Spellbinders ~ Autumn Hues ~ Oak Forest Embossing Folder

Hey crafty friends, I've created two landscape cards today using one pass through the diecutting machine with a gorgeous Spellbinders Embossing Folder called Oak Forest. It's a 3D embossing folder, so the depth and dimension of the embossing is really gorgeous and quite honestly, they had me at Oak Forest! I love Autumn, it's my favourite season, Spring is a close second but I'm an Autumn girl at heart, so working with this folder is just blissful to me!

I inked the panel before embossing it and the way I inked it, meant there was quite a different colour gradient across the entire piece. Once I was done, I realised the panel was large enough to cut into two A2 cards, so I cut the panel in half. But first, I had fun trying out some mediums to bring out the embossing. I tried some Weeping Willow Lunar Paste on the more orangey end of the panel, the top portion. The Lunar Paste didn't shine quite as much as I expected with such a thin coat, so I came back with some Honey Bee Gold Ink and ran over the highest points, which was nice, because it caught the acorns mostly, which added some lovely variance in the highlights.

I opted to only use the Honey Bee Gold Ink on the lower half of the embossed panel. I like that the highlights give two such different looks. For the panel with the redder Autumn hues, the brighter Honey Bee Gold Ink really brings out the 3D details with such a lovely lustre and shine. It doesn't catch everything perfectly, but definitely does highlight the lovely design of the folder. 

For the card with the orange Autumn hues, the one I used the Simon Hurley Lunar Paste to highlight the embossing. I just used my finger to lightly paint some on the raised part of the design. Once it was dry, I went over that very lightly with the gold ink pad to add a second highlight, as the paste I used was quite dark and as I mentioned earlier, didn't shine quite as much as I expected, with such a thin coat. The Weeping Willow Lunar Paste is a yummy warm chocolate colour, but over the Autumn hues, needed the second application of gold just to lift the design a bit. 

I added some texture and depth and dimension with the accessories I used for these cards too. The red Autumn card, I used a gorgeous leaf and berries die set from the Winter's Grace Garden Collection by Susan Tierney-Cockburn. It's the Black Alder Etched Dies which creates a short stem of foliage with some berries that can be added to it. I took some creative license with this die and didn't use it to create a Black Alder branch, but rather just some foliage and berries in a hue that toned with the background. So I've chosen mat gold pearls in different sizes from This Calls For Confetti for the berries. I then added some real tiny cones from a neighbours tree that has been dropping them on our driveway. I'm not 100% sure what these are called, but after some research believe they do actually come from an Alder tree! So it felt kismet to include these with the spray of foliage.

 

I cut one set of leaves from an ink blended panel of paper, in the same hues I used for the background and then a set from gold cardstock. The berry base I cut also from gold cardstock, so it toned with the pearls I used. I wrapped some fine May Arts Twine around the card top and sat a doubled up half doily behind to break up the main panel a bit. I distressed the doily lightly with some Walnut Stain Distress Ink to take the brightness out of the white, so it would tone better with the rest of the piece. I used a gorgeous burgundy coloured cardstock for the card base from the Make It Merry Cardstock Collection, which also included the burgundy and brown cardstocks I used for the card bases. I also cut the sentiment strip from the burgundy cardstock, which I gold embossed from an older Spellbinders Stamp Set called Fall Greetings from the Happy Harvest Collection by Nichol Spohr. This stamp set is now retired, but I didn't have any other Autumn themed sentiments and wanted to use something Autumn themed for this card. I think this is a particularly lovely greeting.

I had a bright yellow felt doily in my stash, which I treated with some Walnut Stain Distress Ink to tone down the brightness for the base of my design cluster for the orangey Autumn card. I diecut a cute pumpkin from some cardstock I'd treated with Spiced Marmalade Distress Spritz by Tim Holtz. I also cut some cute flowers and the band of the witches hat from the same cardstock. I used the lovely Nichol Spohr set for Spellbinders called Faux Embroidered Pumpkin for this card. It comes with this lovely pumpkin die, a witches hat and some sweet flowers and foliage. I also had a second cardstock panel I'd treated with some Mica Spray Stain in Harvest Moon which I cut the rest of the sweet flowers from. The hat I cut from some brown felt and the little leaves and pumpkin shoots I cut from moss green felt. The buckle for the hat I cut with gold cardstock. I thought this made a sweet Autumn scene. I have a second diecut of the hat in black and a second pumpkin cut from that lovely orange mica spritz panel, so I may need to do a 'take 2' version of this card. If you followed my journey with Spellbinders back in 2022, you may spot that hugs word die from back in the day. I diecut it from gold irridescent cardstock that had been first covered with double sided adhesive, to make the adhering of these narrow letters a little easier. This is a great trick for very narrow diecuts like this. It was easy to peel up and lay over the shadow base then. I had some already cut in black and though in retrospect I probably ought to have cut one from brown cardstock to match my card base, I wasn't unhappy with this option and I think it finished the card very sweetly. Autumn hugs!

Spellbinders is having a wonderful sale in both the US and UK. You can click through to the US site and then through to the UK from the link above. I so wish these deals were accessible from NZ shores! I'm well jel'! There are some absolute steals! Thank you friends for popping in to visit today, I hope you enjoyed seeing this 'two for one' from the lovely Oak Forest 3D Embossing Folder from Spellbinders. I will be back with some more fun crafty adventures very soon. Hugs, Wends xoxo

(I share thumbnails to the elements I design with in order to make your search for them easier, in case you like something I've used. I do use affiliate links where possible, which gives me a tiny commission but costs you no extra whatsoever. It helps the companies I design for to improve their marketing practice and track my contributions. I am deeply grateful if you use them for these reasons. I am proud to design for the companies I do and always feel happy to share where my inspiration and where my crafty stash comes from. I am occasionally gifted products to use, but I only design for companies whose products I absolutely love and buy for myself. My opinions are always my own.)

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