Pretty Pumpkins Thank You Card

I recently created a set of fall-themed thank you cards to give to the lovely people who spoiled me on my birthday, and this is one of them. I used Altenew's Pumpkin Patch 3D embossing folder with some orange cardstock for the background panel and attached it to a white A2 card base. Then I die cut and embossed a fence from Altenew's Craft-Your-Life: Rustic Charm set using woodgrain cardstock and added that to the left side of the card. I trimmed it a little to leave room for the embossed pumpkin patch to show at the bottom.

To create the pumpkin die cuts, I used Altenew's Pretty Pumpkins layering die set and papers I had ink smooshed, watercolored, and/or sprayed to give them a nice texture. I die cut the stems from some paper I had created using a metallic acrylic paint. I arranged the pumpkins in front of the fence and adhered them using liquid glue and foam tape to give dimension in places. 

Finallly, I stamped and die cut the "thanks" sentiment from Altenew's Build-A-Garden: Bougainvillea set. 

Close up of the pumpkins:

Challenges I'm entering: 
 

digidesignchallengeblog (disdigidesignschallenge.blogspot.com): Include a pumpkin (2/3; ends 11/8/24)

Allsorts challenge blog: Cute and/or Cuddly or ATG (1/3; ends 11/1/24)

Aud Sentiments Challenge Blog: Embossing and/or Fall + Sentiment (4/5; ends at the end of the month)

Double Trouble Paper Crafting (doubletroublechallenge.blogspot.com): Thing 1: bat colors: green, orange, brown Thing 3: entered A Cut Above challenge 

A Cut Above (craftingacutabove.blogspot.com): ATG with die cuts (3/3; ends at the end of the month)

Inspiration Station (inspirationstationchallenge.blogspot.com): My card includes fall colors and pumpkins like the inspiration photo does) (1/8; ends at the end of the month)

Rustic Charm Pumpkin Card

I needed some thank you cards for the people who so kindly gave me birthday cards recently, so I thought I'd make some fall-themed ones. I have been having so much fun playing with my new Altenew Pumpkin Patch 3D embossing folder and Pretty Pumpkins layering die set, and I wanted to use them for this card.

I created a side-folding A2 card using heavy weight white cardstock and then chose watercolor cardstock I had ink smooshed for the front panel. I embossed it using the Pumpkin Patch embossing folder and then trimmed it to fit the front of the card. Next, I die cut and embossed the fence using Altenew's Craft-Your-Life: Rustic Charm set and some woodgrain cardstock. I trimmed it a bit to fit on the left side of the card because I wanted more of the embossed pumpkins to show. After I had the background and fence made, I die cut the pieces for all 3 pumpkins from the Pretty Pumpkins set using papers I had sprayed, ink smooshed, and/or water colored and layered them together using Art Glitter liquid glue and my reverse tweezers. I arranged them in a little grouping in front of the fence and then stamped and die cut the "thank you" sentiment from Altenew's Craft-Your-Life: Splendid Bouquet  set. I die cut it a few times, stacked the die cuts, and then adhered the sentiment to the card. 

Close up of the adorable pumpkins:

Challenges I'm entering: 

Word Art Wednesday: ATG (2/5 for the week; 2/10 for the challenge; ends 11/6/24)

Can You Handle The Pressure? (cyhtp.blogspot.com): ATG with an embossing folder with a twist of pumpkins (2/3; ends 11/6/24)

613 Avenue Create (avenue613.blogspot.com): ATG with twist of lots of leaves (8/8; ends at the end of the month)

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends Challenge ...: ATG (1/3; ends 11/1/24)

A Place To Start (hereisaplacetostart.blogspot.com): ATG with optional theme of use some pink (ends at the end of the month)

Double D Challenges (daranddiane.blogspot.com): Use a pumpkin (3/3; ends 11/3/24)

Aud Sentiments Challenge Blog: Embossing and/or Fall + Sentiment (3/5; ends at the end of the month)

Inspiration Station (inspirationstationchallenge.blogspot.com): My card includes fall colors and pumpkins like the inspiration photo does) (2/8; ends at the end of the month)

Sending Love and Prayers Vintage Garden Card

I'm sharing one final card that I made with Altenew's Vintage Garden stamp set here. This time I cut the large floral focal part apart so that I could tuck the pink flower behind the other two flowers. This allowed me to fit all three flowers on a 5 by 7 card base. 

I started by stamping and heat embossing the florals and leaves using Altenew's embossing ink and their Platinum embossing powder. Then I colored the leaves and flowers using my Ohuhu alcohol ink markers. 

I felt like the white card base was too stark to just add the flowers directly on it, so I added strips of Altenew's Our Family washi tape and then arranged the flowers and leaves how I wanted them. I used Glad Press N Seal to hold the arrangement together while I adhered each layer. 

For the sentiment, I stamped and heat embossed "Sending love and prayers" from Altenew's Blessings stamp set. The sentiment stamp actually says "Sending love and prayers for a blessed holiday season," but I was able to trim off the rest of the words. I added the sentiment using foam tape to finish the card. 

Close up:

Challenges I'm entering: 

 October 2024 Cardmaking Inspiration Challenge (altenew.com): 

Gem of A Craft Challenge (pinkgemchallengeblog.blogspot.com): ATG (4/4; ends 11/8/24)

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends Challenge ...: ATG (3/3; ends 11/1/24)

simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge/: Spooky or Add Some Purple (2/5; ends 10/28/24)

Stamping Sensations: Autumn Colors or ATG (3/3; ends at the end of the month)

A Place To Start (hereisaplacetostart.blogspot.com): ATG with optional theme of use some pink (ends at the end of the month)

Beautiful Blossoms Challenge: ATG with flowers as the focus (3/6; ends 11/12/24)

Red And Green Vintage Garden Hugs Card

I send out a card to my daughter who is deployed each time I send her a care package, and I send out 1-2 care packages a week, so this is card #17 for this deployment! 😄 

I have recently been playing with Altenew's Vintage Garden stamp set, and I thought I would see how it worked to stamp the images using red ink on the flower and green ink on the leaves by simply tapping the mini ink cubes over the flowers and leaves separately. It wasn't perfect in the places where the leaves met the flowers, but I felt like it worked well anyway. I really liked the look it created, and it was a nice change from just using black ink for the entire image.

After stamping the flowers, I used the coordinating dies to die cut them and then used the coordinating stencils to color them. The coordinating stencils leave a lot of white space, and at first I wasn't sure how I felt about that, but in the end, I like that it's a little different from so many of my other floral stamp sets. 

Once I had the flowers done, I also stamped the other leaves in the stamp set using the same green ink I had used on the large floral images. I die cut them and added a bit of color to them with the coordinating stencils, too. 

In using this set for previous cards, I have trimmed the largest floral focal point to fit an A2 card or used the smaller flower on an A2 card, but for this card, I wanted to use all 3 flowers and extra leaf die cuts from the set. It meant creating a card base that is 7 1/2 inches by 4 3/4 inches, an unusual size for a card to be sure! But I happen to have some oversized envelopes, and this is going into a box rather than being mailed in the envelope I put it in, so I'm fine with it being bigger than usual. 

I used some heavy weight white card stock to create the card base and then added a piece of plain red cardstock to cover the front of the card base. I then added a piece of watercolor cardstock that I had sprayed with Tim Holtz's Peppermint Distress Mica Stain. I love the look of the Peppermint Distress Mica Stain! It's got a beautiful shine when you see it in real life. 

I arranged the flowers and leaves where I wanted them on the panel and used a piece of Glad Press N Seal to hold everything together as I added liquid glue to some places and foam tape to others to add dimension to the stamped images. 

For the sentiment, I used the "Hugs" die from Altenew's Watercolor Roses set and die cut it multiple times to stack the dies and give the sentiment some dimension. For the green in the top layer of the die cut word, I swiped my ink pad over some white cardstock and then die cut the word from the inked cardstock. 

To finish the card, I added several of Altenew's Emerald City Gem Sparkles on the top left, bottom right, and the flower centers. I used the darkest shade for the corners and the middle shade for the flower centers. 

Close ups:

 Challenges I'm entering: 

Gem of A Craft Challenge (pinkgemchallengeblog.blogspot.com): ATG (2/4; ends 11/8/24)

Polkadoodles Cardmaking, Craft & Scrapbooking Challenge: ATG (3/4; ends 11/8/24)

613 Avenue Create (avenue613.blogspot.com): ATG with twist of lots of leaves (2/8; ends at the end of the month)

We Love to Create mixed media Challenge Blog...sponsored by Polkadoodles (welove2create.blogspot.com): ATG (2/2; ends at the end of November)

We Love Stamping: Autumn or ATG (3/3; ends at the end of the month)

A Place To Start (hereisaplacetostart.blogspot.com): ATG with optional theme of use some pink (ends at the end of the month)

Crazy is our fame - STENCILS are our game! (stencilfun.blogspot.com): ATG with stencils with an optional twist of Halloween (I used the coordinating stencils to color the flowers and leaves) (1/3; ends at the end of the month)

Word Art Wednesday: ATG (4/5 for the week; 4/10 for the challenge; ends 11/6/24)

Beautiful Blossoms Challenge: ATG with flowers as the focus (1/6; ends 11/12/24)

Hello, Beau-TEA-ful Card

I recently purchased Altenew's Mini Delights: Afternoon Delights stamp and die set, and I had so much fun playing with it to create this card for my youngest daughter. I send her a special card in every box I send out to her while she's deployed. I just sent out box #16 last week, so I've been having fun making loads of cards for her, including Halloween and Thanksgiving cards since I needed to send them out about a month early for them to reach her in time. She loves tea and has a little group of tea-drinking friends who share their favorite teas together, so I think this set is perfect for a card for her!

To start making this card, I sprayed some white cardstock using Sugary Gumdrop Distress Mica Stain spray. Then I trimmed a panel to fit the front of my A2 card base and embossed the panel using Altenew's Organic Linen 3D embossing folder. 

Then I got to work die cutting all the pieces for the teacups and saucers and little tea bag strings from Altenew's Mini Delights: Afternoon Delights stamp and die set. I really enjoy layering die sets now that I have reverse tweezers to help me hold all the little pieces and fine tip glue bottles to apply the glue to the tiny die cut pieces. These teacups came together easily. I die cut them in the colors for this month's inspiration challenge over on the Altenew blog. Then I adhered all the pieces and stacked them on the card front using Altenew's foam tape to give them a bit of dimension. Then I stamped the "hello beau-TEA-ful" sentiment on one of the saucer die cuts and adhered that to finish the front of the card.

For the inside of the card, I trimmed another piece of the cardstock I had sprayed with the Sugary Gumdrop Distress Mica Stain to 3 3/4 inches by 5 inches and then stamped the floral image from the same Afternoon Delights set using tone-on-tone stamping. I stamped the sentiment "you are tea-riffic" onto another saucer die cut and adhered that to the inside panel. I just love puns, so and this set has some great ones!

Inside the card: 

Close ups:

Challenges I'm entering: 

October 2024 Cardmaking Inspiration Challenge (altenew.com): 

 Allsorts challenge blog: Cute and/or Cuddly or ATG (3/3; ends 11/1/24)

Polkadoodles Cardmaking, Craft & Scrapbooking Challenge: ATG (1/4; ends 11/8/24)

613 Avenue Create (avenue613.blogspot.com): ATG with twist of lots of leaves (7/8; ends at the end of the month)

A Place To Start (hereisaplacetostart.blogspot.com): ATG with optional theme of use some pink (ends at the end of the month)

Aud Sentiments Challenge Blog: Embossing and/or Fall + Sentiment (5/5; ends at the end of the month)

The Cutie Pie Challenge Blog: Pretty and Pink (ends 11/4/24)

simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge/: Spooky or Add Some Purple (3/5; ends 10/28/24)

Word Art Wednesday: ATG (5/5 for the week; 5/10 for the challenge; ends 11/6/24)

Sending You God's Blessings Pumpkin Patch Card

I love making autumn cards, and I'm having so much fun with Altenew's new Pumpkin Patch 3D embossing set and their Pretty Pumpkin layering die set! 

For this card, I started with a top-folding white A2 card base and ink blended some Clear Skies Simon Hurley ink to the top of the card base. Then I trimmed a white panel to 4 1/4 by 5 1/2 inches and embossed the panel using the Pumpkin Patch embossing folder. I ink blended the pumpkins using Pink Fresh Studio's Sunkissed ink. Then I fussy cut the top layer of pumpkins off and then fussy cut one of the pumpkins from that top row and adhered it near the top of the ink-blended card base using Altenew's Ultra Sticky double-sided tape. Before adding the rest of the embossed pumpkins with Altenew's foam tape, I stamped the "Sending you God's blessings" sentiment from Altenew's Blessings stamp set. You can't really tell in the picture, but one of the pumpkins at the top is glued flat to the card base and the rest of the pumpkins are slightly popped up by the foam tape. 

I die cut and embossed a fence from Altenew's Craft-Your-Life: Rustic Charm set and then trimmed it to fit where I wanted it on the card without covering too many of my embossed pumpkins. Then I die cut and layered together the pieces for the 2 smallest pumpkins in the Pretty Pumpkins set. I adhered them in front of the fence. To finish the card, I added several of Altenew's Apricot Frost enamel dots. 

Challenges I'm entering: 

 Can You Handle The Pressure? (cyhtp.blogspot.com): ATG with an embossing folder with a twist of pumpkins (1/3; ends 11/6/24)

Art Impressions Blog: All the Fall Challenge #390 Week #1 (artimpressionsstamps.blogspot.com): All the Fall (2/2; ends 11/6/24)

digidesignchallengeblog (disdigidesignschallenge.blogspot.com): Include a pumpkin (3/3; ends 11/8/24)

Gem of A Craft Challenge (pinkgemchallengeblog.blogspot.com): ATG (1/4; ends 11/8/24)

Allsorts challenge blog: Cute and/or Cuddly or ATG (2/3; ends 11/1/24)

Polkadoodles Cardmaking, Craft & Scrapbooking Challenge: ATG (2/4; ends 11/8/24)

613 Avenue Create (avenue613.blogspot.com): ATG with twist of lots of leaves (3/8; ends at the end of the month)

A Place To Start (hereisaplacetostart.blogspot.com): ATG with optional theme of use some pink (ends at the end of the month)

Aud Sentiments Challenge Blog: Embossing and/or Fall + Sentiment (1/5; ends at the end of the month)

Inspiration Station (inspirationstationchallenge.blogspot.com): My card includes fall colors and pumpkins like the inspiration photo does) (4/8; ends at the end of the month)

Fall Pumpkins and Leaves Tri-Fold Card

The idea for this tri-fold card came from a FaceBook Live by Amy Hill on the Altenew page. I love fun folds and wanted to try to recreate something similar to Amy's card to send to my daughter who is currently deployed far from home. She's missing out on the beauty of fall here in Michigan, so I've been sending her fall-themed cards and freeze-dried foods like pumpkin bread slices (they taste like biscotti when freeze-dried!) and soups like butternut squash soup and pumpkin soup. 

After creating the card base, I chose Altenew's Craft-Your-Life: Sweet Buttercups set to create some stamped, die cut, and embossed leaves. I used some watercolor paper backgrounds that I had watercolored, ink smooshed, and/or sprayed with fall colors and made several sets so I had a few different colors to choose from. This set has a large stamp that stamps all the flowers and leaves at once and comes with a coordinating die that cuts them all at once, so now I have some lovely buttercup flowers left over to use on a future card. The coordinating 3D embossing folder adds nice details to the flowers and leaves, so I ran them all through my Spellbinders Platinum die cutting machine to emboss them after stamping and embossing them.

Once I had the leaves finished, I die cut several pumpkins using Altenew's Pretty Pumpkins layering die set. I love this set and have been playing with it quite a bit since I purchased it recently. The pumpkins have a lot of lovely dimension when layered together, but they also look great with just the base layer as it has some nice etched details on it. 

I arranged my pumpkins and leaves and a bit of orange polka dot cardstock to decorate the card panels. Then I stamped "Appreciating all you do!" from the same Sweet Buttercups set I used for the leaves onto a strip of the polka dot cardstock. I adhered that to the back panel and trimmed a few leaves to fit underneath it. 

 Challenges I'm entering:

Anything Goes with a Fun Fold for Creative Creases #94 (secretstamper.com) (ends 11/8/24)

Word Art Wednesday: ATG (1/5 for the week; 1/10 for the challenge; ends 11/6/24)

Can You Handle The Pressure? (cyhtp.blogspot.com): ATG with an embossing folder with a twist of pumpkins (My leaves were embossed using the coordinating embossing folder for the Sweet Buttercups Craft-Your-Life set (3/3; ends 11/6/24)

Art Impressions Blog: All the Fall Challenge #390 Week #1 (artimpressionsstamps.blogspot.com): All the Fall (1/2; ends 11/6/24)

digidesignchallengeblog (disdigidesignschallenge.blogspot.com): Include a pumpkin (1/3; ends 11/8/24)

Gem of A Craft Challenge (pinkgemchallengeblog.blogspot.com): ATG (3/4; ends 11/8/24)

Polkadoodles Cardmaking, Craft & Scrapbooking Challenge: ATG (4/4; ends 11/8/24)

613 Avenue Create (avenue613.blogspot.com): ATG with twist of lots of leaves (1/8; ends at the end of the month)

We Love to Create mixed media Challenge Blog...sponsored by Polkadoodles (welove2create.blogspot.com): ATG (1/2; ends at the end of November)

The Paper Shelter: Squares or circles (my pattern paper has polka dots on it) (1/2; ends 10/29/24)

Stamping Sensations: Autumn Colors or ATG (1/3; ends at the end of the month)

We Love Stamping: Autumn or ATG (2/3; ends at the end of the month)

A Cut Above (craftingacutabove.blogspot.com): ATG with die cuts (2/3; ends at the end of the month)

A Place To Start (hereisaplacetostart.blogspot.com): ATG with optional theme of use some pink (ends at the end of the month)

Double D Challenges (daranddiane.blogspot.com): Use a pumpkin (2/3; ends 11/3/24)

Aud Sentiments Challenge Blog: Embossing and/or Fall + Sentiment (2/5; ends at the end of the month)

Inspiration Station (inspirationstationchallenge.blogspot.com): My card includes fall colors and pumpkins like the inspiration photo does) (3/8; ends at the end of the month)

Vintage Garden Pop Up Card

I needed a card for a friend of my daughter who was selected as Sailor of the Day on my daughter's ship last week. That's an amazing honor as there are over 5,000 sailors on the ship! This young woman has been a good friend to my daughter, and I thought it would be nice to make her a special card to congratulate her. 

I saw Jennifer McGuire make this pop up card in this video: Very Unique Fun Fold Cards + Exclusive Offer! (youtube.com), and I didn't have the Gina K dies she used, but I had some Spellbinders label dies that were similar enough to make it work. I used them to die cut two pieces of purple cardstock for the base of the pop up mechanism, and then I used 2 pieces of white card stock for the springs that go on top of the label pieces. Once the pop up parts were finished, I die cut a piece of red cardstock using the same size label as the pop up pieces and then I die cut the next smaller size in the label die set using water color cardstock that I had sprayed with Hero Arts Two-Tone metallic spray in yellow and copper. 

For the floral focal piece, I stamped and heat embossed the largest image from Altenew's Vintage Garden stamp set. I die cut it using the coordinating die and then colored it with my Ohuhu alcohol ink markers. I used foam tape to adhere it to the center label dies. Then I die cut the "congrats" die and its shadow using Altenew's Versatile Greetings 2 die set. I adhered the word to the center of the flowers using Art Glitter liquid glue.  

For the inside of the card, I die cut two more of the nesting labels and stamped "So happy for you" using Altenew's Build-A-Flower: Canterbury Bells set. 

Side view:

Inside the card:

A look at the pop-up mechanism:

From the side:

Challenges I'm entering:

Anything Goes with a Fun Fold for Creative Creases #94 (secretstamper.com) (ends 11/8/24)

Word Art Wednesday: ATG (3/5 for the week; 3/10 for the challenge; ends 11/6/24)

 613 Avenue Create (avenue613.blogspot.com): ATG with twist of lots of leaves (5/8; ends at the end of the month)

Double Trouble Paper Crafting (doubletroublechallenge.blogspot.com): Thing 1: bat colors: red, yellow, purple, and green Thing 3: entered A Cut Above challege

A Cut Above (craftingacutabove.blogspot.com): ATG with die cuts (1/3; ends at the end of the month)

simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge/: Spooky or Add Some Purple (1/5; ends 10/28/24)

Snippets Playground (pixiessnippetsplayground.blogspot.com): ATG with snippets (I used snippets for the pieces I die cut for the pop up mechanism (the white accordion fold pieces as well as the purple and red pieces I die cut with the Spellbinder label dies) (1/1; ends 11/10/24)

Digi Choosday Cardmaking & Crafting Challenge: ATG (2/2; ends 10/29/24)

Beautiful Blossoms Challenge: ATG with flowers as the focus (2/6; ends 11/12/24)

You're On My Mind Card

I recently purchased some cute pink washi tape from Altenew, and when it arrived, I realized it had a woodgrain pattern to it that I hadn't seen on the website. I immediately thought to pair it with the Craft-Your-Life: Rustic Charm set because that set has a fence embossing folder and die that I thought would look nice in pink. I covered some white cardstock with the washi tape in strips and then die cut the fence and embossed the die cut piece. I really like this fence in pink! 

Since I wanted to play in this month's inspiration challenge over on the Altenew blog, I decided to use a yellow background I had watercolored and sprayed. Then I stamped and die cut a bird from the Rustic Charm set and used purple and yellow inks to color him in using the coordinating stencils and my Altenew sticky mat. 

For the sentiment, I stamped "you're on my mind" from Altenew's Build-A-Garden: Grand Carnations set and die cut it with the coordinating die. To finish the card, I added gems in purple, pink, and yellow. 

 Challenges I'm entering: 

October 2024 Cardmaking Inspiration Challenge (altenew.com): 

simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge/: Spooky and/or add some purple (1/5; ends 10/28/24)

A Place To Start (hereisaplacetostart.blogspot.com): ATG with the option to use pink

The Diva's that cut ....paper! (die-cut-divas.blogspot.com): ATG (1/4; ends at the end of the month)

613 Avenue Create (avenue613.blogspot.com): ATG (ends at the end of the month)

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends Challenge ... :ATG (1/3; ends 11/2/24)

Stamping Sensations: ATG or Autumn colors (1/3; ends at the end of the month)

We Love Stamping: We love Autumn or ATG (1/3; ends at the end of the month)

Can You Handle The Pressure? (cyhtp.blogspot.com): ATG with a twist of monsters or Halloween (1/3; ends 10/23/24)

Creative Knockouts: Use your favorite embellishment (I used gems) (1/2; ends 10/23/24) C10

No more challenges.