
Welcome to InKing Royalty’s October Blog Hop! During this year’s blog hops, we are having fun with our stamping favorites – our favorite themes for seasonal cards and projects. This month’s projects center around Harvest & Hope, so prepare yourself for gratitude and love in Fall-themed projects. We are excited to share our creations with you today! After you read my post, I hope you’ll hop over to the next person on the list at the base of this post.
Harvest and Hope. What a fun theme. When I think of harvest my mind flashes to warm days and cool nights which brings the color to the leaves on the trees. And that takes me to falling leaves and raking. Is raking a harvest. Well anyway, this is the season of color, cool nights, warm days, apple and pumpkin picking, savory soups, and raking autumn leaves.
FACTIOD: There is something wasteful, in my mind, about putting leaves in bags and hauling them away. Leaves contain lots of carbon which is great for gardens and lawns. The key to using them is to shred them first. We just run them over with the lawnmower a couple of times a week and leave them on the lawn. If you bag the mulched leaves you can
- Add them to your compost pile and layer them with grass clippings and food scraps. Aerate ocassionaly and you should have finished compost in 6-7 months.
- Make leaf mold by creating a pile and turning and aerating it with a pitch fork weekly and you will have a fantastic soil conditioner for vegetable and flower gardens in about a year. The typical garden soil can hold about 60% of its weight in water, but leaf mold can hold 300-500% making it great soil conditioner for dryer soil areas and vegetable gardens. Leaf mold is great for acidic loving plants.
- Use shredded leaves as mulch by directly adding it around trees, shrubs, in your flower beds and vegetable gardens. Put a 2-3 inch layer down and take care not to have it directly touching the plants.
- Mow those leaves and leave them in the lawn to decompose.
- There are some leave that you will want to avoid composting. The beech, oak, holly, and sweet chestnut are high in lignin and low in nitrogen and calcium. And black walnut and eucalyptus contain natural herbicides the prevent seed germination. Try to avoid those in your compost pile.
Today was the perfect day to play with making my own ink pad using a baby wipe. Here is my very simple card.

Are you shaking your head and saying “Simple, Is she nuts?” I am not and you will be surprised at how simple and fun it is to make your own multi-colored stamp pad using a baby wipe.
CREATING THE INK PAD
I have heard all kinds of talk about which baby wipe. Just pick a brand that has no fragrance and is alcohol-free. Grab a wipe and fold it in quarters. Add drops of reinker onto the folded baby wipe. I like to add 3-5 different colors and dot the wipe with each color 3 times in a triangle pattern.

I used Old Olive, Merry Merlot, Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze, and Pumpkin Pie reinkers. TIP: Place the inked baby wipe on a craft mat. Tap the leaf stamp into the inked baby wipe. TIP: You can press down and move the stamp around the ‘pad’ to get a good inking. Then stamp your image onto the Fluid 100 Watercolor paper. This also works on cardstock but I knew I wanted to blend the colors a bit more with a Water Painter and regular cardstock is not as forgiving.
BLURRING THE LINES
Stamp a random pattern of leaves on my 3-1/2″ x 4-3/4″ panel of Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper. Then use the Water Painter to blur any sharp lines and blend the colors just a bit.

FLICK A LITTLE INK
Next, flick ink and paint over the stamped panel.

Do you still have some of the retired shimmer paint? If not, use Stampin’ Blends that coordinate with your colors. Or use a random dot stamp and add dots of gold or copper ink.
A RIBBON & SENTIMENT CLUSTER
Add a sentiment. But let’s give it some pizzazz. I cut a piece of the vanilla ribbon from the retired Forever Greenery Trim Combo in half and glued them down with frayed edges to the outside. TIP: Go over the edge when adding these layers then trim them after layering the panels. Add strips of Merry Merlot and Cajun Craze crisscrossing over the ribbon. I added a little sliver of Be Dazzling DSP from Sale-a-bration because I could not bear to waste it. Untwist some gold or copper thread and ‘moosh’ them down with a couple of glue dots. Stamp the sentiment from the stamp set A Wish For Everything on Soft Suede with Early Espresso ink and trim. Add Dimensionals to the back of the sentiment and add the ribbon cluster.
Another fun idea! Use the dot dies in Give It A Whirl or Seasonal Swirl to create your own ‘sequins’ from Be Dazzling DSP. Add a couple of these Be Dazzling dots around the sentiment.
LAYER AND PERSONALIZE

Layer the stamped panel onto a 3-5/8″ x 4-7/8″ Merry Merlot panel. Then add to a Crushed Curry cardstock card base (8-1/2″ x 5-1/2″ scored at 4-1/4″).
Add a little more personalizing on the inside message panel and envelope. I used Very Vanilla cardstock for the message insert and the Medium Envelope.
SIMPLE, YES?
Now, wasn’t that easy? No die-cutting (except the little Be Dazzling DSP sequins if you choose to add them) and no heat embossing. But lots of WOW! The leaves of Autumn lend themselves to this technique. I can see using the baby wipe ink pad technique with evergreen trees and holly stamps or any solid image stamp to add some interesting color and texture. And this is a great technique to do with kids. Go have some fun!
Before you go, check out the other stops on this hop. And come back tomorrow to see more using pieces & parts from this design session.
Thank you for stopping by today. I hope you’ll hop along to the next stop on the blog ho. There’s lots of inspiration to be found in this group – and you don’t want to miss it!
INKING ROYAL BLOG HOP
Thank you for hopping along with us. If you get stuck during the Blog Hop, please use this line-up as a guide:
- Brian King at Stamp with Brian
- Sheryl Sharp at Sharp Notes by Sheryl
- Jackie Beers at Blue Line Stamping
- Lynn Kolcun at Avery’s Owlery
- Renae Novak at Blessed by Cards
- Jan Dufour at Stamp Me Silly
- Sue Jackson at Just Peachy Stamping
- Pam Morris at Tap Tap Stamp
- Robin Myren at Songbird Designs by Robin
- Marilyn Jones at Stamp with MJ
- Ann Murray at Murray Stamps Ink
Love how it turned out. I have not worked with this technique very much but will have to try some more after seeing this. Thanks for sharing
Wonderful. I am so glad that you will be giving the baby wipe ink pad technique a try. Thank you for visiting.
I love the baby wipe technique! You captured it perfectly!
Thank you very very much.
Love this card. Just got the set the other day can’t wait to try. The technique is so fun. Thanks for sharing it. You are amazing
Aww shucks, Patty Mac. you are making me blush. The kiddos would have fun doing this technique too.
so pretty, love how you did the flowers.
Thank you, Pam. Leaves are so much fun to color.
I love the card & the technique. Such a great technique for leaves & fall. Perfect color combination too.
Thank you. This is one of my go-to techniques for fall colors.
Nice Card. Love the 🍁 and the technique.
Thank you. Please give the technique a whirl. You will enjoy it, I promise.
Thanks, Ann, for all the tips for this technique. Your card is beautiful! Love the colors. Enjoy your day!
Thanks for liking the tips. I spend quite a bit of time putting these posts together to make them a real tutorial of sorts. Someday I will venture into the video world.
What a great post and card. I love the colors and enamored with the specks even before you flicked. Very pretty!
I was enamored with the specs too. They are part of the stamp that are cut out when using the dies. I like the specs and the flicks.
Beautiful technique!
Thanks, Carole.
Love this technique and your choice of colors. Great card!
Thank you so very much.
I love this! I am inspired to try this too! I’m love trying new things in cardmaking! Thank you! I can only hope my end result turns out a s beautiful as yours!
This is a fail-safe technique. You will have fun. I guarantee it.
Ann I love this. It has been a long time since I have played with baby wipes. I am going to have to try that for my next stamp camp. I love your tips on leaves. I bet your yard is gorgeous. Post some pics for us to see! Thanks for sharing!
Your campers will have so much fun with this technique.
Beautiful card! Love the colors in your baby wipe technique!
Thank you for your kind comment. I love fall colors.
We always mulch up our
Leaves too. Great card. I love the baby wipe tech.
Yeah for the mulchers! Thanks for the compliment 🙂
This is just gorgeous. Perfect technique with these leaves. Beautiful colors!
Thanks, Pam. Baby Wipe Ink Pad is a go-to technique for leaves. It seems like the only thing that captures the color of the season.
I love this technique! The colors you used are PERFECT (as always) and create such a soft impression of these leaves. I always love your write-ups, too – so filled with nuggets of great information!
Great card, and cool technique. You’ve inspired me to pull out my baby wipes and play with that again.
so glad for the rediscovery.
Glad that you like my little ‘factoids’ and all. Riotous color every Autumn.
Great card with my favorite Fall colors. This is a technique that always works.
It sure is. I have so much fun with the baby wipe ink pad technique.