Adding a feminine touch to your autumn cards...

Happy Friday to you all! As I was looking for inspiration for today's design team tips post, I found a scrapbooking page that really inspired me, which isn't out of the ordinary! I can always find little design details on scrapbook layouts that translate well to cards. 

While studying this inspirational layout below, I realized that the reason I was drawn to it was because it had a feminine, light, layered feel to it. I usually tend to lean towards adding a feminine look to my cards and thought it would be fun to show you ways to add this look and feel to any card theme, including the autumnal cards that I've made for today's post! 

First, how do you define feminine?  To me, it's florals, light soft colors, layers, details, cheerful prints and patterns, swirly fonts, texture, gold/shiny accents, ruffles, soft curves, asymmetry.

I was drawn to the circular piece on the layout and loved how it was white on white, loved how the doily was folded over and clipped. I also liked the layers of the flower and sentiment and how it was all tucked together. Instead of the scalloped circle, I immediately thought of a doily. Papertrey Ink has the Parisian Lace Doily die, which is what I used here. There's nothing quite as feminine as a doily, right! You can also find them pre-made in big quantities in the baking section at the craft store. I die cut some of these and gathered some gingham paper. I also gathered my Color Pop Autumn mini kit and used the dies in the kit to trim out some of the leaves and flowers.

What makes a doily feminine? Lots of fine detail and the soft, round shape. I love the color of the wooden clothespin with the pink on the layout, but I wanted something flatter to allow for mailing, so I found some gold paper clips that I thought would work well for a fall card.

The doilies were simply folded over and clipped with the paper clip, then I tucked in a couple of flowers, leaves, a bountiful die cut and sentiment.

Inspired by the white-on-white in the layout, I added a Vintage Cream "Bountiful" die cut over the white doily and stamped a sentiment to go with it in gray with the Color Pop Autumn kit, very soft and subtle. Then to add a bit more color, I wanted to try the gingham in the background.

You can add a doily and a few layered details to a card on any occasion to make it feminine! Change out the backgrounds if you'd like to make them even softer and more dreamy and romantic. I hope you enjoyed this post. Have a creative day!

Bountiful cards:

STAMPS: Color Pop Autumn

INK: Stormy Sea

PAPER: Color Pop Autumn, Chicken Scratch Gingham, white and Vintage Cream cardstock

DIES: Color Pop Autumn, Parisian Lace Doily die

OTHER: paper clips, enamel dots.