Bountiful Thanks

My card today is for The Paper Players #368 - a Tic Tac Toe Challenge and The Fusion Card Challenge, Autumn Leaves. This card came out nothing like what I had intended when I started it.  I've been experimenting with Alcohol Inks and Alcohol Blending Solution on Yupo Paper (I got mine from Amazon) a bit this weekend and the particular one I used here didn't come out how I wanted it to.  It turned kind of reddish orange with my combination of inks (Gold Mixative with Red Pepper) which definitely felt more Fall than Christmas or holiday.  So I rolled with it and die cut the paper with Romantic Leaves from Spellbinders.

Before I move on, I want to talk about what I've learned with the Yupo Paper and the Alcohol Inks.  Initially, when I tried Alcohol inks, I didn't have any Yupo Paper so I used some of my SU! Glossy White Cardstock. I was pretty satisfied with those results but everyone talks about how you're supposed to use it with Yupo Paper.  Honestly, I didn't care too much for the Yupo Paper.  It's somewhat expensive, it's thin like vellum, and I didn't think it moved or worked very well with the alcohol inks. I purchased a single 11 x 14 pad with 12 sheets that I can cut down into 6 panels, but I would not use it again for this technique. I thought maybe I was using the wrong side, but there doesn't seem to be a right or wrong side and I tried both sides.  Also, I think it takes a lot of Alcohol Blending Solution to achieve good results and that is pretty pricey as well. So while I like having this tool in my tool belt, it isn't one I will use very often and when I do use it, I plan to stick with Glossy Cardstock. The best results I got by far were by smooshing the paper into the ink which I did on aluminum foil rather than dropping the ink directly onto the paper and adding blending solution to it.  I have several other backgrounds (including the ones I made with Glossy Cardstock last week) to use in a variety of colors that you'll see on upcoming projects and I used one here.

For this card, I wanted something that would work with the color of my leaves and I happened to have some paper out that would work perfectly.  I found this great 8.5 x 11 paper pad by Momenta at Hobby Lobby.  All of the prints in this pad are watercolor look and many of them have gold or silver paint splatters on them.  Since I have the touches of gold in the leaves, I chose this soft yellow/coral print for my background.  I die cut it with MFT Blueprints 15 Stitched Rectangle Die and gave it some healthy mists Iridescent Gold Shimmer Mist.  I arranged the leaves on that panel then adhered them with Ranger Multi Medium Matte.  To keep everything simple, flat and easily mailable, I cut a strip of vellum with the largest MFT Horizontal Stitched Strips and then stamped the sentiment from the Color Pop Autumn Stamp Set using Versamark and heat setting it with Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder.  I used my powder tool first so that my embossing would stay clean.

To adhere the vellum strip, I put a skinny little line of sticky dot adhesive (Kokuyo) on the stitch line of the background panel and then gently pressed the vellum onto that.  The adhesive is light blue and if you put it directly onto the vellum, it shows through.

I die cut one of the Impression Obsession Butterflies that I use all the time from Gold Foiled Cardstock and put skinny strips of Scotch 3M Foam Tape under the body and a glue dot under the back end to make it seem as if the butterfly was about to be in flight.  I added a few Nuvo Drops in Copper Penny for a bit of contrast and let them dry overnight. 

I hope you enjoyed my card and will take time to stop by The Paper Players Challenge Blog and the Fusion Card Challenge Blog.