In My World: Close To My Heart ~ If Your Favourite Colour is "Fall" . . .

If Your Favorite Color is "Fall"... #crispair #autumn #fall #seasonal #ctmh #closetomyheart #crafting #memorykeeping #scrapbooking #cardmaking #patternedpaper #stamping #technique #distressed #inspiration #creativity #create

It’s finally September and the highly anticipated transition of summer to autumn is under way! The splendor of nature’s colorful schemes, paired with the promise of cooler weather, inspires us to celebrate this new season and gets us in the craftiest mood!

(For those of our friends who live in a part of the world about to enter spring rather than autumn, the following information is for you, too! Let’s have an honest moment… most of us who scrapbook are not up to date in scrapbooking our memories. Whether you’re looking to future or past moments, there is a lot to be found here in the way of inspiration and technique, regardless of your geographic location! )

From colors to shapes and textures, the gorgeous themes in our Crisp Air paper collection are in every way inspired by this time of year. Let us show you how we paired the Crisp Air patterned papers and the Crisp Air—Scrapbooking stamp and Thin Cuts with just the right Exclusive Inks™ and cardstock colors to create some of the artwork in our current catalog.

One thing we really enjoy being able to say is that something is a lot easier to make than it looks. That is absolutely true about this 12″ x 12″ Fall scrapbook page! For starters, the intricate patchwork base seen here is a 12″ x 12″ paper designed with this quilt-like pattern. No cutting was required! This quilt inspired paper was turned into a frame by simply layering and centering an 8½” square cut from the Paprika plaid patterned paper found in the same paper packet. The center White Daisy cardstock square is 8″. White is not only a neutral color but, in this case, it is also one of the collection’s featured colors.

Finding a list of our collections’ featured colors is quite simple. In our catalogs, it is listed at the bottom of a collection’s opening page.

The Crisp Air collection’s featured colors are:

If you don’t have access to the catalog but have a paper packet handy, you can find the featured colors listed on the back side of the zip strip (the extra ½” accent paper along the top of each patterned paper).

Looks like this:

Check these featured colors lists if you’re ever unsure of what color inks, cardstocks, or embellishments to use when you’re creating with any of our papers. Our products are designed to match, so all of the current exclusive Close To My Heart colors are available in inks, cardstock, and a variety of embellishments for seamless coordination.The ink colors that were used for the stamped elements on the Fall page we’ve been talking about are the featured colors Papaya, Peach, Pine, Sapphire, and Sundance.

These photo mats were created by stamping one of the larger flowers on White Daisy cardstock with Sundance ink. (It’s so easy to create your very own coordinating patterned papers when you know exactly what colors to use!)

With the exception of three stickers, all of the flowers and leaves on this page were stamped and die cut using the Crisp Air—Scrapbooking Stamp + Thin Cuts. We even added some extra detail to the leaf stems by outlining their shape and drawing the leaves’ veins by hand using a black journaling pen.

The title banner was also stamped and die-cut! For our friends who prefer the word “autumn” over “fall,” we keep you in mind as we design our product. The Crisp Air—Scrapbooking Stamp + Thin Cuts is available in two versions, one with the option to stamp “AUTUMN” as the banner instead.

In this next layout, you can see how the trendy distressed texture that is often found in autumnal designs inspired our art.

Here, we’ve ripped some of our papers, exposing their white cores and edge distressed the photo mats.

We approached the “distressed” look of our photo mats in two ways. The bottom pattern paper layers are all distressed with a pair of scissors. This is when you run the blade of our scissors (very carefully!) along the edge of the paper to alter the original texture of the paper’s edge, creating a more rugged quality. The light Peach cardstock layer was sponged along the edges with Peach ink. The technique here is to cut a wedge from a round sponge, gently rub the rounded edge on the ink pad, and then rub it along the edges of the cardstock until the desired effect is achieved.

As we know, one of the most beautiful things to witness during the fall season is the changing of colors in the foliage. This is something that happens gradually, and often results in leaves and flowers of multiple colors. Fall is the perfect season to implement the second-generation and rock-and-roll stamping techniques!

The second-generation stamping technique is when you stamp an image twice, the second image being what you will use on your project. (The first image you can stamp on a piece of scratch paper, or use it elsewhere on a project.) For the rock-and-roll stamping technique you would ink your stamp in one color, then roll the edges in another color. In this layout, we combined the two techniques to create the stamped flowers you see here!

We inked our flower stamps in Paprika, then stamped them on a scratch piece of paper, and then rolled the edges of the mounted flower stamps back in the Paprika ink pad! All three flowers shown here are stamped with Paprika, but the difference in the color cardstock (Peach and Sundance, both featured colors) gives them an additional pop of color that resembles something that can be spotted in nature during this colorful time!

If you look closely, you can also see that we even cut some leaves straight out of patterned paper without stamping the coordinating stamp images on them. When you are inspired by nature, it’s fun to use that inspiration to create things that you wish existed, too!

We are going to wrap things up with a beautiful card that we created from the Crisp Air patterned papers and the scrapbooking stamp set.

Here not only can you see how we’ve paired colors together, but also that we can take what is given to us and think outside of the box! A stamp set or die that is labeled “cardmaking” or “scrapbooking” may have been designed with a specific purpose in mind, but don’t let that stop you from using them in a different and creative way!

The gorgeous color combinations nature gifts us on a regular basis are simply breathtaking! We encourage everyone to take this beautiful world in, to always keep your eyes and minds open, allowing all of its moments and themes—people, colors, shapes, textures, and everything in between—to inspire new art and ideas. We can only capture the world around us in an effective way when we are really experiencing it.