Autumn Blessings

It's the time of year when I begin bouncing around a bit with my card themes.  Last week I shared some Halloween cards, yesterday was a winter themed card and today it's all about fall.  So basically, ya never know what you're gonna get!  Personally, I like it that way.  If every day was the same, it would be a pretty boring world we live in.  Variety IS the spice of life (or so they say). . .

Today's slimline card features a Distress Oxide ink background in an ombre pattern with leaves from the new Leaf Layers stamp set by Whimsy Stamps.  To see another way I used this same stamp set, please click here.  

Card details: 

*A full list of supplies is located at the end of this post.

This slimline card measures 8 1/2" x 3 1/2".  Slimline cards are designed to fit into a regular #10 business sized envelope and require no additional postage.  To create the background, I cut a 8 1/4" x 3 1/4" piece of Bristol Smooth cardstock.  This is the cardstock I use to do all of my ink-blending on.  I ink blended Distress Oxide inks in Scattered Straw, Squeezed Lemonade, Carved Pumpkin and Barn Door.  I then ink splattered the Barn Door ink over the entire card.  Once this background was dry, I adhered it to the card base using a Tombow dot runner.  I die cut the frame from white cardstock and also splattered it with Barn Door Distress Oxide ink.  I adhered the postage frame to the center of the card.  I stamped the leaves in yellow, orange and red ink and fussy cut EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM!  Yikes, there was no corresponding die set for this stamp!  I adhered the leaves to the card using 3M foam adhesive for added dimension.  Lastly, I stamped the sentiment in Versamark ink on black cardstock and heat embossed it with white embossing powder.  I notched the left side of the sentiment and adhered it to the top 1/3 of the card.  

I am really enjoying creating backgrounds using Distress Oxide inks.  They really make quite a statement.  Initially, I was hesitant to use these inks because I thought they were too "messy."  But now I think the mess is totally worth it!

XO, Crystal 

List of supplies: