Two CAS Golden Leaves Cards

A few months back I bought some stamps from Joanne after she'd had a clear out.  I'm always attracted to leafy and foliage images so I was immediately drawn to the Penny Black 'Golden Leaves' stamp Joanne was selling.  I realised a few days ago I hadn't inked it up yet so I set out to rectify that situation.  Oh my goodness, what a beautiful stamp!  I don't know how it's done, but you definitely get different colours on the image even though you only ink it in one colour of ink.  I'm putting it down to magic!  I'm so happy Joanne let this stamp come to a new home, thanks Joanne!

First off I made a birthday card using Baja Breeze CS -  I am loving Baja Breeze at the moment and can't seem to stop using it.  I stamped the Golden Leaves stamp in three different colours - Crumb Cake, Old Olive and Baja Breeze.  I then cut out part of the images with a square Nestabilities die.

I then had to perform surgery on a clear stamp - gulp!  I wanted to use the birthday sentiment from the Woodware 'Special Wishes' clear set.  The sentiment reads "Sending you the best wishes for a wonderful day".  Hmm, surely that should be "sending you best wishes..." or "sending you the best of wishes...".   I was not happy to use the sentiment as it was so I've cut it apart - I've been reluctant to do this with clear stamps in the past but it was easy with a sharp craft knife.  Anyway, now I have the "sending you" and the "Best Wishes..." wordings as two stamps which made it a doddle to stamp my sentiment separately.  Phew, it all turned out well! 

Before gluing the panels down, I scored lines using my Scor-Pal to add a bit of interest.  I then added some tiny punched butterflies with clear gems.

Next came the envelope and inside the card.  I LOVE this image stamped in Baja Breeze, gorgeous!

While I was making this card I thought the colour combo was soothing and would be suitable for a sympathy or thinking of you type card so that's what I made next.  I stamped the image in Old Olive ink a few times across a piece of vanilla CS, overstamped that with the Linen background stamp in Crumb Cake ink and sponged the edges.  I die cut a scalloped border, covered the holes with gold nailheads and added narrow Early Espresso strips.  For once, I haven't decorated the inside but I did stamp the leafy image in olive ink on the envelope flap.

Supplies for birthday card:
Stamps: Penny Black Golden Leaves, Woodware Special Wishes clear set, Hero Arts Fabulous Birthday
CS: SU! Baja Breeze & Whisper White
Ink: SU! Crumb Cake, Old Olive, Baja Breeze & Early Espresso
Tools: Martha Stewart multi butterfly punch, Scor-Pal
Embellishments & accessories: clear gems

Supplies for thinking of you card:
Stamps: Penny Black Golden Leaves, SU! Linen background stamp, Hero Arts Sending Smiles Messages clear set
CS: SU! Baja Breeze, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso & Very Vanilla
Ink: SU! Old Olive, Crumb Cake & Early Espresso
Tools: Sizzix Lace Edging decorative strip die, Stamp-A-Ma-Jig, sponge dauber
Embellishments & accessories: self adhesive gold nailheads

It's the WWF Earth Hour tonight, at 8.30 pm loads of people worldwide will be turning out their lights for one hour. Click here to get more details and you can click on the widget at the top of my page to sign up for it yourself. I'm looking forward to some cosy candlelight tonight!