Two cards to "Fall" for!

(I hope that title doesn't seem too vain for this post, I'm just TRYing to be clever with my title here, lol!) I love the Autumn here in Barstow when the weather finally starts to cool down and I feel the mood strike me to start stamping bunches of colorful autumn leaves (since we don't get as many "real" autumn leaves here in the desert, lol)! The Heart2Heart blog challenge this week is to stamp and create something with either "leaves" and/or "trees" and as usual lately, I haven't had much time for creating this week (other than the few hours I spent on a scrapbook layout I'm prepping for a gathering coming up next week). But... I do have tons of things I've created in the past that I have been wanting to share here on my blog for ages, so I couldn't resist taking advantage of this opportunity to share some fall-themed creations with you all, and here... they are!

The standard size card (above) is one I created back in 2007 for the "Humble Artists" swap I was a participant in. The Nature's Vein stamp set (D1232) that I used for the leaves was one of my favorites back then and must still be a favorite of many since it hasn't retired yet in all this time and is still available to order! I also used a lot of scissor distressing, sanding, and ink distressing on this card. The white streaks on the cocoa cardstock "half-oval" shape is white acrylic paint that I added with a fan-shaped paint brush (easy)! The other stamp set that I used to stamp the background is Goodness of Life C1286 which is now a retired stamp set I believe.
My 2nd card (just above) is also a standard size card that I designed a while back (in the fall of 2008 - a few of you may remember creating this card with me at my Open House!). It uses the Perfect Day papers and the Treasure Life stamp set (D1306) that is shown on page 53 of our current Idea Book. The leaves here were stamped with cocoa ink while the flowers were stamped and set with clear ink and embossing powder so I could do the "embossing resist" technique. To get the embossed image to resist the ink, I just used sponge daubers with cocoa and sorbet inks to sponge in some color around the flowers (and then used a tissue to wipe off the excess ink that resisted from sticking where the embossed image is). It's very simple do but allows for such a "wowie!" effect! So I hope I've inspired you even just a little today - Welcome Autumn!! - my favorite time of year!