effect mixed with the gold embossing!  I find that the blender pen + ink pad technique gives me better control over the color strength than if I colored with markers.  For small detail work, like these leaves, the colors show up better in a slightly lighter shade than I would get with a marker. 

The Rich Razzleberry panel was stamped with the same ink on the French Filagree stamp and the edges were roughed up with the 7-sided distressing tool.  That's some Lucky Limeade patterned paper from the In Color patterned paper stack trimmed out in a tiny punched Pumpkin Pie scallop ribbon border.  Instead of ribbon, I wrapped some gold Waffle Paper around the front panel, scrunched it with some linen thread and secured with a glue dot--instant gold ribbon!

And finally, I was channeling my friend Carrie Gaskin with this little sentiment banner!  She uses them often on her cards and I just love the whimsical look of them!  The Fabulous Phrases sentiment was stamped in Rich Razzleberry onto Very Vanilla and over stamped with a Pumpkin Pie leaf from Day of Gratitude.  My paper snips cut it into a rectangle and the 1 1/4" square punch turned on an angle made the flagged ends!  Isn't it cute?  Thanks for the inspiration, Carrie!

Well, I hope I've inspired you to play along with these gorgeous fall colors at Create with Connie & Mary.  Be sure to stop by and see all the wonderful Design Team inspiration.  If you play along with us,  please link your card up to Create with Connie & Mary by Wednesday, September 7th at 12 noon (EST).

supplies:

stamps: leaves of a tree, day of gratitude, fabulous phrases

ink: rich razzleberry, pumpkin pie, lucky limeade, versamark

paper: rich razzleberry, pumpkin pie, very vanilla CS; in color designer patterns stack

xtras: 3" circle die; gold waffle paper; linen thread; brads (brights); 7-sided distressing tool (cutter kit); paper snips; 1.25" square punch; scallop ribbon border punch; stampin' emboss powder (gold)