I love to sneak a note or a card into my husband’s lunch or laptop bag just to tell him how much I love him. The idea for a “still falling for you” card has been swimming around in my head for a few weeks. I searched the Silhouette online store for a realistic leaf design and found the perfect set of leaves. I went to the designer’s website and found her tutorial on how to use watercolors to make the leaves look more realistic.

Supplies:

• 1 sheet of watercolor paper
• 1 sheet of 8.5×11 cardstock in tan, cream, brown and yellow
• autumn leaves design (affiliate link) by Tanya Batrak from Silhouette online store
• Silhouette Portrait (affiliate link)
• Silhouette mat (affiliate link)
• Xyron 510 creative station (affiliate link)
• Xyron permanent adhesive (affiliate link) or other paper adhesive
• watercolors
• watercolor brush
• paper towels
• spray bottle with water

Directions:

1.Buy the autumn leaves design from the Silhouette online store.

2. As a former engineer, I love to be exact on all my measurements. I used the Silhouette to design the card and size the leaves. I nested rectangles and grouped them to create the different cuts that I needed. Rectangle sizes are indicated in the image below.

The Windsong font can be downloaded here for free. The font is not free for commercial use so I am not providing a cut file.

To make a rectangle shape of a specific size in Silhouette Studio version 2:

1. Choose the rectangle tool from the toolbar and create a rectangle of any size.
2. Select the scale window.
3. Specify the the width and height. Press Apply.

3. Use the Silhouette to cut the leaves out of the watercolor paper. I cut two each of two of the leaf designs. I started with the built in cardstock setting for the Silhouette. Then I slowed down the speed from 3 to 2 because of the intricate design. I started the cut on my Silhouette before I jumped in the shower. When I got out of the shower the Silhouette was still cutting! The cut looked really rough when it was done but it weeded just fine.

4. I couldn’t find my watercolors so I used my children’s Crayola watercolors and brush. I sprayed water on the leaf with a spray bottle before I painted it. I tried several painting methods.

I painted the entire bottom left leaf with yellow, allowed to dry and then added brown highlights. The top right leaf was painted with yellow, allowed to dry and then painted with orange. The bottom right leaf was a combination of orange and red painted at the same time. The method I liked best was painting most of the top left leaf red but leaving a few smaller empty areas. I waited for the leaf to dry and then went back with orange and yellow to fill in the empty areas. This method gave the leaf the most color variation. I chose the top left leaf for my card. The other leaves were used as props in my photo of the card at the top of this post.

5. Use the Silhouette to cut out the card base and nested rectangle frames with cardstock.

6. Use print and cut for the rectangle with the “still falling for you” sentiment. Remember to either set the “still falling for you” to no cut or remove it off the mat when you go to cut or the Silhouette will cut out the letters for the words.

7. Use the Xyron 510 creative station and Xyron permanent adhesive refill to add adhesive to the sentiment rectangle, two rectangular frames and leaf.

8. Fold the 10×7 piece of cardstock in half and assemble the card as shown.

This card is now ready for a stealth mission to work with my husband!

My Silhouette Challenge friends have some awesome Fall themed projects for you below! Check them out for more Silhouette crafty goodness.

1. Create & Babble // 2. Lil Mrs. Tori // 3. unOriginal Mom // 4. Zanaree // 5. The Kim Six Fix // 6. One Dog Woof // 7. Cupcakes & Crowbars // 8. Living My Given Life // 9. Architecture of a Mom // 10. Put A Bird On It // 11. Just Add Paper // 12. Weekend Craft // 13. Silhouette School // 14. Minted Strawberry // 15. My Paper Craze // 16. McCall Manor // 17. Chicken Scratch NY // 18. Mama Sonshine // 19. Creative Ramblings // 20. From Wine to Whine // 21. Please Excuse My Craftermath… // 22. Dragonfly & Lily Pads // 23. The Thinking Closet // 24. Simply Kelly Designs // 25. Sandpaper & Glue //

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. That means if you order through the links I receive a small commission. As always I only recommend products that I love.