Sending You Blessings

The current challenge at Fusion Card Challenge blog has a photo of autumn leaves. I went with that, rather than the sketch, for my card inspiration. The yellows in the leaves against the blue background really spoke to me.

I began with the focal point of my card. I die cut the leaves from some 140 lb. watercolor paper using one of the "Foliage" dies from Spellbinders (discontinued). I colored them with my Tombow markers, and used a water brush to blend the colors. I die cut a Spellbinders "Decorative Labels One" (also discontinued) from Canson XL Mixed Media paper, and inked it with Broken China & Peacock Feathers Distress inks to create an ombre effect. I used my Distress Sprayer to spritz on water droplets, and blotted them up with a dry rag to remove a bit of the ink. I then used Perfect Paper Adhesive to glue the leaves to the panel.

For the background, I used a panel of yellow cardstock I'd pre-cut to 4.25x5.5". I inked up from the bottom with Wild Honey Distress ink, letting it fade out towards the top. I spritzed that with water, let it sit for a few seconds, and then blotted it with a dry rag.

I die cut the "Blessings" using Simon Says Stamp's "Christmas Blessings" die set. I coated the die cut with Versamark ink, sprinkled on Ranger Super Fine Detail Gold embossing powder, and melted that with my heat gun. I repeated that 2 more times to get a nice, thick, smooth embossing. (I got the inspiration for that technique from Jennifer McGuire.) I heat embossed the "Sending You" from Hero Arts' "Prayers" stamp set in gold on a strip of brown cardstock. Finally, I adhered my focal panel to my background, glued on my greeting elements, and mounted that to a white A2 card base.

I'm also entering this card in the following challenges:

Dies R Us #84: "Anything Fall"
Pile It On #136: "Large Sentiments"
613 Avenue Create #203: "Anything Goes"