Monochrome Fall Color Schemes
If you’ve ever struggled to choose colors for a project, you’re not alone—color can be one of the most powerful tools in crafting. It sets the mood, helps tell your story, and can turn even the simplest layout into something stunning. While autumn is often associated with bright reds and bold oranges, there’s a subtle kind of beauty in a monochrome approach—one that highlights texture, shape, and tone in a completely different way.
Monochromatic palettes use variations of a single color to create depth and interest, and today I’m sharing a project inspired by one of my favorite fall monochrome themes: Autumn Browns. Think warm wood tones, cozy neutrals, and just a hint of natural green peeking through—like fallen leaves scattered across a forest floor.
For this project, I built a strong, textured base with a Thick Basic White card base topped with Crumb Cake cardstock and an Early Espresso woodgrain panel from the Country Woods DSP. The layered tone-on-tone look immediately gives off that rustic, autumn feel. From there, I began building my focal point with leaves in shades of brown and muted greens.
The large leaf was die-cut from two-tone Old Olive cardstock, but before I added it to the card, I crumpled the cardstock, gently flattened it out again, and then sanded the raised areas. That extra step added the most beautiful depth and texture—like a leaf starting to dry and curl. The smaller leaf was stamped in Old Olive ink onto Soft Sea Foam before die-cutting, and I layered in more texture with a metallic leaf die cut from the Earthen Toned Metallic Specialty Paper, complete with a cut-out vein. I even hand-cut a simple leaf shape from Pecan Pie cardstock to bring in another subtle variation of brown and used the delicate vein from the die cut metallic leaf on it for added texture. Each piece plays its part in telling the story of fall using only neutrals and nature-inspired tones.
The sentiment, “Your Friendship Means the World to Me,” is stamped in Early Espresso and layered over a coordinating metallic strip. I popped it up on dimensionals—but only on the sides and bottom—so I could tuck the leaves right into the top opening. All those warm browns, softened with natural greens and earthy texture, create a rich monochrome palette with just enough variation to keep the eye moving. A few Streaked Dots were the perfect finishing touch.
Inside the card, is a clean white panel with a Crumb Cake mat to echo the card front, and that’s all it needed. This design may be simple in color, but it’s full of texture, quiet details, and warm fall personality. It’s a terrific example of how a monochrome palette can still feel full and dimensional—and even more beautiful when paired with natural textures and unexpected finishing techniques like crumpling and sanding.
I’m thrilled to be entering this card into two online challenges. First up is Color My Heart Color Dare #678, which calls for Shades of Brown with up to two additional colors, and I couldn’t resist sharing it with Crafty Catz Challenge #704 as well. That one is Anything Goes with an optional twist of Thank You or Thanksgiving—yes please!
I also filmed a little shorts video so you can see the card creation in action. Be sure to take a peek—it’s amazing what one color family can do when you let it lead the design.
And speaking of inspiration, I CASEd this card from R. Tessman (a fellow SU! Demonstrator) and created an easy printable tutorial for this project as a special thank-you to my newsletter subscribers (Nov. 17 edition). The tutorial’s also available in my online store if you missed the newsletter and would still love a copy. If you’re not on my mailing list yet, now is a fabulous time to jump in—my newsletter friends always get the good stuff first.
Whether you’re crafting for Thanksgiving, friendship, or just because, I hope this monochrome palette inspires you to try a single-color scheme on your next project. There’s so much beauty to be found in simplicity… especially in the fall.
Supplies Used (also listed in Tutorial):