Cut Cardstock:

• Card Base: Very Vanilla; 8 ½” x 5 ½” – score at 4 ¼”
• Second Layer:
  • For front: Crushed Curry; 5 3/8” x 4 1/8”
  • For Inside: Crushed Curry; 5 ¼” x 4”
• Third Layer:
  • For front: Cajun Craze; 5 1/8”x 3 7/8”
  • For inside: Very Vanilla; 5 1/8” x 3 7/8”
• Fourth Layer: Very Vanilla; 4 ¼”x 3”
• Scrap of Very Vanilla for bow
• Strip of Coordinating Designer Series Paper; 5 1/8” x 3/8”

Snail the 5 3/8” x 4 ¼” piece of Crushed Curry cardstock to the card front.

Emboss the 5 1/8” x 3 7/8” piece of Cajun Craze with the Tin Tile Embossing folder. To get a more distinct embossed image, spritz the paper lightly with water and let it sit for 30 seconds before embossing.

Snail this piece to the Crushed Curry layer.

Using Crushed Curry ink, stamp the wheat bunch stamp from the Wishing You Well stamp set (available in clear or wood mount) onto the center of the 4 ¼” x 3” piece of Very Vanilla cardstock.

Using Cajun Craze ink, stamp the small flower bunch from the Wishing You Well stamp set once over the wheat bunch, then WITHOUT re-inking, turn the stamp one quarter and stamp the flowers again, leaving a lighter shade of Cajun Craze. This is called ‘Stamping Off’ –it’s a great way to get a matching lighter shade of whichever color you are working with. Simply stamp once, then stamp a second time without reloading the stamp with ink. You can also use it to get the lighter shade only by stamping first on a piece of scrap paper.

Use one of the sentiments from the Wishing You Well stamp set and Rich Razzleberry ink, stamp it on the upper left corner of the Very Vanilla piece. Refer to photo for placement.   For this card, I used the ‘just a note…’ stamp.

Using the bow stamp from the Wishing You Well stamp set and Rich Razzleberry ink, stamp the bow over the stems of the wheat bunch. Stamp a second bow onto a scrap piece of Very Vanilla cardstock and use the paper snips to fussy cut it out, then set it aside.

Place a glue dot over the center knot of the stamped bow and attach the copper metallic thread to it, making several loops up and down in a figure eight pattern. Refer to photo below.

Use Dimensionals to attach the bow you cut out over the bow on the stamped image to cover the glue dot. Refer to photo of finished card.

Use Dimensionals to attach the stamped piece onto the embossed Cajun Craze piece on the card front. Refer to photo of finished card.

INSIDE:

Snail the remaining piece of Crushed Curry cardstock to the inside of the card.

Snail the Designer Series Paper strip near the left side of the remaining Very Vanilla cardstock, leaving a small border on the left side.

Using Rich Razzleberry ink and a sentiment from the Ribbon of Courage stamp set (also available in either clear or wood mount), stamp this piece of Very Vanilla cardstock, then snail it to the inside of the card.

ENVELOPE:

As always, I carry a bit of the card design to the outside of the envelope.

For this card, I used Rich Razzleberry ink to stamp the bow on the lower left corner of the envelope.

I love the Autumn season and used Fall colors for this card. You could also use lots of other color combinations and it would have an entirely different look to it. Try it in shades of purple (Highland Heather and Gorgeous Grape), green (Shaded Spruce and Granny Apple Green), pink (Melon Mambo and Powder Pink), or any color combination that is your favorite!

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Cut Cardstock:

• Card Base: Early Espresso; 8 ½” x 5 ½” – score at 4 ¼”
• Second Layer: Very Vanilla; 5 ¼” x 4” – cut two
• Third Layer: Very Vanilla; 5” x 3 ¾”
• Scrap of Very Vanilla; approx. 3” x 1”
• Strip of Early Espresso; 4” x 3/8”

Snail one piece of the 5 ¼” x 4” Very Vanilla cardstock onto the card front.

Create the ‘sunset sky’ on the 5” x 3 ¾” Very Vanilla cardstock.

If you have never used a sponge brayer before, practice on some scrap paper first. The technique is not difficult. Roll the brayer several times in ONE DIRECTION on top of the ink pad – this will ensure even coverage of ink onto the brayer. Roll it onto the cardstock several times starting just OFF the cardstock and working your way onto the cardstock, again to ensure even ink coverage. You can continue to re-ink the brayer and roll onto the cardstock until you achieve the desired depth of color.

Using a sponge brayer, apply Daffodil Delight ink onto the cardstock, leaving about ½” untouched at the bottom.   Using the 1 ½” circle punch, punch out a circle from a Post-it note, making sure to have some of the sticky part of the post-it note included in the circle, then place the circle onto the inked cardstock towards upper left side. This is creating a ‘mask’ to resemble the sun in the sky. You may have to wait a few minutes for the ink to dry completely before attaching the post-it note circle. You’ll be applying other colors of ink on top of this, and the circle mask will prevent the other colors from getting onto the yellow-inked cardstock. Refer to photo below.

Roll the sponge brayer onto scrap paper to clean off the ink before using another color.

Next, apply Pumpkin Pie ink with the sponge brayer on top of the cardstock, beginning at the top and working your way down. The ink should be a bit heavier at the top and get progressively lighter as you work down so that some of the Daffodil Delight ink shows through near the bottom. Refer to the photo below.

Clean the brayer and apply Rich Razzleberry to the cardstock beginning at the top, and again heavier at the top and lighter at the bottom to leave some of the Pumpkin Pie color showing. Tear a piece of scrap paper and hold it near the bottom of the cardstock as a mask, so that it will resemble the ground. Refer to photo below. Using the sponge brayer, apply Mossy Meadow ink to the bottom part of the cardstock.

Remove the circle and ‘ground’ mask and your cardstock should look like a sunset sky with a beautiful sun and a grassy ground area.

Using Early Espresso ink and the bare trees from the Winter Woods stamp set (available in clear or wood mount), stamp the trees onto the cardstock, making sure the tree trunks are on the green ground area. Refer to finished card photo.

Using Early Espresso ink, stamp ‘Thinking of You’ from the Colorful Seasons stamp set onto the 3” x 1” piece of Very Vanilla cardstock, then punch out with the Classic Label punch. Use mini-dimensionals to attach this piece onto the card front near the upper right corner.

Snail the finished design onto the card front. Refer to finished card photo.

INSIDE:

Snail the Early Espresso strip near the left side of the remaining piece of Very Vanilla cardstock.

Using the small leaf branch stamp from the Peaceful Place stamp set (in clear or wood mount), stamp the leaves with Mossy Meadow ink near the upper left corner. Stamp a sentiment using Early Espresso ink. I used a sentiment from the Blended Seasons stamp set which was only available in August 2018, but there are many appropriate sentiments you could use from the Colorful Seasons stamp set as well as from other sets such as Love What You Do or Petal Palette (also in clear mount or wood mount).

Snail the stamped piece to the inside of the card.

ENVELOPE:

Using Mossy Meadow ink and the leaf stamp used for the inside of the card, carry that over to the lower left corner of the envelope to complete your project.

If this is the first time you have worked with a sponge brayer, it may seem a little labor intensive to you at first, but I know after 5 minutes you will become an expert at this technique and that you’ll want to use this technique on other cards as well!

This color combination is great for fall or Halloween cards. You could also experiment with making a sky background for a Halloween card using darker shades of blue (Night of Navy) and purple (Gorgeous Grape), using a smaller circle punch to mask off a white circle for the moon. You can just see the bats flying through the air!

You could also use various shades of blue for a winter sky for Christmas cards – wouldn’t a snowman look cute? Or put some stars in the sky and the Three Kings from the Illuminated Christmas stamp set (also in clear mount or wood mount). The possibilities are endless! Have fun!

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Cut your cardstock:

• Card Base: Very Vanilla; 8 ½” x 5 ½” – score at 4 ¼”
• Second Layer: Rich Razzleberry;  5 3/8” x 4 1/8” – cut two
• Inside Third Layer: Very Vanilla; 5 1/8” x 3 7/8”
• For Front of Card: Striped Designer Paper; 4 ¼” x 2 ¼”
• Coordinating Designer Paper: one strip at ¾” x 2″, one strip 5/8” x 2”
• Crushed Curry: 3”x 3”
• Scraps of Very Vanilla for stamped pieces

Emboss one 5 3/8” x 4 1/8” piece of Rich Razzleberry cardstock with the Tin Tile folder, then snail to the card base.

Snail the 4 ¼” x 2 ¼” piece of Designer Paper to the card front. Refer to photo for placement.

Flag one end of each of the Designer Paper strips and snail to the card front. Refer to finished card photo for placement.

Using the filigree corner border stamp from the Many Blessings stamp set and Rich Razzleberry ink, stamp the border in each corner of the 3” square piece of Crushed Curry cardstock. Use Dimensionals to adhere this piece onto the card front.

Using Black Stazon ink, stamp the pot of sunflower stamp twice onto a scrap piece of Very Vanilla cardstock.

Using Rich Razzleberry ink stamp the ‘Especially for you‘ stamp from the Botanical Bliss stamp set (clear mount or wood mount) onto a scrap of Very Vanilla cardstock. Color the image as desired. I used Daffodil Delight for the flowers, Crumb Cake for the flower centers, Pear Pizzazz for the leaves and Balmy Blue for the flower pot.

Cut out the greeting with the smallest oval shape from the Stitched Shapes Framelits. Use Dimensionals to adhere to the lower right front of the card.

Cut out one flower pot with the 2^nd smallest circle from the Stitched Shapes Framelits. Use Dimensionals to adhere to the 3” Crushed Curry square.

Using your paper snips, cut out one set of flowers and the individual flower from the other stamped flower pot image. Use Dimensionals to adhere the group of flowers on top of the flowers in the flower pot to give the flowers added dimension. Snail the single flower onto the greeting, hanging over the edge a bit. See card photo for placement of all these pieces.

INSIDE:

Snail the remaining Rich Razzleberry piece onto the inside of the card.

Using Rich Razzleberry ink, stamp a filigree border from the Many Blessings stamp set on the upper left corner of the remaining Very Vanilla piece. Use Black Stazon to stamp the single flower within the curve of the filigree border. Color the flower as desired – I used Daffodil Delight and Pear Pizzazz.

Use Rich Razzleberry to stamp your greeting. I used a greeting from the Special Celebrations stamp set (clear mount or wood mount). Snail the stamped piece to the inside of the card.

ENVELOPE:

Finish off your card by carrying over some of the design to the envelope. I repeated the filigree border and small flower used on the inside of the card for the lower left corner of the envelope.

I hope you’ll give this card a try. Try it with other color combinations to make it in your own style!

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