It's Fall Ya'll...well almost

We had a beautiful, crisp Autumn-like day today. It promises to get warmer again during the week but today had me itching for weather cool enough to pull out sweaters, boots, and scarves. I love Fall! I love the colors, the activities, the food, and the cooler temps. But since we're not quite there yet I had to feed my need by pulling out some Autumn themed stamps and dies. And yes, I still have some work to complete all my Halloween tags but sometimes you just have to take a break and go with what inspires you at the moment. At least this what I'm telling myself to justify my detour.

This card was created using the Thankful Leaves die and Turnabout stamp set from Concord & 9th. I'm very much into their turnabout stamps, especially the wreath builder. They create such beautiful backgrounds and focal points. On this particular card, I just used the sentiment from the Thankful Leaves Turnabout but I'm eager to experiment with actual turnabout portion. For the gold dot spray, I used a stamp from the Just Because set.

For the main image, I first die cut the leaf using a craft panel making sure I centered the image. Then I glued the die cut panel onto another panel and fitted the leaf outline into the slot. This creates a nice flat card for mailing. Then it was just a matter of filling in the pieces. Since I wanted to create an ombre effect, I pulled cardstock from my scrap pile similar in color and tone and cut several leaves.

Now I first ran the cardstock thru the Xyron so I wouldn't need to mess with gluing down the pieces, but then you're stuck pulling off the release paper...and some of those pieces are pretty tiny. I think next time the better option is to place the adhesive on the base panel then place the die cut panel on top so the adhesive is exposed in the leaf area then position the pieces. Oh well, live and learn.