Bright spots in the garden

As I mentioned in my last post, here are my last few garden pictures:

I took these photos earlier this month. Most of the garden was already past its prime then, but there were a few bright spots, like these Scarlet Runner beans. You can see the huge bean pod in the background, but it's the bright flowers that grab me.

If you look in the upper right corner, you'll see the tail end (literally) of a bumblebee. I was trying to get a shot of the bee in the flower but, as usual, he was too fast for me.

We didn't have a bumper crop of broccoli this year, but we did get a couple of good-sized heads. I was hoping it might do better toward the end of summer, but no luck. The plants are still beautiful, though.

The Brussels Sprouts have gotten bigger since this photo was taken, but we haven't picked any yet.. They like the cool weather and are harvested at the end of the season. It's fun to have fresh vegetables when most everything else is dormant.

The flowers in our back garden are a little out of control, but I don't mind. I'd rather have wild patches of flowers than perfectly tended and orderly beds. I took this photo, though, to show how huge the marigolds got. We knew they'd be taller than the usual marigolds, but we didn't expect them to be anywhere near five feet tall. (The unattractive dead-looking stalks are the milkweed plants. The day I took these photos I opened a few of the milkweed pods and let the seeds travel on the wind to, I hope, become more milkweed plants next spring.)

I took one close-up shot to try to capture some of the vibrant colors in the flower garden. This picture doesn't completely do them justice, but I think you get the get the idea. I love the bright pink and orange. We never did figure out exactly what the pink flowers were. They may have been something from the seed mixture we planted last year that came up again this year, but we don't know for sure. They were some sort of vine, though, and I had to pull them away from the tomatoes a few times.

The end of the garden is always a little bittersweet. It is sad to see everything dying -- partly because I know that means winter is coming. (It's a good thing I'll have these pictures to remind me that the snow won't last forever.) But at the same time, we're usually pretty tired of the weeding and watering and picking by the time fall rolls around, so it's a bit of relief to know we don't have to do that anymore. (Although we do need to pull up all dead plants still. That will be a project for October.)


Thanks for stopping by!

Blossom Builders flower pot card

Fall has definitely arrived in my neck of the woods, and I love it. The crisp air, fresh local apples (especially Honeycrisp), vibrant leaves, and cozy fleece sweaters. But it is sad to see the summer flowers fading away. (Although the giant marigolds in our garden are still hanging in there. That reminds me that I still have a few last garden pictures to share.) So before I get immersed in the jewel tones and leaf-themed stamps of autumn, I thought I'd share a fun flowery card.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! uness otherwise noted):
Stamps: Inside & Out: Birthday (Papertrey Ink)
Paper: Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip card stock, silver glimmer paper, 6" x 6" Wood Designer Cardstock paper (My Mind's Eye)
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Blossom Builders die cuts, large pearls, Designer Naturals Buttons, linen thread, Beautiful Wings Embosslits die, flower pot die (unknown), Corner Chomper (We R Memory Keepers), Glue Dots, Dimensionals

The Blossom Builders die cuts, which Stampin' Up! sold several years ago, were another thing I re-discovered while sorting through my craft supplies for the yard sale. I love the combination of colors and patterns, and they also came with banner pieces and pink rhinestones. I picked out a few flowers and arranged them with a die-cut flower pot (also from my stash), using rhinestones, a pearl and a button for the flower centers.

For the background, I adhered a piece of wood-patterned paper to the bottom third of a Baja Breeze card stock base. I wanted it to look like the flower pot was sitting on a table, and I think this works. I add a banner stamped with a sentiment and a small die-cut butterfly to finish the card.

Thanks for stopping by!

Paint sample birthday card

Last month my sister and I had a yard sale. It wasn't a huge affair, but it was still good to go through things and start weeding out items we didn't need anymore. I even made a small dent in my crafting supplies. (Yay! Room for more new toys!) Most of the stuff that didn't sell went to Goodwill, but there were a few things I decided to keep, including a small baggie of paint sample cards that had been in the "free" box.

Several years ago, cards made with paint chips or paint color samples were all the rage. I never really got into the trend, though. I did collect a few color samples, and I made a card or two, but then I tucked the other samples into a drawer. After the yard sale, I decided to give the technique another try.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Many Manly Occasions (Paper Pumpkin kit)
Paper: Thick Whisper White card stock, paint sample card (unknown)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Wink of Stella clear glitter brush pen
Accessories: Merry Minis punch pack, corner rounder, "happy" sticker and enamel stars (Many Manly Occasions Paper Pumpkin kit), Pool Party cotton ribbon, Dimensionals

I thought these orange shades would be perfect for a bold, bright birthday card, and I love the pops of Pool Party from the "happy" sticker, enamel stars (both from a past Paper Pumpkin kit) and strip of ribbon. I had to trim down the paint sample so it would fit on the white card base, and I used the scraps to punch a few small stars. I painted the orange stars with clear Wink of Stella glitter and used Dimensionals to adhere them to different shades on the paint sample.

Now I'm going to try to use up the rest of the paint color samples so they don't get stuck in a drawer again. Thanks for stopping by!

Masculine birthday card with Paper Pumpkin

I haven't had much chance to play with my Paper Pumpkin kits lately, so they're starting to pile up. But when I needed a masculine birthday card a few weeks ago, I knew the kit from August, Bold Botanicals, would be a great place to start. I wanted to change the design a little, and this is what I came up with:

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Kit: August 2016 Paper Pumpkin, Bold Botanicals
Stamps: Inside and Out Birthday (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Tip Top Taupe card stock

First of all, I didn't stamp the corner image on the background piece. The image itself seemed a little too feminine for what I had in mind, and I wanted to place the focal circle off-center rather than directly in the middle of the panel.

I also wanted to emphasize the Tip Top Taupe, rather than the Mint Macaron, in the background layer. Moving up the focal image helped with that since the only "swoosh" of Tip Top Taupe was in the middle of the panel. I also used my own Tip Top Taupe card base instead of the Mint Macaron one in the kit. I went with a square base; it's 4-1/4" x 4-1/4" so the ribbon and card stock strip can extend past the edges of the card and still fit in A2 envelope.

The last change was to swap out the sentiment for a birthday greeting. What do you think?

Thanks for stopping by!

'Scraptastic' cards, part 2

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been using up the scraps of Designer Series Paper (DSP) that were left after making my cousin's shower invitations. Earlier this week I shared five individual cards I made with the scraps. Today I'm going to share two sets of four note cards.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Paper: Whisper White card stock, white note cards and envelopes, Subtles DSP Stack
Accessories: Butterflies Thinlits dies, corner rounder, Bitty Butterfly punch, 1-1/4" square punch, rhinestones, Mono Multi liquid glue

I think these cards are my favorite of all the ones I made with the DSP. For each card in the set I used six squares of DSP, and I rounded opposite corners on each square. I adhered the squares in a grid on a note card base, added a butterfly die cut in the middle and placed a single rhinestone on the butterfly.

I also added a little accent to the envelopes by adhering a small butterfly punched out of DSP to the flap of each envelope.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Thanks a Latte (Paper Pumpkin)
Paper: Thick Whisper White, Crumb Cake, Pink Pirouette card stock; white note cards and envelopes;  Subtles DSP Stack
Ink: Crumb Cake
Accessories: Cups and Kettles Framelits dies, corner rounder, Hearts border punch, small heart punch, 1-1/4" square punch, Brick Wall embossing folder, Mono Multi liquid glue, Dimensionals

I bought the Cups and Kettles Framelits dies months and months ago, before they retired from the last Occasions catalog, but I had never used them. When I was looking for a focal image for the flowery pastel panels on these cards, I decided the mug shape would be a good choice, and the Thanks a Latte stamp set from a past Paper Pumpkin kit has sentiments that coordinated perfectly.

I added a tiny pink heart to each mug and die cut the "steam" from Crumb Cake card stock. To add a little texture, I embossed the card bases with the Brick Wall embossing folder before attaching the focal panels with Dimensionals. I also added a DSP heart to the flap of each envelope.

I enjoyed this little challenge to use up some DSP scraps, and I hope these cards gave you some ideas for fun "scrappy" layouts. Thanks for stopping by!