Day 25 - A quiet little card

My papercrafting table is right in front of a large window looking out into the upper branches of an ash tree in our front yard. Leaves that at first dropped one at a time now cascade from the tree as fall deepens, and the oak and elm trees are showing their skeletons as well. More leaves are on the ground than on anybody's branches, that's for sure.

It makes for a reflective and quiet mood sometimes, sitting in front of a window watching time actually pass in the annual shedding of leaves from growing plants who will now become dormant for the long cold months.

My card today is a quiet celebration of this rite of passage. The colors do not scream, "Look at me!" Instead there is more - well - quietness to the design. I added a double organdy bow to the tag, its transparency a symbol of the invisible way our time slips past if we don't take a moment to stop and savor it.

Day 22 - A pretty fall card

For a change, I had an image in mind for this card before I began to assemble it. However, my image called for a print background behind Miss Scarecrow & the embellishments. I have plenty of print papers, but none were just right. The colors didn't really work.

Not wanting to tear out to the craft store just now, I wondered, "why not make my own print, and why not use something reallly different to do it?" But what?

Just a few days ago I happened to notice some thread on an old-time wooden spool in my sewing basket. It must have come from my mother. I wondered if I could make a design using a wooden spool for a stamp?

Well, guess what, kids! It worked! This card shows my first effort but now I've thought of some other ways to stamp with a spool and am anxious to try them out.

But here's the funny part. I had cut out several pieces of cardstock for experimenting and when the time came to add the print cardstock to the card itself I was concentrating on the way the different pieces looked with regard to the pattern and in the process I inadvertently selected a crooked piece! Without even noticing my mistake, I adhered it to the card. Only after scanning it into the computer did I happen to see that error - look over on the left lower side where the background piece is chopped crookedly! Aaaargh! Just be glad I wasn't God. That wouldn't be a good time to be turning out weird creations.

Anyway, I'm going to remake or reassemble this card and fix the problem, so if you win it you won't see this strange looking background piece.

Do you ever mess up when you're making something? I do, plenty of times! It's easy to overlook details when you're concentrating on something else! But it's probably just part of the fun of cardmaking. . .

First five

Here are the first five lighthouse rubber stamp designs in what will become octoberpumpkin's annual series in this topic. What you see are the original designs, not stamped images.

By midweek these along with three additional lighthouse images will be shipped away to our manufacturer to make into first-quality cushioned rubber stamps ready for market.

The copyright info will not be incorporated into the stamps themselves, but appears only on the photo illustration here.

The remaining three images will be posted here before the end of this week. Sometime during the next few weeks I will post some cardmaking and other projects using the lighthouse designs.

The lighthouses shown, left to right, represent Cape Hatteras Light NC, Brant Point Light MA, Marblehead Light OH, Yaquina Head Light OR, and Annisquam Harbor light MA.

It was fun for me to study dozens upon dozens of lighthouses and choose the ones I wanted to present first! I hope you like my choices. Feel free to suggest yours in time for our next year's set! Who knows - your fave lighthouse might be among the ones selected to immortalise on rubber stamps!

The lighthouses will be available in sets and singles, available from octoberpumpkin.etsy.com (see link to the right) in 6 or 7 weeks.

Thanks for coming to our preview!

Have you ever been in a manatee mood? I love these peaceful and gentle creatures. The babies are especially sweet, as is the relationship of the adult manatees to their young. They are so nurturing and protective toward their babies, as are nearly all human parents!

I felt like celebrating baby manatees, which I hope comes through in the any-occasion cards shown above.

The manatee and text stamps are from october pumpkin. Click on the link to the right if you want to know more!

It's a wonderful spring evening in Ohio. Tulips, hyacinths, and a few late daffs are blooming everywhere in our yard and the yards of our neighbors. Lots of you are probably out doing a bit of gardening before night comes on. It's not really dark until around 8:15 where we live. Don't you love springtime's longer days? It seems like we can get so much more done!

It's a gorgeous early-spring day here in mid-Ohio. This year March came in like a lamb and has continued like a lamb! I cannot remember a March without at least one significant snowfall, but this may be the year.

It's still too chilly to be outside for long, so I've had some fun today checking out interesting paper crafts designs on various websites such as splitcoaststampers.com It's mind-boggling how many different card designs can be created! One area I visited concerned simple designs, and that was kind of a fun challenge to me as well. All too often we think a card has to be complex and impressive to have any kind of wow factor at all. That just isn't true. Even very simple and low-key designs can be interesting.

I decided to experiment with some basic and easy cards. The first images are easier than they look. The pelikan stamped motif is mounted on a scrap of cardstack layered on a background paper adhered to a card. A ribbon trim dresses it up and a small tag adds a sentiment.

Next to the pelican card is another small card with a scarecrow image. The image is stamped on a piece of torn and ink-edged paper glued to a strip of patterned paper adhered to cardstock, all layered on a card. Again a vividly colored grosgrain ribbon sets off the other elements and a small tag clipped to the lower end of the image adds a final touch.

The pelikan and scarecrow stamps are from october pumpkin.

The final image just seems to scream "man card" with its strong lines and neutral tones. The palm tree image is one I drew and painted that may later become available readymade via october pumpkin. I stamped a Stampin' Up sentiment and then round-punched it out and affixed it to the image unit with a pop dot. Though it says Thinking of You, any sentiment could be used.

There's something about these cute little round messages that remind me of postmarks - do you get that impression too?