Happy Fall!

Well, I'm back after a long hiatus.  During the intervening months, my mom suffered a stroke, and passed away a month later.  It's been tough for my family to accept that she's gone, and it's taken a while to get so many things taken care of, both during and afterwards. But she always encouraged us to keep on going ... in  her words, "Buck up and get over it!"  Miss her so much.

In the meantime, I've kept up with my Memory Box posts (except for a leave during the month of July), and have managed to teach a couple of classes ... I will post those cards in the days to come.  Today, I'd like to share a card featuring the Drifting Oak Leaves background stamp from Memory Box, along with a couple of other Memory Box dies and stamps.  This card can also be seen on today's Memory Box Outside the Box blog. 

A little side story … I completed the FIRST version of this card, and was about to photograph it when I noticed that something didn’t look quite right.  It finally dawned on me that I had the background upside down!  There was no way to salvage it without damage, so of course I had to make another one.  It wasn’t obvious at first, but there was no way I was going to post such a boo-boo!   

   

So on to the card.  I stamped the background using Distress Shabby Shutters on a piece of cream card stock cut slightly smaller than the base.  I cut the Autumn Border from cream card stock.  I wanted the leaves to hang down, so I trimmed the border down to two pieces of equal width, and one shorter than the other as shown.  I used daubers to color the leaves with Distress Peeled Paint, Dried Marigold, Rusty Hinge, Fired Brick and Aged Mahogany.  I shaded the open area starting at the bottom with Frayed Burlap, then Rusty Hinge and then Dried Marigold, blending each into the other. I added some Wink of Stella glitter brush to all of the leaves. 

I stamped “Happy Fall” from the Autumn Birdie Set with Versamark Black Onyx ink, and the three little leaves from the same set with Peeled Paint.  I then mounted the shorter piece to the longer one with foam tape. 

I die cut the Tippington Vine from a dark green card stock, snipped it apart at the middle curly-cue and glued it behind the leaves piece, then glued the whole thing onto the Drifting Oak Leaves background.  I mounted the assembled piece to the card base front with foam tape, added a few gem stones, and that was it. 

To those who have checked my blog from time to time, thank you so much.  It means a lot that you haven't given up on me!  Have a wonderful day!