In All Things of Nature

Morning crafters, another weekend is upon us, I do hope its a good one for you and that you have lots of crafting time!

Now when I did my Autumn card that I posted on Sunday, I had used the stencil over the distress inks I had used, with today's card I used it straight onto White card, using again my Versamark Ink Pad and Cosmic Shimmer Precious Pigments, I quite liked the colour that this gave and it was even better when I found some Satin Card and Glitter that matched with it. I apologize now for the long post!!!

 Like my other card I thought this inked stencil was too nice to cover up so I decided on just a sentiment, looking through my stamps I found this sentiment from Sheena Douglass that fitted the bill nicely. I stamped it onto some White card with Vintage Photo, inked through the die again with Vintage photo and die cut using Delightful Circles.

I put some Double Adhesive Tape round the edge of the card and coated it with Glitter, like a Peach colour, then attached this to some Brown Corrugated card.  I made a Base card out of two sheets of Satin card, a Dusky Pink colour, this was double sided with a brighter Pink on the other side but I preferred this shade. I put more Double Sided tape round the edge of more White card and again coated it in Glitter before attaching this to my base Satin card. I then attached the Brown corrugated card on top so the Glitter formed a boarder round the sides.

I attached my sentiment with foam pads to give it some height and added interest then I wanted some leaves to go in the corner, now those of you who are regulars to my blog may remember the maple leaf I made last year, well I was going to make more of these for this card but then thought what about using real leaves from my Acer trees, they are turning lovely colours and yes you may be thinking they would go Brown and die off, well they just might still do that yet lol! I decided to experiment and completely coat each leaf & stem with Glaze in the hope of preserving them as they are. Has anyone else tried this or know of anyone who may have tried it and did it work? I am sure Top  Coat nail varnish will do the same! Perhaps some of you are thinking that's old school, been done before, after all you can press flowers, sorry if this is the case. When I took the photo of this card (Tuesday) the leaves had been on for a couple of days and still looked okay? I am hoping they stay that way as I think the natural leaves look great I have done the same with more of the leaves and leaves from another plant that has changed colour so if it does work I have a stash of them. Although I do not like stripping my Acers of their leaves they are due to be blown off by the wind very soon so I may as well make use of them!!!

I will add a bit on the end of this post before it goes 'live' to let you know how they are doing lol!

There you have the finished card, dimensions are 8" X 8".

Items Used:

Create and Craft Double Sided Satin Card

Create and Craft Glitters

White Card

Lidls Corrugated Card Brown

Joanna Sheen Signature Stencils Oak Leaves

Creative Expressions Cosmic Shimmer Pigments Precious Set 1.

Spellbinders Delightful Circles

Tim Holtz Distress inks Vintage Photo

Sheena Douglass Little Bit Scenic 'Silhouette Country Lane'

Leaves from my Acer Tree.
Pinflare Glaze


Here is a picture of my Acer tree, its now 20 years old and although it looks a bit bare its still going strong and its always been in a pot! I almost lost it last year, thankfully this year it turned a corner! I have another Acer that I have also had for 20 years with the fine feathery leaves that are turning yellow.

My Red Acer                                                                          My Yellow Acer   
                                                

Friday: I am happy to report the leaves are the same, they have not altered in anyway.     
                                                        

Thank you for looking, Jacquie xxx