The past few days have been very hot and humid here in Nova Scotia. I shouldn’t complain because if past years are anything to go by we could see our first snow in eight or nine weeks. Overnight we were treated to a terrific thunderstorm that went on for almost two hours and today it definitely seems a little cooler. Between the heat and the snow I’m looking forward to autumn. So with that in mind I created this project featuring the Nature’s Harvest Stamp Set and coordinating Harvest Dies.

CONEFLOWERS

I began my card with the coneflower die from the Harvest Dies set and cut it from Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper.

Then using Water Painters I started to add colour to the image. Using the largest brush I coated the stem with clean water and then with a second brush added Pear Pizzazz ink. The water on the paper made the ink spread creating a lovely variation in the depth of colour.

TIP – I usually ‘paint’ using ink from my ink pads. I press firmly on the closed lid so the foam pad touches the inside. Then when I open the ink pad I use the lid as a palette, adding drops of clean water to water down the ink as needed. Alternatively you could squeeze a drop or two of reinker into the lid and use that.

Once the stem was almost dry I repeated the process on the flower petals using Bumblebee ink. For the top of the flower I opted for Early Espresso ink.

Completing the flower was actually quite simple, I just needed to let each layer dry before adding more ink. Once I was happy I set it aside to dry thoroughly while I got on with the rest of the card.

NATURE’S HARVEST

To start I turned to the Nature’s Harvest Stamp Set and the large coneflower (echinacea) image. My plan was to make this the coordinating feature for the project but still keep it subtle.

I started with a 3-3/4″ x 5″ piece of Very Vanilla Card and a Crumb Cake ink pad. First I stamped the image coming in from the left hand edge. Then after reinking the stamp I stamped it again to the right of the first image and a little lower. I repeated the process one last time to fill in the gap on the right, and then set this layer aside while I continued stamping.

For the inside of the card I cut a 4″ x 5-1/4″ piece of Very Vanilla Card. This time I stamped the coneflower image twice, peeking in from each side. That would leave plenty of room to write a message.

Finally I stamped the image peeking in from the sides on the front of a Very Vanilla Medium Envelope.

Going back to the Nature’s Harvest Stamp Set I chose “thank you” for my sentiment. Using Early Espresso ink I stamped it onto some Very Vanilla Card and I was ready to start die-cutting.

HARVEST DIES

The Harvest Dies coordinate with the Nature’s Harvest Stamp Set, with some dies matching the images and some complementing them. I’d already used one of the dies to cut out the coneflower but now I needed one of the label dies in the set.

The smaller of the two label dies fitted the “thank you” perfectly and I after cutting out the sentiment I added it to my growing pile of pieces. Now it was time to start pulling everything together.

First I needed a card base and for that I used my Paper Trimmer to cut and scored some Crumb Cake Card. Then I folded the card along the scored line and sharpened the crease with a Bone Folder. On the inside of the card base I used Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) to add the larger of the two Very Vanilla stamped layers,

As I started to think about the front in more detail I decided to add some extra texture to the other Very Vanilla Stamped layer. So after a little thought I embossed it using the Tasteful Textile 3D Embossing Folder. Then using a Blending Brush I added some Crumb Cake ink around the edges to give it a more vintage look.

FINISHING TOUCHES

Next I cut a 2″ x 6″ strip of the new Gold Shimmer Vellum. I placed the vellum down the centre of the embossed layer and folded the excess over the ends. Then with Tear & Tape Adhesive on the back I fixed the vellum in place. Finally I used liquid glue to attach the watercoloured coneflower to the left side of the vellum strip..

Because I’d used no adhesive on the front of the vellum I was still able to wrap a short piece of Gold 3/8″ Shimmer Ribbon around it. Then I attached the ends of the ribbon to the vellum just to the left of the centre line using Tear & Tape Adhesive. I tied a bow from some more of the ribbon and used that to hide the join in the ribbon.

Once that was done I mounted the assembled piece onto a 3-7/8″ x 5-1/8″ layer of Early Espresso Card using liquid glue. Then I added the die-cut sentiment before attaching the completed layers to the card base using Stampin’ Dimensionals

Finally I added a touch more shine with a scattering of Gilded Gems and my autumn card was complete.

I love how this turned out, especially the way the stamped flowers are still visible through the Shimmer Vellum. What do you think?

PRODUCT LIST

BUNDLE BONUS – I bought the Nature’s Harvest Stamp Set and coordinating Harvest Dies using a single'”bundle’ item number. This meant I saved 10% off the cost of buying the two items separately. I’ve included a link for both options in case you want to explore this in more detail.