As the season turns, we are once again thankful for the fruits of the harvest. For this month's Emerald Creek Dare challenge, I shared an idea for personalized place cards to bring a Fall festive feel to a table setting when celebrating Thanksgiving with family and friends. Loaded with upcycled bits, this project is super easy to put together and uses corrugated cardboard, scraps of burlap, birch bark, and the most readily available and plentiful element of the season... fallen leaves.
I collected a variety of fallen leaves in sizes that would work with the scale of the place card. Try picking those that are newly fallen with greater moisture content. The colour of the leaves is added with emboss powder so you needn't be concerned about the colour of the leaves.
To emboss the leaves, I rubbed a bit of petroleum jelly on the leaves. I used Vegas Gold emboss powder on the oak leaf, Candy Red emboss powder on the maple leaf and a 3/4 to 1/4 mix of Thanksgiving to Tangerine Orange emboss powders on the poplar leaf. I experimented with a variety of ways to adhere the emboss powder to the leaves and while they all worked, I found I really liked the coverage and look of petroleum jelly. It takes a bit longer to activate the emboss powder when heating it and it will bubble due to the moisture content of the leaf. You will get different looks depending how long you heat the emboss powder. I found that I was able to retain a fair amount of detail and truer emboss colour by letting it just get to the heated bubble point but you can heat it for longer causing the leaf to dehydrate and slightly shrink in size. **NB - On a cautionary note, the embossed leaf stays hot longer than normal embossing on paper so be careful with handling until emboss cools.**
The base was made with corrugated cardboard that was scored, folded, and stripped of its' outer layer after being spritzed with water for easier removal. A scrap piece of burlap was glued on with Glue n' Seal and a piece of birch bark was adhered on top of that.
After arranging and adhering the embossed leaves, I used a VersaMark brush pen and hand scripted my guest's name onto the birch bark. I embossed the name with my leftover custom mix of Candy Brown, Mirror Gold, and Vegas Gold emboss powders (see this post here for ratios used).
Come celebrate the season with us over at Emerald Creek Dares by entering our month long Falling into Celebration Dare challenge for a chance to win a $50 store credit. Other awesome projects by my fellow DT members, Deb and Pam, can be found here along with the challenge details.
TTFN,
I collected a variety of fallen leaves in sizes that would work with the scale of the place card. Try picking those that are newly fallen with greater moisture content. The colour of the leaves is added with emboss powder so you needn't be concerned about the colour of the leaves.
To emboss the leaves, I rubbed a bit of petroleum jelly on the leaves. I used Vegas Gold emboss powder on the oak leaf, Candy Red emboss powder on the maple leaf and a 3/4 to 1/4 mix of Thanksgiving to Tangerine Orange emboss powders on the poplar leaf. I experimented with a variety of ways to adhere the emboss powder to the leaves and while they all worked, I found I really liked the coverage and look of petroleum jelly. It takes a bit longer to activate the emboss powder when heating it and it will bubble due to the moisture content of the leaf. You will get different looks depending how long you heat the emboss powder. I found that I was able to retain a fair amount of detail and truer emboss colour by letting it just get to the heated bubble point but you can heat it for longer causing the leaf to dehydrate and slightly shrink in size. **NB - On a cautionary note, the embossed leaf stays hot longer than normal embossing on paper so be careful with handling until emboss cools.**
The base was made with corrugated cardboard that was scored, folded, and stripped of its' outer layer after being spritzed with water for easier removal. A scrap piece of burlap was glued on with Glue n' Seal and a piece of birch bark was adhered on top of that.
After arranging and adhering the embossed leaves, I used a VersaMark brush pen and hand scripted my guest's name onto the birch bark. I embossed the name with my leftover custom mix of Candy Brown, Mirror Gold, and Vegas Gold emboss powders (see this post here for ratios used).
Come celebrate the season with us over at Emerald Creek Dares by entering our month long Falling into Celebration Dare challenge for a chance to win a $50 store credit. Other awesome projects by my fellow DT members, Deb and Pam, can be found here along with the challenge details.
TTFN,
7 comments:
Beautiful place cards! Love the idea of using real leaves! Amazing project!
Cassandra, what a beautiful idea to add to your table! How clever to use real leaves! I love the rustic quality to this, and your handwriting is gorgeous! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Hugs!
OOOPS! I think I had the wrong date for your Thanksgiving! Have a great time in a few days with your family and friends as you give Thanks in Canada! Hugs!
Those are such a great idea! Awesome job Cassandra!
Absolutely gorgeous Cassie and brilliant idea to emboss the leaves! Hope you and yours are having a lovely long weekend, happy Thanksgiving! Deb xo
Fantastic idea for place cards! The emboss leaves is such a cool idea!
Beautiful place cards...makes me think I need to get some made so I will have them ready for Thanksgiving. Love the idea of embossing the leaves.
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