Autumnal Themed Birthday Card ... for a friend's 70th birthday

Evening All,

When you are turning seventy in September what could be more appropriate than a card that has Autumn as it's theme.

I love these seasonal colours - golds and browns with hints of russet and white. The base card is a sheet of A4 White Linen cardstock, folded in half to A5 (5.75"x8.25") size. The backing is made from some leftover white cardstock stamped with a variety of leave shaped stamps in a variety of browns and sepias before being covered with a thin layer of white gesso.  It was then stamped with a dragonfly stamp (bought for a song at a car boot sale) brushed with the gesso to leave an impression ... you can just about see it in this close up (click on the photo to see it enlarged even further):

Once dry the edges were sponged with a sepia ink pad to tone down the white - it looked a bit stark otherwise. When done, I matted and layered onto brown and gold coloured textured cardstock. The sentiment is a recent acquisition ... a wee splurge at Handy Hippo ... from Stampendous. I think it is nicely positive for the occasion ... after all it would be too bad to give up dreaming, even at seventy :) It's stamped in sepia onto white card, the edges sponged with the same colour. The sentiment is matted onto a pearlescent die cut is from a mixed lot I bought on Ebay last year and because it is yellow, my most unfavourite colour, it was stashed away unloved and forgotten ... until now, that is. Still not keen on the colour, but it does look marginally better embossed with the pretty V&A design. It features nuts, acorns perhaps, and they look very similar to the filberts in the leaf sprays - cut outs from a page of digital stamps from Joanna Sheen's Pamela West Collection, Vol 2.  I added gold coloured card candy to the opposite corners just to finish the front off.

The insert is also from the Pamela West CD - chosen because the colours are similar to the front ... and the verse came from the book I couldn't do without - Words for Every Occasion by Judith Wibberley.

The back is made from the first insert I printed out - it came out wonky so got tossed to the side. However, I couldn't see it go to waste so I trimmed it down and used it, together with another, smaller, leaf spray, to decorate the back.

Because a fair amount of snippets and leftovers were used in the making of it, not to mention the wonky print-out which would have been consigned to the bin any other time, I'm submitting this card to Jule's Crafty Snippet Challenge - Week 36

As this card is going in the post I deliberately avoided any embellishments that could be crushed in the post and/or not go through that slot that is so beloved of the Post Office nowadays - as it is, it will go into a jiffy bag and should slip through a treat.

Right, I'm done for the day ... there's a new series starting on TV and as it's adapted from the novels of one of my favourite writers, Tess Gerritson, I'm off to watch it. So, if there is any glaringly awful spelling/grammar mistakes put it down the me being in a hurry to finish up tonight :)

Happy crafting folks,