Birthday Leaves and Less is More Challege

Shortly before we left on our summer travels, I purchased a wonderful stamp with a graphic leaf design from Simon Says (“One With Nature”). I’m in need of several birthday cards for September birthdays, so it seemed to be a good stamp to put to use. I’m really pleased with the results. Both are for good friends (one female and one male.) The stamp worked well for both.

The first one meets the challenge at Less is More this week. It’s a color challenge of green and gold.

After gold embossing the leaf on watercolor paper, I used my Kuretake Gansai watercolors to color the leaf. The card is from Memory Box. I would love to find more of these in a variety of colors, but a search on the internet doesn’t produce much. I’m guessing they’ve been discontinued. They’re a wonderful cardstock, colored on the outside with a bright white interior. The gold paper framing the watercolor is from Paper Source, and the sentiment is from Papertrey’s “Petite Pots.” (Also a new stamp set ordered before vacation.)

This shows the lovely gold much better. 

This seemed a bit feminine, so for our other friend, I stamped the leaf in black, and colored it with some watercolor markers Sarah and Adam gave me for Christmas—Akashiya SAI. This time I mounted it on a scrap piece of black card stock and then to a Hero Arts kraft card.

We’re off to an annual Labor’s Day barbecue at friends–always held on Sunday rather than the actual holiday. It’s hot and humid, much more like July than early September.