Hello Friends!

I’m playing along with card challenges this week; this one from CASology with the theme “DRY”.  As the name implies, “CAS” stands for Clean And Simple.  This is hard for me, as I prefer using lots of layers, texture, and of course, bling!  But, always up for a challenge, I decided to play along!  (#CAS376)

Last night Dean and I took an evening hike up to our future cabin site (AKA Janet’s future stamp-camp site!).  The crisp evening air, the changing color of the leaves, and the sunset were spectacular!

This is where Dean proposed to me 8 years ago, and whether it’s because of this, or just simply the beautiful scenery, or both, this spot elicits a magical feeling inside me.  I can’t be in that spot and not wrap my arms around him and say….YES, YES, YES, a thousand times YES!  I am so very blessed to love, and be loved by, him.  We stayed up there and watched the sun set before we made our way back down the mountain in the dark.

And, oh my, after the sun set it got very cold!  When we reached home, I made my way down to the barn and put blankets on my boys (horses), which they seemed to greatly appreciate judging by the snuggles I got!  Yes, Fall is certainly here!  And, our walk is where my inspiration for this challenge came from;  lots of “dry” autumn leaves on the ground!

LET’S GET INKY!

Materials:

Stamp sets:

• Gather Together
• Textured Essentials

Paper:

• Crumb Cake CS (5 1/4″ x 10 1/2″)  Fold in half for a 5 1/4″ square card base.

Ink:

• Early Espresso
• Cinnamon Cider
• Bumblebee
• Cajun Craze
• Crumb Cake

Accessories:

• Gold cord (Wonder Of The Season Ribbon Combo Pack)

PUTTING IT TOGETHER:

1.  Using Cinnamon Cider ink, stamp the large leaf image, from Gather Together, on the card front.
2. Stamp a second leaf image on a piece of scrap paper and trim out using scissors.  This will be used as a mask.
3. Using a sponge dauber, use Bumblebee ink, (sponged off on scratch paper first to lighten) over entirety of the leaf.
4. Follow that with Cinnamon Cider ink (again, sponge off on scratch paper to lighten), starting at the bottom (stem end) of the leaf and working the ink lightly up about two-thirds of the way into each vein section of the leaf.
5. Lastly use a little bit of Cajun Craze ink (sponged off on scratch paper) at the center bottom of the leaf, and very lightly just a little bit up each vein.
6. 
7. Use a little bit of removable adhesive on the back of the leaf mask made above, and place over the leaf image on the card front.
8. 
9. Using the Stamparatus, position the tree bark stamp from “Textured Essentials” over the leaf where you’d like it.
10. Ink the stamp with Early Espresso and close the “lid”.
11. 
12. Open Stamparatus and remove the mask.
13. Use the “dots” stamp in Gather Together and randomly stamp over the card front in Crumb Cake ink, avoiding the main image.
14. Stamp the sentiment from Gather Together in Early Espresso ink.
15. 
16. One could call it quits right here for a nice, clean & simple design, OR…
17. You know me, I can’t do that – time to grunge it up a little bit!
18. Using the edge of a sharp scissors blade (like “Snips”), run the edge of the cardstock over the blade, “roughing it up”.
19. 
20. I followed this with some light sponging of Early Espresso ink over those roughed-up edges.
21. Because I “need” to add some bling, I finished my card off with some gold cord wrapped around the front and tied in a simple knot.
22. 

DONE!

A clean and simple design with lots of “white space”, a single main image; easily and quickly reproducible.

The products I used are listed below, each with a link to my online Stampin’ Up store.

Thanks again for stopping by today, I hope you’ve found some inspiration here.  Take a while looking around my little space here on the Web and let me know if you have any questions, suggestions, or need assistance placing an order!

Until next time, I hope you GET INKY!

Janet

Product List

Gather Together Photopolymer Stamp Set [150589] $17.00	Textured Essentials Cling Stamp Set [152612] $23.00	Crumb Cake 8-1/2″ X 11″ Cardstock [120953] $8.75	Early Espresso Classic Stampin’ Pad [147114] $7.50	Cinnamon Cider Classic Stampin’ Pad [153114] $7.50
Bumblebee Classic Stampin’ Pad [153116] $7.50	Cajun Craze Classic Stampin’ Pad [147085] $7.50	Crumb Cake Classic Stampin’ Pad [147116] $7.50	Sponge Daubers [133773] $5.00	Wonder Of The Season Ribbon Combo Pack [153537] $9.00
Paper Snips [103579] $10.00	Stamparatus [146276] $49.00	Paper Trimmer [152392] $25.00

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