A Grateful Heart

Welcome back to my blog crafty friends!  I am such a happy gal with all of the fall colors appearing all around me.  This IS my absolute favorite time of the year.  Which of course means I love to make fall themed cards.   Let's take a look at my latest project for the Polka Dot Orchard design team!

It features the A Grateful Heart digital stamp set from Polka Dot Orchard.

I was going for a no line look using Zig Clean Color real brush markers.  Here is a picture of my color palette for today.

I lightened the stamp image before printing it out onto Bristol smooth cardstock.  Then I got right to coloring.  I generally lay down a little bit of the marker and draw the color out with a waterbrush.  I have better control over the water that way.  Sometimes I'll use a lighter color marker to draw out the color depending on how strong I want it to be.

Coffee cups: Brick Beige and Persian Green

Pumpkins: Deep Brown, Brown and Beige

Pumpkin Stems: May Green and Olive Green

Leaves: Marine Green and Olive Green

Berries: Persian Green

I just took my time until I had the image colored in completely.  Once it was dry, I used my Brother Scan and Cut to cut out the colored image.  Now on to card making!

My card base is a natural ivory color.  Next I added an orange plaid paper from Echo Park's My Favorite Fall paper pad.  The brown layer is cut from Authentique's Gracious paper pad.  I spritzed it lightly with water before putting it into the fall embossing folder.  I hoped to keep it from cracking through the paper.  It did help but I still had white showing through.  To remedy that I took a sanding block and lightly sanded the raised areas.  Then I sponged a brown ink over it.  I love the texture and dimension that it added to the card!

I felt like I needed to tie in the Persian Green from the colored image with the card.  I dug through my cardstock stash and found a pretty good match.  I cut a 1/4" strip and adhered it all the way across the card.  For the colored image I added a bunch of foam tape to the back before putting it in place.  Onwards to the sentiment.

I played around with several different sentiments but decided on one from The Best Pumpkin stamp set also by Polka Dot Orchard.  I didn't have a space large enough for it to be in one spot so I just fussy cut out all of the words.  I was delighted to find out that the 'and' fit perfectly in the center of the colored image!  Bonus!!  I ran the words through my Xyron sticker maker.  Before I placed them on the card, I spattered the entire card front with copper paint.

For the final touch I add Midas Touch Nuvo Shimmer marker to the pumpkins.  I wish it showed up better in the picture but it's gorgeous in real life!

Thank you SO much for stopping by today!

~Kristina

Supplies used: 

Tombow Mono Multi Liquid glue Shop at: SBC | EH	Xyron Sticker Maker Shop at: SBC	Therm O Web Foam Tape Shop at: SBC | EH	Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper Shop at: EH
Brown 60 Zig Clean Color Real Brush Marker Shop at: EH	May Green 47 Zig Clean Color Real Brush Marker Shop at: EH	Olive Green 43 Zig Clean Color Real Brush Shop at: EH	Ranger Tim Holtz Water Brush - Fine Brush Shop at: EH
Gracious paper pad - Authentique Shop at: SBC	My Favorite Fall - Echo Park Shop at: SBC	Midas Touch Shimmer pen - Nuvo Shop at: SBC | EH	Persian Green 33 Zig Clean Color Real Brush Shop at: EH
Deep Brown 68 Zig Clean Color Real Brush Shop at: EH	Brick Beige 75 Zig Clean Color Real Brush Shop at: EH	Marine Green 400 Zig Clean Color Real Brush Shop at: EH	Beige 72 Zig Clean Color Real Brush Shop at: EH
The Best Pumpkin - Polka Dot Orchard Shop at: PDO	A Grateful Heart - Polka Dot Orchard Shop at: PDO