In My World: Close To My Heart ~ Autumn Crafting Dreams with Four Seasons!

Autumn Crafting Dreams Come True with Four Seasons Papers and Stamps!

You can never have too much “autumn” in your life, and at CTMH, we can definitely help with that! To fully immerse ourselves in the spirit of the autumn season, we’ll be showing off our fantastic Four Seasons—Autumn paper suite today, along with a few stamp sets from the 2022–2023 Core Products Catalog! With so much seasonal fun in store, we can’t wait to dive into this beautiful selection of patterned papers and stickers. We’ve got an awesome selection of art pieces to show you today to demonstrate all the amazing aspects of this collection, so without further ado, let’s take a look!

To start us off, we’re going to take a peek at a few first-rate cards, all of which were made with the Four Seasons—Autumn paper collection, and a few seasonal stamp sets from our 2022–2023 Core Products catalog. (Click here to view all the beautiful paper collections, stamps, and other exciting products included in this catalog!)

For our first card, we used a fun truck from the Seasonal Haul Stamp + Thin Cuts set. Along with the truck, this set also includes several adorable images to use to fill the bed of the truck. For our “Autumn Blessings” truck card, we chose a pile of pumpkins for the cargo, while also adding a fun “Happy Day!” sign in the front window. To add a splash of delicate color to our truck, its load of gourds, and the “Happy Day!” sign, we’ve used a light touch with our Watercolor Pencils. To preserve a more rustic feel, we chose not to use a waterbrush to activate the watercolor effect, leaving the slightly coarser penciled effect instead.

On the layer behind the truck, we’ve used patterned papers from the Four Seasons—Autumn paper packet to create a festive background and base for our card; in addition, we’ve also utilized a piece of White Daisy cardstock and added some subtle detailing by adding a dashed line with a Sepia LePen™. Once your card background has been established, we created some additional detail elements with a simple leaf stamp from the Seasonal Haul Stamp + Thin Cuts set, decorated with a bit of Copper Stickles™ Glitter Glue, plus a few pieces from the Orange & Yellow Dots collection.

To finish everything off, we’ve created our title piece with the Thankful Autumn stamp set. The sentiment was stamped on a dovetailed piece of White Daisy cardstock with Black and Toffee Exclusive Inks™ stamp pads. Using two different colors of ink made it possible for us to layer the “blessings” image over the top of “Autumn,” for a unique, layered look. As a final touch, we gently sponged the edges of our dovetailed title piece with Toffee ink to increase dimension. We love our Autumn Blessings card, and it’s only the tip of the iceberg as we continue to delve into the creative possibilities available through the Four Seasons—Autumn paper packet!

Our next two cards really get into the autumnal spirit with their very own vibrant leaf piles! Both cards were constructed using our Autumn Air Stamp + Thin Cuts, and the My Acrylix® Thankful Autumn and Seasonal Haul stamp sets. Using this stellar combination, we were able to coordinate seamlessly with the Four Seasons—Autumn paper packet to create a gorgeous patchwork of patterns to form our background, clustered leaf accent in the mid-ground, and a polished title on top of our leaf pile cluster!

The leaves on these cards showcase a combination of two techniques—basic solid stamping, and rock n’ roll stamping for subtle color change within a single stamped image. This pairing allows for a nice variation between the leaves while using a relatively small number of stamps!

Moving right along, our next piece on display today is a 6” x 6” mini scrapbook page! We absolutely love this smaller memory keeping piece, and its size lends itself particularly well to the Four Seasons—Autumn paper packet and the Autumn Air Stamp + Thin Cuts set, both of which were used to create this striking mini page. For our base page, we trimmed a 6” x 6” section from a dark wood grain patterned paper. On top of that, we layered a handful of other patterned paper and coordinating cardstock pieces from the Four Seasons—Autumn collection to further build this page.

From there, we used a variety of leaves from our Autumn Air Stamp + Thin Cuts set and the Thankful Autumn stamp set to create some slight layering around the corners and bottom edge of our photo. Tucking the leaves beneath layers is a beautiful way to embellish the page with our very own leaf pile clusters without becoming too busy or cluttered.

This same layered leaf pile effect can also be seen at the bottom edge of our next piece, a 12” x 12” “Autumn Blessings” single page! This page started out with leaf patterned paper as the base, with a piece of dark wood-grain paper on top of that. We then used a few smaller pieces of patterned paper to frame the central photo. Calling back to an earlier favorite, we kicked things into gear with another fantastic fall truck! With a precious cargo of pumpkins, this classic pickup provides a colorful focal point, its rustic color coming from a light hand with our Watercolor Pencils. This truck also boasts a wood guard rail that is another fun way to customize your stamped truck accents.

Beneath our pickup harvest truck, we’ve finished things off with the leaf pile, made up of a handful of pieces from our Autumn Air Stamp + Thin Cuts. This pile forms a great embellishment cluster for our title at the bottom edge of the page. The stamped leaves fit right in with the leaf pattern on the base page, with the end result being a lush layer of leafy goodness!

Our final piece is a 2-page 12” x 12” “Autumn” layout. A standout feature of this layout is the artistically torn section of Four Seasons—Autumn papers, sweeping from the top left corner across the upper edge of the page. This element serves to draw the eye across the page, making sure that the photos, title, and journaling sections are at the forefront of the viewer’s attention. Further visual interest is generated by sponged sections behind the photo sections on both pages. This pop of color near the photo mats allows for additional emphasis to be placed on the photo in a relatively simple fashion, without overwhelming the design. For some extra fun, we’ve also added just a spritz of Gilt Gloss Spray over the sponged ink, adding a bit of shine!

These sponged accents were created using Vintage Photo and Spiced Marmalade Distress Oxide™ inks for a vibrant and seamlessly blended effect. Along with these sponged sections, we used a handful of stickers from the Four Seasons—Autumn Paper Packet + Sticker Sheet, and a few stamps from the Autumn Air Stamp + Thin Cuts set to further spice up the aesthetic of these pages. One amazing thing about the leaves in this stamp set is that they look fabulous whether they’re used with the accompanying Thin Cuts dies, or stamped directly on your base page!

To keep the party going, we utilized many of the fun patterns available through the Four Seasons—Autumn paper packet to create a layered effect that further serves to break up the stark background of our White Daisy cardstock base.

A final feature of this Autumn layout is the title section, created with the Thankful Autumn stamp set, with the letters carefully trimmed from the cardstock it was stamped on. This title utilizes an ombre blend of Distress Oxide™ and Exclusive Inks™ for a beautiful gradient color effect. By gently sponging Paprika ink at the base of the stamp, and gradually layering Spiced Marmalade Distress Oxide™ ink up the length of the stamp, it’s quick and easy to achieve this polished look!
As you can see, there’s a wealth of creative opportunities available when you craft with the Four Seasons—Autumn paper collection and the autumn-inspired stamps featured in our 2022–2023 Core Products Catalog! To see even more of this creative power in action, check out this video, featuring the artwork we’ve showcased in this post!

We hope you’ve enjoyed this brief look into what can be accomplished with our autumn-inspired papers and stamps, and we can’t wait to hear what you plan to create with them! Leave a comment below to tell us about your autumnal crafting vision for 2022 and beyond!

Recipes:

12″ x 12″ Autumn Layout
Z4670 Autumn Air Stamp + Thin Cuts, A1290 My Acrylix® Thankful Autumn Stamp Set, X8036S Four Seasons—Autumn Paper Packet + Sticker Sheet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z1375 Kraft Paper, Z6536 Honey Buter Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6531 Mocha Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6510 Nectarine Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6515 Paprika Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z6521 Sundance Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2828 Toffee Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3829 Spiced Marmalade Distress Oxide™ Ink Pad, Z4522 Vintage Photo Distress Oxide™ Ink Pad, Z5009 Gilt Gloss Spray, Z3886 Mini Ink Blending Tool, Z1151 3-D Foam Tape, Z2060 Thin 3-D Foam Tape, Thread