Hello crafty friends!
Today I’m joining Altenew and an amazing group of designers for the September 2026 Release Blog Hop & Giveaway, and I’ve gone full autumn for my project!
I’m featuring the Creative Cuts: Fall Pickings Layering Die Set, creating a warm and textural card packed with beautiful autumn leaves. I wanted this one to feel a little rustic and organic, so I combined earthy shades of brown, ochre, orange and green with neutral cardstock, loose twine and just a little metallic sparkle.
There’s something about autumn crafting that practically demands a good splatter and a few scattered sequins, right?
ou can explore the complete Altenew September 2026 Release here: https://altenew.com/collections/september-2026?sca_ref=7239694.YCAkJn7Wme
And make sure you visit the Altenew September 2026 Release Blog Hop for even more inspiration from today’s designers.
Why you’ll love the Creative Cuts: Fall Pickings Layering Die Set
The Creative Cuts: Fall Pickings Layering Die Set is such a good one if you love building botanical cards without needing to stamp or colour every individual image.
There’s a lovely variety of leaf shapes in the set, and all of those embossed vein details instantly add texture and interest. I particularly love that the leaves don’t need to be perfectly uniform either. By blending different colours across each die cut, you can create those slightly imperfect autumn shades you see in nature.
They’re also brilliant for creating movement around a card. Rather than building one central bouquet, I’ve scattered the leaves around the entire design and allowed some of them to disappear off the edges.
Card Inspiration: Autumn Thankful Card
FoFor this card, I wanted the leaves to have much more variation than I would get from simply cutting them from coloured cardstock. Instead, I used my Altenew ink pads as watercolours, which gave each leaf its own mix of autumn colour while still keeping the whole card coordinated.
Rather than reaching for a separate palette, I used the wheel from my Stampwheel as an acrylic surface. I pressed the ink pads directly onto the wheel, added a little water and then picked the colour up with a paintbrush. It’s such a simple way to get even more from your dye inks, and because you can mix the colours together on the wheel, you can create loads of those slightly imperfect greens, yellows, oranges and browns that you naturally see in autumn leaves.
Once everything had dried, the detailed dies from the Creative Cuts: Fall Pickings Layering Die Set added all of those gorgeous veins and shapes.
To recreate the card:
- Die cut a selection of leaves from watercolour cardstock using the Creative Cuts: Fall Pickings Layering Die Set.
- Take the wheel from the Altenew Stampwheel and use it as an acrylic palette. Press a selection of Altenew ink pads directly onto the surface, keeping the colours close enough that you can mix between them as you work.
- Add a little water to the ink and use a paintbrush to pick up the colour before painting the die-cut leaves.
- Build up the colour gradually, allowing different shades to run and blend into one another. Mix greens, yellows, oranges and browns across the leaves rather than keeping each one a single colour. Leaving some lighter areas also helps create that natural watercoloured appearance.
- Allow the leaves to dry completely before arranging them over the card front. The variation created by the watercolouring means every leaf looks slightly different, even when using the same die.
- Arrange the leaves around the card, allowing some to extend beyond the edges and positioning others around the central sentiment. Use a mixture of liquid adhesive and foam adhesive to create different levels of dimension.
- Add the layered Thankful sentiment across the centre of the card, followed by the smaller LOVE YOU SO MUCH sentiment underneath.
- Loosely add lengths of twine through the arrangement, allowing the loops to move naturally between the leaves and sentiment rather than fixing everything completely flat.
- Finish the card with metallic sequins, smaller gems and a little splatter to bring in some subtle shine and even more texture.
I love how unpredictable the leaves become using this technique. You’re still working with a controlled palette of Altenew colours, but the water does some of the work for you, creating those softer edges and unexpected blends that make each die cut feel a little more organic.
Altenew September 2026 Release Blog Hop
This card is part of the Altenew September 2026 Release Blog Hop, celebrating all of the fantastic new products available in this month’s collection.
There’s plenty more inspiration waiting for you, so make sure you continue hopping through all of today’s designers below.
Giveaway
There are $300 in total prizes up for grabs to celebrate the September 2026 Release!
Altenew is giving away a $100 gift certificate to one lucky winner and a $50 gift certificate to four winners.
To enter, simply leave a comment on the Altenew Blog and/or on each designer’s blog post in the hop by September 10th, 2026 for a chance to win.
Altenew will draw five random winners from the comments left throughout the blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Blog Hop Post on September 12th, 2026.
The winner of the $100 gift certificate will be chosen from comments left on the Altenew Blog.
Shop the supplies
If you fancy recreating this autumn look, you can find the Creative Cuts: Fall Pickings Layering Die Set alongside the rest of Altenew’s September 2026 Release using the links below.
Some of the links on my blog are affiliate links. If you choose to shop through them, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. It really does help support Martin’s Mayhem and allows me to keep sharing new card-making inspiration, so thank you for using them.
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