Harvest of Friends

Hello! Well, my fall break is almost over and I can't believe I have not finished the first scrapbook page... DH has been in the process of remodeling our bathroom (last room in the house to be finished!!), and I've been trying to keep the house somewhat clean and organized during this process.  Add in two college visits, filling out financial aid forms, putting up fall decorations, and cleaning up some of the landscaping and my week is about shot!  I'm not going to complain though because it has been  a beautiful week and it looks like Saturday is going to be rainy and nasty, so maybe I can lock myself away then!

We also went to a co-worker's home Tuesday evening for a carry in dinner, drinks, and a campfire.  It was a beautiful evening and everyone from our teaching team was able to make it.  We don't get the chance to spend time together outside of school very often, and it was so nice to relax, eat wonderful food, enjoy a cozy fire, and talk about things other than work.  Of course, we did a little of that too, but tried to keep it to a minimum!

It was such a wonderful night and I wanted to let my co-worker (who is also a dear friend) know how much we appreciated her sharing her home with us for the evening.  I had also been seeing a lot of cards using the beautiful flower from Painted Harvest (SU), and I really wanted to play with that set to see where inspiration led.  I pulled different details from several different cards, so I don't have any one person to credit for this creation.

I've also been watching some videos showing how to use stencils to mask off  most of the card.  I knew those stencils that came with Just Journaling would come in handy eventually! I've never used them with the stamp because I didn't like the way the edges looked after I stamped, but it worked perfectly for the oval sponging area!  I used Barely Banana and Pumpkin Pie for the two shades in the oval.  I think they would have looked better if I had used a blending brush, but I didn't want to dig out the one I have.  The new set of brushes from Taylored Expressions would have worked fabulously...but Santa didn't bring me any early gifts, so I'll just have to wait.  After sponging the oval, I got busy stamping and fussy cutting the flower, die cutting the twig, leaves, and friend. I added a bit of sponging to the edges of the fussy cut flower to cover the white, and also added a little ink to the leaves to add dimension.  A strip of ribbon, a button, and a little background DSP and it was finished.

This was probably the most supplies I have used on a card in a reeeeeeaaaaaaaaly loooooong time! Because of this, I'm adding a 'card recipe' to the bottom in case you're interested.  Lots of inks used to create the depth and shading!!  The flower alone is a combo of daffodil delight, crushed curry, cajun craze and early espresso.

I'm hoping to play a little more with the dies and stamp set I used today.  There are so many possibilities and it was a lot of fun just playing around with different ideas.  I've also ordered a new Tim Holtz leaves die that I'm picking up tomorrow from our LSS.  I think I may have a problem...LOL!  At least I haven't gone out and bought a bunch of papers!  I'm still sticking to my goal of using up what I have to finish some scrapbooks before adding anything new.  Waaaay too much paper taking up space in my studio at the moment!!

Thanks so much for visiting and I hope you find some time to play with your craft supplies and make something amazing!  Have a wonderful day!

Card Recipe: Paper-Orchard Harvest DSP (SU ret), whisper white, always artichoke, early espresso, Ink-early espresso, crumb cake, cajun craze, always artichoke, daffodil delight, crushed curry, pumpkin pie, barely banana, Stamp Set- Painted Harvest (SU), Accessories- early espresso ribbon, Well Written dies (SU), Funky Floral dies (TH), oval stencil from Just Journaling stamp set (SU)