Golden Leaves

When I saw the big gorgeous leaf designs on Inkadinkado's "Leaves Galore" set, I knew that I wanted to emboss them and make something really fabulous.  I had a ton of fun creating this card playing with Pearl Ex powders, embossing powders, and Distress Stains.

The Details:

• I've been using a ton of neutrals lately and wanted to step out a bit, so I used eggplant cardstock as the base, stamped the medium leaf cluster in Versamark and used a dry paint brush to add gold, bronze, and copper Pearl Ex powders to the stamped leaves.  The edges were distressed with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.
• The label plate was raw chipboard that I colored with Distress Stains and then added a layer of Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint.  "Happy Thanksgiving" was embossed in gold on mustard cardstock that was also colored with Distress Stains.  It's adhered to the label plate with foam tape for dimension.  The "brads" are dots of Frayed Burlap Distress Stickles.

• Now for the fun part...the big yummy leaves!  I stamped the large oak, medium oak, and large maple leaves in Versamark onto kraft cardstock.  The large oak is embossed with gold, large maple with copper, and the medium oak is mostly gold with a little copper thrown in.
• I then cut the leaves out using deckle scissors for a ragged, dry leafy edge, then distressed the edges a bit more with a Tim Holtz paper distresser tool.  
• Next, I just played and layered, and played and layered...I kept adding different Distress Stains until I liked the results and got some nice autumnal leaves.  But I wasn't done yet.  Once I was satisfied with the Distress Stains, I sprayed each leaf with Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls Mist and smeared a bit of Frayed Burlap Distress Stickles to the medium oak leaf.

• After layering up the finished leaves (the top oak leaf is raised a bit using foam tape), I added the wide organza ribbon and gold cord.

Challenges:
Shelly's Images: Terrifically Thrilling Thursday Challenge - Anything Goes
Just For Fun Challenge: Favorite Technique
Paper Crafting Journey: PCJ Challenge #23 - Embossing
The Artistic Stamper Creative Team: November Challenge - Backgrounds
Crafting for All Seasons: Challenge #14 - Thanksgiving, Thank you or Sketch
Simon Says Stamp Challenge: Simon Says Thanksgiving / Thanks
The Sisterhood of Crafters: Giving Thanks
Scrap-Creations: Going Grey with Scrap-Creations Challenge - Thanksgiving
Victorine Stamps:  Challenge #21 - Thanksgiving
Sentimental Sundays: Challenge # 81 - Thanksgiving / Thank You
My Sheri Crafts: Challenge #73 - Be Thankful

Supplies:
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up! ‘Elegant Eggplant’, ‘More Mustard’; Papertrey Ink ‘Kraft’
Stamps: Inkadinkado ‘Leaves Galore’; Stampin’ Up! ‘All Year Cheer’
Inks: Versamark; Distress Stain ‘Pumice Stone’, ‘Brushed Corduroy’, ‘Rusty Hinge’, ‘Spiced Marmalade’, ‘Crushed Olive’, ‘Chipped Sapphire’; Perfect Pearls Mist ‘Heirloom Gold’; Distress Ink ‘Vintage Photo’
Embellishments: Pearl Ex powder ‘Antique Bronze’, ‘Super Copper’, ‘Antique Gold’; SU! embossing powder ‘Gold Glory’; All Night Media embossing powder ‘Copper’; Celebrate It ribbon; gold cord; Distress Stickles ‘Frayed Burlap’; chipboard label; Distress Crackle Paint ‘Rock Candy’
Tools: deckle scissors; heat tool; Xacto knife; 3M foam tape