Holiday Mini Preview--Lighthearted Leaves

Coming soon* to a Holiday Mini catalog near you, this wonderful new set makes the most elegant cards, with the look of fine batik or an expensive silk dress; but stamp several different leaves on a plain white card, and you get fun, loose the look of doodles done by a student not paying attention in class.  (*This set and many others will be available for purchase beginning Sept 1st.)
 

The Into the Woods DSP has two choices of wooden background, but here I have chosen to use
the Woodgrain Embossing Folder to get 3-D grain.  I rolled Early Espresso ink on the inside front of the folder with my brayer,  and used Crumbcake Cardstock to get a beautiful two-tone effect.

I used a bit of the Burlap Ribbon for some more rustic texture, and pulled a few threads out of each end to fray it just a little.

I stamped the largest leaf three times in Versamark onto a piece of Very Vanilla Cardstock, and embossed with a soft-white embossing powder.  The leaves were sponged in Pear Pizzazz and Soft Sky, and the spaces in between softened with Sahara Sand sponging. The small leaf popped up in front was likewise heat embossed, and sponged with Cajun Craze and Pear Pizzazz.  The banner is Cajun Craze on Very Vanilla Cardstock.


Both the banner and the leafy center panel (as well as the Very Vanilla liner on the inside of the card) were edged with Early Espresso sponging.

The front leaf was cut out with the Leaflets framelits, which fit Lighthearted Leaves as well as the Vintage Leaves set, which they were originally introduced with in this year's catalog.


The center panel was layered on Mossy Meadow cardstock, and popped up on dimensionals.  The banner was snail-taped flat, and the small leaf popped up again.  Because the end of the leaf hangs off of the center, I used one dimensional on the tip and bottom right curve of the leaf, and layered two (one atop the other) in the left curve, and two little slivers of dimensional on the stem.  I hate leaving stems dangling; I'm always afraid they'll get torn off.  Luckily, you can cut your dimensional to shape as you like. 

We had lots of fun with this design at my card class this weekend--each person made a different spectrum of colors; most adding a little or a lot of Cajun Craze to the center panel; one omitting the Sahara Sand to keep the center panel brighter.  All the variations looked great.  I don't think it's possible to make a mistake with this card!

Supplies list below.