Good morning, everyone! I don't know what the weather is where you live, but here in the midwest, it is definitely fall. Nighttime temperatures are dipping down into the 30's, the leaves are turning brilliant colors of gold and red, and the birds are hovering together on phone wires to try and keep warm as they make their way south. The beautiful colors and signs of autumn are the inspiration for today's Takin' It To the Top projects and what more perfect stamp set would there be to use than Autumn Days!
Here's the first card for today -- It's a beautiful card and would be a great choice to make if you need to send out lots of fall or Thanksgiving cards. It's pretty minimalist and there are not any extra embellishments or layers to add to the time, or cost, of making this card in multiples. The colors are Chocolate Chip, More Mustard and Very Vanilla. The sentiment is from Grateful Greetings, stamped in Chocolate Chip Ink.
I did do some masking of the pheasant to help him stand out amongst all those those leaves and fall plants. Masking is a great choice to make when making multiple cards because it allows you create a "WOW" effect without using a lot of layers. Here's a quick tutorial on masking! Step One:Stamp your main image on your cardstock and then again on a Post-it-Note or piece of scrap paper. Step Two:Cut out the scrap paper image carefully along the outline 
and then using the adhesive from the Post-it-Note or a temporary adhesive, position it on top of the stamped cardstock image (you are masking it so even though you stamp it first, it will appear on top of the other images you stamp over the mask). Step Three:Begin to stamp your complementary images over the masked focal image. In this case, I used More Mustard, Really Rust, 
Elegant Eggplant and Ruby Red to stamp the fall leaves and plants. When you're done stamping, pull off the scrap paper mask and your focal image will appear to be "in front" of all the other stamped images. If you're stamping multiples, you can use your scrap paper "mask" several times (until it becomes too saturated with ink and begins to bleed through to the back of the paper).
Okay, now on to the second card, stepped-up a bit from the first. This time I didn't mask the quail, instead I cut it out and mounted it on the card using Dimensionals to give it true dimension and make it stand out and in-front-of the other stamped images. I also positioned the pheasant closer to the left edge of the cardstock, so his tail would intentionally over-flow into the surrounding background layer. I sponged the edges of Layer Two and Layer Four with Chocolate Chip Ink. I wrapped Natural Hemp Twine around the card three times and cinched it together on the left, tying it off with another short piece of twine. This time the sentiment is punched out with the Large Oval Punch, matted with a Chocolate Chip Scallop Oval Punchie and attached on the right-hand side to balance things out. This card would also be a great choice to make if you are sending multiples although the twine and dimensionals added might add a little to your postage costs if you're sending it through the mail. Are you ready to take it to the top now? Here we go ...
This final card I would reserve for only the most special people on my list. I changed the cardbase to Elegant Eggplant (instead of Chocolate Chip) and added two more layers. Layer Three started out as Very Vanilla but I used the Faux Torn Vellum technique to make this cool background effect. For Faux Torn Vellum, you begin by tearing the edges of Post-It-notes or Scrap Paper and then adhering those torn edges 
on your cardstock with temporary adhesive. Then you just begin applying layers of stamps and colors. I began with the Tres Chic Background stamp in Close to Cocoa and then added the stamp images from the Autumn Days stamp set in fall colors. When the stamping was done, I sponged on little areas of color using Elegant Eggplant, More Mustard and Close to Cocoa and then sponged all around the edges with Chocolate Chip Ink. I love this technique and the wonderful, almost vintage feel you get from it. I mounted this well-stamped layer on a layer of More Mustard (layer two) and then on the Card Base of elegant Eggplant (layer one). I again used the Natural 
Hemp Twine, wrapping it around layers 2 and 3. I stamped the Focal Image Layer (layer six) as I did for Version Two, offsetting the pheasant and mounting him with Stampin' Dimensionals. This layer is again then 
mounted on layers of More Mustard and Elegant Eggplant Cardstock. And for this final card, I moved the punched sentiment to the upper right-hand corner, again to balance out the images. And of course, you must stamps some of those glorious fall colors and images on the inside of the card as well!
So there you go, Takin' It To the Top Tuesday with Autumn Days! The same basic card, stepped-up twice to give you basic, intermediate and advanced versions. I hope this inspires you to step-up your stamping just a bit. See what you can do to take your creations from basic to beyond! And please leave me a comment and let me know what you think! I would LOVE to hear how you've been inspired and what you have to say about Takin' It To the Top!
The Frankie & Friends Halloween Treat bag Kits are still available. Any Kits ordered this week will be shipped to you by Saturday, October 17th, guaranteeing you will receive them well in advance of Halloween. And of course, you can order the Tutorial anytime! You can order or find out more information on THIS post! 
Thanks so much for stopping by today!
