Happy Thanksgiving

I would share all the things I'm grateful for today but I'm embarassed by how much there is. I'm so grateful to God for the blessings in my life, most notably the people I love - you all know who you are :o)

Here's a card from the photo files - I sent it out a while back so it's not available for the drawing this week.

Card measures 4 1/4" x 5 1/2"

I used a specialty fold from the June/July 07 TechniqueJunkies online newsletter called Flap Fold. In a nutshell, the diamond-shaped piece is adhered to the dark rust rectangular piece, which is actually twice that long - it's folded on the righthand side so that half of it is underneath the panel on the lefthand side (under the diamond). So you lift the rectangle piece up from the left side, then unfold the left side of the card up and then you're looking at the inside of the card onto which the other half of the rust panel is adhered as shown. The orange base card folds on the left side and the top panel only goes 2/3 of the way across.

To color the matching multi-colored leaf panels, I used a technique taught to me by my smarty-pants friend Juli ;o) You take a crumpled up piece of tissue paper, dab it into your inkpad and then pounce it on the rubber of your stamp. I used Stampin' Up!'s More Mustard, Really Rust and Old Olive on a Signature Background stamp by Rubber Stampede. The white leaves you see are the white cardstock showing thru, because these areas were recessed on the stamp and did not get any ink. I edged the panels with a sponge and SU's Chocolate Chip ink.

*tip*

Start with the lightest color and cover about half the surface in random spots, then the next darker color and so on.

For the diamond shaped panel, I stamped a square stamp (Rubber Stampede Arch. Block) with yellow ink, matching up the corners in the center. I used the brown ink to stamp the flourish (Just For Fun) in the corners, stamping off once on scrap paper and then behind the main image to get the two tones. I used this same stamp and ink along the edge of the base card. I think the sentiment is Stampin' Up! but I'm not positive. I'll try to find it and add it here... LOL Good luck me!

Before attaching the panels together, I wrapped a brown satin ribbon around the back of the diamond panel, and then across and around the back of the rust panel. The buckle is a mini metal scrapbook embellishment, and the paper flower has Copper Stickles glitter glue on the petal edges.

Thanks for looking!