Love of Leaves - Stampers Showcase Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to another Stampers Showcase Blog Hop organised by the fabulous Dana Sullivan.

This month we have been asked to focus on the Autumn/Winter mini catalogue.  With so many fabulous items in the catalogue this could have been a difficult choice for me.  However, I went with a stamp and die bundle that I absolutely love called Love Of Leaves for my project.

The stamp set and dies are available as a bundle with a 10% discount.  Although I have many stamp sets that feature leaves I had to have this one too because another thing I love are stitched edge dies.  This is one set that I will not be parting with even when it retires!

Here is my project:

Long or DL sized cards see to be on trend right now.  I like the longer length as it offers more opportunities to embellish.  I also think DL cards look very elegant don't you?

The colours I used:

Old Olive

Seaside Spray

Shaded Spruce

Soft Sea Foam

You will need:

21 cm x 21 cm ww thick - scored at 10.5. cm

9.5 cm x 20 cm ww thick

Small pieces of ww thick and Seaside Spray for stamping and die cutting

The die cut background:

The border die is amazing!  All those stitched lines are my idea of heaven!  You will need to use the border die twice along the top of the 9.5 cm ww piece of card.

Top tip #1:

Take care to align the die, I used low tack tape to hold in place.  When you add the die for the second time, make sure to position the die so that you have an even gap between the two die cuts.  I realised when editing the photo above that I had positioned the die too close so gap between two lines of the stitching is uneven.

Inking the background:

I decided to add some colour to highlight the stitched border.  I used Seaside Spray ink mixed with a little Glycerin and sponged across the card adding colour over the stitched lines.

Top tip #2:

Press the ink pad on the end of a stamping block and add a drop of Glycerin.  Mix the two together with a sponge and then gently add to your project.  The Glycerin makes it easier to blend the ink and lessens the chance of harsh lines.

However, I decided that the panel looked to pale so I then added some Shaded Spruce ink (again mixed with a drop of Glycerin) along the top.

The stamping and die cutting:

Stamp an assortment of leaves using the colours shown above.  For the Shaded Spruce and Old Olive leaves I used the stamped off (second generation) versions for my project.

Die cut the leaves with the coordinating dies.  I cut the outside edge and the stitched details at the same time holding the two dies in place with a piece of low tack tape.

I cut lots of leaves so that I had spares in case I needed them!

The sentiment:

I used a new stamp and die set called the Piece & Joy bundle - I will be using this one a lot in the run up to Christmas.  I die cut the first two layers from ww thick ww and the final layer from Seaside Spray card.  Adhere the pieces with tiny dabs of Tombow.  I stamped 'sending' onto a tiny scrap of ww card and trimmed to leave a narrow border.

To assemble:

Adhere the background panel to the card front with dimensionals.  Shape the leaves and arrange on the left hand side.  Adhere using a mix of Tombow and dimensionals.

Adhere the sentiments with dimensionals.  I used some of the lovely Seaside Spray Metallic ribbon to tie a little bow and adhered with a mini glue dot.

As a finishing touch I used some of my favourite Blue Adhesive Backed Gems.  One of my lovely team members came up with the idea to add three gems at the end of the sentiment after I shared my project on our team page (thanks Maggie, it looks great)!

Top tip #3:

Remember it's ok to trim the ends of the stems if you need to!

The inside/envelope:

I stamped a partial border along the inside of the card and along the front of the envelope.  I stamped the Old Olive and Shaded Spruce leaves using second generation ink (stamped off).  I do wish SU would offer DL envelopes.  The one I used was a good quality one but it was not a patch on the SU ones I am used to!

The single green leaf in the middle of the inside came about because I somehow ended up with a splodge of Shaded Spruce.  I will write a little message to the right of this leaf so I think it will be ok!

The completed project:

I was really pleased with how this project turned out; when I started it I had no idea where I was going with it.  I think I will make more of these cards using Autumnal colours for the leaves as we head towards Autumn.

I have two further projects to share this week featuring Love Of Leaves using similar colour combos so come back soon to see what I get up to.

Next up is Rochelle Laird-Smith from the Australia - I can't wait to see her project and discover which products she is focussing on!

Thanks for hopping along with us again, don't forget to leave comments as you hop along with us!

Susan xx

If you have any questions, or need help with anything I’m always happy to help.  You can email me susan_merrey@yahoo.co.uk or telephone 07905 403 823 during normal working hours.

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