This week is all about fall. I heard on the radio yesterday that we’re just about 6 weeks from fall. And fall just happens to be my favorite season of the year. So naturally, I was pretty thrilled to hear that it’s just around the corner. Annnnnd we’re supposed to get a fall-like front moving through our area this weekend, so we’ll get a little preview of the wonderful fall weather we have to look forward to!

Our featured design product this week is the new Online Exclusive suite by Stampin’ Up! called Gathering Together. And today the diecuts are taking center stage. The fun thing about the large-scale dies in this bundle is the detail die that allows you to add the ribbing to the leaves. In this case, I chose to stitch the ribbing with linen thread, but you could just as easily use a marker to fill in the details or even use a fine-tip Versamark pen and heat emboss. The possibilities are endless!

Our card today gets started with a base of Cajun Craze cardstock. I used a sheet of the foiled plaid as the backdrop for the focal images. The reverse side of the foiled plaid made the perfect detailing at the bottom of the focal panel. And I used a sheet of brushed gold foil to mat the focal panel to add an extra bit of glimmering gold in the background. I used the oak leaf die from the Gathering Moments set to cut two leaves – one from Pretty Peacock and one from Very Vanilla Season of Elegance sheets. I love the look of the gold-foiled leaves. The detail die adds the stitch lines that are then filled in with Cajun Craze linen thread. You could use any color thicker thread you have on hand or simply fill in with a matching marker. The leaves are adhered to the card front with dimensionals. The sentiment from Gathering Moments is stamped on Very Vanilla and die cut using the smaller Traditional Labels die and then a sheet of Old Olive Festive glimmer paper serves as the mat. The sentiment is adhered over a bow of gold trim and then placed in the bottom right corner of the card front and adhered with several layers of dimensionals to ensure it sits proud above the leaves. For a little extra sparkled, I added a few drusy embellishments to draw the eye down and across the center of the panel and down to the sentiment.

Tune in tomorrow to see how we can use this suite to create a fun fold design.

Products used in today’s card:
Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla cardstock
Season of Elegance, Festive glimmer paper (retired), Brushed gold foil, Gathering Together (coming next week) DSP
Gathering Moments stamps & dies (coming next week)
Traditional Labels dies (coming next week)
Cajun Craze linen thread (retired), gold trim
Drusy embellishments
Dimensionals
Adhesives

It’s another bright & shiny week. Are you ready for it? We enjoyed a nice weekend of family time. It’s always a great start to the week coming off a solid family-togetherness weekend. And with a teenager in the house, I’ll take as many of those as I’m given! *wink*

We’re starting a new design series this week and another week of Stampin’ Up! Holiday Mini catalog sneak peeks. This week, we’ll be working with a new Online Exclusive suite called Gathering Together. The suite includes some beautiful foiled fall-inspired paper, coordinating stamps & dies, an embossing folder, linen twine, and embellishments. I personally chose products from this suite because they pair beautifully with other current products, like the Season of Elegance paper pack and Mossy Meadow & Gold ribbon.

I used a clean and simple card sketch to turn out this beauty. We get started with a base of Early Espresso cardstock. I cut a piece of the foiled leaf paper from the Gathering Together paper pack to serve as the backdrop for the focal panel in the center. The sentiment from the Gathering Moments stamp set serves as our focal point and is stamped in Cajun Craze on a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock that is diecut with the Traditional Labels dies. I cut a second panel from gold specialty paper, cut it in half, and mounted it behind the sentiment panel as a mat. The two leaves from Gathering Moments are stamped in Cajun Craze & Mossy Meadow on two different sheets of Season of Elegance paper and then cut with the coordinating Gathering Moments die and mounted on opposing corners of the sentiment panel using dimensionals. Cajun Craze & Gold dots on either side of sentiment bring the eye in to the center. The sentiment panel is mounted on dimensionals over a bow of Mossy Meadow & Gold ribbon in the center of the card. We finish things off with a few Drusy embellishments for a bit of extra sparkle.

I hope you’ll pop in tomorrow to see some cool features of the gorgeous dies in this set.

Products used in today’s card:
Early Espresso, Very Vanilla cardstock
Gathering Together (coming next week), Season of Elegance, gold foil DSP;
Gathering Moments stamps & dies (coming next week)
Cajun Craze & Gold dots (coming next week), drusy embellishments
Mossy Meadow & Gold ribbon
Dimensionals
Adhesives