Happy Thanksgiving!

This weekend all of Canada will be celebrating Thanksgiving. I wanted to share with you a quick and easy card that would be perfect for any occasion, but particularly so for this upcoming holiday.

For this project I used two sets of myStampBOX stamps: “Tree for all Seasons” and “Abundant Blossoms“. We’re going to use the tree trunk from the first set, and the maple leaf from the second set.

To complete this project, in addition to the above stamps you’ll need the following supplies:

• Patterned Paper (at least 3 different colors/designs) – I used the new “Amber Road” collection from Pink Paislee.
• Red & Green Ink ( I used Stampin’ Up Stampin Spots in Bravo Burgundy and Always Artichoke)
• Helmar Liquid Scrapdots
• Adhesive Runner (I used the Helmar Quick Fix)
• Ranger Perfect Pearls and Perfect Medium Marker
• Gold Embossing Powder
• Small detail Scissors or a craft knife
• A heat embossing tool
• a foam stamping pad is optional but recommended
• Versamark or other embossing ink

Attach the tree trunk stamp to your stamp block. Apply your embossing medium (Versamark) to the stamp. Place a foam stamping pad under your paper. This will ensure a nice, crisp image transfer.

Sprinkle your stamped image with the embossing powder. If you have a tray to put underneath it makes things alot easier, but it isn’t required.

Shake the excess powder off, making sure that your image is completely covered. Using your heat tool, heat up the powder using a quick, circular motion. You don’t want to stay on one spot or you could scorch your powder and ruin your image.

Notice how the top part of the tree is shiny gold and the bottom half is still dull. That’s how you know that your embossing has taken effect. Continue until your entire tree is shiny gold.

Once the embossing is finished, use your precision scissors or cutting knife to cut out the image. Leave a little bit of the paper around the edges as this will keep your piece sturdy and help it stand out more.

Attach the tree trunk to the card using dimensional dots. I prefer Helmar Liquid Scrapdots but other dots will work as well.

Now, apply the Maple Leaf stamp from the Abundant Blossoms set. We want to make our leaves looks more realistic, so we’re going to layer our two colors of ink.

Apply the red ink randomly onto your stamp, then apply the green ink making sure to overlap the two colors.

Stamp your first leaf, then wipe off the stamp and do the same thing again until you have stamped 7 or 8 images. Try to make them all a little different.

When you have all of your images done, pick out the 5 or 6 that you like the best and cut them out.

Attach the leaves to your card.  Apply some to the top, and some to the bottom so that it looks like the leaves have fallen from your tree.

Take your Perfect Medium marker and color over a few of the leaves, then brush them with Perfect Medium pigment powder. Brush off the excess. This will give your leaves a sheen when the light hits your card.

Using your Perfect Medium marker, draw a border line around the edge of one of the pieces of patterned paper. Brush over the line with pigment and brush off the excess.

And there you have your completed card! Wouldn’t that be great to give to the hostess (or, if you are the hostess, one of your guests) with a nice bottle of wine?

Happy Thanksgiving Canada

Until next time,

Marci