Hello, crafty friends! Annie here to celebrate the beauty of autumn with this Hello Fall card tutorial featuring colorful die-cut leaves, pumpkins, acorns, and flowers layered over a warm kraft-inspired background. This handmade fall card combines rich autumn colors with pops of blue, plum, green, and orange for a unique seasonal design.

The dimensional leaf arrangement creates a beautiful focal point, while the large “hello fall” sentiment adds the perfect finishing touch. This project is a wonderful way to use up cardstock scraps and create a handmade fall greeting card, Thanksgiving card, autumn birthday card, or seasonal card.

Supplies Used

CutCardStock Cardstock

• DCS Smooth Sandcastle Tan
• DCS Natural Twine Kraft
• DCS Vanillabean Brown
• DCS Aqua
• DCS Patriot Blue
• DCS Canvas Textured Bonsai
• DCS Canvas Textured Yellow Jacket
• DCS Canvas Textured Plum
• Pop-Tone Orange Fizz
• Pop-Tone Wild Cherry

Inks & Sprays

• Imagine Crafts Sheer Shimmer Craft Spray – Gold
• Brutus Monroe Chroma Mist – Copper Shimmer
• Distress Oxide Inks:
  • Fossilized Amber
  • Mustard Seed
  • Dried Marigold
  • Carved Pumpkin
  • Dusty Concord
  • Rustic Wilderness
  • Evergreen Bough
  • Aged Mahogany
  • Faded Jeans

Dies & Embellishments

• Various leaf dies
• Word dies
• Blanket-stitched mat die
• Diamond die
• Pumpkin die
• Acorn die
• Flower dies
• Bearly Art Glue
• Foam Tabs
• Tiny Gold Rhinestones

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How to Make a Hello Fall Card

Step 1: Create the Card Base

Start with a your card base. Then, cut a piece of DCS Natural Twine Kraft cardstock I use a blanket-stitched mat die. The warm tan cardstock works beautifully as a neutral background and allows the colorful autumn die cuts to really stand out. Adhere this panel to the front of your card base using Bearly Art Glue.

Step 2: Create Your Autumn Color Palette

One of my favorite things about this DIY fall card is that the leaves aren’t limited to traditional reds, oranges, and yellows.

Use a combination of:

• DCS Canvas Textured BonsaiCanvas Textured Bonsai for greens
• DCS Canvas Textured Yellow Jacket for golden yellow
• DCS Canvas Textured Plum for deep purple
• Pop-Tone Orange Fizz for bright pumpkin orange
• Pop-Tone Wild Cherry for rich red
• DCS Patriot Blue and DCS Aqua for unexpected pops of color

This combination gives the card a colorful, artistic autumn feel.

Step 3: Die Cut the Leaves & Add Distress Oxide Color

Use a variety of leaf dies to cut several leaves from your colorful cardstock. Don’t worry about making every leaf a single solid color. Mixing different cardstock textures and colors creates additional dimension and visual interest.

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Now it’s time to give those die-cut leaves even more depth.

Use Distress Oxide Inks such as:

• Fossilized Amber
• Mustard Seed
• Dried Marigold
• Carved Pumpkin
• Dusty Concord
• Rustic Wilderness
• Evergreen Bough
• Aged Mahogany
• Faded Jeans

Apply small amounts of ink to the edges and centers of your die cuts. You can blend several colors onto a single leaf to create a beautiful variegated autumn effect. This technique is especially effective on the Canvas Textured cardstock, because the texture catches the ink and creates additional dimension.

Step 5: Add Shimmer and Shine

For a little extra sparkle, lightly spray or splatter your die cuts with Imagine Crafts Sheer Shimmer Craft Spray in Gold. Add touches of Brutus Monroe Chroma Mist in Copper Shimmer as well. Allow the pieces to dry completely before assembling the card. Tip: A little shimmer goes a long way! Keep some areas of the cardstock untouched so the metallic accents don’t overwhelm the beautiful cardstock colors.

Step 6: Create the Diamond Focal Point

Use your diamond die to cut a focal panel from DCS Smooth Sandcastle Tan cardstock. The diamond shape provides a clean space for the sentiment while breaking up the organic shapes of the leaves. Layer the diamond toward the center-right of the card. Use foam tabs behind portions of the panel to give it dimension.

Step 7: Add the Pumpkins, Acorn & Flowers

Die cut small pumpkins, an acorn, and flowers from your coordinating cardstock.

For the pumpkin, I used Pop-Tone Orange Fizz creates a bright autumn orange, while the yellow, green, and red cardstock can be used for leaves and accents. I used DCS Smooth Sandcastle Tan and DCS Natural Twine Kraft for the acorn. Add Distress Oxide Ink around the edges of the pumpkins and acorn to create shading. Layer the pieces among the leaves.

Step 8: Create the “Hello Fall” Sentiment

Die cut the words “hello fall” from DCS Vanillabean Brown cardstock. For additional dimension, cut the sentiment multiple times and layer the pieces together. Place the sentiment prominently across the diamond focal panel. The dark brown sentiment provides strong contrast against the lighter background and makes the greeting easy to read.

Step 9: Build the Layered Leaf Arrangement & Add the Finishing Touches

Now comes the fun part—assembling everything!

Begin with the larger leaves and work your way toward the smaller embellishments. Apply Bearly Art Glue to the pieces that will sit directly on the card. Use foam tabs on selected leaves, flowers, pumpkins, and acorn to create varying levels of dimension. Try not to glue every piece completely flat. Having some leaves lifted from the card gives the project that beautiful 3D handmade card appearance.

The pumpkins at the bottom of the arrangement help anchor the design and reinforce the fall and autumn theme. Finish the card with a sprinkling of tiny gold rhinestones. Place a few rhinestones around the sentiment and on the open background area. The gold embellishments coordinate beautifully with the gold shimmer spray and copper mist while adding just the right amount of sparkle.