A Prize Winning Card

I have been urged by my good friend and fellow CTMH consultant, Dawn, to post this card, so here goes……… Despite some amazing competition, I managed to win the card contest at our recent CTMH Regional Celebration here in Portland with this little beauty. It was my first CTMH event and my head was already spinning with all the great classes and projects I was lucky enough to enjoy. This win was just the icing on the cake!!! Thanks to all my CTMH sisters who voted for my card!

I have seen versions of this “easel” card all over the blogging world, so I don’t know who the original credit goes to. But whomever you are—THANKS!!!

The funny thing about this card is that I wasn’t even going to buy this stamp set. CTMH has another cute leaf stamp set that also debuted in the recent Autumn/Winter Idea Book and I decided to buy it and told myself I DID NOT need another leaf set. However, one of my customers fell in love with this set and decided to order it. It happened to be delivered right before the All-Day Crop I was holding, and as soon as I saw it in person I wanted to try it out. Luckily, said customer was my mom and, of course, she let me play with it at the crop. Needless to say, I fell in love with it and this card was born (and I bought the set for myself, too). So, thanks also go out to my mom, DiAnne, for buying this set in the first place!

Some of the leaves are embossed with gold on several different colors of cardstock. The other leaves are made with a technique called “stamp rolling.” To achieve this look, ink up your image with the base color (usually a lighter color), then lightly “roll” the edges of your stamp image in a second color (usually a darker color). Then stamp on your paper, as usual.

The acorns are first stamped with colored ink, then stamped again, directly over the image, with VersaMark and embossed with clear embossing powder. (Gotta love the clear stamps!) The leaves and acorns are then layered together with foam tape to give the wreath dimension.

The leaf behind the sentiment is done with the rolling technique, and then stamped “second generation.” In other words, I stamped first on scratch paper to remove most of the ink, and then again on the project. This gives the lighter, sheer look to the image. I stamped the sentiment directly over the leaf image.

Since CTMH only makes the Foundry Bookplates (Z1147) in pewter and I needed something in gold, I tried embossing them. Guess what? It worked!! Press the Bookplate into a VersaMark ink pad then emboss with gold embossing powder. If there are little nooks and crannies that don’t get covered, just touch them up with an embossing pen and more powder. Reheat and you have a gold bookplate!

The stamp set used is called Flourished Blessings (D1379) and the paper is from the set, Back Country (X7110B). I used a wide variety of colors including Outdoor Denim, New England Ivy, Autumn Terracotta, Cocoa, Honey, Goldrush, Barn Red, Chocolate, Desert Sand & Colonial White. Also in the mix are Autumn Terracotta brads & Barn Red Bigger Brads, along with the aforementioned Bookplate.

This card is a little larger than standard, 6 1/2” x 6 1/2”, to accommodate the wreath. The wreath is my own original design.