Elegant Autumn!

Aloha, all!

     For a change, I get to experience some of the glory of Autumn as I'm traveling on the East Coast of the United States as I write this.  I saw some lovely colors in North Carolina, and now I'm on my way to Williamsburg, Virginia,  for a brief stay before heading further north.  Quite a bit different from my home in Hawaii!

     And it's also the week for the Stampin' Up! Only Challenge over at the SUO Challenges blog.  This time the challenge is to make a project that shows off the elegance of autumn.  As Halloween approaches, much of what I usually make is more on the cutesie side of design.  But now I have a reason to make something that's a bit less so. 

     I didn't have to look far to find a stamp set that really shows off the feel of autumn.  The Full of Blessings Stamp Set (from the 2012 Holiday Catalog) has a lot of my favorite autumn image – the pumpkin – along with bunches of grapes and their vines.  While in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, I saw lots of pumpkins and on on my way driving up towards Virginia, I passed a vineyard, all of which reminded of this stamp set.  I really do love this time of year in the east!

     And now a bit about the card – not too much as I'm in between activities with my family as I write!  For the wreath I used Pumpkin Pie (what else!), Old Olive, Certainly Celery, a bit of Always Artichoke, and some Summer Starfruit (to color the other squash that appears in the stamps).  For the grapes, my choice was Elegant Eggplant.  Once I had the wreath colored, I decided on the Eggplant and Pumpkin colors as my accents for this project, and used some of the Eggplant and Pumpkin brads to decorate the wreath cut with one of the framelits from the Floral Frames Framelits set. 

     And then for the fun part!  I used the 7/8" Cotton Ribbon that's also in the 2012 Holiday Catalog, and stamped the border image from the stamp set with Jet Black StazOn before coloring it in with my Stampin' Write Markers.  I cut an 8" length of the ribbon and stamped the image twice.  I tied it in a loose knot and adhered it to the card with Mini Glue Dots, which I also used to tack the ends into place.

     It's difficult to see in a flat photograph, but I also stamped the wreath on another piece of card stock (I used Naturals Ivory Card Stock for all my stamping for this card) and colored and cut out the pumpkins, which I adhered to the wreath.  They really do "pop" better than when they're just colored as part of the basic wreath.

     Now off for more visiting!  I hope you're enjoying your autumn days as much as I am!