Taking it Easy

Sometimes you need a card but don't have a lot of time or a lot of paper. I needed to make a lot of invitations quickly as I have a ton of Close to my Heart home parties coming up in September and October. I try to save time and money whenever possible. This card looks a bit fancy with just a few extra techniques but it really comes together fast and with just cardstock it's cheap too!

I used olive, colonial white and outdoor denim cardstock. Cut the outdoor denim 5 1/4" by 4 1/4", cut the olive cardstock 5" by 3 3/4" and cut a smaller piece of olive 3" by 1". You also will need a cardbase out of the colonial white cut 8 1/2" by 5 1/2". Score it in the middle and fold, this card will open at the bottom. You will need one extra piece of olive paper to stamp a leaf on, make sure it's at least 3" by 3".

Here's the first trick to fancy the card up, dry emboss a checked pattern into the larger olive piece by laying it on your trimmer and drawing a dry embossing tool along the groove at every inch vertically. Then turn it and do the same one inch in on each side only.

It should look like this once you've sanded it. Looks like I need a new sanding block!! It gets a lot of use.

If you like the distressed look, now is the time to take a sponge and your outdoor denim ink (just one ink pad for this whole card) and ink up the edges.

I used the Many Thanks stamp set, it's one of the wonderful new stamp sets you will have an opportunity to buy starting September 1st. You can purchase it right through my website and it will be sent directly to your house. Take the small little acorn stamp and stamp one acorn in each small square at the top and at the bottom.


Stamp the words, "Happy Fall" on the small olive piece.

Attach the large olive piece in the center of the outdoor denim card front. Glue down the Many Thanks phrase 1/2" from the side of the card, centered in the middle of the card.


Stamp the largest leaf on your scrap of olive paper.


Cut the leaf out, it's very easy on this particular stamp and will make a nice difference to spiff up your card.


Using pop dots always makes a card look cool. Just popping an embellishment up makes it special.


Attach the leaf to the right hand side of the card in the center letting it overlap the title.


Here's the finished piece after attaching it to the card base. If you want it fancier, you could use liquid glass or glitter on the different stamped images. I tried it on the leaf and will post that when it dries. You could also put the Happy Fall phrase on an outdoor denim mat too but the point if this card is keeping it simple, quick and inexpensive so go with it!