Gently Falling Card and a Leaf Sponging Tutorial

Here’s another card that I made for a Splitcoast Stampers’ Virtual Stamp Night challenge. This one is for the challenge to use twine on your card.

                             Stamps: Gently Falling 
                      Paper: Confetti White, Early Espresso, Spice Cake DSP 
                      Ink: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Cajun Craze
                                 and Cherry Cobbler 
                     Accessories: Hemp Twine, Sponge Daubers, Paper Snips, Dimensionals, Glue
                                 dots 
                     Techniques: Sponging, Cutting 

This card uses Stampin’ Up!’s new Gently Falling stamp set. It’s in the new Holiday Mini Catalog and available starting September 1^st. At the end of this post, I have a photo tutorial showing you how to use sponge daubers and Classic Ink to get these beautiful fall leaves. The other details on the card are as follows. The base is Confetti White cardstock; I love how the little flecks of color in the Confetti White cardstock add to the natural look of the card! There is a 1½” x 4¼” strip of Spice Cake Designer Paper across the bottom of the card, and a 24” piece of Hemp Twine is wrapped twice around the card base and tied off with a knot.  I stamped leaf images in Crumb Cake on a 2½” x 3¾” piece of Confetti White cardstock and matted that on a piece of 2-5/8” x 3-7/8” base of Early Espresso cardstock.  I attached that to the card with Dimensionals. Then I made the leaves as described below and used a glue dot to attach them to the card, this allows them to curl up a bit and look more natural. Here are the directions for the leaves

Leaf Sponging Tutorial

First off, I would like to say that this is just one way to sponge these leaves. There are an infinite number of variations and that makes it possible to have each leaf look unique! I am going to show you how I did it, but play around with it and find out what are your favorite color combinations and patterns.

1. I stamped leaves on Very Vanilla cardstock using Early Espresso ink. Then I cut out each leaf using paper snips. When you cut out images to use as embellishments on cards, you should cut along the outside of the image, not right at the stamped line.  See my cut outs below.

2.  I sponged these leaves using Sponge Daubers and Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Cajun Craze and Cherry Cobbler Classic Inks.

3. First I used a dauber to apply Daffodil Delight Ink to the center of all three leaves.

4. Then I added Pumpkin Pie ink outside of the Daffodil Delight ink. It is best if you rub the dauber lightly over your ink pad and then touch it lightly to your leaf. This will help you avoid getting streaky, splotchy areas and give you a more natural look. I sponged the stem of the smallest leaf (I think it’s a birch leaf) with Pumpkin Pie.

5. Next, I added Cajun Craze around the Pumpkin Pie ink.  I sponged the stems of the maple and oak leaves with Cajun Craze.

For the smaller two leaves (oak and birch), I took this color all the way to the edge. I actually picked up the leaf and rubbed the dauber along the edges of the leaves to make the color darker there.

6. I sponged a little Cherry Cobbler ink on the tips of the maple leaf to give it some fiery red color. I also added a little of the Cherry Cobbler ink to the stem and rubbed the dauber along the edges of the leaves to make the color darker there.

7. I attached the finished leaves to my card using one glue dot in the center so that the edges could curl up.

Thanks for reading my blog! I hope you enjoyed my leaf sponging tutorial. I would love to hear what you think, so please leave a comment.

All items that I used to make this card are available from Stampin’ Up!. The Spice Cake Designer Series Paper and Gently Falling stamp set are all sneak peak items and won’t be available until next week (Sept 1^st). If you would like to purchase any of the items shown here, please visit my business website at www.trina_kuriger.stampinup.net