Happy Fall

Good morning! Boy it's been awhile since I've posted- too much going on in the Karpen house! Hubby has been traveling a lot (6 trips in 6 weeks-yikes!), swim meets, homecoming, Girl Scouts, etc. To add to the chaos, we ripped out our master bathroom last week ("we" being a good friend who is a builder) so hubby and I are "sharing" my closet and a small bathroom in our playroom- good thing he's traveling so much this month :) All of this has left little time for me to stamp and not much Mojo to go with it.

While I was searching for some inspiration, I came across this week's SFYTT (sketch for you to try) and decided to give it a whirl. Starting with a sketch is the easiest and fastest way to get a card done- look a the sketch elements, pick the papers, pick the stamp set, then just add the accents at the end- done! It may seem weird to pick the papers before the stamp set, but I often get more inspiration that way- it's also a good idea to dig through your patterned paper scraps- you'll be surprised at what combinations leap out of the box.

My scrap box yielded this fall combo from some scrapbooking left-overs from a few years back and I decided to pair them with this "Pure Innocence" digital stamp from Heather Ellis. I stitched a simple zigzag stitch across the bottom of the brown leaf paper then just layered the papers as in the sketch. The sketch didn't have an easy place for a greeting so I made a strip in Photoshop with "Happy Fall" (or "Fall Happy" as I now realize it looks like on the left-lol! Some felt flowers and leaf buttons from my stash finish it off.

The main image was printed out on Very Vanilla card stock, colored it with Copics, then her polka dotted dress was paper pieced  over the top. when paper piecing, it is key to color first then glue the paper pieces on last- otherwise stray bits of glue can act as a resist when you try to color.  I sponged a bit of So Saffron over the background- it's not as dark IRL and gives a soft glow.

The inside is finished with a strip of the brown leaf print and a strip pf the pumpkin patterned paper punched with the scallop trim border punch from Stampin' Up. I left it blank inside for now so I can decide whether to use it for Halloween or, more likely, Thanksgiving.

That's it for today- I'll be back tomorrow with a simple sympathy card I made for a friend. Have a great day~