A Fall Favorite!

Aloha, all!

     I love Fall!  Even here in Hawaii, the nights are cooler and there are changes in the way our garden looks.  But when we lived on the mainland, as the trees started changing colors and some leaves began to drop, my heart (and wallet!) turned to Fall Mums.  I really had to set a budget for myself before I headed to the local garden store to stock up on all the wonderfully-colored pots of mums.  More than anything that time of the year, I enjoyed bringing them home, getting out all my fun colored flower pots, and making arrangements at our front door. 

     So when the Stampin' Up! Only Challenge this week asked us to think "fall colors" for our entry, mums definitely came to mind.  OK, I have to confess – you know I'm the one who makes up the challenge themes, so you can probably guess that I was thinking mums when I came up with that one!

     I wasn't sure what I was going to do with that thought, though, until I started thumbing through the Stampin' Up! Idea Book & Catalog.  Yes, I came across the stamp set, Fabulous Florets.  But that was the set I'd had in mind all along.  What did catch my attention was the little graphic in the lower outside corner of every page in the catalog – a flower pot!  The pot changes with every new section of the catalog, from an empty pot at the beginning to one with flowers at the end.  But that pot reminded me of some of the pots that I used to use for my mums.  So a pot it was!

     I really liked cutting these flowers out.  My very first Stampin' Up! demonstrator, Maria, would be so surprised to hear that as she could never get me to do ANYthing by hand way back then.  It either got stamped or punched or it didn't appear in my work.  Now, though, I find that I can have some peaceful time just sitting down and working with those paper snips.  If I could have fit more flowers in this pot, I probably would have. 

     As for the pot, I've made a template for it and it's attached here. It's sized to fit as shown on a piece of cardstock that's 3-3/4" wide.  It's easiest to cut out if you cut a piece of card stock that's 3-3/4" wide x 3" high and trace the template onto it.  Don't worry about your pen or pencil marks – just turn the pot over!

     The Fall Colors that I've used here are Cajun Craze (for the card base, the pot and one of the flowers); Old Olive (for the first mat, the mat on the tag and the leaves); Pumpkin Pie (two flowers); Daffodil Delight (two flowers); More Mustard (the center flower and the second mat); and Cherry Cobbler (one flower).  I used to tie twine around some of my pots and the Linen Thread does that job nicely for this card.  I used one of the Backgrounds I Textures Plates to emboss the pot.  The greeting is from the new stamp set, Petite Pairs.

     I hope you're enjoying getting into fall and will enjoy using whatever colors make you think of Fall in your crafting this week!