Hello Fellow Stampers ~
I'm baaaaack!!! Another unplanned "away" from being creative with all of you has occurred. This time, it was waaaaaaaayyyy beyond my control!!! On the morning of Monday, October 3rd, I looked over at my desk to see my computer screens totally dark - and I'm like, why is the computer off??? A few minutes later I realized we "had a problem Houston!!!" And I grabbed my precious Violet Purple baby and ran for the Geek Squad!!! But it was not to be!!! Several days later I was informed that the Mother Board was gone and I would most like be unable to replace it due to the age of the laptop. Sigh!!! So that Saturday, my husband and I went to Best Buy to make "difficult" decisions on a new set up for my business. I have to tell you, buying a new computer is beyond overwhelming!!!! Worse yet, I've been told that the company's have worked in "force obsolescence"!! Excuse me?? My new computer may not last much longer than 3 to 5 years!! Sigh.
So, after much gnashing of teeth and pulling out of hair . . . I am finally back up and mostly running. I've had to search of passwords, locate websites, you name it!! It's been a little bit of a nightmare. There will be LOTS of backing up from here on out, is all I can say!! LOL
I'm finally getting caught up around the Studio as well. It's been a crazy month. We had a fabulous Annual Halloween Class here several weeks ago, we've been humming along with our virtual Coffee & a Card Class; and last Saturday I participated in a local Stamp 'n Scrap Expo, successfully selling lots of my Studio Clean Out items. Whew!! I will soon be putting the remaining Studio Clean Out Sale items up here on the Blog. And making an announcement soon about how DDS Studio Clean Out Sale will be handled in the future. Lots more announcements and catch up coming, so stay tuned!!
In the meantime, I finally got to creating a card that I've long been wanting to play with, and I hope you will like!!
I fell in love with the Aspen Tree Dies the first time I saw them. The Perched In a Tree stamp set has been a little bit more of a struggle for me. I still haven't inked up that bird, and I can't quite figure out what is throwing me off, since I am a bird lover!!
At any rate, many of my friends know that Fall is absolutely my most favorite time of year (thus, the reason I had my wedding in September - LOL), and we have had the MOST beautiful Fall this year here in Colorado. The Aspen trees have outdone themselves the year, unlike anything we've seen in some time!!! It has actually been a "normal" Fall in Colorado - something we haven't seen in a number of years. That being said, this past week, we have made the "shift"! Yikes! The temps have dropped, our first freeze came on Sunday night, and I'm seeing Snow in our future!! It made me think of blue hues and silver and white colors, signifying the change in the weather, and the soon Winter season ahead. So I decided to take my favorite die set, and create a "blue-hued" Fall card.
This card is cut from Orchid Oasis cardstock, 4-1/4" x 11", scored @ 5-1/2". And I used the Deckled Rectangle Dies to cut a Starry Sky panel to sit in the background of my focal point.
These days, Stampin' Up! has left us with no choices for Ovals, and Ovals are by far my favorite shape!!
So I went hunting through my stash, and realized that I still have the old Framelits Ovals Collection that retired in 2016. -Yeah!! Thank goodness I hold onto certain things! LOL
So I die cut the largest scalloped oval in that set out of the mid-color Silver in our Silver Foils collection and layered it in the background.
Then I cut the next size oval and 3rd oval in to create a "window" from Shimmery White cardstock.
From the Pearlescent Specialty cardstock I die cut the aspen trees in the Aspen Trees Dies. Then I "glued" those to the back of the oval, and carefully trimmed all the excess away around the outside edge. Then I die cut a matching oval out of Vellum and attached dimensionals to the back of my aspen tree oval before attaching the Vellum. Then I finally attached the entire finished piece to the front of the card.
It creates a beautiful soft look to my chilly Fall scene!!
For my leaf spray, I watercolored a mixture of So Saffron, Highland Heather, and Orchid Oasis inks onto Shimmery White cardstock, then die cut the leaves with the die from the Aspen Trees Dies. The effect turned out just gorgeous and makes me think of a late cool Fall day walking among the trees in the forest. The leaves are layered and attached with glue dots, the smaller ones left with their front edges sticking out for a great 3D dimensional look.
I finished off the card with a double tied ribbon using both Orchid Oasis and Starry Sky Metallic Woven Ribbons; and some gorgeous Iridescent Pearls Basic Jewels.
The sentiment was stamped on Shimmery White cardstock, with just the one section I wanted colored using an Orchid Oasis Stampin' Write Marker.
And then the other half the sentiment, colored the same way, and stamped inside.
I hope you have enjoyed my design today. I'm so glad I finally sat down and created this card. It is so pretty!!
For all of you who hang onto all your wonderful Stampin' Up! products and supplies, pull out those older retired products and use them!!! There is lots of life left in those wonderful products!!
Hang tight!! We'll be back as we work to get back into a blogging cycle!
I Love to hear from you. Leave your questions or comments below!!
Hugs, . . .
