The Wacky Watercooler October Blog Hop Celebrates Fall

Fall is such a  spectacular season, isn't it?  The trees put on their finest colours before retiring to their long sleep for Winter.  It's a time of year when artists and photographers do their best to capture a bit of that beauty and poets put together descriptive words in an effort to do justice to the scene.  Of course we paper artists also have to do our best, given the tools available to us.  Thank goodness Stampin' Up! offers some fine colours, stamps and dies to help us along.  Welcome to our celebration of Fall (or Autumn if, like me, you grew up with that name for the season).

As you will remember, if you've wandered through our blog hops before, our blog hop is presented in a circular fashion.  What does that mean?  Wherever you begin in our blog hop, whether you go forwards or backwards through the participants, eventually you will wind up precisely where you began.  I hope you'll take time to visit all the participating blogs and, perhaps, leave a short message letting us know  what you've thought of our posts.

If you've been moving forwards through the blog hop, you'll have arrived here from the very talented Libby Fens' post.  Libby makes her home in Texas and is a member of our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge artists as well.

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My first project uses the adorable Scarecrow from the Cookie-Cutter Hallowe'en set.  Along with the cheery pumpkin images from the Hallowe'en Night Specialty Designer paper and the pumpkin set from the Spooky Fun bundle, this card just makes me smile.  I used the letters from the Labeler Alphabet set to create the sentiment.

For me "Thankful" could easily be used for Thanksgiving or for a happy greeting to someone I care about and for whose friendship I am thankful.

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My next project is a special fold card in a style which I have admired for quite a while.  I've seen it called a Twisted Pop-Up card, a Pop-up Panel card, and a Pivot Twist Pop-up card.  But by whatever name you've seen it before, you have probably also admired it.  I was looking for a template with our 5 1/2"x 4 1/2" sizing but could only find Collette Mitrega's YouTube tutorial.  So I fiddled around with the measurements and made mine the "normal" size for our envelopes.  What a perfect way to show off the fairies, playing with the colourful falling leaves!

I began with a base of Cajun Craze and added a layer of Crushed Curry.  Right there we have the basic colours of Autumn and it's easy to build from that.  I mentioned that I was going to be using fairies for this card.  I thought it would add a playful touch, especially for a Fall birthday.  For the front, therefore, I've used the image which has the fairy hanging from the cherry branch.  You'll notice, however, that the cherries are gone and I've added a leaf or two, concentrating on bright Fall colours for them and the fairy.  I've also added some bright foliage from the Awesomely Artistic set and then just had fun with the foliage from the Sheltering Tree to add some background colour and interest.  The sentiment is from the Birthday Blossoms set.

For this style of card there is a lot of interest added to the inside of the card.  The "mechanism" inside pivots the four panels and "presents" them.  It's quite a surprise for the recipient and not as difficult to make as one might think.  I used the four panels along the strip to feature more Fall colours and, of course, more fairies.

The first has some blooms at the bottom and some colourful leaves at the top.  I've turned to the Birthday Blossoms for those images.

The second has several leaves from the Vintage Leaves set, all colourful and one which has a tiny fairy hanging tight as it drifts downward.

The third has the little fairy sitting on her toadstool, holding up a large oak leaf.

And the fourth and final panel has dandelion seeds floating across and upward with a small sentiment in the middle.

Because this style of card offers room at the top of the base and at the bottom, I've added an oval with the birthday wishes and sentiment at the top and then a blank oval at the bottom which is perfect for writing.

I hope you've enjoyed checking out my special card as much as I enjoyed creating it.

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My final project is for my daughter.  She love the Fall season best of all the seasons.  She exults in the multi-coloured leaves and the crunch of the fallen leaves as she walks through the woods.  What better way to give her a little pick-me-up when she is run off her feet, than to bring a bit of Fall into her home so that she can enjoy it.  I found the inspiration for this wall hanging on Clare McDonnell's Maple Leaf Memories blog.

The embroidery hoop and burlap are clearly not Stampin' Up! products but everything else is from the catalogues.  The leaves were first stamped using the Vintage Leaves set and Basic Black ink and then cut out using the matching Leaflets framelits.  I've used Tangerine Tango, Wild Wasabi, Crushed Curry, Tip Top Taupe and Cajun Craze cardstocks.   After cutting the leaves, I sponged them with several of the same inks and also added some deeper inks using my Stampin' Markers.  After that I used my scoring tool and Silicone Craft sheet to emphasize the stamped lines.  Finally I spritzed the leaves using my Spritzer and rubbing alcohol before crushing them in my hands.  Strangely enough, that sort of abuse results in some very realistic Fall leaves.

As an added touch, I created two acorns using Tip Top Taupe and the Pumpkin Pie Glimmer paper.  After cutting them out with the Acorn Builder punch, I proceeded to sponge the perimeters and I also added some highlight to the centres of the acorns using the Whisper White craft ink.  I also cut out two pine branches using the Pretty Pines thinlits and Almost Artichoke cardstock.

I wanted to add some cording as well but decided that the copper thread was simply too lightweight to show against all that foliage.  And so I cut the thinnest strips of Pumpkin Pie Glimmer paper possible and used those instead.

The sentiment is, unfortunately, retired but it seemed the most appropriate under the circumstances.

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And that's it for my projects.  I hope you've enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed creating them.  From here you'll be visiting another wonderfully creative stamper, Gail Allen.  Gail is from the Sechelt in British Columbia and is also  a member of our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge artists.