Bye, summer!

I made it to the State Fair yesterday (thankfully cold-free, although it made a reappearance this morning), and my friend Kay and I started out the wonderfully cool day with breakfast at one of the church dining halls. I had chocolate milk and an English muffin breakfast sandwich. We spent about the next nine hours walking, people watching, browsing, sightseeing and of course eating our way through the Great Minnesota Get-Together. I ate a Pronto Pup (like a corn dog, but with flour batter instead of corn), a deep-fried Snickers (split with Kay; I think I like Milky Way better), a peach (something healthy!), risotto poppers (risotto, mushrooms and cheese fried in a ball shape and on a stick; they did not look appetizing on the inside, but were quite tasty), deep fried apple pie with cinnamon ice cream (yum!), french fries (one of my State Fair staples) and just a few cheese curds (I don't think I could eat a whole order myself). Whew! I missed Sweet Martha's Cookies and the deep-fried cookie dough. Sigh. I guess there's always next year.

Now that the State Fair is over, the weather has taken a decidedly cooler turn, and everyone will be back to school tomorrow, it feels like we really have reached the end of summer. I am ready for fall. It's always my favorite season; I love the sights, smells and sounds of autumn. And it also means I get to sign up for community education classes again, which I've been enjoying the past couple of years. I haven't enrolled yet, but this fall I'm hoping to take Mandarin Chinese (totally new to me) and belly dance (will be about my sixth belly dance class).

Anyway, I thought I'd make one last summery card before I move on to all the leaves and pumpkins. Here's what I put together:

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!^®):
Stamps: Tart & Tangy
Card stock: Soft Sky, Creamy Caramel, Whisper White, Riding Hood Red
Ink: Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip and Wild Wasabi markers
Accessories: Wild Wasabi double-stitched grosgrain ribbon, crimper, small heart punch, paper piercer, Multipurpose Liquid Glue, Dimensionals

Fresh strawberries (and raspberries and other garden goodies) are one of the best things about summer. And this little basket is overflowing with them! For the basket, I ran a piece of Creamy Caramel card stock through my paper crimper, then turned it 90° and ran it through again to create a weave-like pattern. I rounded the bottom corners freehand, attached another piece of card stock to the top with Dimensionals and added faux stitching around the basket.

I embellished the top of the basket by adding a piece of Wild Wasabi ribbon and a bow. The bow is easy to make -- it's just a large loop of ribbon with a small loop wrapped around the middle -- and it's adhered to the strip of ribbon with a Dimensional. I punched a small heart to hang from the bow like a little tag.

To make the strawberries, I colored directly on the stamp with Wild Wasabi and Riding Hood Red markers. After I stamped the strawberries (ten of them), I used the fine tip of the Wild Wasabi marker to add the darker green lines on the strawberry tops. I cut out the strawberries and glued most of them inside the basket. I added these two to the bottom of the basket to bring some color to the bottom of the card.

The doodling around the edges of the card is the final detail. The card is 5-1/4" square because I made the basket a bit too big for a standard A2 size card. But I think everything came together to make this card look good enough to eat! Thanks for stopping by!