Guest Designer Geri Utterback

Today's be-YOO-ti-ful project was designed by Geri Utterback (lovely and talented MOM of the lovely and talented Theresa Momber!) She found a 3x4 inch tall pillar candle at Rite Aid (flameless, as you can see in the bottom pic) and made this breathtaking candle ring from 4 of the images from "A Year of Leaves"! oooh ahhh!!!!

Geri says she stamped and embossed the leaves using Tim Holz distressing inks (gives them a nice shine to mimic a leaf's waxy cuticle) and then colored them with Copics. Click the pic for a closeup to see how beautifully those different colors blend together, orange yellow and green all on one leaf!

After cutting them out and shaping them with her fingers to give them more dimesnion, she adhered them to a circle she cut from Gina K Pure Luxury Chocolate Kiss CS and added a bit of matching ribbon. I'm guessing this candle was pretty inexpesnive, but Geri sure made it a whole lot of "WOW!" with this gorgeous treatment! With a flameless candle especially you don't have to worry about the wax gunking up your beautiful leaf ring and you can save it to use again and again!!! I'll be CASEing this for my fall tablescape for sure!! Wouldn't these make awesome gifts?!!

Here is a little more about Geri:

A FAVORITE TECHNIQUE: I love to color, so any form of coloring is good for me. I mostly use Copics and Koh-i-noor with OMS. I also like to cut out images.


COLORS/COLOR COMBO: Amazingly the fall colors are the colors I like best,green, browns, orange and reds.


FAVORITE GINA K SET BY MELANIE: I love "A Year of Flowers" and "A Year of Leaves"

FAVORITE GINA K SETS (FROM ANY ILLUSTRATOR This is hard. I love so many. I think my favorite is Theresa's "Happy Camper" and " Melanie's "A Year of Flowers".


CRAFT SUPPLIES I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT: The list is long but the first three that came to mind is: Copics, Nestabilities and Cuttlebug.


I’VE BEEN STAMPING FOR (HOW LONG): It's been just about two years. Before that when we all got together like at my daughter Brenda's house (Brenda who had been making cards for awhile), would get out all of her supplies and we would do projects like tags or ornaments and it was a lot of fun.It was a lot cheaper back then!!


I GET MY INSPIRATION FROM: I can't say just one thing, My daughters are my biggest inspiration they are the ones that got me into this and nature I'm always inspired by the colors in it. Like flowers, leaves, tree and the sky.


THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS I’VE LEARNED ABOUT STAMPING/CARDMAKING ARE: Friends that I have made here Is the most important thing and to be able to share our creativity with each other. Like Tina said the other day we are like a large family and it is so true.


SOME OF MY STAMPING/CRAFTING GOALS ARE:Well this is really something I enjoy as a hobby but I would like to get a card published in a card making magazine. That would be pretty cool.


FAVORITE THING TO MAKE THAT AREN’T CARDS: Scrapbooking is one that I would like to do more of and I like making tags.


SOME OF MY STAMPING/CRAFTING ACCOMPLISHMENTS:Being Designer for you Melanie was huge for me as well as being featured on StampTV, Centerstage and Centerstage Spotlight also at StampTV.

Thanks Geri for this fabulous 3-D project, I'm heading over to your blog see what else you made with "A Year of Leaves" right now, let's go see!