THANKS is for giving

I love making hand-stamped thank you cards. It's such a wonderful, personal way to show someone you are really thankful. I get especially happy making fall-themed thank yous. I think it's because you can create so many pretty details with fall "leaves."

A strip of Comfort Cafe DSP gave me my color palette for the leaf colors. And I love the extra details on the greeting stamp (Seasonal Sayings). 
Using a technique always makes a card extra special, and for my leaves I used two easy stamping techniques. 

All the leaves use the technique called two-step stamping. The Gently Falling stamp set comes with both a solid and an outline stamp for each image.  
Onto Very Vanilla card stock, I stamped the solid maple leaf in Summer Starfruit ink. Then, I stamped the outline maple leaf in Early Espresso ink right over the top. This stamp set is very forgiving - an easy one for beginners who want to "step up" their cards. You don't have to stamp the outline exactly lined up with the solid image - I aim for close enough. 
For the second technique, take a look at the oak and the aspen leaves (far left pointing downward; top on a dimensional pointing to the right). The solid image oak leaf is stamped in Soft Suede ink, and the outline image is stamped over it in Early Espresso ink. I wanted the aspen leaf to be a slightly different shade, so I inked the solid image with Soft Suede ink, stamped first onto scratch paper, and then stamped onto the Very Vanilla card stock. This technique is called "stamping off" or "2nd generation stamping." It's a great technique to use when you don't necessarily want to add another color to your project. I find myself using this technique a lot when working on masculine, vintage, and monochromatic cards. 
I hand snipped all of the leaves... it takes some time, but looks oh so pretty.   ***TIP: when snipping images that use the two-step stamping technique, don't try to cut around the outside edge of everything stamped. Follow the lines of the outline image. You might cut off bits of the solid image - that's ok. Trust me, your snipped image will have a cleaner, more professional look by snipping around just the outline image. 

This card will be perfect for Aaron's teacher to thank her for all of the awesome art projects she does in her classroom. Aaron brought home the cutest project yesterday... I just have to share it! 

This sunflower has earned a permanent spot on my desk  :} 

The bottom yellow paper-plate is cut into the sunburst shape, and the top plate has been trimmed to just the center circle with four slits cut towards the center to create petals. Aaron's school picture is in the center, with sunflower seeds glued all around. Don't tell Aaron, but I had to add a bit more glue to some of the seeds. A pencil is hot-glued to the back for a stem. LOVE it!!

Thanks for dropping by. I get a whole day to stamp today, so I'm uber excited. If only I could get my brain to focus on one or two projects, instead of the hundreds I want to work on!!!