When I look outside my window, I’m starting to see the beginnings of the Fall display here in VT. Late last week I heard a report that over the weekend and holiday were looking to be peak foliage in parts of the state. My husband has a coworker that got married on Saturday in Central VT and I think that they likely had a stunner of a day for the event. It was pretty warm (for October) and I’m betting that the trees were really putting on a show for them. They had people coming in from all over the country, and I hope that their guests got to see some iconic views of Vermont.
This is the second card that we made at the September South Burlington stamp club meeting. I was definitely feeling Fall coming when I designed the cards for the month! This stamp set is perfect for creating fall-themed cards because the leaves are 2-Step stamps so you can show how the leaves are turning. I confess that I first started with a combo of green (can’t remember which one) and Cajun Craze, but I had to scrap it because it just looked muddy. When I switched to Bumblebee with Cajun Craze, that was so much better. It shows the multi-color look that you get on trees as they turn and the colors have enough contrast to both show. I’ve seen some other card samples online featuring this stamp set for all of the seasons. The stamps and coordinating dies really are great for creating cards that fit any season. I’m envisioning a pretty Winter scene with a naked tree and some small snowflakes falling. Just thinking about it makes me shudder – I’m not ready for Winter!
I used this past sketch as the starting point for my card design. I dropped the sentiment strip and I broke up the background with a couple of layers to add some more interest to the card. That’s what I love about sketches – they are a starting point and not a contract. I can deviate as much as I want from the original layout and no ‘card police’ are going to come for me. 😎
One thing that I want to call out on my card is the patterned paper that I used in the lower area of the background. The tone-on-tone Bumblebee design was perfect for my card, but the paper pack is not one that you’d naturally think of for a Fall foliage card. This paper is on the “B-Side” of a multi-color print in the Pansy Petals pack. Right – you wouldn’t go there normally, would you?!? This is a great reminder to look at your papers for your projects in different ways. If you don’t have something perfect, look at a tone-on-tone print that you can find in a lot of packs. You may just find exactly what you need for your project.
 |  | ||
 |
