Clean and Simple Leaves

Hi All.  I have a masculine birthday card today made using one of a set of leaf dies from Crafter's Companion from the Nature's Garden Collection, a mini script stamp from Indigoblu, and also a Crealies set of rectangle dies called Stitch Dots. 

I started with a square card and I cut a mat using a snippet of white card to fit this using the rectangle die which I cut and then re-added the die over it to cut off part of it to make it square.  I then got out my Distress Inks in Scattered Straw, Fossilized Amber, Spiced Marmalade and Vintage Photo.  I started ink blending the background with the Scattered Straw making it heavier and to the left and paler as a I went across just a little bit less than half way.  I darkened it with Fossilized Amber to the left and blended it in to leave just a very light layer of the Scattered Straw to the right.  I then stamped the script using the Fossilized Amber down just the lefthand edge. 

I carried on by cutting three of the maple leaves from the set using more snippets of white card and I coloured them first with the Scattered Straw and then went over them to darken near the base of the leaf with the Spiced Marmalade and then over the top of that with the Vintage Photo to achieve a rustier shade of orange.  I finished by adding the background to the card and adhered the leaves down the lefthand side and added a sentiment stamped with Vintage Sepia.  

Thank you for visiting my blog today and I'll see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

Color Hues Challenge - No. 119 Rust and Yellow.

Snippets Playground Challenge - No. 516 Where we use our snippets of card and paper etc.

Allsorts Challenge - No. 833 Woodland Critters/Anything Goes.

Simply Clean & Simple Challenge - Oct. 25 Anything CAS Goes/Pumpkins.

Cut It Up Challenge - No. 340 Use More Than One Die.

Die Cut Divas Challenge - Anything Goes using Dies.

Cardz 4 Guys Challenge - No. 378 Autumn/Fall.