Autumn Sunshine

Morning. I have called this card, Autumn Sunshine. It's made using the Big Heart, Entwining Branches from Leonies' Collection of dies. I have also used the leaf stamps from her new stamp collection launched on Hochanda on June 8th.

To start with I cut the die into copier paper to act as a mask and also cut four of them from Cream,Satin Gold,Satin Bronze and Burgundy cardstock.

I cut some cream card to a 7'' square and cut the die out of it. I placed it slightly off centre towards the top left hand corner to allow for the embellishments I was adding later. I took a smaller sheet of velvet white card large enough to fill the mask and still allow for securing to the back of my die cut sheet.

I started creating my landscape with hills and mountains. I used Wild Honey, Rusty Hinge, and Aged Mahogany to achieve this.

I then added some tress, using stamps from Sheena Douglas with Black Archival.

I then placed a circle in the sky, slightly overlapping the mask I had made and blended the sky colour using mostly Scattered Straw Distress Ink, With a little Wild Honey around the edges.

I then peeled off the circle mask and slightly shaded the sun using the smallest amount of Scattered Straw so it wasn't stark white. I secured my die cut aperture to the landscape using Cosmic Shimmer glue. Then layered up my die cuts, each slightly twisted from the last to add dimension, using 3D Glue Gel. I then set these aside.

Next I stamped a selection of leaves and added autumn colours randomly blending to make them more natural looking once cut out. I used Scattered Staw, Wild Honey and Aged Mahogany.

Then cut out the leaves.

I then arranged the leaves around the bottom right hand corner and secured them with 3D Glue Gel.

Lastly I stamped the banner stamp and added the word ''Wonderful'' with black Archival ink. I blended this using the same selection of Distress Inks, keeping it lighter in the centre to give a curved 3D look.

I used 3D Glue Gel to secure the sentiment and finished the card by adding Glossy Accents to the Leaves and sentiment Banner.

Thank you so much for joining me today and seeing the step by step I have included for how I made this card. I hope you have enjoyed it and will visit again soon. Take care and hope to see you tomorrow. xxx

I just found out that they are now taking nominations for the International Craft awards and they have a category for best blog. If you think I deserve a nomination I would be over the moon and extremely chuffed. If you could take a minute or two to nominate, the link is: crafts-beautiful.com/award You could also win a nice prize in the draw. Thank you ever so much xxx