Paper Pierced Pumpkins

Try saying that title five times fast! It seemed fitting for this little addition to my Halloween class projects though. I think I've admired Autumn Harvest as a set for so long because of the lovely little leaf & the tiny acorn stamp that I nearly overlooked the great possibilities of its larger stamps. With the help of a little masking, they come together to make a nice little pumpkin patch. Of course, to make this just a general fall card rather than a Halloween card I could add in a few of the gourds and not stamp on that delightful little Jack-o-lantern face. The versatility is one of the great assets of this set! The little guide from the Mat Pack made creating the paper pierced boarders of this card a snap. Goodness knows I could never keep things straight or evenly spaced with out it. It's all about the right tools for the job. :)

Autumn Leaves

A few branches in my tree out front have already started to sport their fall colors, so I took that as clearance to make more fall cards. For years, I've been taken with the Autumn Harvest set not only for the incredible pumpkins & gourds but also for this great leaf & the little acorn in the set. Embossing the leaves first made it easy to watercolor in each of them. The real struggle on this card was the background. I tried a Big Shot folder, but that just didn't seem to work. Then I went for totally plain. Again, it didn't work. Finally I thought to have the leaves falling, but I didn't want to use another color of ink to keep things simple in class. Of course, I realized there was no need to change ink colors: Versamark would do the trick! Since my sentiment was already stamped & embossed, I could just stamp right over it while creating my background. Another happy accident works out as if I planned it!